Has anyone here had any experience reconditioning the body after inactivity?

[ZenAlex]

Hello. I've suffered with long covid since 2023. I was stuck in bed most of last year, and didn't walk at all for most of last year. 

I'm recovering now, finally start of 2026 I'm getting better, my fitness is improving quite quickly in a cardio sense, but eventually after increasing my activity to a certain point, I noticed pain in my knee, especially when going uphill, and had to say in the house for 2 days to make it subside. I've reduced the activity to a daily amount that doesn't trigger it, and also have had to start doing stairs/uphill for short amounts most days.

Went from just being able to sit up and watch TV for a bit start of jan, to pushing myself to do a 14k step walk in middle of march before my injury.

Now I'm doing 4-6k steps and with 2-3 flights of stairs a day, and that seems to be an amount I can do without bringing the pain back.

I'm now trying to do an amount most days that doesn't trigger the pain, with every 3rd day at a lower amount to rest, and now plan to increase 5% per week. I have a physiotherapist apt in a few weeks. 

I think I got over excited when I noticed rapid improvement which my original docs said could happen due to my previous fitness, but looks like I've hit a wall. Uphill definitely aggravates it more.

Anyone got any advice? I've heard that it can take several months or a year or more to achieve full fitness of the muscles/ligaments/tendons.

Thanks. 

 

Edited April 3 by ZenAlex

[Human Mint]

I am not a doctor and your situation is very unique, but aren't you supposed to do some kind of weight lifting?

Again I never had any trouble like yours. Just inactivity out of laziness and I had lots of joint pain, back pain because of the sedentary lifestyle even as a 19 y.o. Back pain got better doing dead lifts. It is counter intuitive.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Do you have the option to visit a physiotherapist and enlist in some sort of rehabilitation program? 

This is often the standard treatment for muscle atrophy from extended bedrest/non-use. Perhaps some weakness remains, impacting how you move structurally, and causing the pain you describe.

When training or rehabbing I was always told never to increase volume more than 5-10% week on week.

I have personally had knee pain similar to what you describe - a lancing, piercing pain that is especially pronounced when walking up stairs. I remedied it through cross training and substantially increasing dietary fats + red meat. But I cannot be assured this was the fix. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru