What can a person who is limited to what exercise they can do because of a physical condition? I know water exercises are good and I do that but it makes my pain even worse. Now i have been doing water exercise for two years now and it still hurts so don't say its because i have to get use to it. any movements makes me hurt worse.
My doc does all he can to keep the pain down but to now avail. This is all due to many surgeries i had on my back already. If anyone knows anything on this please let me know ok.
Mary

Sunny,
Have you tried some modified strength training with VERY light weights in a seated position? Might be a good place to start to regain some strength for your muscle and joints. Maybe mention this to your doctor and see what his advice is

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Shimmer
my blog

Mary, sorry to hear about your problems, but you're on the great track starting the LC diet and light exercise - and joining this forum since it will provide you with support, motivation and information.

I do not know the extent of your back problems, but my knee trouble was cured by yoga and pilates. I know that both of these have exercise modifications based on injuries/pain, so that is all I can recommend at the moment. If you get a chance, you could check out the following two books:

"Back Rx: A Fifteen-Minute-A-Day Yoga-And Pilates-Based Program to End Low Back Pain Forever"

"The Pilates Back Book: Heal Neck, Back, and Shoulder Pain With Easy Pilates Stretches"

Or maybe there is something better out there.... In any case, good luck and be brave - we're all here for you.

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sunny -- i do very limited and modified yoga stretching. i have a thread in this forum. i've had back surgery + severe arthritis. it really helps me. i just started back up -- i'd be happy to have you pop in

PBS has a series called Sit and be Fit... all exercises are slow, in seated position, using towells for some lifts, and they show regular and modified (for people that can't move much) it is geared to older people, you might want to check with your local pbs station and see if they carry it, and if not, ask them to, if they won't, ask where you can purchase the tapes that the program has....
pbs also has a couple yoga programs... ylana yoga is the one we have here in texas

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carolyn in texas
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:jump: Thanks for all you input.
I currently do some chair exercises to and some that i can lay on my bed to do for my legs and back.
My back problem is very bad, i have had repeatly herniated disc removed and also had the siatica nerve worked on because it was closed off so tight that it was cutting all use to my legs off. they went in a cleaned it out and opened up the tube that the satica nerves run through. Also I have numerous back spurs and a degenative arthritis in it to. It is bad from my low back up to my neck area and I am always in alot of pain from it to even though I am on pain medication for it. I alos get injections to for it. Yhere is not much they can do for me except just keep going in and removing the part that is causing the most pain at the time. They are now talking about doing a spinal fusion so i may need that soon.

This is something that runs in our family and seems like everyone in my family when they hit 40 they come down with it bad. I just had a doctor who would not do anything about it because I was so large. He kept telling me it was because I needed to lose weight, thats why my back hurt. But I knew it wasn't that and when I found a doctor who did care and we found out what the problem really was and then he did something about it.
I am not sure if anything was done sooner if it would have helped me or not but its ashamed that the doctors treat fat people differently than they do their thin patients. I am now under a great doctors care and he really is concerned about me and treats me with the respect i needed all along.

Well when you said back problem.... I have watched what you are going through. My dad has had several back surgeries(and to no avail he still has pain). I would have said water exercises immediately... and I actually might still encourage this. My only question about you water exercise is.... what is the pool temperature at? Alot of pool that are used for lap swimming(aka swim teams) keep their pool at a lower temperature to prevent overheating in long swim races.... there is definately a difference in what people doing water exercise need versus competative swimmers. Sound like it could be the temperature? If not..... I might suggest going to the WATP forum in exercise... alot of people really enjoy the WATP DVDs and there is even a really low intensity yoga program listed there....
...hope this helps!

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Megan Rose
"The question is not how far. The question is, do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far is as needed?"
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We have our pool in our back yard and its a large ingroun pool to and also has a heater so we can put the temp. where we want it. i keep it at 90 degree.

Now in the summer months it will reach 95 or above just from our hot sun here in Florida. But in the winter i use the heater for it to raise the temp up to where i want it.

I have some exercise's that they showed me at rehab to do and I do them but I am still pretty sore from all the surgeries, i have had three already on my back, so I take it easy right now.

Back pain never really goes away, i believe once you hurt it or have health problems with it, even the surgeries will not keep it from being so sore all the time. The surgery did ease the major health problem i was having with it but i know it will always be sore and I will have limited movement with it.

But i do like to exercise, it keeps me from being so stiff all over so i can make it through the day.

I know what you mean about doctors and weight. Every so often I would bring up shortness of breath issues to my former doc--who is actually a very good doctor. But it wasn't until I ended up in urgent care with what I thought was a nasty bought of upper respiratory infected when the physician's assistant (not a doctor) asked me twice if I was sure that I don't asthma. Of course I was sure...my doctor would have told me if I was, right? Well, she insisted that I make an appointment with my doc and have him rule out asthma. Luckily, my doc was out that day and had someone else filling in for him. (I'd never experienced that with my doc.) Lo and behold, the substitute doc didn't lecture me about losing weight or pooh-pooh my shortness of breath...instead, he said he believed the PA was right and prescribed me more asthma meds.

That was a year ago. Now, I've got a different insurance and a different doctor (who is a bit of a pooh-pooh type himself) but I also saw an asthma specialist who put me on a third medication...which almost eliminated my need for the emergency inhaler. Now that I'm no longer fearful of gasping for air on the slightest exertion, I'm able to exercise a bit. My cardiovascular health has greatly suffered from my fear of stairs and other forms of exercise that would cause me to breath hard and gasp for air. But I'm on the road to recovery...all thanks to a stubborn physician's assistant. She won't remember me from a year ago, but I think it's time to send her a note of thanks.

I got a bit off topic here...sorry about that.
Have you asked your doctor to prescribe some sort of physical therapy where you will be monitored while you exercise? It sounds like you need someone who is familiar with back problems to oversee your workouts.

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Melissa

I have been in rehab for a long time can still go to it if i feel like i need to but i am now exercising at home and walking more to and doing my chair exercies and some i do laying on the bed also. so i am getting in alot of exercies just not streneous ones yets.

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