Alternatives To Higher Impact Moves In Imax Series?

[tneah]

Cathe,

I had recent hip surgery and was told that all high impact stuff is out. I am currently doing this month's rotation, so far so good. Next week is Imax2, wondering how you would modify the power blasts to make it more "joint" friendly? What did you do when you were healing from your knee?
Any substitute moves you can suggest? I have a few ideas, but would love to hear from you! As always, love you, love your workouts, and thank you so much for responding to my Oh My Bod thread, love the clothes too!

Take care,

Tneah

 

[SRP]

Hi Tneah - obviously I'm not Cathe. But I've been making lots of low impact modifications lately. I find the Imax 2 blasts difficult to modify and still keep the intensity up, but there are some things you can do. Do you have specific blasts that you need help with? Maybe we can come up with something that'll help you.

Also, one thing that helps me a lot is that I have an elliptical trainer. When I can't modify a move to my liking, I jump on the elliptical during that blast and pedal really hard. Do you have a bike or elliptical that you could use?

 

[tneah]

Yes, I actually have both, and that really is a great idea. I have done that in the past when I did not "get" a certain move in any of Cathe's workouts.
Basically, any move that requires me to have both feet off the ground at once (which is like all of the blast moves!) I have been advised not to do. I am worried about getting my heart rate up high enough-I love really pushing myself, and it will be harder to do that now!

 

[stayfit1]

Hi Tneah,

If my joints are bothering me from too much impact, I sometimes use my rebounder to take the stress off the joints. I can still keep my heartrate up with using the rebounder.

Take care

Dianne

 

[mklap]

Can you increase your step height and just do the step sequences and not the blasts?

 

[SRP]

tneah - how much mobility do you have? Does your hip allow you to do deep squats and that sort of thing? If you have Low Impact Circuit, there are some great high intensity moves there, and I use them a lot when I simply can't come up with a modification. Low Max has some good alternatives too.

For instance, the kick-taps, where you step onto the step, kick with the other leg, come down into a back lunge and tap the step. Those are great.

Basically, if you can't jump, go as deep into a move as you can - squat or lunge down, then come up quickly all the way to your toes. And make good use of upper body movements, too.

On some moves, you might consider adding a light pair of dumbbells for extra intensity. You'll have to play around with those though - sometimes the moves put too much stress on the shoulder and elbow joints.