I have been working out consistently for about 6 years. My problem is my knee. I have had two surgeries on it. The first was when I was 18 I had the cartiledge removed due to an injury. The second was about 4 years ago, at the age of 34, I had an ACL reconstruction and more cartiledge removed. I am finding it increasingly hard to lose weight and if I exercise to hard my knee hurts. I can't run do to arthritis. I am looking for a workout routine that will help me lose weight and exercises to strengthen my legs.I weigh 210 @5'10".

Losing weight would definitely help improve your knee health. I would suggest moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise using a stationary bike. Type in “aerobic exercise” in the search area of our web page to see some of the articles I have written on aerobic or cardio exercise guidelines. Then you really need to focus on your diet. This is so incredibly important. Even if you worked out really hard for an hour you would still only burn roughly 300-400 calories. This is great, but it is tough to reduce your bodyweight by working out alone. You have to change what and how much you eat along with consistent training!

Try to eat smaller portions of food up to 4-6 times per day. Eating small, well balanced meals throughout the day, along with drinking lots of water and not snacking later in the evening before bed helps to keep your body away from storing extra calories as fat. Check out our nutrition section and article archive for more nutrition information.

For your weight lifting I would avoid heavy squats and leg extensions. Try to stay with leg presses with lighter weights and at higher reps. Also, avoid deep range of motions on those leg presses. The Get Lean Program would be a great place to start. However, specific post rehab exercise programs will be forth coming on Fitrex in the months to come. But, get started now with these recommendations!