Very Low to No Impact Excersizes

dscardella wrote: »

I cannot do any high impact or even very low impact. I can do swimming and water excersizes with the water resistance.
Does anyone have other ideas? I need to lose weight to get weight off my knees and legs. Has anyone heard of "chair excersizes "? I have heard of them but not the details. I am 1/2 way there. I am using Almased meaal replacement for 2 meals. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Chair Dancing & Sit To Be Fit are DVD brands for seated exercise. I know there are some seated workouts on YouTube.

For DVDs check your local library - here's a website with some video clips: http://www.collagevideo.com/collections/workouts-for-seniors

Youtube is your friend regarding exercise videos. Start with "chair exercises".

I also recommend a stationary recumbent bike. When I had a bout with bad knees (now fine) I purchased one. That was 3 years and a couple thousand stationary recumbent miles ago. It's a Marcy "7 something or other". $139 from that popular discount store that has 5 or 6 in every large US town and 1 in every small town. I bought mine on-line. Free shipping straight to the house.

I have wrecked knees. I find I can do the recumbent bike without even a twinge in either knee.
On the elliptical, I do feel a little catch in each knee, and then I'll get swelling the next day. It's not as "no-impact" as people would like to believe.
I can swim.
I can do yoga poses if I am very, very careful about setting up. Don't spring into them just to keep up with an instructor or a workout video. Take your time.
I can lift weights, but again, I am very, very careful with my form. Some exercises, like lunges, are right out for me unless I am immobilized inside a couple of bars that I can hang on to. Otherwise, it is just too easy for my knees to pop out of alignment.
In sum, over time, make a list of "safe" activities for yourself and stick to them. No need to reinvent the wheel.
As others have said, you can lose weight without exercising at all. But I for one sure feel better in my body when I do exercise.

Recumbent bikes actually hurt my knees. I have no idea why. Ellipticals and arc trainers are good, although I personally prefer the elliptical. If you have good workout pants/shorts walking on the treadmill at an incline is good.

I might recommend weight training as well to strengthen the muscles around the weak joints. Be careful, go slow, get a friend to spot you if you need it.

Walk, planks.

i use some exercises from darebee.com/workouts.html just set the filter to to easy and light and you will find some great ideas. they also have videos and explain/demonstrate low impact exercises to modify the routines. mostly i use the cardio pop, no sweat cardio, cardio light, stakeout (except the quad stretch and hold) and office routines. i have arthritis in neck, shoulders,back, hips, knees and ankles and am 300 pounds over my fit weights, so yeah most likely you can find some exercises to do, i even now can manage a mile and a half walk.

I gained a lot of weight after I broke my ankle a few years back. The ankle - even after healing - made walking difficult, and the weight I had gained just exacerbated the situation. Add on lack of movement brought on by both of these elements, and I was in a perfect storm for life as a couch potato.

When I started walking, I could barely do a lap around the couch with my cane. But I kept at it and found that every day it got just a little bit easier. I worked my way up to doing laps around the house - from front hall to kitchen to dining room to living room and back to the front hall. Again, with my cane, and again, slowly increasing the number of rounds that I did.

Once I had improved I started walking outside. A heck of a lot less boring that circuits in the house, but I still resorted to that on days when the weather made it unwise/dangerous to walk outside. (Think Canada in the winter!)

Long story short? I went from completely sedentary to be able to walk 5 or 6 miles every day over the span of about 6 months. And the more I walked, the more weight I lost, the more my strength improved and the further I could then go. Losing the weight definitely took the pressure off of my joints - I have a bad knee as well - and allowed me to lose the weight (in conjunction with a calorie deficit from a much improved diet) which made my joints much happier. I still take the cane with me on long walks in case my ankle gets sore and needs some compensation on the way home.

I bought a treadmill last winter to allow me to keep walking when the weather outside dictates otherwise. I watch Netflicks while I walk, which makes the time on the treadmill more enjoyable than it would be otherwise.

I also took up aqua jogging in the summer, which is a terrific workout with no joint stress. Although I can walk forever, jogging is still too stressful on my dodgy joints, so it's nice to be able to get the increased cardio from jogging without the potential for damage. Plus you don't sweat in the pool.

Bottom line? I lost 75 lbs in a year simply by walking more and eating less. I've reached my maintenance goal weight. Never thought I could do this - especially given how slowly I had to ease into it - but I found my gradually improving levels of ability/mobility so motivating that it kept me on my feet and moving forward.

I should also note that I'm in my 60's, post-menopausal, have hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's) and ankylosing spondylitis. Aside from the hardware in my left ankle, I have a large plate and screws in my right leg from a tib-fib fracture ten years ago. I'm a mess! LOL. So I wasn't exactly the poster child for glowing health going into this. My point, though, is even given physical limitations, there *are* ways you can continue to improve.

It just might take a little longer.

kshama2001 wrote: »

I realize that walking is low impact, but despite my bad knees I am able to walk. I started out with 20 minutes April 2015 and have been up to 75 minutes plus hills for some time. However! I walk in the woods, not on pavement, and wear good shoes - Asics Gel.

Recumbent bike is no impact and easy on the knees. I've never belonged to a gym that didn't have these bikes.



Here are the knee exercises my doctor gave me. I incorporated them into my yoga routine. All beginner yoga will be no impact.

I had to do these for physical therapy after ankle surgery when I was physically unable to put any weight on my legs. Can confirm that they're extremely easy on the legs.