Exercising when obese

Joechuks01 wrote: »

Hi,

You can start with some beginner exercises and work your way from there. Don't be too harsh on yourself.

Check this out: (link to questionable video deleted).

Those are basic exercises, but not (for many people) true beginner exercises. Pushups, planks, squats, mountain climbers and burpees - the ones in the video - can be good exercises generically speaking.

People who are very out of shape are likely to to require preparatory exercises to progress toward some or all of those, and the video makes no mention of that as a possibility.

Further, for some actually obese beginners, some of these exercises can create risk of injury, such as back or shoulder injury. I admit, I got bored with the monotone narration, and fast-forwarded through some of the later bits, but I wasn't hearing any cautions about any of those possibilities up to that point.

As a generality, this is emphatically not a good example of beginner exercises for an obese person. It seems like the kind of thing someone might think would be good for obese beginners, if the person doing that thinking has been pretty active for years, maybe now is pretty fit, and who's never (or not recently) been very out of shape or obese.

Can some obese people do some/all of these? Absolutely. (I could, when obese, though the video seems to lack recognition about how mountain climbers in particular are going to work (or not) for someone with substantial excess abdominal fat. 😆)

I'm not trying to set low expectations for obese people. Far from it: I was obese and a competing athlete, and I think our culture overall has too-low expectations about what's possible for obese people athletically, and about the benefits that can be achieved from being fitter even if still obese. But someone who's a true obese beginner doesn't really have a context for knowing (or figuring out) what's safe an appropriate, other than via good guidance from other people. This video is emphatically not that good guidance.

The video has some nice multi-angle photography, and the demonstrator looks pretty fit. It has some spoken reminders about form that are useful. That's about the only positive thing I can say about the video, in this context. It's not that great a video, honestly, overall - kind of average, IMO. Why are you spreading it over so many threads here? Is it your video? Are you compensated for promoting it?

TX_Bluebonnet wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Joechuks01 wrote: »

Hi,

You can start with some beginner exercises and work your way from there. Don't be too harsh on yourself.

Check this out: (link to questionable video deleted).

Those are basic exercises, but not (for many people) true beginner exercises. Pushups, planks, squats, mountain climbers and burpees - the ones in the video - can be good exercises generically speaking.

People who are very out of shape are likely to to require preparatory exercises to progress toward some or all of those, and the video makes no mention of that as a possibility.

Further, for some actually obese beginners, some of these exercises can create risk of injury, such as back or shoulder injury. I admit, I got bored with the monotone narration, and fast-forwarded through some of the later bits, but I wasn't hearing any cautions about any of those possibilities up to that point.

As a generality, this is emphatically not a good example of beginner exercises for an obese person. It seems like the kind of thing someone might think would be good for obese beginners, if the person doing that thinking has been pretty active for years, maybe now is pretty fit, and who's never (or not recently) been very out of shape or obese.

Can some obese people do some/all of these? Absolutely. (I could, when obese, though the video seems to lack recognition about how mountain climbers in particular are going to work (or not) for someone with substantial excess abdominal fat. 😆)

I'm not trying to set low expectations for obese people. Far from it: I was obese and a competing athlete, and I think our culture overall has too-low expectations about what's possible for obese people athletically, and about the benefits that can be achieved from being fitter even if still obese. But someone who's a true obese beginner doesn't really have a context for knowing (or figuring out) what's safe an appropriate, other than via good guidance from other people. This video is emphatically not that good guidance.

The video has some nice multi-angle photography, and the demonstrator looks pretty fit. It has some spoken reminders about form that are useful. That's about the only positive thing I can say about the video, in this context. It's not that great a video, honestly, overall - kind of average, IMO. Why are you spreading it over so many threads here? Is it your video? Are you compensated for promoting it?

I reported a few of these early this morning as advertisement. It's the only video so far on a new YouTube channel, and the business email listed has his last name in it.

That's what I figured, those bolded things are rhetorical questions. 😉 And I flagged the post, too.

