How Long Till Squatting With Weights?

[stephen1254]

I've read some of the posts in here from the past 4 years or so and I'm curious as to when people started squatting with weight. I am doing deep knee bends and light  - 120 pounds - vertical leg presses at 9 weeks out. My doctor has indicated everything will be healed at 3 months, but I've read some people wait till 6 months and others wait till one year. When I do start it will be gradual but I'd like to start squatting again at 6 months, to get in shape for the the ski season, which will start at about 8 months post op.

Any consensus?

[hernanu]

I'd be careful with that. Check out Buster's posts about his recovery and return to competitive weight lifting. He was advised by his doctor  to wait one year before doing squats with weights, and got back to doing very well by following those restrictions (hope he can chime in if he's on).

Here's the link to a good discussion on lifting overall and about squats: http://surfacehippy.info/hiptalk/weight-lifting/weightliftingresistance-training/

[stephen1254]

I've gone through that link, but I'm not talking about competitive lifting or even serious lifting yet. I'm talking more about starting with a 45# Olympic bar at six months and working up to maybe 75# by eight months.

But I'll wait a year if the consensus seems to be waiting for a year. The ski fitness will come whether I lift or not, but stronger legs seems to shortcut it by a bunch.

[Buster]

I didn't put any real weight on the bar until 1yr.  At 6 months I started body weight squats and light leg press.

[Dannywayoflife]

The bones are not fully healed until 12 months so i would be careful about overloading the area until then.

[stephen1254]

That will work for me - I hate training legs anyway!

[Dannywayoflife]

I don't see the harm in doing a few sets of body weight squats and leg extensions though. Even now I'm at 6 months when I'm weight lifting in the gym I try to not stand on my operated side when carrying weights or I roll them to the bench.

[JerryD]

I'm a bit surprised at the number of posts that suggest limiting squats to body weight.  I'm not a competitive weightlifter by any means but I'd have thought that building up strength by doing squats with low to moderate weight over the initial recovery period would be a good thing (i.e, build up muscle around the joint, etc.).  I know a competitive weightlifter who started squatting with significant weight pretty soon after surgery and he's had no issue.

I imagine this is an area where the top surgeons have different theories.  For what it's worth, mine (Prof Haddad in London, UK) was okay with anything I cared to do at 6 weeks post-op, so long as there was no high impact (running, jumping, etc.).  He's an ex-rugby player (so maybe he's biased towards more acitivity) but I've found his advice generally to be quite conservative.  He certainly doesn't want me to start running for at least a year. 

Has anyone else had a surgeon who's given a view? 

[Dannywayoflife]

Jerry,
        I think the advice not to lift heavy weights be it squatting or otherwise is based on a couple of things. Firstly the bone growing into the cup, at 6 weeks this really is in the infancy and I have read if this early growth is put under too much stress then the bone can fail to become hard and is like a fibrous texture which can result in a failure later on. Also the bone density in the femur is vastly reduced early on. From what I've read and from speaking to several surgeons all have said that femoral fractures happen within 6 months. Although it takes a full year for bone density to normalise.
Danny

[turk27]

Hi everyone I'm lawrence,
on 9/30/11 i had my LH resurfaced with the BHR by dr. scott marwin. What a brutal surgery, i was on the operating table for 3:45 minutes because i let my hip get so bad. In any case I am now 1 year post surgery and in regards to your question about squatting today i hit 325lbs for 4 reps to 90 degrees!
Just to give you my background I have played sports and body built all my life. Matter of fact 1 year prior to surgery i competed and won an all natural amateur bodybuilding show.
I am 34 years old at 202lbs and 5 10' tall, i also own my own gym and have a degree in physical therapy so rehab was enjoyable to me.
As far as pain management the only thing i really do is frequent stretching some times twice a day and alot of foam rolling to keep my ITB,hip flexors, hamstrings and psoas loose.
I began squatting at 6 months post op starting very light with just my body weight. I hope to get 20 plus years out of this baby!

[IslandCatt]

"I began squatting at 6 months post op starting very light with just my body weight. I hope to get 20 plus years out of this baby!"

I'm confused by this statement.

I am 5 weeks out from left resurfacing and have been doing "standing from a seated position on the chair" exercises since my first physical therapy session 1 week after the surgery.

How are body weight squats any different from this in terms of the stress being put on the joint and bone?

[Dannywayoflife]

I suspect that most people squat lower than they sit on a chair.

[IslandCatt]

I suspect that most people squat lower than they sit on a chair.

Don't most people squat to parallel (90 degrees)?

My physical therapist had me standing and sitting to my couch, which is even lower than 90 degrees.

I don't see any difference.

[Baby Barista]

IslandCatt,

At 9 months out, I'm now doing 5 sets of 50 rep body weight squats. At the end of each set, my heart rate is up around 145 and I'm sweating like a pig.

I would hope that's vastly different than what your PT had you doing at one week.

