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Our user asked: "Hi I started experiencing tendonitis just a month ago. My pt says I have to let my knee heal first, then do non weight bearing exercises. I can only find swimming, cycling, and rowing as non weight bearing exercises. 1. Can I use stationery cycle, row, before my knee heals, since these are non weight bearing? 2. How can I best let me knee heal? It seems that it heals, but if I do anything to drastic, it hurts again. My PT says I have to keep fit overall, so the cycling and rowing sound good. He did give me strengthening exercises. Your feedback would be so appreciated. Thanks"
Ask a PT Response: "It is probably a good idea to follow the recommendations made by your physical therapist. As far as your questions: 1) Stationary bikes and rowing machines are great machines to utilize to minimize stresses/impact on the knee. For my patients that utilizes these machines I would instruct them to perform to tolerance. Should they begin to experience increase symptoms, they are instructed to discontinue use immediately. 2) your knee will heal best if you avoid activities and exercises which aggravate it and continue with the exercises recommended by your physical therapist. For example, if deep squats aggravate your knee than avoid it. You can substitute with partial squats and compensatory functional patterns. Modalities such as icing after activitites which may aggravate your knee somewhat will also help prevent/minimize inflammation. Good luck and thanks for using CyberPT."
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