You can help elderly and obese#1669

Hello friend,
Some of us who really appreciate your methods and mindset are unable to do any of the exercises you feature. There is a large demographic of people fighting obesity as a result of health issues and injuries compounded by age. I believe that your existing content is perilously close to being helpful but it doesn’t quite reach the needs of mobility impaired and / or obese people. I have a challenge for you: put a set of body weights on your limbs and torso to mimic the sensation that overweight people experience when exercising and thoughtfully do some of your routines, considering how you might modify the exercises to accommodate a person lifting an arm with 20 lbs extra mass or a leg + 50 lbs for example, or to mimic the difficulty that a chronically exhausted elderly person experiences as our muscles become weaker with age. After that experiment, put on a fat suit, to approximate the hindrance of limited mobility that both obese and elderly people experience, albeit from different causes. And finally, put the two together, to experience what it is like to try to overcome both muscular exhaustion and limited mobility, when beginning an exercise program.

Of all the people giving out exercise advice, I think you are the most likely to actually try to help the people who need it most. You could develop a progressive method for gentle calisthenics aimed at those with limited range of motion, muscular weakness or extra weight on their limbs, which result in the same inability to perform normal calisthenics. Could you conceive a new pre-exercise program to prepare a disused body until it is strong enough for regular calisthenics?

The extra weight that obese people carry in our limbs is often not considered by the fitness community. This is true even when fitness professionals provide “easier” or alternate exercises or “modifications”. They are always based on what a physically fit person considers easier without the perspective of a person who is literally lifting the equivalent of a 20lb weight on each wrist, etc. Most exercise gurus would not be able to put 100+ extra pounds on their frame and perform their own routines, yet we are dismissed as fat and lazy if we can’t keep up, regardless of any medical reasons for our condition. We are merely mocked and left behind. Like everyone else on a fitness journey, we need achievable short term goals and psychologically uplifting encouragement in order to stay motivated towards our long-term goals. Right now, I know of no feasible exercise plans for those who are stuck in a chair due to weak muscles, or those who cannot easily get down on the ground and back up again - not even if the cause is just a bad knee because of a torn meniscus or something like that.

Once you are injured in a way that prevents exercise for a long period of time, it is very hard to get back to normal, and aging exacerbates the problem as older joints start to lose mobility with disuse. Everything starts to hurt. I would welcome your perspective on these issues, because I think you are capable of the thoughtfulness required to understand a perspective that is different from your own and the empathy to act toward helping a broader community of people who would like to participate in your programs but cannot. I think you could help a lot of people by incorporating thoughtful modifications to your existing content, aimed at accommodating those with mobility impairments of various origins. I have confidence that you could accomplish this in a way that noone else could.

Thank you for your dedication to sharing and encouraging a healthy physical and mental daily practice.
C.

Hey. This is Chrys, one of the trainers at Hybrid.

Really appreciate you taking the time to write that—it’s thoughtful and 100% on point. You’re right, most “beginner” routines still don’t account for what it actually feels like to start from a place of limited mobility, chronic pain, or extra bodyweight. It’s easy to forget that something as simple as lifting an arm or standing up from a chair can already be a challenge when your body’s been through a lot.

Your idea to actually simulate that experience—adding weight to really feel what that’s like—is brilliant. It would give trainers a real perspective check and help us design something that truly starts where people are, not where we assume they are. A pre-calisthenics program made for rebuilding mobility, strength, and confidence from the ground up would help a ton of people.

You’re completely right: fitness should be inclusive and realistic, not make people feel left behind. I’ll definitely pass this on to the team, because this kind of feedback is exactly what helps us evolve and reach more people who need it most. Thanks for writing in—you clearly care, and that means a lot.

Hey, Cewe. Really appreciate your question. I’m not a trainer or fitness expert, but I’ve been around the block a few times in terms of mobility, weakness/fragility, and strength issues. Here’s a couple of things I’ve learned that may be helpful.

1) Micromovements. It’s not necessary to go through the entire range of an exercise to get the benefit from it; often just initiating the movement or doing it in miniature will do the trick. So for instance, with the knee raises, if you can get your legs in the air bent 90 degrees at the hips and knees (and I realize that’s a big “if”), just dip your feet an inch or two. Or maybe you start with knee lifts sitting in a chair to begin to work the hip flexors. Tiny movements in the direction that you want send the same message to your brain to begin working and strengthening those muscles as larger movements do. They don’t have to be big to be beneficial.

2) If micromovements aren’t pissible, then just visualizing the movement through as full a range of motion as possible will still help. Visualization engages the neurons and fires the muscle spindles involved. You can build up muscle strength and memory this way, if you do it regularly. This is how elite athletes practice when they can’t actually be on the rink, the field, or the exercise mat. If you do it enough, you may find yourself transitioning naturally to micromovements and then to scaled-down versions of the actual movement. Many larger folk have learned, for instance, to do ballet, which takes a lot of strength, as wrll as poise and balance.

3) If you are injured, then working around the injury in a non-weight-bearing way may help. For instance, with knee problems or a torn menicus, doing slow, gradual knee straightenings from a seated position may help. You work the agonists, antagonists, and/or stabilizers to the problem area. And you can incoroorate both the principles above when you do so.

Hope this helps!
Nicole

Thank you Chrys and Nicole for replying!
I am glad to receive some empathy and positive feedback about the idea. Visualisation is something I didn’t think about before. It reminds me of some articles I have read about biofeedback. I will give it a go. If there is anyone else out there going through this stuff, I have found some limited success by doing dry-land calisthenic types of exercises in a swimming pool, but A) many of the exercises aren’t designed for water. For example I can’t hold my breath long enough to do sit ups (joking). And B) I don’t have a pool close to my home. The pool method does ease some of the aches though and makes it easier to move heavier limbs in a greater range of motion. Thank you again & take care!
C.

Cewe, I did have a few additional ideas, but I don’t have the bandwidth to type them up tonight. Let me know if tou’d be interested in them, however, and I’ll type them up as sokn as I’m able.

*you’d

Thank you. I am interested but there is no rush. Take care!

Thanks. Will do when I’m able!!