Free Alternatives to Running

healthhappiness2014

Hello, I have been running to lose weight, and also as a form of relaxation. It has worked well for both of these things. However, I am finding that my knees are now starting to hurt. Any advice about free forms of exercise that will help me to lose weight, but would not negatively impact my knees would be greatly appreciated.

Railr0aderTony

Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Exercise is for fitness and extra calories. eat less than you burn and you will lose weight.

read this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

BeTheChange352

do you know of anyone with a pool?

BrianSharpe

Before giving up running you may want to consider cross training to strengthen glutes & hips (these are the most common reasons for knee pain) and check your running form.

You may also be using the wrong (or old) running shoes. If you haven't done so already visit your local running specialty store to have your gait analyzed.

_Zardoz_

If you're having problems with your knees it's likely to be due to bad fitting or the wrong type of running shoes.

macchiatto

I agree with going to a running specialty store for shoes if you haven't already.

Adc7225

Not sure where you live but maybe your city has a parks and recreation website that offers free exercise options. I would also look into the shoe issue as well, I never had problems with my knees until I bought a new pair of running shoes that didn't work for me. Bought a another pair and no pain when running other than my feelings because I don't like running

Napier_mum

Before giving up running you may want to consider cross training to strengthen glutes & hips (these are the most common reasons for knee pain) and check your running form.

You may also be using the wrong (or old) running shoes. If you haven't done so already visit your local running specialty store to have your gait analyzed.

This.

I found that I got sore knees for a while, I got new shoes and started doing a few squats etc and then really thinking about the way I was running and all good now.

nancytyc

Have two blown out knees. ACL and torn meniscus. I ride bike. No harm to my knees and I have gotten to love it so much I hardly can let a day go without riding. If I miss a day, I get really down. The endorphins are awesome. Plus, I get to sit on my butt and exercise and lose weight. Started with a cheap Target bicycle and have now gone to an Domane 4 Series. Love it. Did 37 miles today and burned over 2700 calories.

pookeyism

Go talk to your PCP, explain you have been running and HOW and WHEN it starts to hurt.

Pool exercises and resistance bands are great. Light inversions against a wall and ankle weights, and "jog" at a slow steady pace works well.

healthhappiness2014

Thanks so much for all of your tips. I am on a very strict budget, and cannot buy new shoes right now, I am afraid. I also cannot cross train, because that requires money to join a gym. I was running/walking about 9 miles per day, and really loved it. On a good week, I would do this 5 days a week. It helped me to drop weight really fast. However, my knees are starting to hurt, and I will not be able to buy new running shoes until next month.

healthhappiness2014

Have two blown out knees. ACL and torn meniscus. I ride bike. No harm to my knees and I have gotten to love it so much I hardly can let a day go without riding. If I miss a day, I get really down. The endorphins are awesome. Plus, I get to sit on my butt and exercise and lose weight. Started with a cheap Target bicycle and have now gone to an Domane 4 Series. Love it. Did 37 miles today and burned over 2700 calories.

I do not know how to ride a bike. I see people in the city that I live bike riding, but, in all honesty, it is a bit dangerous, because of the crazy and aggressive drivers we have out here.

VeggieMissK

You can do a lot of cross training for free by watching youtube videos. Look up Melissa Bender, she has awesome videos that usually only require your body and a timer, sometimes she incorporates some free weights or kettle but you could modify them.

marilandica

Walk. It's that simple. Walking is excellent exercise - all of the benefits of running (if you go fast and far enough) without the joint crunching of running. I lost over 100 lbs in about a year and a half by counting calories and walking. I've maintained for about 4 months now by being mindful of calories and walking. I average 25 miles per week at 4.5 mph.

joanna_82

Walking- definitely. Less impact than running and if you get a good pace up, its a great calorie burner.
Then when you can afford to, get some new shoes and try walk/running again.

