Peddle Bike, Equipment to rehab post TKR
Posted , 4 users are following.
Howdy Everyone!
Ok I'm 12 weeks post op R, TKR. I'm on my 2nd 6 weeks of painful PT going twice a week. I was 96 degrees, now 101. I finally was able to peddle the recumbent bike backwards, and now forwards.
I'm wanting to buy a mini pedle bike to use at home. There's the cheaper ones. Like Drive medicals 29.00 or the most expensive one Mag-Trainer PT likes at 151.00.
I bought a Therapy strap to help me stretch. I have bands too.
Has a mini bike helped many of you? Which did you buy??
Any input appreciated!
I go back to Dr may 5th and see where I'm at. He will consider a MUA if I'm not at 105 or greater..
1 like, 16 replies
jenny80029 Julia-NewKnee
Posted
Hi,
If you have room, I wouldn't bother with the pedals.. I brought a Ultrasport Foldable Exercise Bike with Pulse Sensor Grips 200-B off amazon for just under £80 and it has been amazing. I am six week post op. It can be used like a recumbant bike if you sit in front of it on a chair, or the usual way! It does not have very much resistance on the pedals but I am not using it for strengthening so it doesn't both me. It's very well made and was easy to put together. I love it!
I did buy some little pedals ages ago, but they kept slipping around on the floor and didn't have ANY resistance at all. They kept squeaking and were very annoying!
The folding bike makes a good place to hang bands, weights, towel, etc on too. It's the centre of my exercise universe!!!!
chris00938 Julia-NewKnee
Posted
We started off with an upright bike Julia, and then got a treadmill (these were for both of us and at that stage husband had type 2 diabetes) we used that every day and after six months he didn't have diabetes any more. Then I went on to a recumbent because knees were suffering so much with the upright and that's been a dream for me. I managed to do my first two revolutions at just under three weeks post tkr, and very gradually built up from there (I did push the seat back for the first few days). I LOVE the recumbent and am building up on that and the treadmill, and hoping that after the next knee op I might be able to use my husband's elliptical (yes, we've gone in for this big time now!). But it does take space up, and I don't know if you've got the space for a big machine? Maybe that's why you're thinking of a mini pedal bike?
Julia-NewKnee chris00938
Posted
HI Chris! Actually I do have room for a recumbent bike. At first I thought just buy a floor one. But I found a used recumbent, a nice Schwinn one for cheap.
So will try that. I want to do more home gym work outs. My 2nd PT ends in two more weeks. Then see the Dr. To see how's the Bend! That's great you were able to start pedal movement in 3 weeks!
It took me 7 weeks just to pedal backwards. I appreciate you all !
chris00938 Julia-NewKnee
Posted
I never tried pedalling backwards Julia LOL! I just pushed the seat back two notches so I could get enough bend on the knee to do it and started very gradually. I'm so glad you've found the recumbent! I'm sure you'll find it SO useful to use on a permanent basis. I use mine almost every day, and the treadmill too. I'd hate to be without them now. I'm just LONGING to get on the cross trainer but need the other knee done first. I tried it when husband got it but knees were far too bad to do anything at all - even one rotation LOL! But the day will come!:-)))) I do think using the recumbent and treadmill before the op must have helped - I was in a good position to start with. I hope you get many years of exercise from yours now that will help you in all sorts of ways:-)))))
Guest Julia-NewKnee
Posted
. Cheap $20. Wayfair. On Amazon, makes a collapsible floor foot paddler w a timer/calorie counter on it. It will scoot away from you if its not on a rug. But, i set mine up on rug by front door w pillow on chair and left it there. Reminded me to use it every day. (i dont on work days). I look outside while peddling! I started 48hrs after surgery, barely 5min a couple of revolutions. I dont care about the resistance being poor, its the mobility i like. I do other exercises for resistance. I am now 5mo out and in the last 4-6 wks i do an hour. I read, talk on phone, look outside, watch tv. ANYTHING to get my mind thru it.
CHICO_MARX Julia-NewKnee
Posted
Save the money...you'll need more than a bike...you'll need a gym or a home equivalent. After you get your ROM back, here's what's next...
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/post-tkr-exercising-565527
You need to address all your strength issues. Follow the plan...
Julia-NewKnee CHICO_MARX
Posted
Thank you Chico! I do Brag about your advice to my PT guy. He's very impressed by you!! My knee capsule is rough. PT keeps reminding me it was in bad shape from limping, not putting much weight on it over eight years. So I take heart I DO HAVE TO DO THE WORK beyond PT. So I was glad I found this site.. I was getting depressed at 4 and 5 weeks. But I kept reading here your wisdom, what others go thru and I realize I'm ok. It's my Knee Journey. It's going to heal at its pace.. I need to shore up my stretching, keep working the plan! Thank you again.
CHICO_MARX Julia-NewKnee
Posted
"It's my Knee Journey." You embrace it as your own and not someone else's. No comparisons.
