Advice for Workout Routine

nainai0585

My cousin has asked for my help with her weight and I have thought of a routine for her, but would like your insights as well. Here's a little background info about my cousin:
- BMI has her at morbidly obese
- She has constant knee pains (90% is caused by her weight, the other 10% is a car accident - his is what her doctor has told her).
- She has never worked out in her life.
- She refuses to modify her eating habits (ex: moderation).
The workout routine I have come up with:
- Start with having her walk to the gym run by our housing complex (its only a 3 min. walk from both our town houses)
- Heavy weight lifting - the first session will be teaching her about the machines and how to use them properly, then finding her starting weight. 2 sets of 10 reps. Every 1 to 2 weeks increasing her weights as she feels comfortable and going at her pace. 3 days a week of heavy lifting.
- Swimming - our complex also has an indoor pool, so I thought that after the weights we could head to the pool and swim laps. Start with 1 minute of constant swimming, then 1 minute of treading water. Slowly increasing the amount of swim time over several months and keeping the resting time the same. 3 days a week of swimming.
- Cardio - on our off days, I thought about having her walk the 1 city block our housing complex covers, then slowly increasing the distance as she becomes comfortable.

I have already told her that if she does not change her eating habits, she will not see the results as quickly as she'd like. She informed me that her goal is to actually stay the same weight she is, just become healthier - her reasoning, "My husband prefers thick girls." So I won't ask her to change her eating habits, but SLOWLY introduce other ways of eating when our two families get together twice a month for meals (she cooks one day, I cook the other).

What do you think? Constructive criticism is always welcome and any advice you can give that will help her is very appreciated BUT, if your a troll, I will hunt you down, stuff you, and serve you for Christmas dinner.

JoRocka

Bad news bears
weight is almost fully a function of diet not exercise.

: You know this. so this is an uphill battle

1.) You can't change her no matter how much you want. but encouraging is good.

2.) you aren't going to change a flipping thing if she refuses to modify eating habits (which includes simple eating LESS- rather than excessive cutting of whole food groups). And that's really unfortunately the big issue.

3.) no work out plan- just walking- if they are truly obese- walking- just walk.

the weights are nice- but really- walking. she should just walk. and with knee problems- doing laps in the pool will go a long LONG way.

That's a touchy situation. she may be very uncomfortable in the gym.... either from her size and the perception people are judging her or from the fact- getting in and out of machines is difficult when you are over weight- makes people even MORE self conscious.

It sounds like a good start- but don't hold your breath- she clearly has some issues she needs to work through.

I think the pool is going to be crucial if you can get her in there. Play that by year- even just walking/jogging back and forth and doing some bobbing is helpful- play the time by year- 1 full minute is a loooooooooooooooooooooong time when you are really out of shape.

hell I'm in great shape and I get super beat up from 1 minute intervals!

good luck with her- and good for you for trying to help.

Cherimoose

She informed me that her goal is to actually stay the same weight she is, just become healthier - her reasoning, "My husband prefers thick girls."

What if that were to change..? Hmmm......

Sounds like you may need to recruit the husband in this..

nainai0585

Oh I fully agree that I have an up hill battle, and I feel that so long as she does not start eating less (not cutting out any foods, just eating less of it) she's not going to see results as quickly as she thinks and will become so discouraged that she won't even want to continue after the first week - I believe she is expecting the same results I have, but she's not willing to put the amount of work into it. Also, our gym is tenants only, so there is hardly anyone there, especially during the day when the kids are at school. I know she refused to join me at the YMCA back in march because she strongly believed she needed to loose 100+ lbs before even touching any machine or even walking through the door.
Her husband is on board with it and has been pushing her to join me when I first started loosing the weight. I was even able to get her onto this website and track her food intake for a week BEFORE adjusting her calorie intake, so that she could see exactly how many calories she was consuming in a week - she stopped doing it after 3 days and said it was too hard. Her husband does go to the gym and watches what he eats, but is having difficulty getting her on the band wagon.
To be honest, I think she will start making excuses as to why she can't join me within the first week. But I could be wrong too and am hoping that with the right motivation and support, she can be success with her goals. I will modify the swimming, and will most likely see how long she can go first and then make this our goal for the first little while.

Thank-you for your help!