Will using fitness machines along with cycling wear out my knees?

QUESTION: Will using fitness machines that isolate muscle groups, along with cycling, wear out my knee joints? —Stan P. (Yup, that’s me. Today I’m answering my own question!)

RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: Here’s how my question came about: Nine months ago, I had a total replacement of my right knee. While in therapy to recover, I got acquainted with the fitness center adjoining the therapy unit. And since my health insurance has a program called “Silver Sneakers” that will pay the cost of using the fitness center, I signed up. The center has resistance training machines that isolate various muscle groups and provide a weightlifting workout for those muscles. If you use all the machines regularly, gradually increasing the amount of weight you are lifting, pulling or pushing, you exercise just about every muscle group you have. And I have been exercising there regularly.

I’ve also been back to cycling since about six weeks after the knee surgery, and doing well, but a couple of weeks ago, I noticed some symptoms in my left knee — the one that still has a natural joint — that suggested I may be starting down a path to where I’ll eventually need to have that one replaced as well. That caused me to wonder if the fitness exercises that involve my knees, along with my ongoing cycling, were causing my knees to wear out faster. So, when visiting the orthopedic surgeon who did my knee replacement to discuss my other knee, I asked him the question above.

He answered, “Everything wears your knees out.”

But he went on to say, “Nonetheless, you shouldn’t stop cycling or using the machines, because the strength you gain makes a big difference in your life. It’s what will keep you out of a nursing home.” (I’m 79, so that was good to hear.) “There are studies that show that the people who are strong tend to survive longer. Even with people who have stage 4 metastasized cancer, the ones who survive the treatment are the ones who are strong to begin with,” he said.

My doctor, who appears to be in his mid-40s, is trim and fit, and he went on to tell me about his own strength training routine, which involves weights and chains. The chains help to minimize the stress on the joints.

I was impressed.

Before I left his office, he gave me a cortisone shot in my left knee, so that I can get some more mileage out of that joint before I have to get a new one.

Good thing, because I’m signed up for a week-long cycling trip around Lake Champlain next month.

---

Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.