Past injuries make exercise hard

Hi. I'm caiti.
I'm not only trying to lose weight, but also I want to get toned and fit. I used to dance (i still do occasionally) and I'm really flexible, but last year, I had a pretty serious knee break and I hurt my back later in the summer.
I went to plysical therapy and everything, but nothing seems to help. My back is a little better though.
I try to go to the gym and do stuff, but even walking hurts. When I run or walk, my one knee is turned in and my knees hit together and now i have these nasty bruises on my knees.

To top it all off, the muscles going from my hip down will randomly lock up to the point where I can't move. It even happens when I'm asleep - I'll just wake up unable to move my leg or even scream its so bad. When I try to run or do any cario or lifting, I can feel that pull like before it locks up. SO, I stop and give up. It's that bad.

If anyone has something like this - Help!

Just talk to the doc. and see what he says you can do physically. You don't want to hurt yourself.

I had a bad back problem and there was a point when I could do absolutly nothing. It got better though. It only took 5 years :(

The doc. and physical therapist would tell me I could do this and I could do that. But there were days when I couldn't even walk. It seemed like every time I met with them I would be having "a good day" and I could actually do the things they showed me. So I don't think they really understood how bad it was sometimes. You might want to talk to your doc and P.T. if this is the case with you.

Now that i'm better I can exercise. But untill you get to that point just eat healthy. I didn't and now I am loosing weight I gained from not being able to be active for so long and eating bad at the same time.

Hi, Caiti:

It sounds similar to a problem I had when I hurt my back in the 90's... at times I could not use a leg, it would just lock up... and the same thing happened to an arm, as well. Sometimes I would be up all night with locked-up limbs. I don't know how you feel, but it hurt me like crazy.

I went to a chiropractor, and he fixed me up nicely through therapy for a couple of years. I also had the work monitored from time to time by a surgeon. I've been pretty good ever since.

So, don't panic... just get the care you need, and get more than one opinion if someone dares to say "surgery."

Also, it's not a good idea to go into any heavy duty exercise so soon after a back injury. Cardio and running can be very forceful and hurt one's joints...

You might want to try something gentler... but only after you've consulted with the professionals and they give the go ahead.

I don't know about knee problems, but I had a similar experience to Sarah. I'm only now getting over my back problems after many years of barely being able to walk around my block without pain.

However, for me, inflexibility was a big part of the issue (tight hamstrings, hip abductors, etc). Yoga has helped tremendously. But Caiti if you are really flexible, perhaps being *too* flexible is playing into this? So I hesitate to suggest yoga to you.

My PT did tell me that if I would take up swimming for a year, it would probably cure me enough to someday run a marathon. Unfortunately I can't STAND swimming - I mean, I hate it with a passion. All that chlorine up your nose... yuck! But if you don't mind swimming, I bet it is an excellent choice for you.

thank you all for these thoughts.
I tried PT and the chiropractor - Pt didn't do anything, and the chiro hurt so bad!
jen - i think maybe youre right about being too flexible.
I would swim, but I'm truly blind without contacts. Haha I'm so bad I can't read the big E on the chart.

Totally understand about the contacts! Apparently you can get prescription swim goggles - that's what my PT said when I made the same objection. Ultimately, I just hate to swim ... even if it is good for me... just not going to see me in the pool!

Yoga *might* help you - but I wouldn't dare attempt it unless you have a highly experienced yoga instructor at your side, someone to spot you so you don't accidentally overflex. It might help though because many of the poses are done in such a way to minimize injury and encourage strengthening any imbalances you might have or have developed due to your injuries.

The thing with your knee turning in... leads me to suspect that there might be something going on with your hip. Hips (esp with women) get out of whack easily. For example maybe you blew the knee (because you're hyperflexible), but while it was healing you developed an imbalanced hip condition... which led to the back problems and also plays into the knee turning inward.

