Exercise suggestions for the very overweight

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I invented an interesting strength exercise that you can do at home without any weights. Now keep in mind that I am not a doctor or an expert in sports medicine or any kind of expert at all, so I cannot guarantee that this is safe. But it seems safe, and it’s quite comfortable as long as your knees are good.

Make sure the room is well-ventilated and free of cats. Take a long, light pole of any kind and tie a string to the middle of it. Tie the other end of the string to a set of keys or some other jingly object. Adjust the string’s length so that when you hold the bar up horizontally in front of your face, the keys are hanging an inch above the floor.

Now slowly squat down as far as you can comfortably, and come up again to the starting position, without letting the keys touch the floor. The idea is that you’re lowering and raising your body while keeping the bar at the same height. Count how many times you can do this, and the next day, try for at least one more.

Edited to add: I think it helps me keep my back straight if the pole is as light as possible.

42

Scrolling through the thread I see mentions of walking. If you CAN walk then I couldn’t agree more.

Many excercises involve some mental or physical discomfort which make it hard to carry on - I think walking is an exception. I see it as tricking your body into excercising by doing something not normally associated with excercise.

You’re burning calories, and you can just keep going until you know you’ve done enough

43

I love this

Low impact, easy, & fun. Best part is I lost inches faster than losing weight.

44

[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle]
At this point you don’t need special shoes. JUST DO IT. GET STARTED.
[/QUOTE]
The reason some of us (including me) are saying “special shoes” is that injury will kill the newly formed habit. I’m in fairly ok shape and I just started walking a lot more (for transportation) in bad shoes, and it’s done a number on my hips and knees, so much so that I have to pull back on my transportation walking and my other exercise. Had I been wearing my functional, correctly made (but ugly) shoes that are designed for longer walks, I wouldn’t be having these problems.

DCTrekkie, congratulations on starting. It is worth it if you can only do it a few minutes - especially if you like it enough to want to try it for a few more minutes the next day and a few more the day after that.
Are there any people at the Y? I know the ones here have trainers and exercise room workers and similar staff who can help people start out an exercise program? At the very least they can walk you through the equipment (including the weights) for free and show you how not to hurt yourself.
Also, do you ever see anyone else working out there? Could you ask them to be your workout partner?

45

One thing that has helped me very much (I have been at 135 kg myself at one point) was to participate in the preventive sports group of a local sports association - a program with one hour of simple gymnastics per week and one hour of walking, working up to running in time. The gymnastics part was especially useful IMO as a good, varied programme of gymnastics strengthens the many ligaments, sinews and muscles so you don’t injure yourself when ramping up the exercise. Now I am running regularly, have added strength training and still do the gymnastics group because it’s fun.

Does one of your local sports asscociations have a program of exercise for the unathlethic? (Having scheduled group activities of course also helps in keeping to one’s good intentions).

46

Where abouts in Dorset are you from? There are some of the most beautiful parts of the country to walk in near you, but I’m sure you know that already…

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[QUOTE=pretend my name is witty]
Where abouts in Dorset are you from? There are some of the most beautiful parts of the country to walk in near you, but I’m sure you know that already…
[/QUOTE]

Portland , South Dorset. We’re right in the middle of the jurassic coast, so you’re right, there’s plenty of places to walk. Cliff paths, Chesil Beach, through the quarries if I want something a bit more challenging. Its just a case of summoning up the enthusiasm, especially with the heat we’ve had the last few days.

Thanks

Unfortunatly not, normally when I went me and my friend would be the only ones there. The only staff member would be the person behind the front desk, and all they can do is show you what the buttons do on the machines, no actual health/exercise advice. They just let you have access to the machines.

Unless I see anything better, my current plan is to

  1. Do the 1-mile walk video tdn suggested at least 3 times a week
  2. When I’m ready to move to the 2-mile walk i’ll get some dumbbells and start the weight training alongside it
  3. When I’m up to the 3-mile walk I’ll start alternating with the gym.

I’ll also try and go for a long walk every so often, but not as part of my scheduled exercise, just when I feel like it.

To be honest, group exercise like that isn’t really my sort of thing. I prefer to do it alone, or maybe with a friend or two.

What i’ll probably do is like I did before, use the bike as my main exercise, have a go on the elliptical to see how much improvement I make each visit.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I think most of them will be used at some point, even if I don’t have them as part of my main routine, so if you think of anything else please carry on and add it to the list.