1 leg at a time??

[stunnerman]

I recently had knee surgery to remove torn cartligde, and for a torn ACL. The torn ACL had fused onto my PCL so I didn't require the typical reconstruction.

I will be starting to work my legs as per my OS suggestion.

My question is, I am going to try single leg reps, so my "good" leg doesn't take over. How do I work my "good" leg though???

I.e. - if I am doing sets with 25 lbs for my "bad" leg, what should I do with my "good" leg so they don't get too out of proportion????

Thanks

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Jenscat had ACL surgury I think... hopefully she'l be able to chime in for ya.

I'd say, yes... 1 leg at a time, do whatever your rehab weight is for the good leg too.

 

[Cynical Simian]

T-Nation has a decent number of articles on correcting lateral imbalances by working each side separately. I haven't had a need to read them and thus can't recommend any specific articles, but you should be able to find something useful with a bit of searching.

http://www.t-nation.com/index.do

 

[stunnerman]

Thanks for the ideas.....


T-Nation is great!!!!!

 

[BiggT]

I'm no doctor and would never make off like I know more than I actually do when it comes to injuries, but if your orthopedic gave the green light to squat, I'd say just plain old squat and forget all the cute stuff....start way too light and just go from there....maybe even 6 weeks of 20 reppers to get some conditioning back. If you come up even, the good side won't be taking over.

If your rehab is over and this is the green light to lift, don't get pretty, just squat.

 

[al420]

I'm no doctor either, but have stayed at several Holiday Inn Express' in the recent past. I agree w/ T and think you should be squatting if you can, while I haven't looked at the T-nation stuff (always great info there, so please do further research), I have spoken to a local sports Dr about single leg work. He said knee injuries on the 'split' leg press became so common that The University of Texas' Mens Athletic Dept got rid of theirs...

I think single leg work is great, and has it's place, but it is behind squating in the pecking order.

 

[stunnerman]

Actually, you may find this hard to believe but my OS actually likes lunges.
He does knees for many pro-athletes and he said there is only a 5% diff. between squats and lunges. He said if I can't squat yet, to do lunges because they are almost as good - I couldn't believe it....

Thanks for all the advice - I am going to start squating tomorrow, and maybe throw in some single stuff for extensions and curls maybe???

I may give lunges a try too, I have never really done them before, I think it's going to be a trial and error thing.......

 

[BiggT]

Sounds good.....Unless the Dr is talking about there not being much of a difference in terms of strain the movement places on parts of the body or something, and first saying lunges are a great lift in their own right, I still say they can't carry squats' jock strap for one reason, and that is load.....you just can't lunge as much as you squat.

 

[stunnerman]

True........

I am going to try to incorporate both into me rehad program in someway.

 

[al420]

Sounds good.....Unless the Dr is talking about there not being much of a difference in terms of strain the movement places on parts of the body or something, and first saying lunges are a great lift in their own right, I still say they can't carry squats' jock strap for one reason, and that is load.....you just can't lunge as much as you squat.

I can lunge as much as you can squat.