I try and walk everywhere, its so easy and it is free and of course much nicer in the summer, not so easy in the winter!

sculli123

I run but am conscious of the knee thing too. So I limit myself to one longer run (under 5 miles even at that). And a couple of shorter runs (usually some kind of interval trainng). Other stuff I'll do besides running is rowing maching and walking (usually with my dogs).

penelopeyvonne

I've just started dancing!! I was doing it using the Just Sweat programme, but am just free-dancing along to the music I put together on my iPod for this ... really enjoy it AND get a bit of a sweat on doing it. Was surprised to discover that 45 minutes had just disappeared, singing along to some of my favourite songs. It's probably not as energetic as running, but you can stay in the dry!

healthhappiness2014

Thanks so much for all of your tips. Running has been my go-to exercise when I want to lose weight because it is such a big calorie burner. I lost 70 pounds the last time that I wanted to lose weight, and this was largely due to running and counting calories. I have lost about 52.5 pounds from my highest weight this time around, and I can say that the weight loss really accelerated once I started running, but I will try walking. I know that this may sound strange to some, but it is a bit of hit to my self-confidence for me to be going walking, when I always go running on the route that I normally go on. As it is, I live in a really hypercompetitive city - New York City - and the area that I go running in there are a lot of desperate (I am sorry, but that is the only word that I can think of, because this is the air that they give off), women who are clearly running out of a fear of being fat in a city that is full of actresses, models, and lots of other beautiful women. Now, I am not talking about women who are superathletic, and are clearly running because they love the sport. I understand them, running is really addictive. Those women always breeze right past me, and I congratulate them for their physical fitness and admire them for taking good care of themselves. I am happy for them. They are setting a good example for others, and they give me a fitness ideal to aspire to. No, I am not talking about those women. I am talking about women (and yes, I use that term, because it is only on occasion that a man will engage in this behaviour, even there are a few men who do it as well - again, it is often overweight men - the superfit just breeze right past me) who maybe are not in such great shape, and see a fellow fattie (myself) who is running slowly, and think that it is ok to cut in front of me and running slowly blocking my path for five miles. Its always the fellow fatties who try to race me!

I do not understand this mentality, because I truly believe that the best way to move forward with being healthy is to compete against oneself, and not against others. Maybe it is their way of feeling better about themselves. I hope that these people will not begin to harass me even more now that my pace will drop now that I am walking. My one consolation is that many of the people that I see walking are MUCH slimmer than the women who try to outrace me on my morning runs. I think that this proves that 80% of weight loss is really about calories. It also gives some credence to the points made by many on this board about the dangers of eating back too many calories after exercising. I could not understand why so many of the women who would try to race me were so overweight, and also could not understand how people could run so fast for so long (remember that I often run 9 miles a day, and these women were at least doing four miles) and still have BMIs that appeared to be higher than 28 and even in the 30s (and they were not bodybuilders), until I found My Fitness Pal. It was only then that I figured out that it is possible to spend a lot of time exercising, and still be overeating.

I apologize if I have offended any people with this post, but I really had to get this off my chest, because it is one of the issues that had blocked me from exercising for some time. People give very large people a hard time when they are exercising (I cannot tell you all of the disgusted looks I would initially get), and I find that women are often really nasty to one another, and are often the ones who will try to race me off the road. When I am stick thin (I am quite tall, so when I am at a normal BMI I look like I weigh much less than I do, and people will ask me if I am a fashion model), some women will shoot daggers at me, and when I am quite heavy both men and women will give me nasty looks. Maybe this is just the city, that I live in. I find New York to be a really competitive, and unfriendly city at times. What is needed here, as is needed in the world in general, is more kindness.

healthhappiness2014

Walk. It's that simple. Walking is excellent exercise - all of the benefits of running (if you go fast and far enough) without the joint crunching of running. I lost over 100 lbs in about a year and a half by counting calories and walking. I've maintained for about 4 months now by being mindful of calories and walking. I average 25 miles per week at 4.5 mph.

It is good to hear from someone who lost such a large amount of weight be walking. As I posted earlier, I will definitely try it.

healthhappiness2014

I run but am conscious of the knee thing too. So I limit myself to one longer run (under 5 miles even at that). And a couple of shorter runs (usually some kind of interval trainng). Other stuff I'll do besides running is rowing maching and walking (usually with my dogs).

Is that you in the picture? Further motivation to try walking.

healthhappiness2014

Walking- definitely. Less impact than running and if you get a good pace up, its a great calorie burner.
Then when you can afford to, get some new shoes and try walk/running again.

I try and walk everywhere, its so easy and it is free and of course much nicer in the summer, not so easy in the winter!

Great advice, and great plan. Thanks for your input.

joanna_82

I understand the impact on your confidence when you walk the routes that you usually run- I was a 5 times a week runner for 2 years, kept healthy and active all that time through running. Then I hurt my back and that stopped me running for a long long time. In order to get pain free from my back problem I have had to embrace other exercise which has included a lot of walking. I tend to include my walking as a way to get somewhere, rather than going out specifically for a walk- so for example walking from work to meet a friend for dinner, or getting off the train one stop early and walking home etc.

