Health Stuff

Hello everyone!

I didn't post last night. I got some news yesterday that upset me and I cocooned and went to bed early.

I think I mentioned when I was doing the C25K that the first time I did it outside, I had terrible pain in my knees/hips/thighs for almost a week afterwards, and also that I broke my tailbone a few years ago and it never healed properly.

Yesterday my doctor told me that I have osteoarthritis in my knees and my tailbone. My mother and grandmother both have/had arthritis so this was not news to me.  She said losing weight is definitely going to be a huge help to me and every pound makes a difference.  The downside is that she said she doesn't recommend running or any weight bearing exercise at this weight. She said when I get down to about 150lbs we can reassess and see if the arthritis has advanced or abated. If it is has not advanced at that point, then weight bearing exercise will actually help build the bone structure.  She said at this weight, the exercise is putting more strain on the bones and outweighing the good of the exercise.  Weight bearing exercise includes running, anything that puts impact on my knees, like jumping jacks, skipping, lunges, squats - this is pretty much 50% of The Shred.  She said I should stick to walking, light hiking and swimming or exercises done in the water to minimize the impact.

This is definitely a downturn for me. I have only in the last 2-3 months been more physically active and trying new things.  I did have to stop the C25K at week 3 because my knees were bothering me so much and I do have a really hard time with the high impact portion of The Shred. 

I am not giving up though. I am just going to redouble my efforts into walking/hiking and maybe I will learn how to swim! Yep, that's right, I never learned to swim. We've had my boys in swimming since they were infants and my husband swims as well, but not me. I am not afraid of water, or deep water, I have done deep water aquafit for years and I can float and sort of swim, but not really swim properly in correct form. Learning might not be a bad idea. I'll look into it.

I found this study which talks about the various types of exercise and the impact on the knees:

•Biking generated the least force, producing impact of about 1.3 times the person's body weight.


•Treadmill walking was next best, producing forces of 2.05 the body weight.

•Walking on level ground generated forces of 2.6 times the body weight.

•Tennis produced forces of 3.1 to 3.8 times the body weight, with serving producing the highest impact.

•Jogging produced forces of 4.3 times body weight.
 
No wonder the running hurt so much, every time I put weight on one foot, over 800lbs of force was going through my knee!
 
I will post more about my revised 40 day self-challenge and how yesterday went in relation to that.