Training while in rehab

[kosterzoo]

Hey guys… Pretty much want anyone/everyones opinion on this so i can formulate something cool…

I go in for knee surgery next monday (25th august) and will be out for about 6weeks…i then have to compete in my nationals (judo) 2weeks after that then I head to off for the asian circuit in nov/dec… SO basically I don’t have time to lose really!

I’m planning on doing the ‘velocity diet’ for the next four weeks to get my body fat down to 10%ish so that’s nutrition covered.

Where I’d like some opinions is on what i should do for my conditioning/gym work. Bearing in mind I can’t use my L leg other than the rehab stuff that i’ll do in week 3-6..

SO how do you think i should structure my training week? I’m thinking of doing possibly up to 4x gym (as I wont have any other trainings), and 3x conditioning workouts, either gym complexes or possibly grinder…

Anyone have any advice/had similar situation?? Ash & Damian how do you guys manage keeping fitness/strength with your injured players??

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help

[ashley]

Hi there Kosterzoo, we do a lot of upper body circuits for a lower body injured player, ensuring that we keep training the uninjured limb so as to keep a neural stimulus travelling to the injured non trained limb as well, so lots of leg press, extensions and curls and single leg squats with support either swiss ball against a wall or hanging onto a pole for support, I keep the reps up fairly high, 15’s – 20’s, and will do this 3 non consecutive days each week, for upper body, I will do a full rule of 24 on pushing/pushing on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, followed by a body weight circuit or pushing on Mon, pulling on Wed and either a combo push/pull on Fri or a circuit:

Example

8 x 3 Band Bench Press s/s Prone Row

6 x 4 Incline Bench Press s/s Pulldown to Chest

4 x 6 Floor Press s/s One Arm DB Row

3 x 8 Seated DB Shoulder Press s/s Seated DB One Arm Snatch

2 x 12 Dips s/s Chins

1 x 24 Hindu Push ups s/s Fat man chins

Swiss Ball Leg Raises

Full Upper Body Circuit

Hindu Push ups/Chin ups/Dips/Fat man chins continuous to failure or near failure each time for a set time say 30 minutes

As for conditioning we would primarily use a grinder either interval or continuous, say 45 seconds hard grind with 15 second rest x 30, or 20 minutes continuous or 15 second hard 15 seconds easy then 30/30 then 45/45 then 60/60, we are about to take delivery of a rope climb machine that will be fantastic for additional upper body conditioning.

Hope that helps out a wee bit, I am sure the other guys can add to this, cheers, ash

[fergus]

Ash has a great circuit there for you.
I’d also look at EMS (e.g. Compex) immediately post surgery to limit atrophy – esp VMO
Velocity diet might be a bit harsh on the body around surgery time and good greens would help alkalise the diet a bit too which could be a big help recovering.

[bris83]

get on a grappler or an upper body ergometer!

[kosterzoo]

@ashley 474 wrote:

Hi there Kosterzoo, we do a lot of upper body circuits for a lower body injured player, ensuring that we keep training the uninjured limb so as to keep a neural stimulus travelling to the injured non trained limb as well, so lots of leg press, extensions and curls and single leg squats with support either swiss ball against a wall or hanging onto a pole for support, I keep the reps up fairly high, 15’s – 20’s, and will do this 3 non consecutive days each week, for upper body, I will do a full rule of 24 on pushing/pushing on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, followed by a body weight circuit or pushing on Mon, pulling on Wed and either a combo push/pull on Fri or a circuit:

Example

8 x 3 Band Bench Press s/s Prone Row

6 x 4 Incline Bench Press s/s Pulldown to Chest

4 x 6 Floor Press s/s One Arm DB Row

3 x 8 Seated DB Shoulder Press s/s Seated DB One Arm Snatch

2 x 12 Dips s/s Chins

1 x 24 Hindu Push ups s/s Fat man chins

Swiss Ball Leg Raises

Full Upper Body Circuit

Hindu Push ups/Chin ups/Dips/Fat man chins continuous to failure or near failure each time for a set time say 30 minutes

As for conditioning we would primarily use a grinder either interval or continuous, say 45 seconds hard grind with 15 second rest x 30, or 20 minutes continuous or 15 second hard 15 seconds easy then 30/30 then 45/45 then 60/60, we are about to take delivery of a rope climb machine that will be fantastic for additional upper body conditioning.

