Robert

Further information on my knees: The diagnosis is "patellofemoral pain syndrome" (which, translated to English means "knee pain") or "chondromalacia of the patella". Both knees. Basically, my knees hurt much of the time, and since the science on this issue is not good, this is "because" of any or all of the following: (1) I have thinned and possibly cracked cartilage around my knees, which is "normal wear and tear" even though I am only 30 years old and was never really into sports or exercise AT ALL until recently, (2) maybe there's a muscle imbalance?, (3) maybe my muscles aren't "strong enough" (and in particular the hamstring and/or quads), (4) maybe my leg muscles aren't flexible enough, (5) something else? Yes, I am seeing doctors for this. I went through two full bouts of physical therapy over the past few years, which my insurance will no longer cover for the moment. MRIs show "thin" cartilage with "signal abnormalities" all around my knees. Since it's both knees, it's unlikely to be trauma (and there's no real evidence of that anyway). I can't even do a lot of the physical therapy exercises that are supposed to help, since those actually exacerbate the problem. Examples: Step downs or leg extensions Ice helps with the pain, though. I have tried those supplements that aren't scientifically valid but everyone recommends, and no, they didn't help. I also tried acupuncture and reiki healing, which similarly didn't help. The next step medically is to try hyaluran injections, apparently, even though those do not have particularly good science behind them. I'm consulting a doctor about that in a few days.

Hi everyone! If I go up two or three flights of stairs in a day (even if not all at once), I'm in pretty bad pain for several days afterwards. My doctor also explicitly told me that I am in "maintenance mode" and that I should never jog, run, or jump again for the rest of my life, despite being 28 years old when I was told that. And I want to fix that, so I'd appreciate any help you can give! So the goals of my workout routine are: 1) Build leg strength in general 2) Build hamstring and quad strength in particular 3) Stretch my legs and improve flexibility 4) The more typical goal of "Generally build muscle" My current workout is: For each exercise, a warm-up set then 3 or 4 sets Mondays and Wednesdays: Stick-ups (upper-back exercise, done hoping to improve my posture because potentially that can contribute to the knee issues) - currently ~60 per set Wall sits (quad exercise) - currently <=60 seconds per set Calf raises (calf exercise) - currently 60 per set, no weights Walk ~3.6 miles (no steep hills or stairs; one day a week I go 6.6 miles instead) Tuesdays: Stool scoots (hamstring exercise; http://www.mavenlive.com/physical-therapy-exercises/stool-scoots.html) - currently ~5 laps of my workplace per set Pushups - currently ~30-35 per set (I'm working on progressing these to one-handed pushups) Crunches - currently ~30-40 per set Glute bridges (back and hamstrings) - currently ~60 sec per set Walk ~0.6 miles (from car to work and back) Straight leg lifts, side leg lifts, and various other related exercises - currently 15 per set with 8 lb ankle weights Thursdays: REST Straight leg lifts, side leg lifts, and various other related exercises Walk ~0.6 miles Fridays: Walk ~3.6 miles Pushups Crunches Glute bridges Saturday: Straight leg lifts, side leg lifts, and various other related exercises Triceps extensions - Currently ~10 per set with a 10 lb dumbbell Front raises - Currently ~7 per set with 10 lb dumbbells Sunday (I'm thinking of adding these but haven't yet; currently this is a rest day): Bent-over rows Bicep curls Obviously my focus has been on my legs, but I want to start working on everything else. So, any advice on what I should add that WILL NOT hurt my knees? Or advice on what I should progress or change in my current routine? The following definitely hurt me: Step ups, step downs, lunges, squats, burpees, leg extensions, walking up steps, walking up steep hills, kneeling, sitting for long periods, jumping In terms of equipment I only have access to dumbbells and adjustable ankle weights. Thanks!

So......... I totally bombed at #s 1, 2, and 3. I moved house (interstate) which has devastated my time, energy, and broken the good habits I had formed. Goal #4 is going well, though: 33 done (54%) 28/61 remaining So... Time to get back on the wagon. First step, I'm adding a few things back onto my to-do list, things involving forming new goals/habits (for example, I need to make a new workout plan that works with my current housing situation, which my old plan does not).

1. I will have flexible hamstrings A: Do all of my stretches every day, and avoid sitting for long periods of time [DEX + 3] B: Do 3 sets of hamstring stretches at least 3x/week [DEX + 2] C: Do hamstring stretches most days [DEX + 1] D: Do hamstring stretches at least 3x/week F: Sit all the time and don't do stretches 2. I follow my weekly exercise plan, with any necessary alterations due to injury A: Follow my COMPLETE exercise plan, altered as necessary [sTR +1 DEX + .5 STA + 1.5] B: Do 75% or more of my scheduled workouts, and/or fail to adjust for injuries once or twice [sTR + .5 DEX + 0.25 STA + 0.75] C: Do 50% or more of my scheduled workouts [sTA + 0.5] D: Walk but do little else, and hurt myself doing it F: Sleep through the winter 3. I WRITE (for work) every day A: At least four times per week. Much better than the current zero times per week. [WIS + 5] B: At least twice a week. [WIS + 2]D: Once a week 4: I do the stuff I need to do.A: >=75% of the stuff [WIS + 4]B: 50-75% [Wis +2]C: 25-50% [WIs +1]D: 10-25%F: <10% First thing to do: Make the list of things to do!