"It's going to heal at its pace." You accept the length of the recovery and don't complain about it.
Sounds like you've got your Big Girl Pants on. Took me a while to find mine. I was a weeping puddle of protoplasm at the beginning. Then sciatica at 5 weeks (solved quickly) and L2/L3 stenosis at 8 months. Just got that LLIF surgery done a month ago. Still dealing with the post-op nerve pain but that should be gone in the next few weeks. THEN I can resume my knee rehab.
Spine doc has disallowed any gym work for a while. My "hockey thighs" have turned to toothpicks over the last 18 months. Gotta get back in shape. Knee then spine...in a row. Very challenging. I wanted to strap on a pair of skates again for a leisurely glide by January. Stenosis killed that dream. Maybe by this fall... Goals are good...flexibility is better.
"We'll get there when we get there." - My dad, Every car trip I took as a kid. Also ALL of us...on every car trip we took with OUR kids.
chris00938 CHICO_MARX
Posted
Chico, just wanted to tell you, that it was you who made me realise that at 67, when the other knee is done, I can become fitter than I've been for many years! Being on statins for a couple of years knocked my muscles out and turned me into jelly, then cancer, and the arthritis in knees was so limiting but now my time is coming!:-))))) I'm SO excited about all this! And determined! I used to be a competitive swimmer and I think that attitude is coming back after many many years LOL! I can do this! Not just to the point where I can lead a 'more normal life' of walking easier, which in itself was WONDERFUL, but really feel fit and strong!
CHICO_MARX chris00938
Posted
Wish I was at your point. The stenosis hit me during my knee recovery so I'm a puddle of jelly right now. I can't wait to get clearance to do the gym work necessary to get my legs back. Since the pain started in my knee (pre-TKR), it's been almost 18 months of pain. Just gotta get past this stenosis post-op nerve crap and get back on track. I just want to be active again so badly. I know it will come in time and I have to be patient. At least medical science has given me a shot at that...else we'd all be in wheelchairs...permanently. I have hope and determination. I will conquer this...you will too.
chris00938 CHICO_MARX
Posted
Chico, just look forward to that time - it's much closer than it was a few months back, for you!!! If all you can do at the moment is plan it, then do that:-)))) It's all looking forward and the future is good, thanks to medical science, as you said! I can still remember so well looking at the recumbent at two weeks post op, desperate to get back on it, and the physio had told me three weeks if the bend was good enough to use it. I think I got to two weeks and four days when I propped my two sticks up next to it and got on it LOL! I'm dying to get on the cross trainer now!!!! My knee that's not been done won't hold up though!!!!! BUT, it won't be long now before that will be done too! Life is good! Chico I wish you the best recovery possible:-))) I know that if it's down to you, you'll do what it takes, and that includes the patience bit:-)))) But you'll be there before you know it:-))))
CHICO_MARX chris00938
Posted
Thanks for your help, Chris. It's been a long road for me with the stenosis and spine surgery as the biggest setback. But I'll get through it...I always do. Once I hit 70 next year, I have to plan the other knee...then it starts all over again... Don't want to stop working so I'll have to figure that one out. The Universe will somehow provide...
chris00938 CHICO_MARX
Posted
It WILL all work out Chico. Things that used to seem daunting we realise we can take in our stride and we CAN cope. 70 used to sound old but it's almost as though 70 is what 50 was thought of not so long ago. I think we can be fitter at 70 than our parents were at 50. Life has changed so much - we don't think of ourselves as 'elderly' any more! Life begins at 60!:-)))))
Julia-NewKnee chris00938
Posted
Never give up! Thank you for all the examples, encouragment.
So glad I found this forum!
CHICO_MARX Julia-NewKnee
Posted
For you...
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/tkr-and-ptsd-569521
chris00938 Julia-NewKnee
Posted
Julia, I really can't claim to be awesome. Yes, I am a very positive person, but I sailed through my op and recovery. The worst aspect I found was that after the op for a couple of weeks or so I tended to feel faint. My blood pressure dropped to 60 something over 40 something the day after the op and I guess it was still dropping at times during those days afterwards, thus making me feel faint but as far as pain - they asked me on the second night what my pain levels were and I said 'what pain?' because I didnt have any and it carried on like that for the main part. The only time I had real pain was when I overdid the bend at three weeks and got a cramping pinching feeling in the back of the knee when I got to 115. But that was it. It was only yesterday that I suddenly realised rather than having two bad knees, I had one good knee (the operated one!) and one bad knee, as I got in and out of someone's really low car. We were all amazed LOL! My wonderful new knee is strong and works!:-)))))) This is the first realisation of this LOL! So - I know many are struggling, but you WILL get there and then you'll appreciate your wonderful new knee and be SO pleased you did it! Someone said to me 'you'll be like a new woman when the other one is done too' and they're right! I have hopes and dreams for the future that I couldn't have begun to have before this!