taking a year off

[Hooah4 12]

Has anyone ever taken a year off from playing? I've been advised by my doctor to take a year off. Long story short I'm 42 and never had my L knee meniscus scoped like I was told and now I've developed R hip problems from compensating. anyone ever had this problem and how did you stay in shape? advice would be greatly appreciated.

[hunt3rsean 44]

I've never had to take a full year off. I did have to take a season off in my adult rec league due to a knee injury. The way I stayed in shape was going to the gym to not only rehab the knee, but do weight/resistance training for my other muscle groups. The cool thing is that I had to cycle in part of rehabbing my knee so it kept my stamina to an acceptable level.

I never had to have a knee scoped before so I don't know what that really entails for healing time. But, whenever you get to the point of rehab and the Dr says cycling is okay...I highly highly recommend it.

[shooter27 116]

I've taken significant amounts of time off. First after I finished my college career and then again after I moved to LA. Both layoffs were over a year. It takes some time to get your hands back, but the rest of the game tends to come back pretty quickly, particularly if you keep yourself in decent shape.

[Doctor Hook 0]

Absolutely, I took about 2 years off from beer league as I was fed up with being on a crappy team and pursued other beer league sports such as indoor soccer. I came back when I was ready for more puck and been playing year-round ever since, about 2 years now. Once hockey gets in your blood...it never leaves. It just goes into remission for a while.

[SouthpawTRK 1]

I took a year off from playing due to some torn ligaments in my ankle; I just played my first beer league game about a month ago. I made attempts to stay as active (as I could with a bad ankle) and did my best to eat more healthy. I started to get back to ice (starting with public session first and then eventually to stick and puck), but my stamina was really bad. My ankle still gives me some discomfort/light pain, but it's good to be back on the ice. I would work on things such as stick handling and core excercises; things I wish I would have done during my recovery.

[stick9 896]

I've taken 10 months off twice, both due to injury. One knee, one ankle.

With the knee is was public skating two months after surgery....which was roughly 7 months after the date of injury. Which was when I had stopped playing. Getting back to playing wasn't bad because the entire focus of PT was to get me back to playing and other activities.

The ankle was a bit worse. I didn't start skating until about 9 months after the date of injury. I wasn't to really do anything so the only work I got in was in PT. This was pretty recent. I just started playing again, it's been about a month now. I started doing some cardio and weight training about two months before I started playing. That helped, but my endurnace was still way way down.

Watch your diet. If your nursing an injury you aren't working off those dead calories. At our age (you're a year older than me) It's easy to put on 10-15 pounds and not even realize it.

GL man, hope it goes well.

[SydNap 25]

I took 9 years off between college and this fall as I was living another life as a football coach. I too had knee and hip issues, so I'll share my thoughts (including all the work I've done training athletes):

1. Do a ton of walking and stengthen those legs up (should only take a few weeks)

2. Get the knee scoped, and get to rehab immediately

3. Spend 6 months to rehab and do some sort of cross-training (my personal non-hockey work is walking/hiking/rowing/biking/elliptical/running/strength training)

4. Lose weight if you need to (for every 1 lb your body loses, that's 4 lbs of pressure on your knee/hip)

5. Stregthen the heck out of those hips and legs (squats, deadlifts, lunges)...do this only once cardio base is built...and start light

6. Slowly introduce hockey, but be prepared for pain. Skating is REALLY tough on the knees. (skating correctly I should say)

I have a spreadsheet I follow with my workouts (including reps, sets, and workout plan)

If you PM me, I'll send it over. Good luck!

[Chadd 916]

Taking a year off is a lot better than a knee or hip replacement somewhere down the line. I know people that have had both and none of them are close to being where they were before.

[Tubesteak 1]

I've taken significant amounts of time off. First after I finished my college career and then again after I moved to LA. Both layoffs were over a year. It takes some time to get your hands back, but the rest of the game tends to come back pretty quickly, particularly if you keep yourself in decent shape.

Ditto this. I took like 8yrs off after college. Skating took like no time at all to come back, shot took a little longer, but hands were definitely the last to return. Maybe keep stickhandling with balls and such.

[Hooah4 12]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to rehab for 3 months and if there's no improvement it's L and maybe R knee scopes. Bought a new stationary cycle (it's too dangerous on the roads around me) to help keep the stress off the knees as well.

The bow legs and flat feet didn't help any either(superfeet can't help that). Doc said I can still coach though.

[brandonhoornaert 0]

This guy I went too get my skates sharpened at, Had two replacement hips and still plays 3 times a week, and his dad is in the Guinness book of world records for being the most durable hockey player.