I've been working out regularly at the gym with weight machines since January, but have had some troubles with my knee.

Back in December, I fell and caused soft tissue injury. I was supposed to be on crutches for 6 weeks, but of course I was stubborn and insisted on walking around. From time to time every since, I will feel a tearing sensation around my kneecap and it will be sore sometimes for up to a week, taking me completely out of my exercise program for the duration.

I took the past 3 weeks off for the most part in attempts to let my knee heal to the best of its' ability, but I would really like to try to strengthen it now that it is in decent shape again.

Any suggestions of particular machines or exercises I might be able to do with it?

Before my 3 week break, I would regularly use the seated leg curl and leg press machines, but at fairly high weights (my legs are very strong from carrying around all of the excess weight).

Hm, I think this question came up in one of the weekly threads a week or so ago! Have you talked to your doctor or physical therapist?

Mel might have some insight on that...hope she pops in.

I bought the Muscle and Fitness Her's Mag today and had some great exercises for sore knees... http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com/

I have the same problem... Glucosamine helps a lot...

Ah, without knowing exactly what your injuries are, I don't want to make any suggestions. Have you seen your doctor since you started feeling the "tearing feeling" again? I think you need to get medical clearance before you go back into the gym. After that, I'd be happy to help you with exercises, but this sounds like more than just "bad knees".

Mel

Her's Muscle & Fitness this month has a great article on knee stregthening exercising with lifting. Faboo article!

To answer some questions in the thread, I saw my doctor on the day after I fell and initially hurt my knee. He told me to stay off of it as much as possible and no exercise for 6 weeks or until it was feeling all better. He had it xrayed and everything and could see nothing wrong with it, so he chalked it up to simply 'soft tissue damage' which is virtually impossible to diagnose accurately.

I tried the crutches for 3 days or so, but they were too much of an issue for me, and carting around 275 pounds on crutches was way too painful for me. I kept my knee wrapped and regularly iced it. After 3-4 weeks, the knee felt back to normal, but I still waited it out for the full 6 weeks before exercising again.

I tried aerobics, but after two days of 45 minutes of aerobics each day, my knee was a bit sore so I rested it again for two more weeks.

Once I started up at the gym, I was doing just great for about two months, my knee didn't flare up at all! Well, until I tried doing a spin class, that is.

Ever since that spin class, I've had frequent issues with my knee. I called an advice nurse at Kaiser with the intention of trying to get an appointment to see my doctor, but she told me that it can take months for a soft tissue injury to fully heal and that I likely just aggravated it when I did the spin class and that I should let it rest until it feels better. Once it was feeling better, I could try light activity again.

So that leads me to now - I've been trying to hit the gym a minimum of 1-2 times per week, knee dependent, if only to keep up with my upper body weights. I haven't had any major issues with my knee recently, but once in awhile it will become tender again, usually after a large amount of activity (for example, I was in San Fran this past weekend and walked quite a bit, so my knee is sore today because of the activity.)

I hope that better explains things.

Hubby and I swear by Glucosamine... I can feel it almost immediately if I forget to take it, it takes a couple of weeks to work tho...

IguanaGrrl - How about swimming? If you're not a fan of doing laps, a deep water aerobics class might be right up your alley.