I am currently workout buddy to my best friend, who has been prescribed 30 minutes to an hour daily of weight-bearing exercise. We currently walk for an hour ( a distance of about 3 miles- my speed is 5 mph, but I adjust for her). However, we have to consider the dreaded winter, which sometimes can be quite nasty in Pennsylvania. The only walking track is outdoors.
So we need an exercise plan that can be done indoors in a fairly large dorm room or a huge living room. Tapes can be used, but the workout needs to be low-impact because she has screwy joints and low bone density in her back. Any ideas that might help both of us? We are as different in body type as possible- I’m large-boned and 5’6", she has a small frame and is 4’4". Is there any workout that will fit for the both of us?
You mentioned a dorm room - are you in school? Do you have access to the school’s gym/weight room? If so, elliptical trainers are fantastic low-impact cardio machines, if you’ve got one you can use. Combine with weight training for a well-rounded workout.
We have a very frightening, out-of-date gym. The weight equipment bears the name of the state college- it’s been a university rather than state college for 20+ years now.
And elliptical trainers? Hah! We have two treadmills and four squeaky old exercise bikes for a few thousand students. Our gym blows. Hence all the walking and looking for tapes.
When I was a similar situation (college student, crappy gym, exercising with much fitter roommate), we used to get up early and race-walk(me) or run(her) laps on the basketball courts. We were still together, but we each went at our own pace, and she’d wave as she lapped me. It worked pretty well. Some days we’d swim laps in the pool, but that isn’t weight-bearing.
Or you can just try marching in place, combined with the kind of weight training you can do with your own body weight, like push-ups.