Cycling after knee surgery

[go get em]

Well I got permission to ride my bike after 4 weeks of working on my strained knee. However, the ride wasn't as successful as I had hoped. Now my PT wants me to get an MRI because I may possibly have a small tear. My question to you ladies is -has anyone ever had knee surgery and then been able to go back to normal riding activities?
Before my strain I was riding 2 to 300 miles a week on very hilly steep climbs and I hope to be able to go back to that type of riding again.
My goal is to climb a hill called Los Gatos, that exceeds 26%, with the guys, but maybe that is something that I will have to give up on and just be happy to climb anything at all.

[Irulan]

based on the number of people i know who have had ACL or MCL ( or both) reconstuction, that have resumed full pre-surgery levels of activity, I'd say YES but it totally depends on following your rehab probram to the nth degree.

[limewave]

I personally haven't had knee surgery, but a good friend of mine has. He's back to competitive road riding and mountain biking. He's one of the most aggressive, fastest riders I know in our area. Just take it slowly and ease back into it. It may take a little longer than what you would like to recover. But, it's better to take it slow than to re-injure yourself.

[carback]

Your timing is impecable. I had knee surgery 10 days ago for a torn meniscus as well as a repair to the cartilage in my femur.

6 years ago I had surgery for my meniscus (same knee....yes, I'm consistent) and after that surgery, I was back on my road bike in 10 days doing a metric century. Not at hammerhead pace, but a comfortable pace, no major hills but still a good ride. I did physio & my exercises religiously and experience absolutely NO pain post-operatively once I was given the go-ahead to get back on the bike. (the PT had me on the stationary bike less than 24 hours after my surgery).

This time around, however, I'm experiencing some issues. It could be because of them drilling into my femur (which they didn't do first surgery 6 years ago). I have been on my road bike (not my mountain bike yet) but a flat, flat ride. (which is tough to find based on living in the mountains).

I'm rambling here. What I'm getting at it, listen to your knees and your PT. Absolutely, you will be back to being able to ride up 26% hills. Not tomorrow, but in time. And rehab is quick if it's just a torn meniscus. ACL is longer but again, you should be able to get back to what you were doing previously.

Good luck!

[trigurl]

I have had 4 knee surgeries two each knee for torn meniscus, my dr told me I would never run again - HA, fooled him! I listened for a few years then decided to try it and I have NO problems. AFter my last knee surgery - about 3-4 days - I was on the bike at the gym pedaling slow and easy b/c the swelling wouldn't let me do more but I am here to tell you that was my last surgery and the fastest recovery! I was told the more you move it and resume normal activity the quicker the recovery.

You do have to listen to you knee and stop if you have pain but babying it is not the way to go, ICE, IBUPROFEN, AND ELEVATING for a few days is good, walking won't be fun but you can do it, heck I walked out of the hospital after the last one. biking was not painful and the easiest way to get the swelling down and ROM back. The only time I have knee pain now is when I pedal too hard in my big gears, then they ache all nite :(

I have no meniscus left in my left knee, I understand now they can regrow it or put something in there, maybe if I ever get better insurance I will have that done.

Good luck

[SadieKate]

Sum total of 4 ops for chronic and acute chondromalacia:

1) arthroscopic surgery on my right patella when I fell backpacking and changed a chronic condition to acute
2) reconstructive surgery (see pretty pic) to realign everything where it should have been when I was born. Included a big bone graft and 55 mm screw.
3) arthroscopic surgery to remove screw
4) arthroscopic surgery on left kneee for same chronic chondromalacia

This was all 25 yrs ago. So, here I am on the TE Girls' Hill Training Program. Yeah, my knees need some special attention (Vitamin I and rest), but they haven't let out a squeak all year with my much more aggressive climbing. I use small gears and don't mash. Because I was so much stronger climbing this year, I rode UP some technical trails that would have stopped me last year.

Don't know the type of surgery you had, but cycling is usually the way to go. I had to give up competitive volleyball and tennis, but I'll ride forever.

Look at all the Olympic and pro athletes who have surgery and compete again. Just takes the proper treatment, attention to recovery and mindset.

Editing this to add that I started racing 10 mile TT a few months back which means big gears. The kneesies are doing great! Faster than expected. Woohoo!

[go get em]

Thanks for all the great comebacks. I guess I have this great fear of not being able to ride again. And I wouldnt be able to suttle for JUST flat riding. I am hoping I wont need surgery but if I do I know it will be ok.

[xeney]

My husband has had three knee surgeries and has increased his riding after every one of them (mostly because every other activity has gradually been deleted from the list of things he can do ... swimming being the most recent; who knew it was so hard on knees). The only things he did were to switch from the road bike to the mountain bike for a while, because it's a little more stable and he found that the muscle loss from surgery meant that he needed to take it slowly, and after something like an ACL reconstruction you really, really need to avoid falls.

His third surgery was for a broken tibial plateau after the top of his tibia broke off completely, right at the spot where he'd had a pin inserted for his ACL replacement three years earlier. That was after a rock-climbing fall, but it wasn't much of a fall and I think it made him much more aware of how fragile that leg is. He still rides a lot but he is not the crazy mountain biker he once was. His riding is almost exclusively on one of the road bikes now; he has barely touched his mountain bike since he finished his last rehab. (He found that it was better for rehab riding, but he was sticking to flat trails.)

A friend of mine has also just had her second ACL surgery and a lecture from the doctor about how she really does have to stop running. My dad had four knee surgeries before he finally had to have a knee replacement, and my brother is looking at that surgery in his future. I hate to say it because it seems so contrary to what you want to believe, but I do think that after knee surgery you do have to take care of your knees pretty much for the rest of your life. It doesn't mean you have to stop being active, but you have to think about long-term mobility and activity and weigh the benefits of being a daredevil now against what you would like to be able to do in ten, twenty, thirty years.

Fortunately cycling seems to be good for knees, although maybe you need to embrace the lower gears on the hills!