Would LOVE everyone's input please

This post is intended for pre-ops and post-ops going through the WLS journey.

This is an information compilation of best practices on exercising.

What is your status in this journey? (pre-op/post-op with weeks, months, years)

What is your exercise regimen and what does it include?

How often do you change up your regimen?

If you can pinpoint this please be as detailed as possible. Based on where you are in your WLS journey what exercises have been right for you where you are?
For example: you are pre-op and working towards your WLS. What exercises are you doing to prepare for your new lifestyle? Also, another example: you are 2 weeks post-op what exercises are you doing? One month? 3 months? 6 months? 9 months? etc

I'm really interested in your feedback!!!

Thanks in advance

What a great idea!!!

YOU were the one that suggested it! REMEMBER!??! I hope it yields some great replies! YOURS included! :)

Good afternoon, beautiful lady! Here's what I do. I am 18 months postop and pretty much at goal, although I'd like to lose 10 more pounds. I tend to change up my routines frequently because I get bored easily and I am so gosh-darned busy. A lot of my exercising occurs on my lunch hour at work or at home, since I own a treadmill. My preferred exercise is running, but my knees just can't take the pounding anymore and I am sad about that. I am hoping to strengthen up some so I can take it back up again.

Four time per week: 30 minutes cardio, usually on the elliptical since it is easy on the knees, or I catch a class at the gym that goes for an hour and alternates cardio and strength training. Occasionally I will pop in one of my exercise DVDs at home depending on my schedule. Some days I will just walk on my treadmill at home. Because I am so busy, I have to be very flexible with my choice of activities.

At least three times per week on days I do not catch a class: I do resistance band training around the house as I go about my chores...they are easy to wrap around doorknobs or use while standing in the kitchen helping with homework or cooking. I try to work upper body and lower body equally.

I take six flights of stairs at least twice daily at work, and park as far away as is safe and practical. I walk everywhere. The key for me is flexibility...I do stuff here and there and it all adds up.

Hey Dawn,

I'm like you I get very bored very easily. Its why I cannot particularly stand the thought of a gym/treadmill type set up. I choose nature as my grounds for exercising. There are several parks surrounding us that have various types of amenities. For example, one park has trails with boards throughout indicating different types of exercises we can do. Then another has asphalt to walk on, while still another has dirt, while another has gravel.

My neighborhood alone has hills and valleys as I like to call them. I can take a different route each day I walk. In addition, Nora comes with me more times than not. I put her in her stroller and its win win. She's a nature gal like me and I get resistance from her and the stroller with their weight combined and me pushing up hill.

I tend to park far away from whatever store I might shopping in or visiting as well as taking the stairs instead of say an elevator or escalator. I tend to walk to the shopping center around the corner from our house with the buggas. They love it and again its win win. Flexibility IS for sure key for me as well.

Thanks for sharing!

Pre-op: nothing

Post-op: walking -  from laps around the nurses station at the hospital to neighborhood walks at home. 

First home-based walk was to the end of the driveway; I was out 5 minutes (why was that so much more tiring than at the hospital?  Getting dressed maybe?)

Walking progressed from 5 minutes to 10 (going to the corner and back, then to the end of the street and back etc.) From 10 to 15, then to sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.  If I felt bad, a walk usually helped.

I started out not worrying about distance or speed, just time out walking.  I walked and slowed down or took a breather during the walk(s), as needed. 

By the 3rd month I was walking for 1 hour at a time and was challenged to do a10K by my brother.  Things got more intense from that point to present. 

I increased my walks from 1 hour to the increasing distances until I could walk an entire 10K (6.25 miles); which intially took me 2 hrs and 30 minutes).  Then I tried adding some jogging into the distance.  No formal training , no gyms, no paid trainers.  Just reading websites and others experiences and applying wisdom and advice a little at a time to see what worked for me.  One 10K began enthusiam for wanting to go faster.  My first 10K I finished in 1 hr 34 minutes (pretty go improvement from 2 hrs 30 minutes).  My last one was a year later at 1:05.

Going faster begat wanting to go farther.  This is not for everyone and its is still certainly a challenege for me but that is what I like about it, the regular challenge to do better and see the new heights I am and am not able to obtain.

I also do some minor upper body weightlifting for my arms chest and abs, low-weight hi-rep stuff for toning and trying to minimize the flab and tighten the tub.

I am 24 months out now (09/26/06 to 09/28/08) and finding myself at a point of struggling with letting other things get in the way of exercising,... but because of the last two years since WLS, I understand now better than ever before, exercise is a mandatory aspect of my life I had better mantain to stay as healthy as possible if I am to be able to continue to try and be a funtional part of family, work, church, and community involvement. 

Omitting proper nutrition and exercise from my life is what got me into the progressing from big-all-my-life to morbidly obsese with a failing heart and the urgent need for WLS.  If  I want to maintain my new lifestyle, I cannot go back to old habits; lifestyle or menus.  Nothing tastes as good as being thin or being active. 

I know age and time will catch up to me eventually as it does all of us, but I intend to milk my newfound health and activity  for as long as I am able.  Jogging is a mental toughness challenge and it hurts to get started as the joints and kinks all loosen up, but finishing a jog whether its 2 miles or 10, is a terrific feeling of accomplishment.  And overhear my family; especially my kids, tell their friends "My dads out jogging" or "my Dad runs", or "I don't know how he does that at his age" also provides a great motivation and sense of success over the fat jokes and cracks they use to endure from their friends I also sometimes overheard. 

Your mileage and experince may vary.  

Hey Joe,

I truly appreciate your play by play. Its incredibly important for folks to see our journeys. I've documented much of mine on my blog here. Over 5 years worth.

You've got what I consider the best way of doing things. That's arming ourselves with knowledge and as much as we can. I can identify with what you are saying regarding letting things come in between you and exercise. I've been there.

Its a good thing that we are here supporting one another. We can be each other's motivation for things. I think age is seriously nothing but a number and what it comes down to is we're workign on being healthy not getting old and falling apart when we've got options.

Thanks for sharing!

Here is mine! Now mind you, since I've been sick the last week, I haven't done much of anything. I'm lucky I have the energy to get out of bed

I am 5 months out (tomorrow) from Lap RNY

My exercise regimen is: gym 2 days a week, walking during the week

Changing it up: I go to the gym on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Walk 2 miles through the neighborhood Monday, Wednesday & Friday. When going to the gym, one week, I do circuit training, the next, I do treadmill & elliptical. When walking, I change the route of my wal****asionally, and the speed in which I move.

Hope this helps!

ETA: that i am very interested in seeing what others do, both in and out of the gym as lately, since the inches have definitely been dropping, i am noticing more target areas, or areas that I should be targeting and just not sure which is the best method of combat... (IE. my bat wing arms!! lol)

Hey Theresa,

I think many of us don't see the weight loss and we forget about the inches. Our bodies are changing all the time and as an example mom has been going to the gym almost everyday. I'm really proud of her and although her weight has dropped dramatically, the inches and size in clothing has. Again, for me, its about more than the number of the scale. There are definitely other measurements that indicate we're doing a great job.

I think the key is to challenge ourselves as much as we can to push ourselves further, harder and longer. Sweat and tears! And, I don't mean tears of sadness!

Thanks for sharing!

I am pre-op and still just thinking. I go to th gym just about everyday. I do cardio everyday and upper body 2 times a week and lower body 2 times a week. In the last 20 days I have lost 1 1/4 pounds of body fat which is great. This show what cardio will do for you because that is what I am doing.