Upper body workout

Hi fitness nerds.
I've never been much of a gym monkey since I moved to Whistler and only previously really done some light freeweight kind of stuff. I'm looking for something that I can do to stay fit while i'm rehabbing my busted knee. I have a partial ACL tear and tibial plateau fracture as well as some other nastiness, but thats the main stuff. its been nearly 4 weeks now

I can weight bear with a brace when my knee is locked straight which means no spinning yet. Im just looking for something to pass some time and stay healthy.

Anyone got any good pointers for things i can do at the gym with out being able to weight bear?

Thanks

Will you have issues moving weights to and from benches? If so, lots of cable machine stuff and chinups/pullups.

I had the exact thing happen to me, and since my knee/legs/riding was out of the question, I decided to pick up weight lifting. That was 9 years ago and I WISH I had started earlier. I have ruined a few rides from hard workouts the night before but such is the price of getting better.

You don't need to be fancy or elaborate. I use simple barbells with removable plates and you can do A LOT of exercises with just that: shoulder/chest bicep flies. Or military press or bench press (you will need a bench too, but they can be had cheap especially if used. Going to a child's playground you can do one of the best exercises known: pull ups. Cost nothing but time. Using barbells and heavier weight you can do shoulder shrugs and back pulls. You can do pushups and situps (no weights needed). Once nice thing about free weights and barbells is that you can do them sitting down (flies, presses) and not have to weight bear. Bench press is non-knee loading. I have a bench press rack (I am doing bench as I write this) but the only advice I can give is: stick with it. You will not see results right away but like most things in life you will only get out of it what you put into it. And this is dedication, effort, time and focus. But the gains for riding are huge. Tough technical sections get easier as the upper body is better able to fight off the being bounced around. And the younger one is, the more gains you will see. I know space and time are limiting factors, but we can all say that. I put in about 1.5hr 3-4 times a week plus riding and it is making the time to do it. The initial outlay of cost to the weights might be some cost, but getting weights used is easy since many get into it and give up.

I am not so much a fan of the "all in one cable resistance systems" as they take up too much space and you can do just as well with free weights.

I hope it goes well for you, and stick with it. I am 44 and in the best shape of my life and only wish I did it earlier in life. To say nothing of the personal pride and confidence which is a natural reward for your hard work which in turn offers positive reinforcement to do more/stick with it.

Thanks for the tips. I will probably just doing drop ins at the gym for the time being.
I normally barely have the time for riding let alone adding weights on top of that.

What about a good warm up for this?
Last visit i just got on a stationery bike. Got the official "No pedalling" from the surgeon yesterday so that is out. I feel like going in and lifting weights cold is a bad call.
Links welcome.

All need to be non weight bearing and not put any stress on my knee.

My only warmup is doing whatever exercise I have slated first with just the bar and slowly working my way up to working weight.

My only warmup is doing whatever exercise I have slated first with just the bar and slowly working my way up to working weight.

Yeah i was thinking about doing a couple of sets of rep of each exercise with really minimal weight. Ill give that a go. thanks!

Dumbbells and plates plus bodyweight exercises, no need to go to a gym unless you need the motivation or eye candy.

Pushups (endless variations)
Pullups (need a bar of some kind)
Tricep dips (any edge and a chair)

Bench press
Rows
Flys
Shoulder press
Curls
Compound movements

Ad infinitum…

Yeah i was thinking about doing a couple of sets of rep of each exercise with really minimal weight. Ill give that a go. thanks!

The bigger the exercise, as in the more muscles you are recruiting (think squat/barbell bench press/deadlift), the slower you should go in adding weight. Furthermore, if you're feeling like crap, take it even slower. Some days I've taken 15 minutes to warm up for deadlifting or squatting.

If you're kicking off with barbell curls, just jump right in.

My only warmup is doing whatever exercise I have slated first with just the bar and slowly working my way up to working weight.

This^^^

If you look back to the Franco and Arnold era that was pretty much what they did..do a light set to start and went to work after.

Swim laps in the pool.

Use a pull bouy so you float better and don't have to kick. It's a good workout for strength and endurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpW9HWt_fBs

Swim laps in the pool.

Use a pull bouy so you float better and don't have to kick. It's a good workout for strength and endurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpW9HWt_fBs

Love swimming. used to race back in the day. will give it a try tonight, got to remember to not tumble turn!

My only warmup is doing whatever exercise I have slated first with just the bar and slowly working my way up to working weight.

This really worked out for me last night. None of that bad pain that i had last week and feel like i could go again tonight. Thanks again.

Also swimming felt great too! Stoked to be back slightly active again.

Here's a list of what i have been doing in case anyone is interested. Generally have 0 time constraints right now as im injured [HTML_REMOVED] single! I've only been using machines as i dont want to carry weights around with my knee being screwed.
Chest press
Chest flys - no idea what the are called but that sounds familiar
Bicep curls
triceps
Back - rowing motion
back - pull down.
traps pull up with two cables.
Shoulder flys. Basicaly a backwards chest fly.

I dont really have any goals. Its just to not put on a bunch of unnecessary fat whilst being injured and getting out of the house.