32yo F and 5 knee surgeries. Am I doomed?

E

elyonathan85

New member
Im a 32yo F, current weight 148lb, and I’m 3mo post-partum. I chase my toddler around and pick up the house 24/7, I work as a nurse doing 12 hour shifts. I’d like to think I live a pretty active lifestyle. I’m currently recovering from my 5th knee surgery. R ACL 2008, R meniscus 2012, R ACL 2020, L meniscus 2022, L meniscus 2023. As you can see, I’m prone to knee injuries. I grew up doing competitive cheer for 10 years, and played 1 year of soccer in high school.

I’m ready to get back into the gym and start shedding some of this weight. It’s great therapy for me, and being healthy is important to me.

I feel like I’m doomed though. I’m so scared of another knee injury. I stay away from running (which I love), and try to utilize the stairstepper and elliptical.

Is it possible for me to gain muscle in my quads/hamstrings given my knee injuries? I have veryyyyy little muscle mass in my legs. They’re definitely the weakest muscle group on my body, aside from core.

I don’t really know what I’m looking for in terms of this post I guess. Maybe words of encouragement, maybe someone who’s been in a similar boat can share their experience?
 
@elyonathan85 Can’t say enough how knees over toes guys routine saved my knee. I couldn’t squat anymore after hurting knee powerlifting and I had stopped completely and after a few years found him on YouTube and was enthralled did some research tried some of his simple moves and it helped a lot in very short order.
So I went and paid for his program. Saved my knees and I can squat again.
 
@lordane The main few that really helped are the actually atg split squat where you use a slant board and lunge forward with your knee going way over your toes and back up. That felt like gold on my knee. Also the super slow step downs off an elevated surface. And Cossack squats.
 
@elyonathan85 Physio here (UK) - you're more likely to be doomed (ie more prone to re-injury or early-onset arthritis) if you do nothing and continue letting your legs and core get weaker. I'd recommend seeing a physio face to face to help and have a think beforehand about specific goals. We work with people in similar situations to yourselves all the time and you can absolutely gain leg strength if you put the work in.
 
@elyonathan85 I would start swimming. It’s builds up all the support ligaments and tendons and such. I’d make swimming my main exercise and then splice in whatever else around it
 
@elyonathan85 I think you’re in the realm that any online advice beyond words of encouragement should not be listened to.

All your questions are for your surgeons and an orthopedist that can look at your scans and tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. Physical therapy snd rehab are also going to be your best bets as they can make custom workouts to minimize strain on your knees and strengthen the required muscles to help your knees.

For all we know, your doctors will advise to not put any kind of strain on your knees at all which drastically alters the kind of workouts you should be doing.
 
@elyonathan85 No, you're not doomed.

Caveat: it'll probably take some time, you'll need to work with a good sports PT who can set up a good program to help you build the load tolerance and gradually return to working out.

Structural damage is not always representative of your capabilities or pain. Lots of athletes with high functioning shoulders and no pain, have rotator cuff tears/other damaged structures. Structural integrity is not the only determining factor and there's other stuff to look at like your symptoms and load tolerance and other things a PT would know better.

Personal anecdote time: I tore my meniscus in my right knee in 2017. Kinda just took it as a lifelong thing till I got some clicking/locking, MRI still showed a tear so they did surgery.. except my knee had healed somewhat and the size of the tear didn't justify sewing into it/cutting it off.

Still had a lot of locking and pain and was quite confused. Found kneesovertoesguy's stuff and it was quite useful. I started with the ATG squats on an incline, then floor, then loading it up with weight.. then even managed to get back in the gym and do regular barbell squats. No locking, no nothing.

Ultimately took about 3.5 years for me to get to a point where my knee feels like a regular knee. However had I gotten on a good rehab program no reason it should've taken more than 6-12 months. Weight was also a factor, was 200 lbs, 5'8 at 14 years when I got injured, so losing weight helped a bit too
 
@elyonathan85 I had chronic knee problems to the point that it was getting to be difficult even to walk up stairs or just sit in the driver's seat of my car. I had to quit running for a while too.

Knees over toes as other have suggested helped somewhat, but what helped me more was just doing 20+ minutes on the rowing machine 2-4x a week. After like a year of that my knee is completely back to normal. I can run, no pain on the stairs, it's all good. I still row at least once a week to make sure the knee stays in good shape.

I think the key is any exercise that is high reps, low load and full range of motion, that's what rowing is, and it's kind of what knees over toes is working toward. That's my theory anyway.

Also, females are more prone to knee injury because they "tend to move their knees inward when landing from a jump rather than keeping them in line with their toes. They’re more knee-dominant in their change-of-direction movements rather than engaging the muscles around their knees and hips. Their joints are generally looser than those of male athletes. And women and girls have less muscle mass around the knee to reduce force on the joint."

But there are injury prevention exercises you can do which have been shown to work: " One such routine, called 11+, was developed by FIFA for players 14 and older. One study found a reduction in injuries of up to 50% in female players aged 13—18 when the exercises were performed at least twice a week. The Sports Medicine Institute of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York has launched a website called RiipReps—Riip stands for “reduce injuries, improve performance”—with several sample sessions of its own exercises. The effort also includes a free app that coaches and organization leaders can use to coordinate and track the exercises on their teams."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/acl-injuries-womens-world-cup-3d1873c0

https://www.riipreps.com/
 
@elyonathan85 3 ACL tears (all the same knee) + a couple of other, more minor knee surgeries here (49M). I’m not ready to call myself a success story, but I cycle, swim, play tennnis, ski, and play hockey with some regularity. Lots of good comments already, but I would second a few:
- Find alternative ways to stay active (beyond normal-course parenting). Swimming and biking were the things I pivoted to from running, basketball, etc.
- Find and stick with a regular strengthening / stretching routine. Most of my injuries happened when I was in weekend-warrior mode and pushing it too hard and too fast. I also like the KneesOverToes guy, but make sure you take it slow - his knees aren’t your knees.
- Get a 2nd opinion. Honestly, get a 3rd while you’re at it. Orthopedics can be great, but it’s too important to just blindly follow their guidance all the time.
 
@elyonathan85 No you're not doomed but go see a proper doctor and physiotherapist for injury related workouts and advice.

Remember no one here is a doctor and most people here are teenagers or beginners.
 
@phathu I’m going to physical therapy 3 times a week already. I was more or less just looking for success stories or for other people to share their experiences who may have similar injuries.
 
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