I still run, but it is a lot less frequent than before and I don't walk the routes that I run so it feels very different.

Running over walking does burn more calories, but if you walk at a fast pace and get slightly breathless, it is still useful for fitness and still creates a calorie deficit.

Good luck!

Flab2Fab27

Thanks so much for all of your tips. Running has been my go-to exercise when I want to lose weight because it is such a big calorie burner. I lost 70 pounds the last time that I wanted to lose weight, and this was largely due to running and counting calories. I have lost about 52.5 pounds from my highest weight this time around, and I can say that the weight loss really accelerated once I started running, but I will try walking. I know that this may sound strange to some, but it is a bit of hit to my self-confidence for me to be going walking, when I always go running on the route that I normally go on. As it is, I live in a really hypercompetitive city - New York City - and the area that I go running in there are a lot of desperate (I am sorry, but that is the only word that I can think of, because this is the air that they give off), women who are clearly running out of a fear of being fat in a city that is full of actresses, models, and lots of other beautiful women. Now, I am not talking about women who are superathletic, and are clearly running because they love the sport. I understand them, running is really addictive. Those women always breeze right past me, and I congratulate them for their physical fitness and admire them for taking good care of themselves. I am happy for them. They are setting a good example for others, and they give me a fitness ideal to aspire to. No, I am not talking about those women. I am talking about women (and yes, I use that term, because it is only on occasion that a man will engage in this behaviour, even there are a few men who do it as well - again, it is often overweight men - the superfit just breeze right past me) who maybe are not in such great shape, and see a fellow fattie (myself) who is running slowly, and think that it is ok to cut in front of me and running slowly blocking my path for five miles. Its always the fellow fatties who try to race me!

I do not understand this mentality, because I truly believe that the best way to move forward with being healthy is to compete against oneself, and not against others. Maybe it is their way of feeling better about themselves. I hope that these people will not begin to harass me even more now that my pace will drop now that I am walking. My one consolation is that many of the people that I see walking are MUCH slimmer than the women who try to outrace me on my morning runs. I think that this proves that 80% of weight loss is really about calories. It also gives some credence to the points made by many on this board about the dangers of eating back too many calories after exercising. I could not understand why so many of the women who would try to race me were so overweight, and also could not understand how people could run so fast for so long (remember that I often run 9 miles a day, and these women were at least doing four miles) and still have BMIs that appeared to be higher than 28 and even in the 30s (and they were not bodybuilders), until I found My Fitness Pal. It was only then that I figured out that it is possible to spend a lot of time exercising, and still be overeating.

I apologize if I have offended any people with this post, but I really had to get this off my chest, because it is one of the issues that had blocked me from exercising for some time. People give very large people a hard time when they are exercising (I cannot tell you all of the disgusted looks I would initially get), and I find that women are often really nasty to one another, and are often the ones who will try to race me off the road. When I am stick thin (I am quite tall, so when I am at a normal BMI I look like I weigh much less than I do, and people will ask me if I am a fashion model), some women will shoot daggers at me, and when I am quite heavy both men and women will give me nasty looks. Maybe this is just the city, that I live in. I find New York to be a really competitive, and unfriendly city at times. What is needed here, as is needed in the world in general, is more kindness.

I think a lot of these issues are your own and you're projecting them onto everybody else. You want to lose weight/ get in shape, stop making excuses that others are stopping you from doing it and just do it.

civilizedworm

I took my preschooler to Skyzone over the weekend. We jumped and played on trampolines. It was so fun and extremely low impact.

"A 10 minute workout burns 53 calories for a 150-pound individual, while a 200-pound adult burns 71 calories in the same 10 minutes. A 30 minute workout burns 159 and 213 calories"

"The benefits of using a trampoline to burn calories and increase fitness were researched by NASA. They found that 10 minutes bouncing on a trampoline is a more efficient cardiovascular workout than over 30 minutes of running."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/294387-how-many-calories-burned-for-10-minutes-trampolining/

Besides, who doesn't like to fly?

ChristineinMA

I use Leslie Sanson videos on YouTube and I am just finishing up a 4 week program from FitnessBlender.com. It cost me $5 for the .pdf that tells me which workouts to do

Good luck in your weight loss journey!

Remember - you may feel self-conscious about yourself, but people are looking at you a lot less than you think. Many of us are so busy thinking of ourselves to notice or judge someone else.

