Low impact upper body exercise

melhayes1115

Does anyone have any reccommendations for some upper body, low impact exercises? I just had surgery on my leg and am very limited to what I can do. My doctor said I could do upper body exercises, but I am trying to figure out what I can do. I hate being immobile.

JamesBurkes

I do a lot of running and cycling, so one weight day a week I do circuit training, upper body only so I can still get my cardio in without working my legs.

I use heavy weight and lowish reps (6-10) - I've never understood why people always recommend low weights for circuit training - I get far more out of breath and a much higher heart rate maxing out at 9 reps than I do at 20. Anyway, I do one back exercise (chin ups or rows) then have a 10 second rest (in reality, this is just moving to the next set of weights), one chest exercise (weighted push ups, dips or, if I'm in the gym, dumbbell presses or heavy flyes) then another 10 seconds before moving to shoulders (heavy presses or upright rows; sometimes lateral raises. I go to failure on each set and rest for 50 seconds between circuits. I do 6 circuits before resting for a few minutes and then repeating the 6 circuits. It takes me around 40 mins, I get a lot of heavy work in and according to my HRM, my average heart rate is around 150bpm, and my max is 175, which is very similar to what I get in a hard spinning class.

But in your situation, any kind of upper body weight session would do. It's up to you if you want to also keep your heart rate up, as I do.

Also, what about swimming?

melhayes1115

As of right now, I am limited to my chair and bed I have to keep my leg propped up. It sucks becasue I feel like I can't do anything. By the end of this coming week, I will be able to talk short walks.