Abs Update May 11-18; Setting Up More Defined Goals, Workouts will be fine tuned

Ok here's my Abs update for the week...late night post as this is pretty much my own free time as the boys and wife are asleep (I will too shortly here). This may be my last pic to post and will plan on monthly updates here on out. Been reading alot about my knee problems all day and just educating myself enough to know that running is definitely out of the equation for me for now. I'm going to miss the hell out of something I always enjoyed doing. Just a change up is all until it's healed so no running intervals for now.

Will be taking week to week pics for personal reference and will post here once the goal of the coveted defined, shredded abs has finally been reached at a personal level, but with the fact that I think I have what some people may refer to as "runner's knee", this is really hampering my workouts and pretty much has me in "precautionary mode" as not to aggravate it any further. Had a consult with an orthopedist at work whom I know and didn't have to pay anything (thankfully) to have it looked at and he manipulated my right knee so bad I really felt it. He honestly thinks it's a meniscus tear...I think its a minor medial ligament tear, but I'll take his word for it since he is an Orthopedic surgeon. He says the only way to really determine the extent of the injury is with an MRI (they all say the same thing here). He says the prognosis for a knee injury like I have is not as bad or serious as what he's seen patients for in the past. He even says surgery may not even be necessary as long as I avoid any hard impact exercises that can do more harm than good at this point (surgery is the last thing on my mind). Luckily, based on his assessment this really does not require surgery...both knees (I'll say both as I know the other one is just around the corner)- need just enough time for the knee to strengthen itself through conservative exercises such as straight leg lifts, light deadlift exercise or what not (I may just not even do them altogether for now). One thing I've noticed over a month or so was how my right hip was hurting and he says that's because there is a muscle in the outer aspect of the thigh that connects from the hip joint to the knee joint that sometimes when the muscle is not strong enough to keep the hip and knee in proper allignment especially during runs, the tendency is the knees suffer because of this, thus "runner's knee". He recommends the following approaches to cardio which I will consider doing for now:

Elliptical Machine
Rowing Machine
Recumbent Bike/Stationary bike (recumbent much preferred)
Swimming (probably the best of all 4)

No running, stair climbers or spinning classes...

Concentrate on light hamstring and quad strengthening exercises:
Leg presses are fine as long as it's not too taxing on the knees (knees nees to be positioned a little higher than desired for the standard leg press as well as lighter weight). He also recommended Leg curls as long as the weight isn't too heavy too. May do this once every 10 days or so but will incorporate this in my workouts for sure here on out.

With that said, I'm going to have to mix it up here a little with intervals via biking as well as swimming and keeps those abs under suspense for now. I think with biking, swimming, rowing - this creates less impact on the knees and not as much pounding to allow it enough time to heal and hopefully get better. This might be a good change up for cardio for me anyway so I may benefit from this tremendously. I'm going to take this very cautiously...don't want to make it any worse than it already is.

September 5, 2008 will be my 2nd year into my journey to a healthier lifestyle. With that, I've had a horrendous April and May so far and progress has been very inconsistent at a personal level. Not being too hard on myself for it or finding excuses...but 9/5/08 is my realistic target goal date to achieve this. Since I can't do much with the legs...I'm going to strive for a stronger upper body physique and try to get shredded even faster with heavier weights and lower rep ranges maybe mixed with bodyweight training as well as circuits starting July. I currently am doing a program right now that's absolutely doing me some good so I definitely plan on finishing it with a little modification and everything else I know at this point with my knee. I will be incorporating alot of exercise routines I've enjoyed in the past and present as long as they meet my interests and goals -- so this will be a new challenge for me all together.