Hello from Alaska

[chesapeakes]

Hi.. I am new on here.

I am 52 yrs old. Lived in Alaska 45 yrs now. I am a Born Again Christian. Have one grown and married daughter age 25. I was active in AKC sanctioned Dog shows for many years with my Purebred Chesapeake Bay Retrievers as well as Siberian Huskys / Gordon Setter. I love horses and own one 26 yr old mare at this time. I love to be outdoors hiking, walking, biking, horse back riding, photography, shooting, hunting/ fishing, working out. I love drawing and doing water color painting and want to delve into new projects this winter the Lord has shown me to do.



I found this site because I wanted to get advice on some workout routines for my legs after a bad double knee injury this spring. They are better now..but not 100% and I am afraid of reinjuring them and getting set back in a lot of ways. I can't afford to be off work as I am low income and need all I can earn and being my job is a Janitor I need to be able to move.
After I got pregnant I went from being a cute 135 lb woman to 255+ lbs. It was awful. I was still active as I was an outdoorsy woman with animals. I was into dog mushing , riding my horse and walking. But I was so overweight it wasnt funny.

I also suffered from Sleep Apnea for quite a few years but didnt know it was that until I finally got help to find out my problem.

After a marital breakdown I was so sick of myself that I finally got my act together and started to walk just to get away from home and think. I started out too fast and too long but that was just the way I am. I was in great pain in the shin areas so badly that it was very difficult to will my feet to move.. I literally couldnt pick up my foot.. it was like they were disabled. this was after only walking not even 3/4 of mile!! I had to physically pick up my legs in order to move the foot off the ground and forward... I perservered but in great pain a lot of the times. One time I wasnt sure I was going to be able to get home after walking about 2 miles the pain was that great.

Anyhow..I worked through the pain and continued to walk and then biked. My routine was walking 6 miles a day as quickly as I could, then I incorporated biking anywhere from 22 miles round trip to 36 miles round trip at least 4 or 5 times a week. And I didn't dawdle either..I pedaled fast and furious the whole way ..coming home was a real killer.. I would turn around and be riding back in the wind..there were days I honest dreaded going out because I knew I'd hit the wind coming back. But again I perservered. I began to lose weight (along with a better diet plan) and was just doing my own thing using Leslie Sansones Walk Off The Pounds DVD sets and also a Richard Simmons tape using the resistance band and aerobic workout. I went down from over 255 lbs to my lowest of 179.

People that hadnt seen me said I looked half the person I used to be. I had lots of nice comments but my most favorite was being able to buy size 12 jeans again after wearing sweat pants for over 20 yrs because buying larger jeans was expensive and uncomfortable.

I have since kept a regular number of 192 lbs give or take a few... but since my knee injury was not able to work out AT ALL. I have gained a little weight back but Im geting really flabby and rolly and I don't like it. I want to get back down and more if I can to my desired goal of approx 150 lbs. I am 52 yrs old.

I am afraid to do aerobic workouts again for fear I will mess up my knees that are still healing.

My legs are really fat and flabby. My weight and shape is inherited and even my sisters fight the same problem.

So my goal is to get back into toned up shape and lose the weight again and more this time. Winter is upon us now so riding the bike is out of the question but I am looking for a decently priced Bike Trainer so I can ride my bike in my house. But in the meantime I want to find a good work out that will burn the calories but tone me up real good and a work out that will help my legs tone up and slim up as well without messing up my knees again. Hope I can find that here.

God bless

[AskTheTrainer]

Originally Posted by chesapeakes

Hi.. I am new on here.

I am 52 yrs old. Lived in Alaska 45 yrs now. I am a Born Again Christian. Have one grown and married daughter age 25. I was active in AKC sanctioned Dog shows for many years with my Purebred Chesapeake Bay Retrievers as well as Siberian Huskys / Gordon Setter. I love horses and own one 26 yr old mare at this time. I love to be outdoors hiking, walking, biking, horse back riding, photography, shooting, hunting/ fishing, working out. I love drawing and doing water color painting and want to delve into new projects this winter the Lord has shown me to do.



I found this site because I wanted to get advice on some workout routines for my legs after a bad double knee injury this spring. They are better now..but not 100% and I am afraid of reinjuring them and getting set back in a lot of ways. I can't afford to be off work as I am low income and need all I can earn and being my job is a Janitor I need to be able to move.
After I got pregnant I went from being a cute 135 lb woman to 255+ lbs. It was awful. I was still active as I was an outdoorsy woman with animals. I was into dog mushing , riding my horse and walking. But I was so overweight it wasnt funny.

I also suffered from Sleep Apnea for quite a few years but didnt know it was that until I finally got help to find out my problem.

