I’m male, 45 years old, 5’ 8" and 245 lbs. According to the height & weight charts I’m supposed to at most weigh 165 lbs. That’s 80 excess pounds. I try to walk and stair climb whenever I can but I can’t run (jog? shuffle?) more than a city block or so. Should I adopt a “no pain, no gain” attitude and force myself to jog? Or is there a point at which you just can’t reasonably ask a pair of human knees to take the strain?
I’m about 6’3", and was 260 when I started jogging. It was a friggin’ nightmare on my knees, shins, back, ass, joints… if I had it to do over, I’d have dropped 30-40 pounds with diet alone, mixing in some walking or bike riding before starting to run.
Just listen to your body. If it starts hurting, do something lower impact. Running is great and should be the goal, but no need to jump right into it.
Well, I’m too fat to jog, but I do it anyway. I agree with wasson, start with something else to help you drop some weight before starting to run.
What bothers you when you do jog? Knees? Shortness of breath? Energy level? Swimming or biking will probably be a lot less strain on your joints than jogging.
You have to start somewhere. Go out and do what you can. Then, just push yourself a little bit, adding distance and time as you go. Don’t make “working out” something to dread–make it something that makes you feel good when you’re done. Before long, you won’t feel right UNLESS you get some kind of exercise. That should be your goal to start off with.
I’ve often heard that swimming is the most effective low-impact cardio exercise but I don’t have a cite.
Dropping the weight before I started running kept me running. I used to be in serious discomfort while running (shin splints, sore knee, back, etc.) but then I dropped some weight and the running was much easier. I’ve no doubt that is no small part as to why I’ve kept at it.
Bicycle! I ride pretty much everyday except in rain or when it’s too cold. It doesn’t even feel like exercise and you’ll feel great!
You could start with a treadmill and steadily increase your speed until you can run. Or try walking with weights if you feel like your not getting enough out of walking.
Don’t jog, as the others say it will kill your knees. Not to mention the possibility of bringing on an early heart attack or stroke through overdoing it.
Walk (vigorously) or cycle for 30-40 minutes every day. I changed my routine to walk to and from work every day, it takes almost no extra time out of my schedule, I’ve lost fat and am fitter. And I know my city better than ever.
I’m of the mind that running and jogging are both inferior workouts to biking. But before you begin working out, you should consider a diet to lose some weight.
Forget jogging. It’s terrible for you joints if you’re heavy. Just walk, it might take longer, but it’s far healthier impact wise.
This is really pretty simple. If it hurts, you shouldn’t do it. The no pain, no gain thing is dead and buried. If you go out and push yourself to hard right out of the gates you’ll be sore and possibly injured, either of which is going to make it harder for you to get back out there the next day and the day after that.
Start small and start slow. Do what you can and build up your tolerance. The most important thing about beginning to exercise isn’t really intensity or duration but consistency. Finding a rhythm and routine which works for you and which you’ll stick to is the primary goal at the outset. Over exerting yourself or doing exercises which you body simply isn’t prepared for will only make it impossible for you to develop anything close to a regular routine.
Start simple. Walk, swim, bike…anything you feel comfortable doing and break a sweat at is great. Do one, do them all, it doesn’t matter so long as you’re doing something as often as time allows.
Without wanting to be needlessly cruel, in my opinion yes.
I say this because while I am about 20 years younger, I was towards the start of the year about 170cm tall and 115kg. And for me running for any great distance was impossible both fitness wise and joint strain wise. For me it was more feet and shins that couldn’t take it.
I think for you running is probably not the best thing to do anyway. When you are doing aerobics, what matters is not what you actually do (who fast you run, ect), but the workrate that you are using to sustain whatever activity you are doing. Basically you need to find an activity that makes you work hard enough that talking is difficult, but not so hard that you are gasping for breath. If you are doing that, then you are working out in a way that is going to aid fat loss and increase cardio fitness. If you can do that walking on an incline, bike riding, swimming, whatever, then you are working hard enough. I would think that for you now running is too much effort (it certainly was for me at the start) to do for any real length of time, and so you should find something else. Bear in mind you should also be able to do it for upwards of 20 minutes. Less than that and you really aren’t working out long enough to burn a meaningful amount of calories.
Personally (and this is just me), if you are going to a gym I would check out the eliptical trainers. Gives you a running like motion without the impact. They were my favourite thing when I started. I couldn’t run, and I HATE stationary bikes. However if you don’t like them, then don’t kill yourself doing something that you hate. If you can find something else that you like doing more that still maintains a good workrate, then do that. Exercising is hard enough, don’t make it harder than you need to.
And BTW I am now down to about 85kg and can run non-stop on tradmills for > 30 minutes, and it doesn’t place much stress on my legs, at least not like it used to. If you can’t jog now, don’t worry. Just stick with something that you can do, and keep making it more difficult when it becomes too easy. Keep it up and you can become a seriously fit jogging mofo. It just takes time, patience and determination is all.
Bob.
Bob,
this probably isn’t the best board to ask this question on. I’m an avid runner and I started at age 30 when I was 205lbs (at 5’8"). I’d suggest you head to www.coolrunning.com and head to their ‘Newbie Cafe’. You’ll find you aren’t alone and there are a lot of people who can offer you solid advice.
Drat! I meant to address my last reply to the OP - Lumpy.
Sorry for any confusion.
I was even fatter when I began exercising 2 years ago (BMI 39 to your 37.2 - now am BMI 28).
When I joined a preventive sports program they stressed that I needed to strengthen muscles and tendons before beginning jogging. So I have taken part in a gymnastics group religiously, one hour per week, and it’t done me a lot of good - strengthened muscles and tendons I wasn’t even aware I had, and it’s even fun once you get into the habit. Now I can also put in the occasional half hour of jogging without any joint pain.
Also while you’re still wobbly fast-walking is definitely better IMO - best to do it with a group, so you pace each other (and don’t slow down to a comfortable walk…).
Elliptical/cross trainers are also good IMO - exercises more muscle groups than exercise bicycles.
Changing diet is a necessary part of course, but that’s bound to fail if you try anything heroic - better adopt an eating routine that you can stick to indefinitely.
I don’t mind the saying “no pain, no gain”. I think it’s better than what people on TV will tell you, “20 minutes a day, 3 days a week!!”.
But, I don’t think it applies to joint pain from running, either.
After I had knee surgery, I had to take weight off by cycling before I was able to run again. And even now, I can only run a couple of times a week. I’d recommend cycling if you wanted to get a good start on it, preferably on the road, but you can start in the gym too.
When I joined the gym a few years ago the trainers came up with a Target Heart Rate for me to keep. It was certainly possible for me to go over that by running like a maniac on the treadmill, but they said once you go over that heart rate you’re not burning energy efficently and it will actually take longer to lose weight. I found that for the first 6 months or so a brisk walk kept me right in the zone. The longer you keep it up, the faster you’ll have to go to hit that heart rate, but you should have lost enough weight by that point to lessen the impact on your lower body.
As a quick side note, you burn about the same amount of calories walking running over the same distance. If you have the time to walk you’ll save a lot of wear and tear on your joints. If you want to get your heart rate up while walking, one good way is to raise the incline on the treadmill or look for hills when walking outside. I find it odd that so many people at the gym don’t seem to use the inclince on the treadmills.
I have a question about target heart rates if anyone knows. If you were working out on a treadmill, what would cause your heart rate to go lower? What if you had trouble increasing your hear rate regardless of what exercise you do?