[nycfem]

I had a setback to my working out a little over a month ago when I tripped and fell on my left knee (An item had been left in the middle of a store aisle, and I didn't see it.). After getting x-rays that looked fine, I waited ten days and then resumed working out. Unfortunately I felt that everything was all better so I happily went right back into long, high intensity work-outs. On the fourth day of that, my pain returned, so I've been resting since then, and my knee has been improving. Rest is seeming to really help it. Luckily I have this month off work, which is great because at work I am running up and down stairs all day (a five story walk-up school building). During this time of resting it, I have also had an MRI of my knee and this showed no tears but noted "mild arthritic changes." I am not sure what this means and will likely go to a doctor to try and find out what exactly this means in my case. My plan is to wait until I get to the point where it feels pretty much normal but then when I exercise again to take it easy this time. Usually I do very high resistance/intensity with lower speed on bikes and elliptical machines. I am going to try reversing the equation and doing lower intensity with higher speeds instead. My thought is that this will make it easier on my joints. I'm someone who is heavyset yet loves to exercise. Lifting weights and doing cardio just gives me a great mood lift and also helps me to manage my weight to some degree. Anyway, given my injury, I thought I would ask if anyone has any advice? Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have found people on this thread to be very wise and supportive.