Hope that helps out a wee bit, I am sure the other guys can add to this, cheers, ash

Thanks Ash! Just so you know i’ve been doing the other workout you recommended for me with great results…already after 2-3weeks my bench had gone up 5kgs and my cleans have improved greatly also so while it will suck not to be able to continue with that I’ll definitely be back on it once this rehab stuff is out the way.

[kosterzoo]

@fergus 476 wrote:

Ash has a great circuit there for you.
I’d also look at EMS (e.g. Compex) immediately post surgery to limit atrophy – esp VMO
Velocity diet might be a bit harsh on the body around surgery time and good greens would help alkalise the diet a bit too which could be a big help recovering.

Thanks fergus!

Yeah velocity diet will be harsh but as you’ve already said I will be having veges with it too assist me

[onspeed]

It looks like you already have some excellent advice from the experts available to you in this forum.

I can probably add very little – but your sport relies very heavily on dynamic power through the hips and core and you can work these areas while rehabing.

I suggest standing ab crunches with bands (fixed overhead and slightly behind you), ax movements again using bands in the same standing position.
If you can comfortably bend your rehab knee to around 90 degrees in a supported position I also suggest the following: fix a band to a squat rack at knee height – move yourself around 2m out from the rack and face so that you are sideways to the rack – if you held the band with two hands in formt of you it is now under considerable tension. Put yourself in a kneeling lunge position – one leg on ground and one up both at no less than 90 Degree bends you can relax this out further to say 110-120 for comfort – now grasping the band in front of you under tensions -turn your torso towards the rack – easing the tension then while tensing your midsection move your trunk back to it starting position holding the band in isometric tension for a count of 10 – do 5 reps then swap over lunge side – using a band you will build excelent core dynamic strength.

Also utilise parallel bars and gymnsastic rings if available to dynamically work your upper body and core while not involving lower limbs – rope climbing using upper body only is also an exceptionally good workout.

Reverse hyperextensions either on a machine if you have one available or on a swiss ball on a bench if not will round out your trunk work and as stated above plenty of one leg (the good one!) work will keep neural input to the rehabing leg going well!

Good luck

[ashley]

That is great very happy for your results hope this gives you a good kick along as well, cheers, ash

[damian]

G’day kosterzoo

Most of it has been said. I agree with the use of the compex and we use it if our guys are off there feet.

Ash’s plans for the weights look good. However, if a player is limited by how much they can move around I usually have them perform more sets on fewer exercises initially until they become more mobile around the gym.

For cardio we will do something like grinder or rower (just sitting there and pulling without the use of legs). We will also intersperse little ab or seated DB combos throughout the cardio session, For example;

DB Front Raise x 8
DB Curl & Press x 4es
DB Bentover Row x 8
DB Alt Press x 4es

Complete with a 1:1 work to rest ratio for 3-4 sets, 2-3 times throughout the cardio session.

We will also do swimming with a pool buoy around the legs.

For lower body other than what has been mentioned we will do low level hip/leg exercises such as side lying leg lifts or big kick band work.

Good luck with the rehab

Damian

[kosterzoo]

@damian 485 wrote:

G’day kosterzoo

Most of it has been said. I agree with the use of the compex and we use it if our guys are off there feet.

Ash’s plans for the weights look good. However, if a player is limited by how much they can move around I usually have them perform more sets on fewer exercises initially until they become more mobile around the gym.

For cardio we will do something like grinder or rower (just sitting there and pulling without the use of legs). We will also intersperse little ab or seated DB combos throughout the cardio session, For example;

DB Front Raise x 8
DB Curl & Press x 4es
DB Bentover Row x 8
DB Alt Press x 4es

Complete with a 1:1 work to rest ratio for 3-4 sets, 2-3 times throughout the cardio session.

We will also do swimming with a pool buoy around the legs.

For lower body other than what has been mentioned we will do low level hip/leg exercises such as side lying leg lifts or big kick band work.

Good luck with the rehab

Damian

Hey damian cheers for the reply.

Yeah my physio has got an ems machine so he said i can hook myself up to that everyday!!

Also the cardio options are great with the rower and d/b circuits so thanks for that./

[damian]

No worries mate. Happy to help. Good luck.

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