Need Workout Variety!!

[Stacy]

I have bad knees and cant do much extended cardio, hardly any plyo moves and lunges and squats for knees are an absolute no-no. I was wondering if anyone had any creative ways to increase my workout intensity and endurance. (I only have a single dvd player, ie. no multi-disc changer)

Yesterday I came up with doing Pure Strength Ch, Sh, Tri and popping in Bootcamp and doing the cardio only premix in btwn upper body parts. That still seems like alot of dvd changing though.

Any ideas???

Thanks!

 

[kathryn]

What do you mean by "bad knees"? Arthritis? Undiagnosed knee pain? And in whose opinion are lunges and squats a no-no for you? Yourself? A physical therapist or doctor? If you haven't, get those knees checked out by a PT. Exercise can actually help reduce knee pain by strengthing the muscles around the knee. A PT will be able to tell you which muscles need strengthening and give you specific exercises to do so.

What is the problem when you try to do "extended cardio"? Do all types of cardio bother your knees? Some of the torquier moves in Cathe's step workouts can bother my knees, so I have modified most 180-turn moves and pivots (and most definitely avoid ricochets like the plague: turning over the step at that speed makes the risk of knee torque quite high for me).

Can you do kickboxing? Workouts like Powerstrike, Cathe's KPC and other more kickbox-oriented workouts are usually low impact (or can be made to be so), but are very intense.

Some people find that biking is easier on their knees(stationary or other).

I haven't done Boot camp for a while: is there an "upper body and cardio" premix on it? Then you wouldn't have to switch DVD's. Or just chapter forward on your DVD to do just the cardio and upper body segments. I agree that changing between PS and Boot Camp is a lt of DVD changing if you have a single disc DVD player, especially since it will effect your cardio intensity (as in lower it because of all the pauses).

Water aerobics could be a way of getting a high intensity cardio workout with some resistance benefits, while sparing your knees.

 

[Stacy]

I have an orthopedic doc, have been to PT and had 2 MRI's....so it's the consensus based on my doc, PT and MRI plus the fact that I have pain when I do high-impact, squats and lunges that prevents me from doing them. When I do cardio for long periods of time, I'm talking "moderate" cardio for longer than 30 minutes my knee aches...so much so that I have to take Ibuprofen just to get comfortable in bed. My ortho is not convinced that surgery will help much...it's more of a degenerative problem not something like a torn or stretched ligament. I can do kickbox just cant do those rapid fire kicks like Billy does in some of his Tae Bo dvds....I couldnt even do those before I had my knee problem...way too fast! I've modified the torquier moves already just b/c I dont like them and they're too hard to do on carpet anyways.

I actually have never done the Bootcamp cardio and upper body premix, but I'll have to try that on a lighter weights day!

Thanks.