Should I scale back?

[FrankyG 1,450]

I've never been a regular exercising type of person until now.

I am really into walking and have been doing it consistently for going on two months - at least 2.5 miles a day, 5 days a week average. I've gone out in the early morning and then again in the afternoon or evening sometimes I'm enjoying it so much. I've been able to fit in up to 5 miles on some of those days. I just had to reglue my walking shoes - the soles came off!

But I've been running into issues with both pain and stiffness the last couple of weeks as I'm working on upping my distance/time and adding in a little (very) slow jogging.

My hips started hurting - sounds like bursitis - so I added in some hip abduction exercises and that's mostly resolved. I have had sciatic pain in one leg before all of this, and it seems to come and go now. And I'm noticing that after sitting down for any length of time, I am stiff as a board and have a dull overall pain in my hips/butt/legs upon standing up and trying to walk. It takes a few minutes to loosen up and stop feeling achy.

Is this just due to the fact that I am regularly exercising now, and just need to push though it, or a sign of something bad and should scale back and maybe do less days? I hate the idea of not going out as often or doing as much, as I'm really into it and this commitment has NEVER stuck for this long before and worry I'll lose my enthusiasm if I start sitting out more days.

I have family history of rheumatoid arthritis so I'm worrying over the idea that I might be developing that too.

Any suggestions?

[RILEYSMOM22 344]

I was told for over 10 years that my hip pain and symptoms were bursitis. I had my right hip replaced in 2013. It was severe osteoarthritis. I would get x-rays so that you know what you are dealing with.

[Pinkgirl1234 761]

How is your Calcium supplementation?

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Even if you have osteoarthritis, walking is good for you. When I as 100# overweight I did the 3 day walk, so walked ALOT to train for it.

Some things I Learned:

Excellent shoes, replaced often

Stretch including calves and shins

Add some other strength exercise..doesn't have to be lifting weights, but lunges, planks etc

Back off if you feel like you are overtraining. That doesn't mean stop it means scale back a little bit until your fitness catches up to your ambition

Take 1-2 days off a week to allow recovery. Since you primarily walk, maybe that means your day off is 1-2 miles not the 5 plus. I do high intensity spinning bike and was having trouble...realized as I had amped up the intensity I forgot to add rest days. You absolutely need recovery especially now that you added jogging.

[MIMISAN 404]

I have bursitis in my hips, one more than the other. I have had Xrays but I still think they are just guessing. I am really hoping that once I get the surgery and lose some of the added me that I will be giving my hips a break and it will hurt less to walk more.

[MrsSugarbabe 727]

I live with chronic back and hip pain (lots of osteoarthritis, facet joint issues and other joint inflammation), but still continue to exercise - walking on my lunch break for 25-30 minutes most days, gym workouts 2-4 times per week varying between elliptical, circuit training, stair climber, other machine assisted exercises, etc. There are days that I sometimes overdo it and will take the next day off, or just walk, to give my body the rest it needs. My job keeps me confined to a desk all day so every hour or so I make it a point to get up and walk around my desk or around the office area for a few minutes. I take pain meds at night so that the chronic pain doesn't keep me awake and rob me of much needed rest, but also have to manage the pain with some early in the day. Have to stay awake to do my job LOL!

Something to consider - Could your hip pain be referred pain from something going on in your back? Because my hip pain would sometimes shift sides, or one side would be more intense than the other, I had my rheumatologist xray my hips for any arthritis - there wasn't any. The pain I was experiencing was mostly referred back pain, although I do sometimes deal with bursitis in my hips

@@CowgirlJane made some excellent suggestions; the only thing I would add is to be sure your shoes have excellent arch support. Years ago when going through some physical therapy, my therapist and I talked about my crosstrainer shoes (I will buy ONLY New Balance). Even though the shoes worked well for me, she recommended that I remove the sole liner and replace it with another liner with better arch support. That one small change made a HUGE difference in how my back and hips felt while doing my lunchtime laps and any other standing type of exercises.

One thing that my rheumatologist told me is that my weight loss will only help the knee pain, which it has - they no longer ache!!! So far "they" have not been able to prove that significant weight loss will help with back pain, other than to help with overall inflammation in the body. My back pain is the same today as it was prior to surgery despite losing 60 lbs. Some things we will just have to learn to live with. Surgery is not a miracle worker for everything.

