Combining Sprints and MS? page

[Bevaboo]

Just an idea I had today, thought I'd check out if anyone can tell me why I shouldn't. Or if it's okay. You can tell me that, too,

I've got knee problems, so sprinting with my legs isn't really an option for me. I've thought of things I can do with my arms for my 'sprints' (pushups, rows, etc.). I'm still working on building up my stamina for that, can't 'sprint' for more than 5 minutes right now. I wear my arms out in 5 minutes, no more after that, lol.

However, the muscles in my legs aren't worn out, so today, I figured why not go ahead and walk for awhile after my 'sprint'. My sprint was pushup intervals for about 5 minutes, then I walked about an hour after that. And I was thinking, that if I did this twice a week, I could get 10 minutes of sprinting in, plus a couple hours of Moving Slowly. Opinions?

[Pandadude]

The musculature in your arms and chest (which you are working with pushups) is a fairly small part of your total muscle mass; the muscles of the legs are the biggest combined followed by the back. Doing pushups won't have the same hormonal effect as actual sprinting because the muscles fatigued are much smaller and weaker.

I would advise you to work on improving the situation with your knees, I don't know your specific issues, but see a chiropractor, foam roll the surrounding tissues and start strengthening the surrounding muscles with strength exercises (anything that you can handle without pain) and progressive overloading. Stronger muscles will take away much of the load from the joint, and neglecting your leg musculature so it deteriates won't help. I've read about individuals who broke their backs but eventually became symptom free due to deadlifting.

You probably won't attempt this though. A poor alternative would involve not only pushups, but also a pulling exercise, chinups or australian pullups performed in a circuit fashion. Edit: You say you can do squats so bodyweight squats should definately also be included in this.

[stielow]

Or learn to run barefoot and decrease the impact 1/12 the force. Read the book born to run. Super good book.

[Bevaboo]

Thanks for the input. I'll explain my situation and why I really don't think I'll ever be able to use my legs for sprints. But, I could be wrong.

I was in a car accident 10 or 11 years ago, and my left leg femur was crushed. The doctors who put my femur back together also inserted a titanium rod, I assume for strength. My ortho tells me that I will probably always have trouble with my knees, and the likelihood of my being able to run again isn't really great. I can do strength exercises, like squats and lunges, but my knee currently just can't take the impact of my feet hitting the ground at high speed. I don't know that it'll always be the case, but it seems like the running motion (landing on the front of my feet versus the heel) really causes pain. I've only been working on strength for about 3 months, so it's conceivable that I can eventually run. I keep trying, but it hasn't happened so far.

I can do the power walking thing (though the elliptical still isn't an option right now), since the motion is still landing on my heels. Do you think it would be better to power walk at 4-5 mph for my sprints? I just wasn't sure that was a true sprint. I could totally do that for 10 minutes at a time, though.

[.V.]

OP, have you considered doing your "sprints" on a recumbent bike?

Tabata cycling.

warmup for 2 minutes at 50% effort

8 Rounds of:
30 seconds at 100% effort
90 seconds at 50% effort

cooldwon for 2 minutes at 50% effort
Done. Actual 100% "sprint" effort time spent is 4 minutes...and what will possibly be the toughest workout of your life...

And make it easy on the knees.

One can do the same thing on an elliptical machine too.