Getting ready to skate

[moonvine]

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get ready to skate. I don't imagine I will be able to until after knee replacement surgery (unscheduled so far).
I'm doing 1-2 hours at the gym about 4x per week (I need rest/recovery days in between).
I do some combination of the following: barre, pilates, yoga, weight lifting and low impact cardio every time. I started with one class and worked my way up to 2 on some days. I have been doing this for 5 weeks. I'm also going to go to PT for my knee as soon as I can get a referral and an appointment.

I have lost 63 pounds as of last Monday.

I feel great; however, I cannot get up off the ground without screaming. They have figured out some things to help me in class such as making my bench higher so I can use that to lean on getting up off the ground. Then it doesn't hurt as much. When I get a new or substitute instructor I always say "Don't be alarmed if I scream when getting up off the ground."

So a couple of questions:

1. Is there any other type of exercise I can do to continue to help me get ready to skate that I am not currently doing?

2. Should I wait to take LTS class until after my surgery and recovery is past? Or does it depend upon how far from now I finally managed to get it scheduled? The doctor has told me that the younger a person is when they get knee replacement the worse the outcome is (I'm 58). I don't want to start and then have 6 weeks of surgery recovery and forget everything I knew. Still, if they won't schedule it until say, I'm past 60, I might as well start LTS if we can figure out the getting up off the ground part. Just LOOKING at that "proposal position" they want you in to get up off the ice makes me cringe internally because that would HURT.

Any advice is welcome. I'm actually doing this yall! (one day)

 

[Diana Delafield]

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get ready to skate. I don't imagine I will be able to until after knee replacement surgery (unscheduled so far).
I'm doing 1-2 hours at the gym about 4x per week (I need rest/recovery days in between).
I do some combination of the following: barre, pilates, yoga, weight lifting and low impact cardio every time. I started with one class and worked my way up to 2 on some days. I have been doing this for 5 weeks. I'm also going to go to PT for my knee as soon as I can get a referral and an appointment.

I have lost 63 pounds as of last Monday.

I feel great; however, I cannot get up off the ground without screaming. They have figured out some things to help me in class such as making my bench higher so I can use that to lean on getting up off the ground. Then it doesn't hurt as much. When I get a new or substitute instructor I always say "Don't be alarmed if I scream when getting up off the ground."

So a couple of questions:

1. Is there any other type of exercise I can do to continue to help me get ready to skate that I am not currently doing?

2. Should I wait to take LTS class until after my surgery and recovery is past? Or does it depend upon how far from now I finally managed to get it scheduled? The doctor has told me that the younger a person is when they get knee replacement the worse the outcome is (I'm 58). I don't want to start and then have 6 weeks of surgery recovery and forget everything I knew. Still, if they won't schedule it until say, I'm past 60, I might as well start LTS if we can figure out the getting up off the ground part. Just LOOKING at that "proposal position" they want you in to get up off the ice makes me cringe internally because that would HURT.

Any advice is welcome. I'm actually doing this yall! (one day)

Your determination is admirable ! The Learn To Skate program is group lessons, isn't it? If you can join a class where one of the others (or probably two for safety, one on each side) volunteer to help you up, you might be able to manage it by swinging your bad-knee leg out straight like a sit-spin position and try to keep your weight on your good leg as your helpers hoist you up. I'm just trying to picture that in my mind and don't know if that would work on the ice for a beginner. And wear skating tights with the built-in knee pads. Where you might also need help is lacing and unlacing your boots, since you have to lean over with your foot tucked close to the bench to do your laces properly. Would that compress your bad knee too much?

Probably there are problems there that I'm not thinking of, since I'm just sitting at home at the computer and not actually trying the motions on the ice. So if someone can see that the sit-spin idea would be dangerous in some way, please jump in and say so.

