Cycling after knee surgery
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.
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I'll show you mine if you show me yours!
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!