Or, they could be suffering from like these people - from B i t c h y Resting Face

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d7ab80d4a5/*****y-resting-face

(you will have to replace the *****'s with the word in the line above)

merisaOct3

The original question was about free exercise. I'm not even reading or getting into the other stuff. IMO, one of the best forms of free exercise is Bodyweight training - squats, planks, pushups, more physically demanding yoga (not just stretching), lunges, and variations on these. You can get in a major sweat-inducing workout with little impact on your knees.

merisaOct3

there are a lot of desperate (I am sorry, but that is the only word that I can think of, because this is the air that they give off), women who are clearly running out of a fear of being fat in a city that is full of actresses, models, and lots of other beautiful women. Now, I am not talking about women who are superathletic, and are clearly running because they love the sport. I understand them, running is really addictive. Those women always breeze right past me, and I congratulate them for their physical fitness and admire them for taking good care of themselves. I am happy for them.

Oh wow... I missed this. This is so ridiculous! Women who don't fit your perception of "superathletic" are necessarily desperate? Do you have many female friends? There are women of all shapes, sizes, and athletic capabilities that run because we love the sport. I have run two half marathons, a 15K, and a dozen 5 and 10ks and I can assure you, it's not because I'm "desperate."

Open your mind a little bit, realize that the world may not always be as you perceive it.

healthhappiness2014

Thanks so much for all of your tips. Running has been my go-to exercise when I want to lose weight because it is such a big calorie burner. I lost 70 pounds the last time that I wanted to lose weight, and this was largely due to running and counting calories. I have lost about 52.5 pounds from my highest weight this time around, and I can say that the weight loss really accelerated once I started running, but I will try walking. I know that this may sound strange to some, but it is a bit of hit to my self-confidence for me to be going walking, when I always go running on the route that I normally go on. As it is, I live in a really hypercompetitive city - New York City - and the area that I go running in there are a lot of desperate (I am sorry, but that is the only word that I can think of, because this is the air that they give off), women who are clearly running out of a fear of being fat in a city that is full of actresses, models, and lots of other beautiful women. Now, I am not talking about women who are superathletic, and are clearly running because they love the sport. I understand them, running is really addictive. Those women always breeze right past me, and I congratulate them for their physical fitness and admire them for taking good care of themselves. I am happy for them. They are setting a good example for others, and they give me a fitness ideal to aspire to. No, I am not talking about those women. I am talking about women (and yes, I use that term, because it is only on occasion that a man will engage in this behaviour, even there are a few men who do it as well - again, it is often overweight men - the superfit just breeze right past me) who maybe are not in such great shape, and see a fellow fattie (myself) who is running slowly, and think that it is ok to cut in front of me and running slowly blocking my path for five miles. Its always the fellow fatties who try to race me!

I do not understand this mentality, because I truly believe that the best way to move forward with being healthy is to compete against oneself, and not against others. Maybe it is their way of feeling better about themselves. I hope that these people will not begin to harass me even more now that my pace will drop now that I am walking. My one consolation is that many of the people that I see walking are MUCH slimmer than the women who try to outrace me on my morning runs. I think that this proves that 80% of weight loss is really about calories. It also gives some credence to the points made by many on this board about the dangers of eating back too many calories after exercising. I could not understand why so many of the women who would try to race me were so overweight, and also could not understand how people could run so fast for so long (remember that I often run 9 miles a day, and these women were at least doing four miles) and still have BMIs that appeared to be higher than 28 and even in the 30s (and they were not bodybuilders), until I found My Fitness Pal. It was only then that I figured out that it is possible to spend a lot of time exercising, and still be overeating.

I apologize if I have offended any people with this post, but I really had to get this off my chest, because it is one of the issues that had blocked me from exercising for some time. People give very large people a hard time when they are exercising (I cannot tell you all of the disgusted looks I would initially get), and I find that women are often really nasty to one another, and are often the ones who will try to race me off the road. When I am stick thin (I am quite tall, so when I am at a normal BMI I look like I weigh much less than I do, and people will ask me if I am a fashion model), some women will shoot daggers at me, and when I am quite heavy both men and women will give me nasty looks. Maybe this is just the city, that I live in. I find New York to be a really competitive, and unfriendly city at times. What is needed here, as is needed in the world in general, is more kindness.

I think a lot of these issues are your own and you're projecting them onto everybody else. You want to lose weight/ get in shape, stop making excuses that others are stopping you from doing it and just do it.