Meanwhile, I didn't want to add to the possibility that people might be discouraged by not being able to do these "beginner" exercises . . . they're not beginner exercises, universally. Basic in the sense of mainstream, yes. Basic in the sense of universally being suitable for people who may be just starting out in fitness, no.

TX_Bluebonnet wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

TX_Bluebonnet wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Joechuks01 wrote: »

Hi,

You can start with some beginner exercises and work your way from there. Don't be too harsh on yourself.

Check this out: (link to questionable video deleted).

Those are basic exercises, but not (for many people) true beginner exercises. Pushups, planks, squats, mountain climbers and burpees - the ones in the video - can be good exercises generically speaking.

People who are very out of shape are likely to to require preparatory exercises to progress toward some or all of those, and the video makes no mention of that as a possibility.

Further, for some actually obese beginners, some of these exercises can create risk of injury, such as back or shoulder injury. I admit, I got bored with the monotone narration, and fast-forwarded through some of the later bits, but I wasn't hearing any cautions about any of those possibilities up to that point.

As a generality, this is emphatically not a good example of beginner exercises for an obese person. It seems like the kind of thing someone might think would be good for obese beginners, if the person doing that thinking has been pretty active for years, maybe now is pretty fit, and who's never (or not recently) been very out of shape or obese.

Can some obese people do some/all of these? Absolutely. (I could, when obese, though the video seems to lack recognition about how mountain climbers in particular are going to work (or not) for someone with substantial excess abdominal fat. 😆)

I'm not trying to set low expectations for obese people. Far from it: I was obese and a competing athlete, and I think our culture overall has too-low expectations about what's possible for obese people athletically, and about the benefits that can be achieved from being fitter even if still obese. But someone who's a true obese beginner doesn't really have a context for knowing (or figuring out) what's safe an appropriate, other than via good guidance from other people. This video is emphatically not that good guidance.

The video has some nice multi-angle photography, and the demonstrator looks pretty fit. It has some spoken reminders about form that are useful. That's about the only positive thing I can say about the video, in this context. It's not that great a video, honestly, overall - kind of average, IMO. Why are you spreading it over so many threads here? Is it your video? Are you compensated for promoting it?

I reported a few of these early this morning as advertisement. It's the only video so far on a new YouTube channel, and the business email listed has his last name in it.

That's what I figured, those bolded things are rhetorical questions. 😉 And I flagged the post, too.

Meanwhile, I didn't want to add to the possibility that people might be discouraged by not being able to do these "beginner" exercises . . . they're not beginner exercises, universally. Basic in the sense of mainstream, yes. Basic in the sense of universally being suitable for people who may be just starting out in fitness, no.

It's good there are people like you keeping an eye out for the community. 👍

Mostly, it's that - being a curmudgeon - I don't like self-promoting BS that fails to add value. But I'm polite. Mostly. 😆

I've been a beginner more than once. I'm not sure how obese you are or what your level of fitness actually is, but when I first started, I "ran". I had a 1.5 mile route (and then later 3, 4 and 5 mile routes) that I would "run". More of a jog at a comfortable pace with my dog. But I couldn't run far - the advice I got was to run the length of one song, then walk the next. etc. i couldn't even do that though. So I ran the telephone poles - run the length in between poles, walk the next. I'd set mini goals throughout as I was able - if I felt ok once i hit the pole, I'd go for another pole. Eventually I was just running like a normal person and training for Tough Mudders and half marathons.

You might also start looking at low range spin bikes - I got mine on amazon for like, $300. It's not fancy, but it works well and gets the job done. You can find one in that price range with a weight capacity of up to about 400 lbs, I believe. I have Les Mills on Demand subscription (highly recommend that too) which is why I bought it, but if youre not quite ready for that, it's easy enough to just set it up in front of a tv show and ride for 60 minutes or whatever you can do. If you're in Les Mills, Body Combat can be a nice beginner workout. You just modify what you can't do, and they usually help with that.