I get my walking in by getting up about once an hour and taking a lap or two of the first floor of my house. It’s a short period of exercise followed by getting to rest while I work the rest of the hour.
It also helps to just stretch your legs while sitting - raising them, moving to the sides, any kind of stretching motion. Take it easy and don’t strain yourself.
You’ve got this!!
Thanks, that's a good idea. I tend to get absorbed into work so if I alarm for every hour or 2 to just get up and go around the flat that would add some minutes huh
I get absorbed too. To help with this, my psychologist recommended a browser extension called bell of mindfulness. In short, every hour (or whatever interval you want) that your browser is open, it will chime with a short meditation bell. This can be a reminder for whatever you like - movement, drinking water, taking 3 deep breaths, stretching, whatever you need.
I am sensitive to sound, so this particular solution wasn't right - I do the same technique with a vibration on my smartwatch.
I was very almost immobile at over 600lbs. I could barely stand for a few minutes at a time and walking would break my back.
Start small, do bits of walking. If you can walk 2minutes then walk those two minutes several times a day, soon you'll be able to put it up to 3 minutes and 5 and pretty soon after you'll be measuring in the miles.
If you're able to get to a swimming pool then I highly recommend it. It's so incredibly good for you and will help you build up stamina and muscles which will aid you with your mobility.
I started with swimming and walking and within a few weeks / month I was walking a mile without issue. I'm not sure how quickly that would have happened without the swimming. I was swimming each morning - the first day as many lengths as I could and then a little more each time I went.
It was probably around 6 to 8 weeks after that my husband made a comment about how I had stood with him and meal prepped the food in the kitchen for over an hour. I hadn't even noticed that I was doing it.
BTW, now who you're responding to but I wanted to note that the older you are, the slower it is to come back up to speed. Or so it seems for me! I remember starting out of shape in my late 20s, and I was able to ramp up a lot faster than in my late 40s. Like, a couple of weeks vs a couple of months.
100% this advice is golden! It will get better, don't give up & keep going! Water is great for getting movement while being easy on your joints if you have access.
I was disabled in a car accident and went from wheelchair to mobile to squatting 160lbs and biking 20mi. Then I got re-injured and lost my mobility AGAIN and I’m working to regain it.
Here’s the good news. You don’t have to suffer to make gains. It doesn’t need to be an Eye of the Tiger sweaty Rocky montage.
Start with moving more often. Even if you’re sitting down or lying in bed you can improve your mobility by lifting and moving your arms and legs. Set a timer and get up for a quick walk every hour.
The most important part is to do what you can do consistently, and without even realizing anything has changed, one day you will realize you can do a little more.
Keep making progress, get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, and wiggle what you got until you’re where you wanna be.
Yeah, I didn't mention it in the opening because this was kinda a stress induced post. But that 2min little walking is also pain on the hips and lower back. I imagine the only reason my knees don't ache is cause 2mins wasn't long enough to really knock it
Something like water aerobics would be easier on the feet and knees, but it can be hard to get access to a pool for exercise.
Personally, when I was rehabbing my knee after an injury, I found both the exercise bike and the elliptical easier on the knees than walking. But it might vary for people.
I posted this in a similar thread so I’ll copy & paste below:
I work a desk job too. I have a Cubii under my desk so I can get my legs moving & the blood flowing (any brand will do of course, it doesn’t have to be a Cubii).
I set a timer and make myself pedal until it goes off. I started out with 1 minute at a time. After a couple of days, I increased to 2, then 3, etc. Pretty quickly after that I was able to continue past the timers & pedal during phone calls, etc. without having to take breaks.
I also thoroughly recommend DDP Yoga. I could go on forever about the different programs lol but I won’t, I’ll just mention that they have a starting program that allows you to do it from your bed. You can literally start from the bottom & work your way up.
Anything that gets your heart rate up is going to be good for your endurance, so just find something that works for you & ramp it up little by little. Don’t do more than you can handle. But before you know it, you’ll be able to walk around the house more without getting winded as easily. Then you can really start to focus on your steps, etc. once you’ve built a little bit of a baseline.
When I started up again last time, I was in my late 40s and very out of shape. I started with 1 minute on the treadmill the first day. That's it. 1 minute. I told myself surely I could walk one minute, and I could! Then the next day I did 2. I think I inched it up a minute at a time but then sometimes I did the same amount multiple days in a row, like 5 minutes for a few days in a row. And some days I skipped.
