Hey Docs! I hope you’re doing well in these trying times,
Before I get this started I just wanted to take the chance to say thank you for all your work. I’ve been following you for years, and your concept about training with aches, pains, and injuries really saved my life back in the day when I wrecked my back.
Anyway, to give you some context, before this whole covid thing started I was big into powerlifting. Standing at 5’8", and sucking at pretty much every sport that doesn’t require brute strength, picking things up and putting them down was my thing.
Then we got the pandemic, the quarantine, and gyms are still locked down here in my country.
During the peak of the pandemic, I picked up running again (mainly because I got a bloodwork where I had high cholesterol lol). I’d been running for roughly 10 years, and only really stopped if I was preparing for a meet. So, since I had really no way to train, I decided to shed some fat. I went from 200 to 145ish, which is what I’m currently walking around at.
In the meantime I would run on average 40 kpw. But everything started going downhill two weeks ago, when after a 10K run, which was pretty standard for me, I started to have some pain in my right kneecap, right on it.
By the end of the day the pain really got unbearable to the point I had trouble sleeping that night. Ofc first days I couldn’t walk down stairs and whenever I flexed my leg the muscles above my kneecap were so tight I thought they would rip.
This is the first time I experienced something like this with my knees.
Anyway, I decided to reduce mileage to 20 kpw, but by the time I’m done with an easy 5K, my knee wants to kill me, AND now even my medial ankle is swollen.
I recently got access to a barbell, a rack, and a bunch of plates, so you can imagine how happy I was when I realized I could put myself under the barbell again!
Obviously I lost a lot of strength, when I started last week, I was shocked to realize I had trouble squatting 135, and not because of pain, but for pure lack of strength.
Anyway, I reckon it’s past the time I dropped running . . . thing is, I do like running, and my dream is running a marathon with my old man one day. But I can’t go on like this.
The knee is doing better, I have no pain worthy of mention when I squat or deadlift, maybe some tightness, but it doesn’t hurt like running, descending stairs, glute bridges or couch stretches do.
So after this long rant, I guess this is the situation I’m currently at.
1 - I want to get strong again. This was my identity for many many years, and I miss that old bastard (I’m 26 but nursing school is taking its toll lol);
2 - I know I have to give up on running, at least for now, but I don’t want to lose my cardio gainZzz, and since I don’t have access to a bike or a pool (shut down just like gyms) all I got left is either HIIT or walking . . . but I already walk close to 20K steps a day, and that’s when I’m not counting the steps I do at home and when I’m in the wards.
3 - I lost a lot of weight, and I reaped the health benefits of it, and I’d like to keep it that weight. I know I’m supposed to gain a little bit of weight in order to get stronger, but I don’t want to become that fat once again for the sake of prolonging my LP for a few weeks at best.
So yeah, what would the best course of action be according to you?
-
Should I stop running for a few weeks? Reducing mileage clearly isn’t working as my knee gets mad and almost look like it swells when I’m done running.
-
Should I gain weight or just try and eat at maintenance for now, and see how far I can get into the LP?
-
Since I already walk around a lot, what would your recommendation be with regards to general health purposes? (Being a nurse student I’ve seen what lack of exercise does to people, and it’s scary.)
Sorry about this wall of text, but I wanted to give as much information as possible. If you need any more detail, please ask away!