I've been having a twingy knee and lower back lately, this weekend I was clothing shopping and I noticed something odd: one shoulder was higher than the other!! At first I thought it was the garment I tried on - I thought it was sewn funny. But then I noticed it was every garment!! The neckline and empire waist was laying crooked... because one shoulder was higher!!

I went home and did copious yoga and realized that the lower shoulder side of my body had some *serious* tightness!! My sides, my hamstrings, my calves were too tight compared to the other side, which was just fine...  seems to have corrected the shoulder thing.

First, it's important to work within your fitness level.  If you are injured, that reduces your fitness level.  Don't run.  It sounds like you have a lot of healing to do before you can run safely.  Walk.  Walk as slowly as necessary for you to be able to keep walking without pain or locked muscles.  Any exercise is good exercise.  If you can walk slowly for a half hour, or even 15 minutes, you'll get good benifit from it.  Duration can be far more benificial than intensity.

Water aerobics is very helpful for anyone with any sort of spine or joint problem.  And it's a great workout.  Water resistance really tones muscles and the aerobic activity is a great fat burner.

If you need to give your back and legs a break, try some hand weights.  A good trick for injuries is to concentrate on the parts of your body that are uninjured.  Any exercise is going to benifit you, if you can't do lower body work, concentrate on your upper body.

Hang in there and remember to give your wonderful body the time it needs to heal before you try to make it jump through hoops!

I definitely agree with Pooka--work within your abilities.  I also recommend swimming--I've dislocated my shoulder a few times and have a hamstring tear and fused vertebrae and I do water-based exercise when my injuries flare up.  Have you tried water aerobics?  Despite the fact that I was the youngest person there (next to my mom, who was 50 at the time) it was actually a great workout and very low impact!

Also, yoga's great but I'd check with a PT before I tried it--you can definitely tweak muscles if you're not experienced.

Pooka is right about the walking. I still can't run, and it's been 5 years since my back injury. And only 7 months since my last flare up. Well, I can run for very short periods, but If I push myself to much I will rehurt myself. It doesn't take much to make a back problem flare up.

So do you know whats wrong with your back, or do you just know you hurt it. For at least a year and a half of constent pain my doc. just said "yep, you hurt your back" I finally told him I wanted An MRI done. Cause x-rays never showed anything. Turned out I had two bulging discs and a herniated disc. And my spine gets thinner toward the bottom (thats hereditary) but makes the other problems worse. If they would have known these problems from the beggining I think I would have been better a lot sooner. They even had me doing P.T. that was all wrong for me. It was probably making the problems worse. I couldn't bend foward, and they were trying to get me too and had me doing exercises that focussed on bending foward and that could have ruptured the two bulging dics. After they knew the problem they had me doing exercises that focussed on bending backwards cause thats how you would push the discs back in place.

Thats why the physical therapy didn't work for me at first. So mabey If any of this sounds like whats going on with you. And I mean the doc. not taking you seriously, you should stand up for yourself and tell them exactly what you need and want so your satisfied. My doc. is military and everytime I went it would be a new doc. so they were not familar with my problems and I feel they just do whatever they can to get you out of the hospital that day. they didn't care about me really. And it took so long to get the MRI cause it's so expensive and they didn't want to pay for it so I just lived with pain for a long time because of it.

Don't let people push you around, There is no reason to be in pain! I would wake up in the middle of the night with spasms. You should not be loosing sleep because of pain either.

Sorry about this novel, But I have a passion for this type of thing cause I feel like people (including doctors) that have not lived with pain don't take these situations seriosly.

Maybe I can help a little.  I had bilateral knee reconstruction about 10 years ago and have dealt with some intermittent locking surrounding kneecap dislocation problems, wihch may be what your describing by the "knee pointing in" comment.  Most recently, I've been diagnosed with arthritis.

I have done pretty well with an elliptical machine, although I do sometimes lock up if my feet slip too far back on the pedals.  So figure out what works for you as far as incling, foot position, and resistance, and keep an eye on it to avoid probs.  Stretching usually helps me get it moving, although getting off the machine can be pretty comical with a locked knee -- I feel your pain here.

