Beginning at the gym

Strength training will do you more good than cardio in the long run. It'll help you maintain muscle mass while you're losing weight. Do your elliptical and treadmill work and throw in strength work, with dumbbells or the weight machines, every other day.

^^^ massive +1 to Cherimoose. Please see one of the specialists recommended above!

I will however share some bodyweight exercises that I do for my issues (which are not your issues), some provided by my PT, some I have found to be ok through trial and error.

For squats and lunges:

I keep my shin straight, like 90 degrees to the ground. I use visual markers (a stick and the mirror) to do my best with this. I keep my knee and shin in that position the whole time - I try really hard to not let it move forward more than like 1/4 of an inch. (NB - not moving your knee forward [eg past your toes] is something some people will say "doesn't matter" anymore. It definitely can matter for some people.)

As I lower myself, I keep my weight shifted back, and focus on pushing the energy through my hamstrings, vs my quads. I drive through my heel, not the middle of my foot and definitely not the toes.

I don't go lower than 45 degrees. (vid of 45 degrees here) - I do "mini"/partial squats and lunges. (I thought I could go to parallel last week, but I was mistaken and it set me back a bit ) Again, some people don't do this, and go for full squats, I guess there are arguments for and against them. In my case, it hurts, so I don't do that.

Because I'm not going deep into the squat, I consciously think about engaging my quads, hamstrings, and glutes the whole time, to get as much benefit as I can from this limited range of motion.

For squats, I try to get my butt as far back as possible, as if I were sitting on a chair. (Thinking of them as "mini chair sits" helps )

Some squat variations to YouTube (& again, I only do partial versions of all of these):
- Chair sit
- Bodyweight box squat
- Skater squat
- Wall squats with a Swiss ball
- Low lateral step-ups and step-downs off a stepper (again, low, just two rings or whatever under the stepper) - they're not unlike squats.
- Also - static squats against a wall ("wall sits" - might want to start with these).

For lunges, keeping my feet closer together puts less stress on my ankles (where I also have problems). I only do these:
- Reverse lunges
- Partial co-contraction lunges (which are static)
- One-legged bodyweight romanian deadlifts, sliding the rear foot back (using a paper towel underneath) vs taking it right off the ground - that is basically like a reverse lunge with more emphasis on the hamstring.

Other exercises I do for my issues:
- Quad setting ("quad sets") and straight leg raises - help stabilize the knee by building up strength. For other knee issues than the ones I've got now, I've done partial wall sits + squeezing a ball between my knees to strengthen the inner quads (VMO - which keep the kneecap in check - the outer quads, sometimes, are stronger than the inner ones, and can pull the kneecap in a not great way.)
- Can add resistance to the straight leg raises via cable machine or resistance bands to progress. If you seriously can't bend your knee at all, this is a way to get some kind of resistance in (if it doesn't hurt)
- Glute bridges and hip thrusts - strong glutes are important to help keep stress off the knee
- Hip abduction (hip raises, standing or lying) - need strong hips, again
- Calf raises, calf stretches (gastroc & soleus); range of motion exercises for the ankle (eg doing the alphabet with your feet)
- Hamstring curls - can do on a cable machine, or lying on your stomach w a resistance band looped around your ankle. When I could do a ton of those, I moved on to the shelc (supine hip extension to leg curl). When I could do a ton of those, I moved on to the leg curl machine.
- When I built up strength, and could do like 3x30 of the bodyweight squats with no pain - leg presses (leg press machine), only to 45 degrees, with very low weight. I actually lock the chair into position so I can't go any deeper than that, even if I want to. I still do at least one single-legged squat and one double-legged squat. (Actually I think I'm off leg presses for a bit again )

Again, those are things that are ok for me, you'll have to do some experimenting to see what is ok for you.

Have you already joined the gym? Before I joined the gym, I started walking daily, just to form the habit of exercising daily. Then I started swimming, because I was getting quite sore from walking. Kept up the routine for 3 months before committing to a gym membership. When I joined the gym I spoke to a pt about my goals and done a program.

Once you have calorie counting sorted, may I suggest for the first few months you try an aqua fit programme. This is part cardio, and part gentle resistance training. It will help with your balance and mobility. The low impact will help you start building some strength in your legs and core without the strain of land based exercises.

Cheers, h.

heavy weightlifting while eating in a caloric surplus will help you get stronger, build muscle and grow your booty back. i do a mix of powerlifting, olympic weightlifting and bodybuilding, so i definitely recommend doing a combination of those as well. if you would like to know what my programming is just shoot me an email.