Workouts For Obese People

I love Leslie Sansone walking dvd's I got all of mine at walmart for 10.00......

If you have access to a pool, that would be the least stressful on your joints and would easily get your heart rate going. Honestly what I did at first was a calorie deficit with next to no exercise. I lost 20lbs just doing that. Once I felt better I started jogging on the treadmill with patella straps to support my knees.

the pool is an excellent idea! I just started walking. I started on my first day just walking to the end of my driveway, then to the end of my street for a few days, then I built up to a block. I am not working on my first couch to 5K. It was slow going, didn't take many steps for the first few weeks, but eventually I started taking more and more steps. A good shoe (New Balance for me) helped me minimize the pain in my feet (I have fallen arches) but I am getting there.

See if your city or county has a public gym where you can use a pool, so much better on your knees and feet!

start out small, find some stretching exercises you can do for 10 minutes to start loosening up your muscles and joints and then go for a brisk walk for 10 minutes. after a week of doing that add 10 minutes to your walk and go from there. If you have access to a community gym ride the stationary bike for 10 minutes then do some stretching then bike for 1/2 hour. Do this 3 x per week and you will see a good change. your endurance will increase and then you will be able to add more to your routine. I did the stretching with 2 pilates exercises and biking for 6 weeks (3 x per week) and it made a real difference.

Good luck and don't give up

Recently here in the UK, all be it in a nursing home, the residents were encouraged to stand for a little while rather than just sitting and their health improved.

If you can get to a pool to move in the water this would be good because it reduces the pressure on the joints. There is no benefit in deliberately pushing yourself to the point you feel pain. If you try to do a little bit more on a regular basis then you will reap dividends. Regular athletes tend to have training schedules which incorporate rest days but this may be for some time in the future, keep up the steady good work.

Great for you! I would tell you, to start with just standing or walking. Increase slowly. If all you can do is walk 20 ft the first day, then great. The next day walk 25 ft. Or walk 20 ft 5 seconds faster. Just make sure you do it every day, and improve a little every day! Soreness is normal. Pain is not.

I have never been obese, but I do have some heart issues, so I have some low intensity ideas that may help!

- Walking, as everyone said, is a great start. Starting small and then working your way up is a great way to add more fitness to your lifestyle.
- Zumba- I love this because you can do it at any pace you like, and mixes dance into your workout. They do have DVDs for sale.
- You can get some of those small hand weights, and add a little strength training into a home workout.
- You can also scope out some Youtube fitness channels. I personally like searching for specific workouts, and I'm sure you can find one that you're comfortable with. Blogilates also has a great channel with a ton of different workouts to try.

Echoing what's also been said above, take it slow. I wouldn't do 500 squats at once, because I know my body wouldn't handle it, nor would I try to bench press my body weight. Listen to your body, and adjust your workouts to what your body can handle as you move forward.

Good luck!!

Hmm, I started last year at over 300 lbs (and over 40 yo) with no exercise experience, but now I workout for an hour a day 6X a week, plus walking.

When I started I focused on being gentle to myself. So I started with just stretching and "warm up" exercises only, probably less than 10 minutes a day. Pretty quickly got the hang of that and gradually added more minutes and actual workouts, though focussing on low-impact ones. Modified anything that my body wouldn't do or that hurt, but TRIED everything. Always gave new things a chance.

If you go to FitnessBlender.com you can stream lots of free workout videos. They seem to cater more to people who workout regularly (definitely not customized for the obese!), but their site rates every workout from easy 1 to crazy hard 5 and they are pretty good about talking through how to do things properly. The easiest workouts at "1" are just stretching only. There are plenty of "2" workouts though that actually do move you around and are pretty challenging when you're new to exercise and obese.

Start there, and be gentle and forgiving with your body, but also stay determined and don't give up; 90% of success is just showing up. You'll get used to it faster than you might think!

Start small and work up. Remember though: Pain is good. You get tougher and it's pushing your body. Now! that being said, too much is definately not good. When i was 340lbs i started with swimming which is honestly the best thing. very gentle on your bones. Then move up to walking. When you can handle walking go to light jog etc etc.

Per example: I started swimming at 340 like i said, then after a while, when i got to about 300lbs i started skipping because i always enjoyed it. Plus it took a small amount of my day to burn a lot of calories. Most people wouldn't go so full in to skipping as i did, but with my drive i really wanted to go as fast as i could! However, when i was in too much pain i would rest or have a few days rest between workout days to get up my strength again. So take your time and you'll see. This journey is all about learning more about yourself

zumba is a lot of fun ....its fast pace but a lot of fun ....and the steps are usually easy to get .....as far a joints go ....it will hurt at 1st but should ease up ...great workout

What I did was just started out walking for a half hour, wherever it took me. I walked 15 minutes and then turned around and headed home. On rainy days I put my exercise bike in the living room and rode my bike for a half hour. Buy a few hand weights and there are routines that you can just stand in your living room and do a routine that you make up yourself or find on the internet. It does not need to be complicated. Once you get comfortable and you start to reduce you can add more whether its joining a gym or doing a DVD. The hard part is getting started. Good luck.

Walking, Swimming, recumbent bike, lifting..... find low impact exercises.... usually it's the impact that is giving you the pain. I started with yoga, a exercise bike and walking. I worked my way up to running, elliptical, high impact workouts.

I say you should be brave and try Zumba! I weigh around 300lbs at 5'9" (29 years old) and started Zumba classes a few weeks ago....and I LOVE it. It kicks my booty every time, but it's fun and its an awesome workout. You can also modify some of the more difficult moves. I was always petrified of group classes due to my size, but I just sucked it up and went one day, and I can't get enough. I sweat buckets, but it hasn't been hard on my joints at all (I do modify any jumping). Just know your limits and do what you can. Bring a friend with you for moral support if that helps too. Also...if I don't have time to go to a class, I like to crank up the music at home and have a little dance party in my living room. Sometimes I incorporate doing chores into it, but that usually just distracts from my booty shaking good time! Good luck girl, and WORK IT!!!

p.s. I do zumba about once a week, and mix in walking, recumbent bike, elliptical, and water aerobics. If you're worried about your joints I would stay away from the elliptical, that seems to be the hardest on my joints (for me anyway.....)