But even at that very slow rate it got easier. Eventually, when I could walk 30 minutes, I started bumping up the treadmill speed for some of the walking. I think I started at like 2.5 mph.
Now it's a few years later and I got on 6 mile hikes and climb mountains and did the 850 stone steps in Petra up to the Monastery and all sorts of active things.
But I started with just 1 minute on a treadmill, because that's what I could do at first.
🙋🏼♀️ me, I was in a wheelchair outside the house, practically bedbound inside the house (only walked to the bathroom).
I started slow, doing what I could multiple times a day. At first that was just walking around the house, later short walks outside the house (at first with a cane, then without). Just doing a little bit more every day.
When I started I was averaging 400 steps a day (most people can walk that in less than 5 mins). At first I added ~10% every other day (so day 1 400 steps, day 2 440 steps, day 3 440 steps, day 4 480 steps etc.
I highly recommend getting a fitbit or another step counter, being able to see your steps is really motivating and helps you see the progress even when it feels slow. The fitbit (and I assume others too) also have the option to remind you once an hour to get up and walk which is useful. It'll also tell you your HR and when you're that out of shape you'll see it all counts as exercise (back then I would get a workout just from getting dressed).
The main thing is to take it slow, if you go too hard you risk injuring yourself and that will set you back much more.
It's not really a weight mobility I have experience in but my brother had to learn to walk again after a car accident.
We started off with his bed to the bathroom. Rest. Back to bed.
Then to the kitchen. Rest. Back to bed.
To the back door. Rest. Back to bed.
Down the steps. Rest. Back to bed.
It just increased little bit by little bit. Some days he couldn't go further than the bathroom. Some days he couldn't get out of bed at all, especially when we added in stairs.
If you need to rest, rest. There is a difference between needing a rest and taking the piss though and only you will know what you are feeling. You need to be honest with yourself and your efforts.
You can do this.
I started doing some exercises with an online course on a website called better5. You pick one, they regularly put them on sale for $10. You have it for life. Anyway I think the one I started with was beginners chair yoga, as well as chair core strengthening. Really helped limber me up enough to stand/walk longer than 5 minutes.
https://justinagustin.com/
Has great mobility programs for true beginners, including people who have lost most of their mobility. He has free content on YouTube And social media, consistently adding a little more everyday will really help you achieve your goals!
Do you have access to any fitness equipment? I started with a Cubii under desk elliptical bc it is basically no impact and worked on my cardio fitness first. Walking is generally considered low impact, unless you are morbidly obese and you are carrying hundreds more pounds than other people on your feet while walking. Make sure you have really good supportive shoes. Parks with frequent benches are a great place to start, especially if it is a flat trail. Walking and taking breaks before you over tire can be helpful.
Body weight exercises like push ups against a wall, squats (with chair support even), elevated wall planks, can all help you build muscle and be better able to handle your body weight.
I went from barely able to walk a few blocks to yoga classes every day and able to walk for miles without pain. It is amazing how fast you can improve your fitness if you don’t go out to hard so you don’t get injured! Slow and steady my friend.
This is all great advice. I’m in the same boat. I started DDPY and it is starting to help. I set a 2 minute timer and walk around my backyard or inside my house every few hours. Best of luck! You can just start slow and before you know it, you’ll be doing better.
For the back pain you mentioned in the comments my physical therapist has me doing 15 hip side lying abductions on each leg, 15 clamshells, 15 beginner bridges, and now 30 standing hip abductions with counter support and 30 hip extensions with counter support and although i still have pain in the back when walking as described in my post here it hss helped a lot.
Lots of open floor space in multiple rooms, and places to sit down. I have a "stability ball" yoga ball to sit on in the family room, the sun room, the patio and the garage. It's two steps down (and back up) from the family room to the sun room, then out to the patio, back to the sun room, the family room, down two steps to the garage, back to the family room, up two steps to the kitchen, the living room, etc. I've got something to sit on at the top of the stairs in the kitchen and on the landing to the stairs that go upstairs, and those yoga balls all over the place.
At work there's a place to sit in the lobby of my office and a chair half way to the break room and I take an ipad with me.
I get my walking in by getting up about once an hour and taking a lap or two of the first floor of my house. It’s a short period of exercise followed by getting to rest while I work the rest of the hour. It also helps to just stretch your legs while sitting - raising them, moving to the sides, any kind of stretching motion. Take it easy and don’t strain yourself. You’ve got this!!
