Finding it still hard to exercise

I still find it hard to get the exercise needed each day. I am 286 and I do dancing and tae bo. But can not seem to do more then 8 min work out. I have fybromyalgia and I do suffer alot of pain when doing these. I am just wondering what weight will these get easier to do?

Hmmmm....Jorge Cruise has a book called 8 Minutes in the Morning. I just started the exercises this week. I'd gladly toss the meal plan: Calorie Counting is soooooo much better. Anyhoo, fitness is clearly his, ahem, strength.

His theory is that doing rotating exercises for those 8mins in the AM boosts your metabolism all day and avoids the mid-afternon slump. But, more importantly, he emphasizes strength training first before starting cadio until your body is "strong" enough to endure it. He encourages you to add in power walking first when you are ready for cardio. Anyway, it makes alot of sense to me.

Aside: I did that calorie cycling thing that you advised me and have lost 6+ lbs so far!! Thank you so much!

Awesome good job I am happy for you. Well could I was hoping the 8 mins would be enough to help. I try going longer but just can't yet. But thank you for this info.

Tae Bo is real hard on the joints (and the rest of the body). I would recommend resistence exercises using weights or bands. You should be able to do this for longer periods of time (if you wish). I would go light in the beginning as to not be so sore.

The stronger you get, the easier it gets. So have faith. As long as you keep at it--you will feel better.

If 8 minutes is all you feel you can do, then it wll be enough to help. I started very slowly working out only 2 or three minutes at a time and now I exercise an average of 2 hrs each time. Just do what you can, but don't allow yourself to become stagnant.

Keep going. Be strong. You can do this.

I have fibromyalgia too, so I can relate. I like walking (I can't run anymore; too hard on the joints), but lately I've been in enough pain that even walking more than a few minutes at a time is more than I can handle.

I don't think weight has all that much to do with it, when you have fibromyalgia. Even when I was thin I was in a lot of pain sometimes.. And I'm not all that overweight now, either. It also seems that the more I exercise, the worse my joints feel. Which is possibly why I was in no less pain at a lower weight- I was exercising a lot.

I do yoga, and walk when I can. I'd also recommend low-impact aerobics. Swimming would be great, but there's no way I'm going out in public in a bathing suit. Still, it might work for you. Even a bit of exercise is better than nothing.

Tae-bo is considered high-impact. I agree that perhaps you should try lower impact exercise, since the big cardio goal is just to keep your heartrate up. You may try some strenght training also as this may help you to be able to sustain longer workouts. I know little about fibromyalgia, so if I'm contradicting what would work for you, my apologies.

Is there a local YMCA? I did a water aerobics class that was great. Elliptical machines and recumbent bikes are considered no-impact, so if you have access to a gym, try those.

Hi Tess,

I read a bit of your bio..seems like you have been through a lot. My advice would be to take it slow. I am a mom of 3 that was in good shape and exercised regularly prior to having children. I gained a lot of wait during my pregnancies. After my second and 3rd child came along I found it very difficult to find the time to exercise.  Long story short...after many attempts to get back in shape I finally tried the 'taking it slow' method. After all, I reasoned to myself it had been 7 years since I had been in shape!

I definitely agree with those who advise against tae bo or other high impact activities at this time. With fibromyalgia you don't want to give your body any additional reason to be in pain.

One major realization I made was that my core body strength had really 'suffered' from the 3 pregnancies I had. After I started doing pilates and yoga my back pains disappeared and I realized how much I needed to start with core body strength before taking on higher impact activities. Yoga and pilates excercise those muscle you thought you never had that are very important for overall posture and ability to resist injury during many activities. I  highly recommend starting with either pilate or yoga. I  highly recommend  a yoga DVD that is called 'Lose weight and feel great' by ana brett and ravi singh.  There are a lot of breaks between the exercises in which you relax and breath. YOu can buy it on amazon for about $13.

Well that is my advice. I commend you on your jouney. You have already lost a lot of wieght and excercising while in pain is definitely not very encouraging...so to be doing so despite the pain takes a lot of will power!

Good luck!