[Sigh], I knew that there would be someone who would make a nasty comment like this, which is unfortunate. It is very easy to say that someone is "making excuses" or projecting. It is a way to try to dismiss concerns and gaslight. I have lost over 50 pounds, so no one can say that I am "making excuses." As for the issue of overweight people being stared at and given nasty looks, this is not "projecting," but is such a phenomenon that a lot has been written about , just do a search for "fat-shaming" on the internet, if you would like to begin to educate yourself on this issue. This is a valid issue to talk about on this board, and should not be breezily dismissed, because many overweight people do not feel comfortable exercising in public or in gyms because of the ridicule that they face.

Furthermore, I have a doctorate that deals with gender issues, and most academics will tell you that overweight women ARE discriminated against. So this is not a matter of projecting, but noticing how people react to me and my frame when I am overweight, and when I am slim. I have the right to do this! The issue of the way that women treat other women who are attractive or slim is also not a matter of projecting. I suggest that you read "The Stiletto in Your Back," "Tripping the Prom Queen," or the plethora of academic articles and books that have been written about the Queen Bee syndrome.

healthhappiness2014

there are a lot of desperate (I am sorry, but that is the only word that I can think of, because this is the air that they give off), women who are clearly running out of a fear of being fat in a city that is full of actresses, models, and lots of other beautiful women. Now, I am not talking about women who are superathletic, and are clearly running because they love the sport. I understand them, running is really addictive. Those women always breeze right past me, and I congratulate them for their physical fitness and admire them for taking good care of themselves. I am happy for them.

Oh wow... I missed this. This is so ridiculous! Women who don't fit your perception of "superathletic" are necessarily desperate? Do you have many female friends? There are women of all shapes, sizes, and athletic capabilities that run because we love the sport. I have run two half marathons, a 15K, and a dozen 5 and 10ks and I can assure you, it's not because I'm "desperate."

Open your mind a little bit, realize that the world may not always be as you perceive it.

I have ton of female friends - in fact - the majority of my friends are female. I have also completed a doctorate that dealt with gender issues, and campaign for women's rights issues. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, may I ask you a question? Do you live in New York City? I am not speaking about "the world," I am speaking about New York City. I have lived in or visited almost EVERY continent, and none of the other places that I have visited is like New York CIty. Unless you have lived here (aside from my world travels, I have lived here for most of my life), and have seen how the city has changed in the post-Sex and the City era, then you really may not be able to understand what I am speaking about. So [sighs], no the rest of the world is NOT like this. In fact, I have many friends from all over the world - female friends - who have lived here, and noticed what I have noticed, and have expressed disgust about it.

Also, whilst there is a difference between perception and reality, the truth is that the reality of what is going on in New York City is very similar to what I have written. Many people who have lived in New York City will tell you that there are some women here who are quite desperate. The reality is that there are over 100,000 more women then men here, and the demographics are further skewed when you look at the ratio of single straight women to single straight men. (NOTE: ** I have friends of all sexual orientations, and am a big supporter of the right of people to love who they love, so do not assume that I am making any sort of statement about lifestyle choices.**) In a city that has these demographic realities AND has a large number of attractive women who have come to the city to, in their words, work as "actresses," or "models," trust that women here do pay more attention to their figures and their looks, and that this leads to competitiveness on the part of some women and, I am sorry, but I will say it again, desperation on the part of some women.

healthhappiness2014

This is really good advice - especially the advice of walking towards a destination. I will definitely try this out.

I understand the impact on your confidence when you walk the routes that you usually run- I was a 5 times a week runner for 2 years, kept healthy and active all that time through running. Then I hurt my back and that stopped me running for a long long time. In order to get pain free from my back problem I have had to embrace other exercise which has included a lot of walking. I tend to include my walking as a way to get somewhere, rather than going out specifically for a walk- so for example walking from work to meet a friend for dinner, or getting off the train one stop early and walking home etc.

I still run, but it is a lot less frequent than before and I don't walk the routes that I run so it feels very different.

Running over walking does burn more calories, but if you walk at a fast pace and get slightly breathless, it is still useful for fitness and still creates a calorie deficit.

Good luck!

JTick

Sooooo....did you want advice here? Or did you just want to sound uneducated and then accuse us of being nasty and spout off about your doctorate?

You have more excuses than a duck has feathers. There are plenty of free options for cross training, as has been mentioned in this thread. Stop finding excuses, start seeing results.

Signed,

A Fat Girl Who Is Not Desperate And Runs Because She Loves It