I just joined a gym. I am 61 and out of shape. Now the feet , and especially my ankles feel painful

tlm631

pridesabtch

Good shoes and moderation…

Corina1143

Ankle and feet muscles get out of shape, too.

AnnPT77

If there's swelling or water retention in your feet/ankles with the pain, I'd encourage you to see your doctor.

If you're not doing new exercise that could explain the pain, I'd still suggest a medical consult.

If it's about increased exercise or other activity, maybe back off the amount, recover, then gradually build back up. If you can get a referral for physical therapy, that could be a help.

Notice what types of activity seem to worsen the pain. Minimize that activity, or totally avoid it if you can while having a generally happy life. There are many types of activity/exercise, so it should be possible to find something that you can do without severe pain, without making physical conditions worse, and that ideally is fun (but at least is tolerable and practical). For example, if standing/walking is triggering the pain, there are chair exercises of many different intensity levels.

I'm 69 now, reached a healthy weight at 60 (after about 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity) and have been at a healthy weight since. Weight loss, if necessary, can happen entirely on the eating side of the equation.

Of course exercise is good for a body, so it's worth doing some. But it's ideal to start at a manageable level, just a bit of a challenge, and to progress slowly from there. I also became active later in life, and approached it in that gradual and manageable way. I recommend it.

Some amount of unfamiliar discomfort is common with new exercise, but it shouldn't be severe, and it should subside relatively quickly, like after a small number of sessions of manageably moderate exercise, or a small number of days.

This next is generalities, not true in each and every case, but most common: Pain from sore muscles - muscles unaccustomed to use - tends to be as described in the previous paragraph. That pain also tends to be spread over any area that is most of a muscle or set of muscles (noting that some muscles are small). It also tends to be more of an ache, tightness or burning kind of thing, and to be felt similarly for a time period, including while resting. A pain that is sharp, intermittent and changing significantly with movement, very localized to a joint or some other small location . . . that's more likely to suggest some kind of injury. Injuries require medical attention.

Sore muscles can benefit from rest, ice, elevation, heat, and possibly over-the-counter pain medications . . . sometimes from stretching or self-massage. Something like a warm bath with epsom salts might help, too.

At any level of fitness, from beginner to elite athlete, overdoing is bad. If a beginner, the best plan is to start slowly, in relatively small time increments, with rest days between sessions. If that feels good, increase a bit. Find the point where it's a little bit of a challenge, but not truly painful. As we repeat at that level, it will begin to feel easier, not much of a challenge anymore. That's the point to increase a little more - one at a time increase of duration, frequency, intensity or change to type of exercise.

That's how fitness progress works. We do something that's a manageable challenge, repeat it, it gets easy. We increase something to create that manageable challenge again. Keep going in cycles like that, and fitness keeps progressing. The "manageable" part lets us keep going. The "challenge" part creates progress.

I hope that makes sense.

I'm cheering for you to succeed with your goals. For me, both fitness improvement and weight loss were huge quality of life improvements, and the combination truly stellar. Chipping away gradually is IMO a great way to go about it. It's what I did myself. You can surprise yourself with how far you get over a period of time that way . . . I sure did.

Best wishes!