KevinTX

Alright so 2 weeks ago i under went my last sugery (6 total) from a accident back in march that broke both my legs. Naturally being in a wheelchair for 7 months and having alot of my muscle cut away resulted in some pretty scrawny legs. I have a home gym (https://www.precor.com/cons/en/strs/325/ and it has some a leg press and other exercises to do. My knees still have pain in them so lifting alot of weight is pretty tuff and becomes impossible quik. I do squats with a medicine ball also. I have been working my legs out for about a month now and i still see hardly any difference at all in my muscle mass. What are some good exercises that i can do that dont require so much stress on my knees? I dont know if it matters but i am 24, 6', 165lbs. Thanks in advance for advice.

SDRider

Nothing at all. My legs are like rocks from cycling and quite muscular. I feel no need whatsoever to do any additional leg exercises.

Get back on the bike and go slow at first. Working your muscles back up on the bike would be my recommendation.

Sixtwo

Try walking up and down hills before you start expecting them to bear more weight...

DXchulo

If your knees are crapping out I would try doing lighter weight for more reps. You won't gain a lot of mass, but in the end your legs might get more of a workout than if your knees give out before your muscles are tired.

Coyote2

If you had and injury that severe, with such a long recuperation, I should think that your insurance (hopefully you have it) may provide a sports/physical therapist to help with this. You probably need a professional giving you advice, not a bunch of yahoos on an internet forum.

munkyv22

To answer strictly the question posed in your topic.

Nothing. I also have legs like Italian chisled marble.

aikigreg

leg press machines will often aggravate knees, not help them. My recommendation is to do single-leg squats. You can do them with bodyweight and they will definately help build muscle mass. Also step ups will help the tissue around the knee. From there, proceed to weighted squats and such -but stay of the leg press!

I powerlift in the off-season, and my legs don't get much bigger, but they do get stronger, which is always the more important thing. My legs are tree trunks now anyway.

oilman_15106

Wow, I thought being down with one broken leg was bad. Did a compound fracture in 2003. The only real advice I can offer is that your recovery is going to take more time than you would like. Just doing normal stuff like mowing the lawn after I got out of my cast was a major effort. It took me almost a year until I felt fully healed. If your in a structured rehab, do what they tell you and do the exercises.

There is one exercise that I cooked up while recovering which helped build my leg strength. Using one of those soft 5 lb balls(about 8 inch dia) hold it with between your ankles and raise your legs. Either seated or lying on your back. Still do this when using the total gym once or twice a week. It is much harder than it sounds. Good luck.

hiromian

Squats with no weight and Hockey

mrbubbles

does cross country and alpine sking count?

KevinTX

Jezz you would think so right? The guy that hit me only have the stupid minimum insurance for Texas so they didnt pay out very much, 20K to be exact. That almost paid for the kleenex i used in the hospital. Thank the heavens that I had my own medical insurance, they have paid out alot. MY $300k worth of bills turned into $5500. Unfortunatly the physical therapy that was alotted to me was used up real quik. So i am basically on my own. I have alot of exercises that they gave me to do. and they worked really well to get me back to walking again, but thats all they did. I swam alot, but it has gotten cold here that last month so i cant do that anymore. I guess i have to just understand that its not all going to come back as fast as I wish it would.

I have tried the one legged squats and those are really grueling!

KevinTX

Lol, if it snowed here! Christmas of 2004 was the first time it snowed here in a 100 year! seriously... 100 year.

sogood

Not to lower your expectation, but I know people who have had major injuries who never get back their pre-injury muscle mass. Despite being still quite athletic, this guys Rt leg is so much thinner than his Lt, all result of fractures and knee surgeries many years ago. So it comes back to the nature of injury you've had in the first place and whether there's sufficient capacity to regenerate amongst all the scar tissues and dead motor nerve endings. If you've had a major injury as what sounded like by your description, your first goal really should be functional recovery rather than for shape.

haimtoeg

Maybe you could find a gym with a good personal trainer and have that trainer talk to the physiotherapist you used. This option will still cost you some money, but at least give you professional guidance.

Lectron

Barbell squats and lounges, running uphill

waterrockets 

+1

I suffered a busted knee cap (whacked it on my aero bar clamp sailing over the bars). This was 6 years ago, and my right leg is still significantly thinner than the left. I would bulk it up with weights, but the accident has given me patellar tendonitis, so I can do very few weightlifting exercises on that leg. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be killing my performance -- this has been my fastest year in my 16 years of racing...

I haven't lifted weights in 8 years, and I'm not quite as strong in a sprint as I used to be -- but I'm much much stronger in TTs and climbs due to other changes in my training. I do miss when I could squat 405 ten reps and push 1200 lbs on the leg press. Those were the days

If you have no joint injuries, here are the exercises I used to do to develop my sprint (I'm a sprinter by nature):

Reps:
Start off high rep. Don't do anything you can't do 20 times. Every month through the winter drop to 15 reps, 10 reps, then 5 reps. Up the weight each month so that you're getting just as tough of a workout for the given number of reps. I always stopped lifting in the spring.

All these exercises are 3 sets of 10, increasing weight until the last rep of the last set can barely be done. If you can only do one leg workout, the standing lunges with dumbells can't be beat (they work every leg muscle intensely -- the hamstring soreness really surprised me).

Each leg workout do:

Squats (freeweight): Once you get down to 10 reps, get a spotter. Make sure the rack is adjusted for you. Don't drop below a perpendicular knee angle, but go all the way down to it. Stay back on your heels, possibly with a 3/4" thick board under them. Keep head up and back arched. Wear a belt.

Standing lunges: put your toes on floor seam and remember where they are. Grab some dumbells with wrist straps, step out and bend that knee until it's perpendicular. When your knee is perpendicular, your tibia should be vertical and your femur horizontal (this helps figure out how far out to step). Push yourself back up fast enough to carry your toe back to the floor seam. Alternate legs each rep, and double the reps (20 per leg = 40).

Leg press: don't come back past a perpendicular knee. Every other week, do a burnout set. Get two spotters to help. Throw 5 plates on each side (depending on strength, but I did 45s), do 10 reps and hold the sled up. Spotters each pull one plate from their side, and you do 10 reps. They pull a plate each, 10 reps. Do this until it's just the sled, and work the sled until you can't get it back up again without a spotter (it will probably only take 10 reps anyway).

Leg extensions: Every workout, alternate between one leg at a time and both legs at the same time. Don't come back past perpendicular.

Leg curls: Again, alternate one legged and two legged. Don't pull beyond perpendicular.

Hip flexors: pad on knee with a straight leg, and lift to perpendicular hip.

botto 

?

SpongeDad

I would be more concerned about developing flexibility and rebuilding supporting connective tissue before I got to high load work. Go for rollers and just spin. Maybe swimming with a kickboard or one of those pool jogging classes.

merlinextraligh

Perhaps some Yoga, or stretching would help limber those up.

tc83

I do squats, cleans, dead lifts, RDLs, leg press, leg extensions, hamstring curls, and lunges on top of rowing and cycling.

Dubbayoo

squat
front squat
leg curl
stiff leg deadlift
calf work
ab work
30-45 minutes on rollers asap

munkyv22

I am quite limber, thank you.

Botto, you always make it interesting. I was more getting at David.

botto 

so you suffer from the irish curse? all potatoes and no meat?

blonduathlongrl

Running
Stair climbing
Squats

blonduathlongrl