Day 3: Tape me up and call me happy

Today's session was a good one. I walked in with a pretty sore knee. All weekend it was giving me trouble. It would blow up on me just sitting there not doing anything. I was starting to feel like surgery was definitely in my near future. A bit defeated, but.... (btw that is NOT my leg in the pic. Please! I've lost muscle but my legs are still bigger than that!)

My physio started testing me. Walking and squats and the pain was in my knee cap and the back of my knee. That was a good thing according to him. Que? How's swelling and pain a good thing? All his tests showed that the part of my knee that's injured was not hurting, the pain was from swelling and weak muscles.


The cure...... bulk me up! But how? Last session I failed big time. My quad was a wimp. Physio had a trick up his sleeve. He taped my knee cap so that it was being pulled to the inside (or medial) part of my knee. He told me to walk. Hmmm, some funny feeling clicking but no stiffness. He told me to squat and even hop. A bit of pressure, but no pain! Finally he told me to do a lap on the stairs. Yikes! I started cringing as soon as he said it. Miraculously no major pain. What was this miracle tape! No it was "Now we can kick Jen's azz into shape" tape. He increased the size of my regimen. See below. Good news! Next day my quad was finally sore! I could walk around with no real pain and no limp again. I have hope again. I can do this. I can get strong again and stop seeing my leg muscles wither away. I even started kicking my ball around just a little. Gol here I come.

Routine:

• 15 minute warm-up on spin bike
• 20x3 5 second hold quad sets - still tough. Bio feedback was not staying in the Orange like its supposed to
• 15x3 3 second quad set with leg raise - fail! At least according to bio feedback, but I just did my best
• 5 30 second bridges - hurt my knee a little bit when I lifted my butt, but definitely worked out my hamstrings
• 5 sets of quad holds on the shuttle - this was killer. Now that my knee cap was taped I could really isolate my quad and keep my booty from helping out. OMG! My leg would start to shake and I swore my muscle was just going to burn right through my skin, but I pushed it. Go quad go!
• 4 sets of 20 calf raises on the shuttle - tiring since my legs were tired from the quad work
• NEW - 5 30 second sprints on the spin bike. I've never done a spinning class, but now I know why it's such a good workout. My arms are even sore from this one.
  
• Ice to go saran wrapped to my knee