After a marital breakdown I was so sick of myself that I finally got my act together and started to walk just to get away from home and think. I started out too fast and too long but that was just the way I am. I was in great pain in the shin areas so badly that it was very difficult to will my feet to move.. I literally couldnt pick up my foot.. it was like they were disabled. this was after only walking not even 3/4 of mile!! I had to physically pick up my legs in order to move the foot off the ground and forward... I perservered but in great pain a lot of the times. One time I wasnt sure I was going to be able to get home after walking about 2 miles the pain was that great.

Anyhow..I worked through the pain and continued to walk and then biked. My routine was walking 6 miles a day as quickly as I could, then I incorporated biking anywhere from 22 miles round trip to 36 miles round trip at least 4 or 5 times a week. And I didn't dawdle either..I pedaled fast and furious the whole way ..coming home was a real killer.. I would turn around and be riding back in the wind..there were days I honest dreaded going out because I knew I'd hit the wind coming back. But again I perservered. I began to lose weight (along with a better diet plan) and was just doing my own thing using Leslie Sansones Walk Off The Pounds DVD sets and also a Richard Simmons tape using the resistance band and aerobic workout. I went down from over 255 lbs to my lowest of 179.

People that hadnt seen me said I looked half the person I used to be. I had lots of nice comments but my most favorite was being able to buy size 12 jeans again after wearing sweat pants for over 20 yrs because buying larger jeans was expensive and uncomfortable.

I have since kept a regular number of 192 lbs give or take a few... but since my knee injury was not able to work out AT ALL. I have gained a little weight back but Im geting really flabby and rolly and I don't like it. I want to get back down and more if I can to my desired goal of approx 150 lbs. I am 52 yrs old.

I am afraid to do aerobic workouts again for fear I will mess up my knees that are still healing.

My legs are really fat and flabby. My weight and shape is inherited and even my sisters fight the same problem.

So my goal is to get back into toned up shape and lose the weight again and more this time. Winter is upon us now so riding the bike is out of the question but I am looking for a decently priced Bike Trainer so I can ride my bike in my house. But in the meantime I want to find a good work out that will burn the calories but tone me up real good and a work out that will help my legs tone up and slim up as well without messing up my knees again. Hope I can find that here.

God bless

Thanks for being so detailed. Your lifestyle in Alaska sounds like a lot of fun, beautiful country with a horse and show dogs.

As far as exercise bikes go, I'm not really familiar with any of them aside from the ones I've tested in corporate gyms and the life fitness models have always been the best and will last a lifetime for personal use.

Life Fitness Commercial Bike

The next step for this site is actually reviewing a wiser variety of fitness products for the Fitness Equipment Reviews

As far as additional workouts, I completely understand bicycling being out of the question in the Alaskan Winter (I can't imagine how impossible it would be to ride in the snow, etc.) you may want to check out these workouts called Callanetics. I really have no experience with them but they are very popular with women your age group so you may want to check them out for home workouts.

Callanetics Videos

Cardio kickboxing may be another option but I would be wary of your knees if you were kicking in all directions. In order to avoid knee injuries you should try to avoid any prolonged repetitive activities even bicycling without a rest break every once in a while.

Cross training is probably a better option for example alternating 10 minutes of high intensity bicycling on the exercise bike with 5 minutes of core exercises or stretching.

Cross training is simply training multiple modes of cardio in a single session and is effective and makes workouts interesting. You can pick and choose different cardio exercises and try to fit them in your workout to create new workouts which will eventually help you balance out your body.

Last but not least, if it's an option you should consider hiring a NASM certified personal trainer. The NASM style of functional training and corrective exercise is right up your alley and if it's an option should be considered.

I hope I could help a bit, to keep this discussion going just hit reply.. hopefully I'll get some helpful input for you from the other trainers on this forum

[chesapeakes]

thankyou for responding. I am sorry I am late answering this. I will look up the Callanetics info.. as for hiring a Personal Trainer that would be wonderful except where I live there is NO such animal!! haha.. not even close!
My sister in law is a personal trainer in Washington where she lives ..but that doesn't help me at all.
Her son Jesse Marunde was Washingtons strongest Man for a long time till he died at age 27 of a heart condition.

Anyhow... no personal trainers anywhere near where I live. I think personally Kick boxing is out of the question.. I am doing a simple walkaway the pounds DVD that I used for several years.. just doing a 1 mile workout right now and so far my knees seem to be holding up. At night the one knee tends to ache a bit in one spot that its hard to sleep when its doing that..but it goes away after awhile.

The Bike repair person that is fixing my bike so I can use it again in the house with the bike trainer under it... told me for low impact on my knees the best workout would be spinning instead of power pedaling .. of course he doesnt know the full extent of my knee injury so I will do what i feel is most comfortable and yet get a work out too......

Looking fwd to it......

thanks again for all your suggestions and that you even wrote at all.. God bless!!
Kath