30 Min. a Day

Sort of related

2011-01-24T19:07:00.001-08:00

Funny story... I enrolled in Physical Therapy Aide training!

Knee Progress

2011-01-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

Fourth Day of doing knee exercises 30 minutes a day. The chronic pain in my knee is going down. I have to do light exercise to warm it up first, because jumping straight into the weight bearing ones is excruciating! My thigh and ass muscles have been burning! :) I take it as a good sign. Bad pain decreasing, good pain increasing.

Measurements

Just above knee

Good knee - 42.5 cm (down 0.5???)

Bad knee - 41 cm (up 2 cm!)

Thigh

Good knee - 50.5 cm (down 2 cm???)

Bad knee - 49 cm (up 2 cm!)

Knee Exercises

Dancin' around!

2011-01-20T00:39:00.000-08:00

So I've taken to dancing in my room (like I would at a club, but with nobody watching!) to try and lose some weight. I got the idea when I noticed after a night of dancing, I looked a lot thinner. With my body type, dropping a pound or two is pretty significant. Anyhow, dancercize is awesome and FUN! I've lost 2 lb, and have 8 more to go before my driver's license is no longer a lie. ;) It's fun and doesn't feel like exercise- turn up the music and give it a try! Best part is, you'll discover moves you never knew you had!

Some inspiration for you:

Knee Exercises

2011-01-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

These and the following illustration are basically the same exercises my physical therapist assigned to me over a year ago. I've been doing all of those in combination with basic dance exercises and leg lifts using light ankle weights.

From what I recall, the PT's major concern was building up the vastus medialis in the injured leg. I'm supposed to strengthen that in addition to the other surrounding muscles to prevent future injury and stop my knee from giving out. It's also supposed to help my knee cap track properly, which will hopefully help with the pain.

Over the past year I have stretched my knee out and regained full range of motion, so strength building is my only concern at this point.

Knee Progress

2011-01-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

Bad knee (left), Good knee (right)

Measurements:

Just above knee
good knee - 43 cm
bad knee - 39 cm

Thigh
good knee - 52.5 cm
bad knee - 47 cm

Goal: Rehab Knee

Goal: Rehab Knee

2011-01-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

I had knee surgery over a year ago to fix damage incurred when I dislocated my knee during a dance performance. It's been nearly two years, and I still can't dance like I used to and am only beginning to run awkwardly. Right after the surgery and the initial injury I went to physical therapy, but beginning the following year, my health insurance deductible started over. Though I had spent thousands of dollars the previous year in medical bills, I needed to meet the $2500 deductible before they'd pay for any more physical therapy. Sooo... one year later, it's my New Years resolution to get off my lazy butt, regain muscle strength in my left leg, work through the pain, and dance again.

They say you can learn to play a new musical instrument with 30 minutes practice a day, stay fit exercising at least 30 minutes a day... so why not rehab a knee?