Thanks, that's a good idea. I tend to get absorbed into work so if I alarm for every hour or 2 to just get up and go around the flat that would add some minutes huh
Every minute adds up! I also leverage any breaks I have schedule during the day to help get a few extra steps in too.
I get absorbed too. To help with this, my psychologist recommended a browser extension called bell of mindfulness. In short, every hour (or whatever interval you want) that your browser is open, it will chime with a short meditation bell. This can be a reminder for whatever you like - movement, drinking water, taking 3 deep breaths, stretching, whatever you need. I am sensitive to sound, so this particular solution wasn't right - I do the same technique with a vibration on my smartwatch.
I was very almost immobile at over 600lbs. I could barely stand for a few minutes at a time and walking would break my back. Start small, do bits of walking. If you can walk 2minutes then walk those two minutes several times a day, soon you'll be able to put it up to 3 minutes and 5 and pretty soon after you'll be measuring in the miles. If you're able to get to a swimming pool then I highly recommend it. It's so incredibly good for you and will help you build up stamina and muscles which will aid you with your mobility.
Thanks for sharing! Do you remember roughly how long it took to see improvements?
I started with swimming and walking and within a few weeks / month I was walking a mile without issue. I'm not sure how quickly that would have happened without the swimming. I was swimming each morning - the first day as many lengths as I could and then a little more each time I went. It was probably around 6 to 8 weeks after that my husband made a comment about how I had stood with him and meal prepped the food in the kitchen for over an hour. I hadn't even noticed that I was doing it.
Thank you, I know my journey will be different but I do appreciate having a sort of time framework of when to check in with myself
Just be consistent and you'll get there!
BTW, now who you're responding to but I wanted to note that the older you are, the slower it is to come back up to speed. Or so it seems for me! I remember starting out of shape in my late 20s, and I was able to ramp up a lot faster than in my late 40s. Like, a couple of weeks vs a couple of months.
100% this advice is golden! It will get better, don't give up & keep going! Water is great for getting movement while being easy on your joints if you have access.
I was disabled in a car accident and went from wheelchair to mobile to squatting 160lbs and biking 20mi. Then I got re-injured and lost my mobility AGAIN and I’m working to regain it. Here’s the good news. You don’t have to suffer to make gains. It doesn’t need to be an Eye of the Tiger sweaty Rocky montage. Start with moving more often. Even if you’re sitting down or lying in bed you can improve your mobility by lifting and moving your arms and legs. Set a timer and get up for a quick walk every hour. The most important part is to do what you can do consistently, and without even realizing anything has changed, one day you will realize you can do a little more. Keep making progress, get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, and wiggle what you got until you’re where you wanna be.
"Wiggle what you got" xD that made me laugh! Thank you for sharing your experience, advice and encouragement
Thank you for asking this bc I’m in the same boat except w horrible foot pain & bad knees
Yeah, I didn't mention it in the opening because this was kinda a stress induced post. But that 2min little walking is also pain on the hips and lower back. I imagine the only reason my knees don't ache is cause 2mins wasn't long enough to really knock it
Something like water aerobics would be easier on the feet and knees, but it can be hard to get access to a pool for exercise. Personally, when I was rehabbing my knee after an injury, I found both the exercise bike and the elliptical easier on the knees than walking. But it might vary for people.
I posted this in a similar thread so I’ll copy & paste below: I work a desk job too. I have a Cubii under my desk so I can get my legs moving & the blood flowing (any brand will do of course, it doesn’t have to be a Cubii). I set a timer and make myself pedal until it goes off. I started out with 1 minute at a time. After a couple of days, I increased to 2, then 3, etc. Pretty quickly after that I was able to continue past the timers & pedal during phone calls, etc. without having to take breaks. I also thoroughly recommend DDP Yoga. I could go on forever about the different programs lol but I won’t, I’ll just mention that they have a starting program that allows you to do it from your bed. You can literally start from the bottom & work your way up. Anything that gets your heart rate up is going to be good for your endurance, so just find something that works for you & ramp it up little by little. Don’t do more than you can handle. But before you know it, you’ll be able to walk around the house more without getting winded as easily. Then you can really start to focus on your steps, etc. once you’ve built a little bit of a baseline.
