I quit karate because of my knees. I could still stiff leg it around and throw hands and a front kick but I could not do kata well and kept dislocating one knee or the other. I had lost skiing, running, many other things over the years and realized it was time to stop karate too, and thought that after knee replacements I might go back. I knew guys that had gone back to karate and were full of type-A bluster about it. But I have had to wait another five years and got used to having given it up. I found new activities. None of those guys are still doing it.
My priority now is getting as many years out of new knees as I can. I am enjoying learning new things and meeting new people. I asked my Dr about running skiing and karate and he said, sure, you could.
He said he has people who go back to triathlons etc. I then asked, should I? He said absolutely not, don’t do any of that.
He said the Issue is that if he tells patients who are obsessed with triathlons not to do them, they do them anyway, and for the most part it means they come back for new plastic inserts and revisions a lot sooner. So he said he has learned that about human behavior.
I did my pre op check in with one of my other doctors who is a skier and has bad knees. He said “yeah, your fine, but what did the ortho day about skiing after tkr? If I have one can I ski?” This is a Dr asking me! So it’s not just us.
I guess it’s risk reward. I personally cannot imagine taking the risk of karate after going through this. So I bought a boat....