ironpony wrote:
Oh okay thanks. But since I am wanting to let my knees heal is there a way to get cardio exercise, without having to put any strain on my knees at all though?
using your larger muscles will make your heart pitter patter alright, so i'd suggest military pushups but instead of doing them fast, do them very veeeeerrrryyy sllloooowwww. like take 10 seconds, miminum, to move from front-leaning rest position, down to plank rest [elbows bent @ 90 degrees], then slowly wiggle from left to right and right to left, front to back and back to front. you will have to work up to this by starting with just one of these bad boys. this exercise will not hurt your knees. but it WILL build up your pecs and shoulder muscles/back muscles, and make you sweat like a beast and your heart thump but good. alternate this exercise with side planks where you rest on your opposite elbow while holding your body at angle from floor and straight from head to toe, hold this position for a minute, then swap sides. then get up and do a modified chinup [they sell these door-way-mounted chin-up bars for this purpose] and instead of repeatedly hauling yourself up and down, just pull your self up [even if you have to use a step-latter at first] and hang-on in the arms-curled position for a minute or as long as you can hang there, then as slowly as possible, let yourself down. then do a minute of jumping jacks, then go back into front leaning rest and repeat what you started with. alternately, if you have the coordination [i surely don't
] jumping rope is excellent cardio training, 5 minutes of full-tilt jump-roping is [for most folks] roughly equivalent to running a 6-minute mile. this should also not hurt your knees. in place of that, you could walk like your late for a meeting, up and down any hills you can find even if you have to drive to where the hills are at, the hills are THAT important. keep that up for a half-hour on alternate days with the pushup/plank/chinup routine.
it must be noted that exercise is only one part of the regimen- the other part is cutting out refined carbs via avoiding processed foods. don't eat anything white 'cept for chicken. that means no candy or sugar of any kind, no fruit juices, no rice [unless wild], no potatoes, no bread/rolls/buns/pasta/wheat or oats, esp. avoid popcorn as it is very acidifying and counterproductive to losing weight [from personal experience]. replace those with multi-colored veggies, and quinoa, fish and chicken/turkey, limited amount of red meat. allow yourself one "cheat day" [per week] where you can reward yourself for your good behavior the other 6 days.