I'm pre op and I've been walking for 2 days. it was fine the first day, but today I'm in a lot of pain when I went on my walk... For those of you with chronic aches and pain, how do you get your thirty minutes a day in?

I started off with small goals. First, when shopping, I parked as far away from the stores as I could to get in some extra steps. Then I did that plus I'd walk every isle in the store. At work, my goal was to make one lap around the inside of the building 4 or 5 times a day. Now, 5 months later, I am walking 30 minutes before work and 30 - 45 minutes during lunch.

My goal was always do as much as I could till it hurt then just a little more. It adds up over time.

Have you gotten new shoes lately? Do you have shoes made for walking? Make sure you stand up straight while you walk, don't lean on the handles if you're on a treadmill. Make sure you're hydrated also.

Take an ibuprofen to help with the aches.

Keep working through it. Go slower the next day if you need to, but the point is to hang in there. It WILL get easier.

I took ibuprofen in the mornings. It especially helped with my knees and lower back. Walking in the treadmill was easier for me, especially at first. I could control the incline and speed. Good luck! It does get easier.

Glad to see this thread as I'm having the same issue. I'm trying to walk daily & I'm doing 3 flights of stairs 3-4 x daily. It is difficult as my body hurts

I started out walking up and down the hallway in my apartment and progressed slowly to where I can get out and walk a few times around the block without pain. I find that using the elliptical or the exercise bike are super easy now. I just took a friend to the gym today and showed her around the machinery. She was dying after 5 minutes on the exercise bike, while I did that 5 minutes, plus a half hour on the elliptical, plus weights. She was beating herself up over her "lack" of ability and I had to explain to her that it takes time to build up the endurance that I have now. All of us have to start somewhere, but, no matter how little you do, you're still miles ahead of those sitting on the couch!

Oh i understand the pain in walking. It seemed everytime I walked the more intense the pain got. I had these unimagineable cramps in my stomach and it wrapped around to my back. I went to the ER and they did blood work and a CT scan, everything was normal. I went to my surgeon for my 2 week check up and they did a swallow test and everything is fine, but my insides are still very very swollen and they gave me a steriod shot and today I feel good. Being so swollen though has blocked me from getting my protein I need. i cant drink protein shakes b/c they make me sick, soups just seem to sit in my chest, so its difficult to work passed these issues. hang in there, walk as far as you can until it hurts. It might be gas build up which hurts like heck... Gas X was my BFF the first 2 weeks.... still is actually.

I can understand how painful it is to exercise when you are in chronic pain. I have RA (rheumatoid arthritis) and a partial knee replacement. I have been using a physical therapist to guide me through exercising to start out with a year ago and now I have a trainer who keeps me using proper exercises to not injury myself. It little steps along the way that really do make you stronger.

Don't push yourself too much. I couldn't do much at all because my knees hurt so bad. I will eventually have to have knee replacement, but before I lost a good bit of weight I had to really ease into a walking routine. Start off little and just add a little more each time, but never enough to cause pain. Muscle aches are good but joint and ligament pain is not.