I take it really slow, warming up and stretching no matter what, and take Advil before and use ice after workouts to help manage pain.  Taking the Advil gives me a lot more ability to push threw the pain and I think it helps with soreness after.

Take PT if your insurance is still paying -- or continue with the exercises you learned there in the gym.  Yoga does help me -- but I have to be careful with it -- the book "Yoga for Healthy Knees" helped me.  I've never tried chiropractor.  Everybody says swim --  and I actually don't mind swimming - but I'd rather have sore knees from land exercise than green highlights.  Also it just doesn't burn enough calories for me.  So I use an elliptical, stationary bike and lifting weights.  Walking's too risky and too much impact for me -- I have had my knees give out and do weird things too many times -- and had trouble getting home or took falls and made things worse.  I wouldn't even consider running.

Hope this helps. 

Thanks you all again.

Its just so frustrating going from dance and theatre work to nothing.
I used to do yoga, so that actually sounds like a great option that I totally forgot about!

Jen - I have the same thing with the shoulder! I didn;t even know it until my chiro dude put me against this grid wall - it was so weird. My one hip is lower too. lol.

Sarah - that sounds sooo incrdibly painful! I had an MRI about a year and some months ago on my knee, right after I did it. It was my own fault from being too egotistical at skiing when I was obviously too tired. haha. I had a torn miniscus and broke my leg two ways.

pooka - I would swim... but I hate swimming. The hair and eyes and ugh. Idk Im a freak with pools.

<33 thanks to everyone!

I'll tell you a secret, I can't swim.  I'm phobic about water over my head, even to the point that I can't stand water on my face, not even in the shower.  My eyes are also very sensitive to chlorine.  I don't swim.  I do water aerobics.  There's a big difference.  It's a great workout, and I don't have to get my face wet.  If a water-phobic like me can do it, anyone can.

I'm no physical therapist, but yoga and pilates will help strengthen your back muscles and decrease the strain on your entire skeletal system. I enjoy the elliptical trainer and it's a great low-impact workout, but you may find it too rough on a recently broken knee.

The muscle cramping you're describing sounds a lot like the charlie horses I suffer from. My entire leg just flexes and locks down from the knee down (years of endurance biking and bad diet). As I understand, this is caused by tearing in the peremycium (sp?) around the muscle. The muscle flexes, tears the sheath, and pokes through as the rest of the sheath tightens. It's excruciating! The good news is, an increase in both sodium and potassium will help rebuild the damage to the perimycium and prevent tears altogether. I've also learned some basic stretches and movements that can lengthen the muscle and straighten things out at the first twitch.

I have a permanent back injury (curved spine and tilted pelvis due to head trauma) as well as a bad knee - patella femoral syndrome, which is basically where your kneecap "pops off track."  Mine is caused by flat feet and is probably exacerbated by my leg-length discrepancy caused by my back problem.

Anyway, I did PT for my back twice (didn't help) and my knee once (helped) and saw a chiropractor (didn't help) but I found that doing yoga helped a WHOLE LOT.  My back/hip doesn't hurt nearly so often now.  As far as the knee - knees are tricky so make sure you talk to your doc/PT about what's okay for you to do.  My PT basically told me that "if it hurts; don't do it.  If it doesn't hurt; go for it."  I'm even learning to run now, although I wear a brace that holds my kneecap in place when I'm doing anything high impact.  Explore your options.

You don't have to actually swim to get the benefits of exercise in the water.  I have back problems and asked my doctor about swimming, she said go for it and if I couldn't actually swim that just walking in the water would be very beneficial.  I've been walking 30 min a day for the past three weeks and I can already tell a huge difference.  My back feels much better all the time and the 30 min walking in the pool is pretty much pain free without taking any meds.

ourladyofthehighways - THATS EXACTLY IT! SOmetimes its in my hip but like when I point my toes - they get stuck that way and AH! I am so going to eat a banana right now!