Exercise at high weights

Well, the excellent news is that Michael is down nearly 4 lbs. this morning. I'm up but very fractionally. Maybe this is really working, if we can sustain it. I'm supposed to be walking right now, but I'm doing this instead... despite good if whiny intentions. The problem is my iPod, which Michael is trying to put new music on... I could have waited, really, but I can't walk without it! So I'm giving up for the morning, but I will walk to racquetball this afternoon, which will be nearly as good (and back up a killer hill, sigh).

So this morning, I'm once again contemplating the problem of exercise for the really obese. The last time I did a Google search for something like "exercise morbid obesity", in addition to the billion things that say that the only way to do anything about this is through bariatric surgery, there were only the standard suggestions about, get up and move. Well, yeah. But what if it hurts to move at all? What if getting up and standing up is difficult for any period of time? What are you supposed to do then? This is Michael's situation right now, with the combination of the high weight plus whatever the hell he pulled in his leg. He is so miserable and frustrated.

Anyway, I tried searching again yesterday, and got two good sorts of results. First, there were actually a few articles that talk about the real problems of this kind of weight... not being able to fit on gym equipment, not being able to move much at all... although the bottom line (and this is of course correct) is that at some point you really do have to move around some and do something, whatever it is, somehow. It's just a fine balance, that combination of trying to push through that pain barrier and yet not hurt yourself.

The other thing that I found was an excellent link from About.com that is a full body seated workout. You can find it here. There are also some related links on workouts for seniors and so forth that are beginning, gentle exercise, though standing. We're going to give the seated workout a go today, I hope, so I'll report back. The hard thing is that you just want to be doing more and faster; gentle exercise seems wrong when you've spent your life doing not-gentle things. But it's a start. I hope anyway.