Lifting/resistance with shoulder arthritis - ideas please

claritarejoice

Hi, I'm a 5'7", 32 year old female now 5 pounds to go to get to my healthy weight range. So far I've lost weight with cardio alone, but I know resistance will help reshape my body. I used to enjoy lifting but then developed arthritis, cronic pain and muscle spasms in my shoulders and couldn't lift hand weights or anything that put extra stress on my shoulders/neck any more. I also cancelled my gym membership for financial reasons, but we have a heavy weight set and bench at home - not that I could use it with my shoulder issue. I could still do legs though.

My questions: will light and body weight resistance still help me, or is it no better than cardio alone (since I've seen so much advocacy for heavy lifting on here)? Are there any programs or exercises you recommend? I was thinking of getting a DVD set like Slim in 6 or Turbofire that includes light resistance - will it help and will I be able to do it? Does anyone else have this problem?

Thanks for any helpful ideas.

rocketass99

Waight training will always benefit you. There are so many exercises that you can do with just your body weight, no equipment. Take for example planks. It I'll not only make your core strong, but it will also challenge you back, butt, legs and shoulders. You don't have to do heavy lifting. I'm sure you can find a lot of exercises online. If you have questions, shoot me a email.

Best of luck

claritarejoice

Thanks, so you think light resistance will be better than just cardio and will help change my body shape even if I can't do heavy lifting? What about others - ideas? Thanks

Yogi_Carl

Hi there - look up "You are your own gym" - a book and online support for purely bodyweight resistance exercises. I am going through this now and really enjoying it as my main joy is Yoga and the two go together really well.

claritarejoice

I'll look it up! Thanks!