Source
r/loseit•
Buttpig

How to help motivate when majorly out of shape?

Hey ya'll,

My life roommate is making the commitment to start losing weight (currently 400+) and go to the gym with me. His ultimate motivation to start is coming from the pain he is experiencing with his current sedentary lifestyle (severe back pain and ankle swelling).

While, I have my opinions on how to gradually ease him into shape, my own styles of training tend to be pretty intense so I want to make sure I'm not pushing him too hard.

For the time being, I've been starting him out with basic Starting Strength (scaled to machines or forms that he can currently perform) and then some time on the recumbent bike (40min).

So far the weight lifting has been ok, but he can't take much more than 10 minutes on the bike before his back is in intense pain. Is this enough cardio at this point in his training, or should he try out a different form of cardio?

The real limiting factor is back pain, due to being overweight. Energy-wise, he feels he can do more, the pain just hurts too much to continue. Will this gradually go away with this current routine, or is what I'm prescribing potentially harmful?

Posted Oct 6, 2012, 6:36 PM UTC

79
rianad•

Maybe just focus on the diet for now, continue the weight lifting but cut the cardio until he starts feeling comfortable with it. Just fixing the diet will be enough to start dropping the weight.

7
karmalarma•

I agree, he can start losing some major weight easily and quickly just by getting his diet in check. My gym has 2 kinds of bikes, one with back support, that sounds helpful but I'm guessing your gym wont have them. Either wya, any kind of cardio (i would keep it low intensity for him for now), walking, casual cycling, elliptical seem the best choice for now

as for the pain going away, it'll go away because his weight will drop, and he can help his backproblems by doing SMALL (you definetly don't want to stress) back & core exercises to strengthen them. The main victory will have to be in the kitchen though. He can easily go on a 1000+ deficit being that obese and have no danger to his health (the more fat someone has, the more of a deficit you can get away with). Tell him good luck from reddit on his journey !

4
ButtpigOP•

Thanks a ton for the advice! Holy crap this is turning out to be much more difficult than I thought. Dumbell OHP's at 15 pounds, scaled TRX pull-ups, and leg extensions at 50 pounds got me a sailor-style tongue lashing fit for fleet week!

I need to figure out how to motivate this guy without him taking it out on the world.

Diet is definitely going to be controlled a lot more as this should be a safer variable to control. This might be the best route for now instead of physical activity.

2
Luxray•

Make sure he does keep up some form of strength training though. If he doesn't, he's going to atrophy any muscle he already has and that could spell major problems later, especially for his back.

3
ButtpigOP•

Thanks Luxray! I'll definitely continue with the strength training and cardio if he can. We're going to set new goals now that are more obtainable. He can't go much more than 20 minutes, so I think we are going to stick with that for a week or so until he feels he can comfortably do more.

TRX style squats and leg presses hurt his back a ton, so I'm thinking we'll focus more on upper body and then use the recumbent bike to bring his legs up to par.

1
stuuuti•

Swimming might be a good exercise for him. It takes a lot of weight off of the joints. Or he could try walking or hiking, especially at an incline. The elliptical may be another option.

Exercises like jogging or ones that involve high impact motions might be too hard on his joints and might cause injury.

Though also, 20 min on the bike sounds like a good start and as he loses weight, exercise should become easier for him.

Make sure he keeps up some strength training, especially in his back, otherwise he might have issues with back support and posture if he loses weight quickly.

Good luck!

2
Luddha•

I'm almost 500 lbs, so I know where he is at. I went from collapsing on the ground after walking 10 feet, to easily walking 2 miles (without rest), up to 5-6 miles, (with short breaks). I did this in 4 weeks. I would say starting at 10 minutes a day is actually reasonable. He'll start to feel the difference especially if you are pounding him with weight training at the same time. Then maybe amp it up to 15 minutes in a week or two. Within 4-8 weeks of consistency you could move up to something more common like 30 minutes.
It's just really hard because of the size you can't always work out too long until you've lost enough to have more room for your legs and such. Good luck!

2
ButtpigOP•

Thanks a lot for this Luddha! This post gave him the motivation to get back to the gym with me today!

1
DrLOV•

As someone with back pain, knee pain, and ankle swelling myself, I found that walking has been by far teh best thing for me to do. The movement (slow at first) really helps to release the stress in the lower back etc. Recumbant bikes are some of the worst for my back. I find them to be incredibly uncomfortable. I would say start on the treadmill or walk around the block at whatever pace is comfortable for as long as is comfortable at first. Then push the speed or walk a little longer every day. I also found that a pedometer has helped. I've used both a t FitBit and and Striiv and having games and goals esp on the striiv) can help push the amount of activity.

1