Need exercise advice for the obese

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jenipeni24
jenipeni24 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello! I'm in need of some serious guidance regarding healthy exercise for the morbidly obese. I want to do exercise that will spare my knees. Also don't have great feet. Bike is difficult due to large abdomen. Any ideas on getting started? I would appreciate your help!

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  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Do you have access to a pool? Pool walking, or aqua aerobics would be great. Would a recumbent bike be helpful?

    Walk Away the Pounds, Walk at Home and Just Walk are Leslie Sansone videos. These are low impact aerobics with no choreography. These can be done at your own pace, the moves can be made smaller, or lower, etc. That's the good thing about no choreography. You don't need to "catch-up." These videos are on YouTube or DVD. Check your library (or Wal-Mart/Target) for DVDs.

    www.youtube.com/user/walkathomemedia
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    Walking and water aerobics are great.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Ditto. Start at whatever level you are able then progress from there. Elliptical also is good!
  • TrailNurse
    TrailNurse Posts: 359 Member
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    Elliptical = low impact to knees. Challenge yourself though.
  • bri170lb
    bri170lb Posts: 1,375 Member
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    Ninkyou wrote: »
    Walking and water aerobics are great.

    Ditto. Did both when it was difficult to do anything else and eased into other stuff as I lost weight.
  • noclady1995
    noclady1995 Posts: 452 Member
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    My mother in law had both knees replaced and she swims, does water walking with those water weights made of foam, and recumbent bike for exercise.
  • JennieMaeK
    JennieMaeK Posts: 474 Member
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    Walking is great. Depending on your fitness level, you'll want to increase either time or distance as you progress. I haven't tried something like aquafit, but that might be good as well. Anything that you enjoy and keeps you moving :)

    When you say biking is difficult, is that on a stationary bike or an actual bike? I enjoy biking in the summer and it's not hard on the knees, so maybe it's the style of bike and not the exercise itself.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    I have bad knees and since April have slowly built up walking and am up to 3 miles on occasion, 2 miles regularly. Walking on trails in the woods is easiest on my knees.

    I have good shoes - I like Asics gel and am currently using ASICS Gel-Kahana® 7. I tried the Gel-Venture® 5 because I really wanted solid black and they were cheaper, but they weren't as comfortable, so I sent them back. (Zappos has free shipping both ways.)

    I love to swim. I alternate between the crawl, backstroke, and breast stroke. The frog kick was bothering my knees so I mostly use flippers and just keep doing the flutter kick during the breast stroke.

    @earlnabby has lost over 100 pounds with mostly walking and swimming as exercise.

    I've never liked the elliptical, but that's me.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    jenipeni24 wrote: »
    Hello! I'm in need of some serious guidance regarding healthy exercise for the morbidly obese. I want to do exercise that will spare my knees. Also don't have great feet. Bike is difficult due to large abdomen. Any ideas on getting started? I would appreciate your help!

    I started by taking a water aerobics class. There are some that you do in deep water (you use flotation devices) so there is no impact on the joints. Several people also work out in shoulder deep water to lessen the impact on the joints (normally you want to be about chest high). From there I started walking, just doing a block at a time. Later I added swimming laps.

    I really credit the water exercise with burning calories but also it helped strengthen my back and legs, and helped my flexibility, so I could begin to do other things.
  • 100df
    100df Posts: 668 Member
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    I started walking for exercise 300 steps at a time. I am up to 5000-6000 steps at a time now. Took me 5 months to build up to that. Get 10k 6-7 days a week. Now I am working on getting faster doing intervals on the treadmill.

    My feet really hurt at first. Less weight and regular walking helped that. I took Aleve in the beginning too.

    I bought Brooks running shoes. I am wearing them out. Next pair I am treating myself by going to a running store and getting professionally fitted.
  • HelenWater
    HelenWater Posts: 232 Member
    edited December 2015
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    I found that a recumbent exercise bike was good for my feet (plantar fasciitis) and was comfortable around my stomach. You can definitely challenge yourself on a recumbent bike, and I even did some interval training without fear of hurting my knees.

    The elliptical was also very good, but I had to focus on keeping my feet flat to allow the tendons to heal up. Also the elliptical is probably more challenging for your cardiovascular system.
  • MVY_
    MVY_ Posts: 253 Member
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    Elliptical works best and you can challenge yourself on it too.

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