Nope, didn't finish strong. It turns out that on the 10th (when I said the longer wall sits were hurting my knees) I hurt my knees. They still hurt, and I'm still trying to recover from it. Hate these knees! Also, whenever my knees start to hurt badly, my mood crashes, and I stop doing a lot of other things too. 1. C: Do hamstring stretches most days [DEX + 1] 2. B: Do 75% or more of my scheduled workouts, and/or fail to adjust for injuries once or twice [sTR + 1 DEX + 1 STA + 2] 3. C: More than two lapses a week 4. B: Draw (or paint) 3x or 4x/week average [WIS + 1]

Somehow I missed a lot of pages on this thread, and thought the hat discussion was current, haha. Oops!

A hat discussion! Fantastic. I need to start wearing hats. Over the past few years I've started to get frequent migraines (every week or so) and I'm very sensitive to light... So I've been wearing caps and sun visors when I'm outside for a long time or when I'm riding on the train (the electric lights KILL me if I don't). The sun visors are dorky as hell, but I can fit them into my coat pocket easily, so that's a matter of convenience... But I really need a less dorky hat. I'm in New York / New Jersey, dress casual (usually jeans and a t-shirt, and often button down shirts). And I have the additional requirement that it NEEDS to have a wide brim (at least in the front) to block the light. That's half the point, really. Any ideas? Tarp hats sound okay, at least for when I'm outdoors exercising... I need to think about that. I should probably start dressing in a slightly nicer fashion, too, since I'm getting older... So... Something that can go casual or more dressy would be ideal. I am SO not used to wearing hats that I think they all look terrible on me, though they probably don't really. They just look weird to me since I never wear them. Also, in terms of hat etiquette, am I being terribly rude wearing mine on the train? That's KIND OF indoors... I mean, I'm going to do it either way, but it'd be good to know.

Glad to hear you're feeling better! Keep it up, you're doing good!

Thanks! Still doing good... I think I'm going to end up with Bs or B+s in everything, but I can still push for A-s! I think doing 3 sets of 30 sec wall sits is hurting my knees (not badly, but still...). So... Either I need to cut down on them and/or not try to push past that amount for a number of weeks. Sundays are normally a rest day for me, but I wanted to add some deltoid exercises to my weekly routine and I didn't get around to them yet... So today might be a good day to add them!

You have a great attitude about your wrist! Glad to hear you're working around it. Candlelight yoga sounds amazing. I'm jealous. You're doing great, keep it up!

You're doing great, keep it up! If you want to work yoga into your busy schedule, you could do some poses randomly throughout the day... Standing poses typically don't need a yoga mat, so you could do some while waiting for food to cook! It feels great to get in the habit of exercising during times that you'd otherwise just be standing there doing nothing. That's usually when I get my stretches in: Waiting for water to boil and that kind of thing. But that might just be because I'm an inefficient cook.

I'm joining in! Better late than never.

Yep! No, I don't think I was away from things long enough to change the flavor. I think I had quit soda for like three months before it started tasting weird. Quitting stuff for a week isn't really that long (heck, I could go that long without eating pizza if I went on vacation to somewhere that I didn't go to a pizzeria, or if I bought too much other stuff at the grocery store for the week). But yeah, being able to eat most things is definitely a perk. Now I don't have to make people feel weird when I go to their houses for dinner! Things are going good! Yay, a mini-challenge! Thanks for the heads-up... I'm definitely joining in! I kept looking for one, but I expected it to show up on a big bar at the top of the webpage alerting me to it. That's what happened last time... What is the right way to check if one is starting?

January's over, so I have a graphical summary! Nerd alert! X axes are the days of the month. Mild weight loss, that's fine, whatever. As long as the trendline is going in the right direction! I only sparsely sample my weight, which is why there are large gaps in measurements. The two vertical lines are when I started and ended the lamb-and-pears diet. So that was clearly impacting my weight faster than is healthy (I dropped like 4 lbs in 5 days). The thin dashed lines are the maximum and minimum weights to be in the "normal weight range" for someone my height. The darker dashed line is my eventual years-from-now ultimate goal weight (just below my ideal weight). These are most of the leg exercises my physical therapists assigned me (back when I was doing physical therapy), though I'm using much bigger ankle weights than they had me using. The important thing about this graph is that I'm doing the exercises (and getting better with them). I'm starting to do them fewer times a week now, as I change my workout routine to include more body parts than just my legs. Quad strength... Increasing! I'm only tracking "flights of stairs" so that I can tell how many flights I can go up in a day without injuring myself. Answer? Two. Hamstring strength (measured in number of stool scoots)...Increasing! The real improvement here is that I'm starting to try one-armed pushups (though I'm doing this with my hand at table-height, and eventually I'll work up to real ones). I added these to my routine half-way through the month, and I'm already seeing some progress. And I can do more crunches and longer bridges! Also, I met my bonus goal of doing 30 consecutive crunches (and have done so a bunch of times now!)

Still on track for stretching and doing my exercises! I've drawn about every other day, so that's not bad... I stopped doing the diet because I was feeling really nauseous nonstop and it wasn't helping my symptoms anyway. So, I probably don't have any significant food intolerances... Now I just have to eat the rest of the food I bought! Still not eating candy and cake, or drinking though! Basically you pull yourself around the room while sitting on a stool. http://www.livestrong.com/article/490189-what-are-stool-scoot-exercises/ It's apparently done a lot in rehab, for working the hamstrings.