I don't think it would matter if you took the LTS classes, had all that time off, and then went back to the beginning again after you recovered. There's no rule says once you've started to learn to skate you have to keep going on a linear path and can't repeat the same lessons later. You'll have had the fun of learning once and that will make you eager to try again, enjoying the ease of using your new knee for the things that were awkward and painful the first time around. Your very own Before and After pictures .

Needless to say, get your therapist's and doctor's permission first, both times if you take the classes twice! Good luck!

 

[Query]

Are both knees bad? If not, could you put the other knee forward?

This is going to sound silly, and wouldn't look cool, but could you strap a cane or other sturdy stick to your back, and use it to help?

Some beginning skaters sometimes use walkers. Obviously, you are not a beginner. But if you used one, you could crawl over to it, and use your arms to help get up. Maybe a fairly low walker. Likewise you could have a cane on the ice near you, that you crawl over to.

Regardless, I wonder if wearing a helmet and padding would be a good idea now and during the recovery phase, because your falls might not be as gentle if you can't bend your knees much.

You didn't say, but is your issue deep knee bends? In which case somersaults to standing pose are probably out. Wearing skates would make them harder, though maybe a slightly different direction move, something more akin to the sideways roll of a parachute landing fall, or a roll diagonally across your spine, could be done without as deep knee bends?

The recovery from modern dance "percussion back falls", also called "falling push-ups" doesn't require as deeply bent knees as what you are calling proposal position, and you share it between both knees. Basically you push-up hard from a prone position to launch yourself back to standing position, with a smaller knee bend. But it's really, really hard on your hands, wrists, arms and shoulders. Really easy to break something doing that. I wouldn't dare try it myself at sufficient speed to work. (I've tried the fall to push up position, but I'm crazy.) Even harder with figure skates.

Here is a video of a falling push up and recovery:

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But maybe a modern dancer, gymnast or martial artist could find you something easier on your body? Or your PT?

I haven't done advanced Yoga, but maybe there are some advanced Yoga motions that get to standing position without deep knee bends too. Ask an instructor, or look at a book?

I wish you the best of luck!

P.S. I suppose switching sports for the moment is completely out of the question... E.g., if you don't take it too far, ballroom dance...

And I hope you find a really good hospital. My mom had knee surgery. The limited number of nurses at her hospital didn't get the inflammation down quickly enough, so she never completely healed. She was much older than you, but still - find a really good facility, and ask around too see whether they did that right for other people. Maybe tell them you are dedicated enough to tolerate alternating ice and hot baths, which some sources claim can help bring down inflammation. If I were you I would consider hiring good home health care people and nurses after you go home to help keep it down. They are expensive, but if you are a dedicated athlete, and were already spending a fair amount of money on lessons and ice, maybe it is worth it?

If you still compete, maybe you could get pre-authorization to use the drugs for surgery and afterwords (e.g., anaesthetics, and stuff to bring down inflammation).

 

[Mathematician]

Skating is hard on the knees and very quad demanding. I dont know your situation exactly but it doesnt hurt to give some anecdotal advice just in case. This is because I also struggled with really bad knees and managed to recover quite well. I couldnt even go for a run without them dying for days afterwards. What helped me the most is working the quads to handle the impact or even static standing load they take. For me the more stretch I could get into my leg on the movement the better it made my knees feel afterwards. If you're a super beginner something like incline uphill walks could be very useful (stay away from downhill and decline as much as possible and take it super easy with that). You can try leg extensions with light weight high reps and get a super good stretch at the bottom you can use some padding on your shins like a foam pad to get more stretch. Anything that will get a good quad pump and stretch with whatever resistance you can easily handle (if you're injured you do not want to push yourself - as Lee Haney said: "stimulate - dont annihilate"). The point is just to get that pump and full activation of the whole quad. This is just what helped me of course it could be totally different for you but like I said might help to try it once or ask your PT about it.

Movement in general is extremely important sounds like you're getting enough so great job on that.

P.S. when it comes to recovery the Smith machine is your friend.