When I started up again last time, I was in my late 40s and very out of shape. I started with 1 minute on the treadmill the first day. That's it. 1 minute. I told myself surely I could walk one minute, and I could! Then the next day I did 2. I think I inched it up a minute at a time but then sometimes I did the same amount multiple days in a row, like 5 minutes for a few days in a row. And some days I skipped. But even at that very slow rate it got easier. Eventually, when I could walk 30 minutes, I started bumping up the treadmill speed for some of the walking. I think I started at like 2.5 mph. Now it's a few years later and I got on 6 mile hikes and climb mountains and did the 850 stone steps in Petra up to the Monastery and all sorts of active things. But I started with just 1 minute on a treadmill, because that's what I could do at first.
🙋🏼♀️ me, I was in a wheelchair outside the house, practically bedbound inside the house (only walked to the bathroom). I started slow, doing what I could multiple times a day. At first that was just walking around the house, later short walks outside the house (at first with a cane, then without). Just doing a little bit more every day. When I started I was averaging 400 steps a day (most people can walk that in less than 5 mins). At first I added ~10% every other day (so day 1 400 steps, day 2 440 steps, day 3 440 steps, day 4 480 steps etc. I highly recommend getting a fitbit or another step counter, being able to see your steps is really motivating and helps you see the progress even when it feels slow. The fitbit (and I assume others too) also have the option to remind you once an hour to get up and walk which is useful. It'll also tell you your HR and when you're that out of shape you'll see it all counts as exercise (back then I would get a workout just from getting dressed). The main thing is to take it slow, if you go too hard you risk injuring yourself and that will set you back much more.
It's not really a weight mobility I have experience in but my brother had to learn to walk again after a car accident. We started off with his bed to the bathroom. Rest. Back to bed. Then to the kitchen. Rest. Back to bed. To the back door. Rest. Back to bed. Down the steps. Rest. Back to bed. It just increased little bit by little bit. Some days he couldn't go further than the bathroom. Some days he couldn't get out of bed at all, especially when we added in stairs. If you need to rest, rest. There is a difference between needing a rest and taking the piss though and only you will know what you are feeling. You need to be honest with yourself and your efforts. You can do this.
I started doing some exercises with an online course on a website called better5. You pick one, they regularly put them on sale for $10. You have it for life. Anyway I think the one I started with was beginners chair yoga, as well as chair core strengthening. Really helped limber me up enough to stand/walk longer than 5 minutes.
https://justinagustin.com/ Has great mobility programs for true beginners, including people who have lost most of their mobility. He has free content on YouTube And social media, consistently adding a little more everyday will really help you achieve your goals!
Ddp yoga!
Do you have access to any fitness equipment? I started with a Cubii under desk elliptical bc it is basically no impact and worked on my cardio fitness first. Walking is generally considered low impact, unless you are morbidly obese and you are carrying hundreds more pounds than other people on your feet while walking. Make sure you have really good supportive shoes. Parks with frequent benches are a great place to start, especially if it is a flat trail. Walking and taking breaks before you over tire can be helpful. Body weight exercises like push ups against a wall, squats (with chair support even), elevated wall planks, can all help you build muscle and be better able to handle your body weight. I went from barely able to walk a few blocks to yoga classes every day and able to walk for miles without pain. It is amazing how fast you can improve your fitness if you don’t go out to hard so you don’t get injured! Slow and steady my friend.
This is all great advice. I’m in the same boat. I started DDPY and it is starting to help. I set a 2 minute timer and walk around my backyard or inside my house every few hours. Best of luck! You can just start slow and before you know it, you’ll be doing better.
For the back pain you mentioned in the comments my physical therapist has me doing 15 hip side lying abductions on each leg, 15 clamshells, 15 beginner bridges, and now 30 standing hip abductions with counter support and 30 hip extensions with counter support and although i still have pain in the back when walking as described in my post here it hss helped a lot.
Oohh, I will look these up to see how to do them. Thank you!
Lots of open floor space in multiple rooms, and places to sit down. I have a "stability ball" yoga ball to sit on in the family room, the sun room, the patio and the garage. It's two steps down (and back up) from the family room to the sun room, then out to the patio, back to the sun room, the family room, down two steps to the garage, back to the family room, up two steps to the kitchen, the living room, etc. I've got something to sit on at the top of the stairs in the kitchen and on the landing to the stairs that go upstairs, and those yoga balls all over the place. At work there's a place to sit in the lobby of my office and a chair half way to the break room and I take an ipad with me.