Severe arthritis - what to do?

lkw0311
lkw0311 Posts: 39 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have severe osteoarthritis in both knees which makes it extremely hard to exercise. I swim at the Y once a week on the weekend, but otherwise, walking is very painful. I feel like I'm in a catch -22 - I need to exercies to lose weight, which would help my mobility, but I can't move! Any advice??

Replies

  • mssierra2u
    mssierra2u Posts: 86 Member
    Maybe the rowing machine would work, as your knees would not be supporting your weight. The other thing that might me helpful is to focus on weight training to increase your metabolism. Also consider more swimming during the week. I hope you find something that works for you. :flowerforyou:
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    If you look online, you'll see there are lots of videos of exercise sessions to be done sitting down.

    A good 11 minute one is http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/videos-detail.asp?video=38

    Google "sitting aerobics" and you'll find a lot of them on youtube, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WefYdl5xnhg

    Another thing to google is "chair exercise"

    Actually, while I was looking for you I saw a good core strength one from Sparkpeople. Oh, wow! If you go to www.youtube.com and search "sparkpeople chair" you find a whole passel of them.

    I have librarian's disease. I love looking up things for other people because I find so much for myself.
  • lkw0311
    lkw0311 Posts: 39 Member
    Thank you both for your suggestions.
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
    Or stationary bike. You won't be putting nearly as much pressure or weight on your knees with a bike. I also did Tai Chi when I had my knee issues - there's DVDs out there for "chair" Tai Chi which were great!

    David Stamp's "Chair Aerobics for Everyone - Chair Tai Chi" comes to mind here.
  • icimani
    icimani Posts: 1,454 Member
    I can relate - I had both my knees replaced 18 months ago due to arthritis. Like you, it hurt to move much at all so it definitely contributed to a lot of weight gain.

    Can you swim more?
    Also, I swim at a rehab pool and I'm one of the very few who actually swim laps. So my question would be are you doing anything aerobic? Or just bobbing? Or somewhere in between? Being in the water is good for mobility, but you have to work at it to burn calories enough to lose weight.

    A bicycle is good - not a lot of pressure from the weight, and the added benefit of keeping your knees moving and mobile.

    There's a fine line between keeping mobile and over-doing it and only you can find that line - for me, that line moved all the time so it was a challenge to figure it out on a daily basis.

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