[IslandCatt]

IslandCatt,

At 9 months out, I'm now doing 5 sets of 50 rep body weight squats. At the end of each set, my heart rate is up around 145 and I'm sweating like a pig.

I would hope that's vastly different than what your PT had you doing at one week.

I was doing a total of 3-5 sets of of 10-15 reps at 2 weeks spread out throughout the day. I'm now at 5 weeks and doing 20 reps of 3-8 times throughout the day (These are split to alternate 6- 8 times on my "hard" days and 3-4 times on my "easy" days)

Again, I'm not seeing the significance of any difference between of body weight squats vs. the  basic functional standing exercises done early in physical therapy, other than maybe the reps.

Do most people stick with the body weight squats all the way through the first year?

[hernanu]

I had some issues doing any kind of free standing squat for a bit.

Sitting on a chair and getting up is a different physical exercise than doing a deep squat beyond 90 degrees unsupported. When you sit on a chair, you are not balancing on your feet only, with your muscles providing the balancing; you are fully supported.

The standing motion from a chair is vectorized into a forward motion which is supported initially by the chair itself, with the momentum supporting your upward motion. The legs push up, taking advantage of the forward motion to move your mass upwards with a smaller requirement of force. The hamstrings are rested and are not under stress. So the actual push upwards is lower due to the forward vector force, there is less upwards motion of the upper body needed, since the distance covered is less from a chair to a full standing position.

The standing motion from a squat starts lower, so the upper body has a longer distance to cover. The initial push up has little forward vector motion, so the bulk of the effort is in an upward push, with the movement lifting the entire upper body. The leg muscles in a squat are stretched supporting the overall weight of the upper body and the legs, while balancing the body. The initial push comes from unsupported leg muscles pushing the upper body up while balancing the upward rise.

Reverse the motions and you get similar stresses. IMO a squat is a much different animal than sitting and rising from a chair. I'd actually have fun figuring out the vector forces involved for both.

It is a good question, though, a reason given the stresses to avoid movements that put a lot more pressure on the body until we are ready for them. The more we understand, the better off we are.

[John C]

I am not a weight lifter by any stretch of the imagination, but I do a lot of things to train my legs for skiing. My doc had said no routine lifting of over 50 pounds for six months. I started body weight squats at about six weeks, added light weights (20-40 lbs) by around three months, and up to one legged squats with the same light weights by six months. I never went over 40 lbs per leg, because my knees will start to complain.

[IslandCatt]

hernanu- Thanks for the explanations of the different loads between chair squats vs. regular squats.

Based on that explanation, one would think that it would be OK to use weight if one did the same movement patterns as a chair squat (say, using weights while sitting onto a bench and then standing) or using weights, but keeping the range of motion up higher than 90 degrees.

[IslandCatt]

I am not a weight lifter by any stretch of the imagination, but I do a lot of things to train my legs for skiing. My doc had said no routine lifting of over 50 pounds for six months. I started body weight squats at about six weeks, added light weights (20-40 lbs) by around three months, and up to one legged squats with the same light weights by six months. I never went over 40 lbs per leg, because my knees will start to complain.

This brings up another question.

How is doing a unilateral squat any different, in terms of the stress put on the joint structure, than doing a bilateral squat with weight?

If anything, it seems to me that doing unilateral squats should be significantly more stressful on the joint than bilateral squats. With bilateral, the load is distributed between both legs and one is mostly lifting the weight of the body from the hips and above. With unilateral, a single joint must now bear the load of, not only the upper body, but also the weight of the other leg. The unilateral squat is also an inherently less stable position.

Also, how would using 40 lbs be any different than using 80 lbs with both legs? It seems to me that, since one is also lifting the weight of the other leg, using 40 lbs should be the equivalent to lifting 100+ pound with both legs (not sure how much a single leg would weigh, but I'm guessing, it's at least 20 lbs.).

I sure wish there was a single, established protocol for the rehab on this stuff 

[hernanu]

human weight distribution is usually 40% of total weight for both legs. In the case of a 180 lb (81.65 kg) person, that means each leg is 20% or 36 lbs (16.33 kg).  Which is why, in addition to the extra instability and balancing that the leg has to overcome, the effort is much higher. The lack of 1/2 the propulsive power of the other leg makes it even more of a challenge.

So roughly (engineers love equations)... : 40lb external weight + 36 lbs of leg weight + upper body weight (108 lbs) = 184 lbs being moved

Since you've lost the other leg as help, the force required of the other leg (in an excruciatingly simple world) is twice what it would need if the other leg is involved. This discounts the extra help the stomach muscles, back and buttocks need to do the lift. In reality, it is probably more demanding due to all the factors involved. A pretty interesting problem.

So ... it's a good workout with much more effort needed, which is why John probably gradually worked his way to that.

For two legs, (I'm on a roll) : 40lb external weight + upper body weight (108 lbs) = 148 lbs being moved with twice the propulsive power.

(thank you, thank you... remember to tip your waitpersons and please ignore any glaring holes in my logic...  )