Need Advice

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-19-2005
Need Advice
3
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 2:07am

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good fitness DVD or video for someone very overweight and inactive that is having a lot of joint pain to begin a fitness program?

I'm trying to help my sister loose weight. She's probably over 250 pounds now and only 5'5. She has a very high stress job with very long hours (she works about 70-80 hours a week), eats out most of the time, rarely exercises and sits at a computer all day.

I've been trying to get her to be more active. I got her to join 24 Hour Fitness and I've been trying to get her to actually go (she's been 3 times in 9 months). I even joined myself last month and keep offering to go with her and train her (I teach martial arts classes). But she’s really too self-conscious to go to the gym and be the fat chick struggling to bench press 10 pounds.

But every time she works out, she’s ends up immobilized for days due to join pain.

Even walking around the grocery store now is making her knees and hips hurt so bad she can barely get off the sofa. I have similar soft-tissue/muscle problems, so I know what she's going through with that, so I've been recommending that she do a lot of stretching and strengthening with yoga and pilates, since that really helps me.

Her doctor has been completely and totally unhelpful, telling her that her pain is caused by her obesity and her lack of activity, but any time she has tried to start exercising, she’s in so much pain that she immediately stops.

I got her an intro to yoga video (Yoga for Dummies) and she said was even too much for her to do and hurt her back.

I'm really concerned about her health and would like to find some way she had start getting active again. I'm not having much luck getting her to eat healthier, but at least I can try to get her to start exercising and hopefully she'll start feeling better and in less pain when walking or going up stairs.

So any recommendations would be great appreciated.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2005
In reply to: amybarcenas
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 3:37am
As cheesy as he is, Richard Simmons videos are actually a good buy. I did some of the excercises with my friend at her house (At our own pace of course, not as fast as he goes) and its not bad. If your sister has so much problems with her joints, maybe she could try water aerobics. The water takes all the pressure off the joints, and as a bonus, you don't really notice sweat or anything because you are in the water! Hope this helps.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2005
In reply to: amybarcenas
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 8:06am
Walk away the pounds

Tammy

Don't let your past determine your future!     

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-26-2005
In reply to: amybarcenas
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 9:47am

It is really nice that you are so concrned about your sister but what you have to realize is that the change you are wanting from her has to come from within HERSELF. My family preached and preached to me and all the while i just got bigger and bigger. Trust me...she knows what she needs to do to lose the weight and you forcing her with a gym membership is not doing any good. I think of it like the doctors that tell you "eat right and exercise"...GEE YA THINK? The problem is doing it...not knowing what to do. And that, unfortunately has to come from her...when she is ready.

Normally i would recommend pilates but if she is not interested in beginners yoga, she probably wont like pilates either.

Someone else recommeded water aerobics and that is what i was thinking as well...especially if weight on her joints is an issue. But just keep in mind...if the weight loss is not in her heart right now...nothing YOU do can make it HER focus.

It took 2 years of me gaining back weight to finally have something snap in my head and heart and say...OK ENOUGH with the over eating...its time to get healthy again. My family had been telling me this for two years, even I had been telling myself this for two years but until something happens inside you...its just not going to happen.
Stacy