A rant about basic concepts I

He said ideally I would avoid all high impact activities, BUT he was not going to tell me to not enjoy life. He suggested stationary bike and water exercises, but I'm not a big fan of the bike. My folks have a pool, so I've been trying to get by there more to visit and swim.

I wear braces on both knees for support and do pretty well when on the treadmill (moderate walking, can't jog or run) and playing racquetball. I'm hoping these activities will be less stressful on my knees as I lose more fat. I'm wanting to build muscle strength and don't want to ignore my lower body (which I am completely doing now).
 
Losing muscle isn't much a concern when you're carrying ~ 100 additional pounds of fat. I'd start experimenting with exercises and see what does and does not hurt.

Is it primarily the knee flexion that hurts?
 
Steve said:
Is it primarily the knee flexion that hurts?
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With the arthritis in the knee, it pretty much hurts all over, in all positions when it is inflamed. The knees swell and become stiff in the flexed and straightened positions. I currently ice both knees after any strenuous activity and it helps tremendously. Also taking prescription anti-inflammatory med.

When trying to do a squat or lunge, it's not that it hurts so much (although it does hurt) but that the knee and legs feel weak. My thought was that if I could strengthen my leg muscles with some low stress exercises that I might could work my way up.

Sorry for hi-jacking your thread. If I need to be posting somewhere else, just let me know!

E.
 
No need for apologies. This isn't my thread... it's the forum's thread. :)

I never understood that idea of ownership on forums like these simply b/c one started a thread.

Anywho...

I've seen literature showing positive influences on pain management by resistance training the muscles around a joint affected by arthritis... but I've also seen conflicting literature.

If I were you, I'd toy around with various exercises using very light weights. Once you find exercises that feel okay, focus on form and building up a tolerance with light weights. Certainly don't rush weight progressions.

Here is a list of exercises you could try... and if you need clarification simply ask:

Squats
Leg Press
Romanian Deadlifts
SHELCs
Glute Bridges
Leg Curls
Leg Extensions

There are many many more but that's a start.
 
My ex has really really bad knees and after his last really bad spell (draining, rehab, braces, anything they could to avoid surgery) the doctor gave him a series of exercises to do that really helped him.

They all involved sitting in a straight backed chair and more tensing and contracting leg muscles, leg lifts and leg presses that kind of thing, than any weight bearing stuff. He also used a resistance band to help build strength - sitting in the chair and wrapping the band around the chair leg and his ankle, then keeping a short range of motion. I'll see if I can find the worksheet when I get home and type up some of the exercises ... they really helped him build some strength in his knees and ankles and they weren't high impact or weight bearing types of exercises.
 
Thanks for that, Kara. I was actually going to suggest bands. I'm really stressing being conservative here.
 
Yeah, my ex was smart enough to go to a sports medicine therapist and I think he got a lot more out of it this way ... the exercises started off VERY slow and easy ... I remember one was simply to sit in the chair and raise one leg, tensing the thigh muscle and hold for a 5-count. Then repeat with the other leg.

Really simple. But apparently very effective!
 
Kara,

Thanks for your help! I appreciate you taking the time to look for that stuff...

Steve,

Conservative is what I'd be comfortable with for sure...not sure what I'd do if I were do damage my knees beyond what they are right now, LOL before my cortisone shots I sure was a pitiful sight a few hours and the next day after playing racquetball...I have a band I could use for these.

E.
 
Hard for me to listen to considering I always want to jump right into it and lose as much weight as I possibly can in the shortest amount of time I can. I'm all about instant gratifictation.

But I guess, you know, losing weight isn't actually about that.

Still frustrating, though. I hate the idea of pacing myself when I know I can sprint, even though it never sticks when I do.
 
That's just it. You can sprint if you'd like. But it typically makes things harder than need be.

The way I look at it is this.

Whatever methods you use to get in the shape you're shooting for, they must be applied for life. If you only apply them until you reach your goal, then change your methods, your body will follow suit.

Losing weight quickly is hard work. In fact, it's quite miserable. It heavily promotes the diet mentality which is simply a temporary way of eating. Temporary methods lead to temporary results, more often than not.
 
Steve said:
if you actually did some research, you'd see that during the initial stages of fasting, metabolic rate actually increases.

You might want to check out the work on intermittent fasting, too.
Click to expand...

Now that's interesting. I had looked at fasting a little before but not really from a fitness angle and had not heard that. I had heard that it freed up a lot of energy for other systems to use while the energy intense digestion was stalled. My question though is do you advocate any sort of (sane, rational) fasting?

E.g. I have considered taking one off day a week and fasting. However, I was always afraid of underfeeding my muscles if doing it the day after a hard workout and not having enough energy if doing it the day before a hard workout. Could I have the Steve $0.02?
 
Personally no, I'm not an advocate of fasting namely b/c I work with people who don't need to do it.

That said, there is some interesting (read: good) results coming out of groups who practice IF (intermittent fasting).

Check out . That's Martin's site and he has produced some very impressive physique changes. Very well read guy, too.
 
Thanks Steve. I skimmed the site and it looks like a lot of great info so I will be bookmarking it and taking notes later.
 
However, a positive attitude is definitely going to keep the "motivation factor" up as you go about losing weight. In that regard, there must be no mistake!
 
This site blows!!! I like how the moderators and owners of this site are only making money off you....they could care less about helping people really achieve their goals...when a certified trainer gets an infraction for posting a link to a free site set up to help people then Its time for me to leave...all this is here is a shell to make money on advertising. I know this for a fact....if they truely cared about you they would let you help people..
 
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Yeah it blows so much that so many of us come here and give advice rather than trying to get people to go to another website.

We really couldn't care less about anyone on the site. That's why we spend so much time typing out answers and giving advice here.

Gosh that just sucks.
 
trainerdude,

It's funny that you're the only "trainer" I've come across on these forums who has that sentiment.

You should stick it to "the man" and start your own forum and not let anyone post links to a Google-Ad filled "blog". If you want to maintain your professional image though, you might want to focus more on the content of the site you're trying to direct people towards instead of posting here twice and bashing the mods.

I'm just sayin....
 
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