[2goldengirl 2,076]

The first culprit I would suspect are those shoes. The midsole in athletic shoes doesn't last forever, and if you've had to glue to soles, chances are the midsoles are shot and aren't absorbing any shock.

Back off for a a day or two. Get some new shoes. Then see how you feel. Yes, there definitely could be something else going on, but start with the simple fix first and see how you do.

[James Marusek 5,244]

I would recommend walking, not jogging. In my opinion strenuous physical exercise (such as running) can catch up with you as you age causing joint damage and joint pains. You might not see this when you are young but as you get older, they do catch up with you.

When I walk, I generally do hill walking. They exercise two different sets of muscles and from my perspective a really good form of exercise.

Shoes are very important. As CowgirlJane said "Excellent shoes, replace often".

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

What they said!

Plus, have you tried Water walking/jogging? Or, Water aerobics or swimming. Water exercise is great for the joints.

Just a thought.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I spent the months of Nov and Dec in heavy Physical therapy for my arthritic hip - strength (lunges etc etc) and flexibilty (stretches, rolling out IT band etc). It has made a big difference and I do nearly 30 minutes 5x a week strength/stretch. Best way to protect joints is with strong, flexible muscles.

[FrankyG 1,450]

Thanks so much for all the thoughtful replies!

I am getting in my vitamins/calcium every day. Hitting all my Protein (and then some), drinking 64+ oz of water... the food/nutrition part is golden.

My favorite exercise is swimming and I used to do that and Water aerobics, but our pool is closed until summer (May) so I have to make do with walking/biking and yoga right now. No nearby gyms even with pool - closest one is over 45 minutes away and would cost several hundred for a membership.

The issues may very well be related to my back and just transmitting pain down to the hip/leg areas. I have a giant rack still (currently wearing a 36 G bra), and even when I wasn't fat I always had giant boobs (was a DD in 6th grade and that was way before I gained weight). As I've lost weight the only thing that has changed is my band size (used to wear a 44 G). So I know how to buy supportive bras, but I may need to get some specifically for sports/compression and see if that helps as well.

I will go shoe shopping this weekend. I realized after reading all the mentions about how important shoes are. The ones I just reglued are over 14 years old... the glue might have failed just from age! I never wore them that much until the last year, and now I wear the hell out of them, so my frugal nature just said "fix em' and save money" and it didn't even occur to me that the support might be shot by now. Oops.

I'll keep doing my stretches and warmups and ease off of the jogging and stick with walking for now. I do think I'm getting much better, but with this much weight loss, I'm having tendons, ligaments and muscles behaving like a gangly teen and definitely will give my body more time to adjust. And will keep physical therapy in mind if this situation doesn't improve.

Again - thank you so much all!

[WLSResources/ClothingExch 3,443]

@@FrankiesGirl, you've named quite few difficulties you've been having and have been given some excellent tips and suggestions.

Not just new shoes, but shoes that suit your feet and your gait. Example, do you have pronation? You may need an orthotic. Something that simple can prevent foot pain and eliminate spine pain and potential damage. There are sports footwear stores where salespeople know what they're looking at and can guide you well. Or see a podiatrist.

Since you were mainly sedentary until recently, getting a checkup from your primary can be a good idea. You may also do well to see a sports medicine, a.k.a. physiatrist, doctor who treats spinal issues. He/she might prescribe some PT and be able to recommend a personal trainer who is knowledgeable about spine. Working with just any ol' personal trainer can be iffy, as their training for certification is online and general. Even I probably could qualify for a certificate, meaning that I'm skeptical about; my bias (which may be wise) is that they're best for people who have no particular issues.

Not least of all, your new-found enjoyment in exercise is happy to read about.

[Chrystee 838]

If you are going to be increasing in distance and in speed.. you need lots of stretching.. Do you do yoga? I would recommend at least one yoga workout a week..

[FrankyG 1,450]

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch I'm pretty sure I don't have any pronation issues; perfect wear patterns on my shoes and no heel/foot/back pain at all. It's pretty much my left hip down through my ankle on the outside of my leg, and I've had sciatica for years, so I'm pretty sure it's being irritated by the exercise. The bursitis seems to have worked itself out (took more rest time and started doing special stretching before/after walks).

And thanks so much for being happy for me - I'm thrilled with how happy this is making me and really excited to get out there now.

@@Chrystee I do yoga every week in a class, then do it at least once on my own as well (or with the husband). I am also adding some basic bodyweight circuits twice a week (just a 25 minute routine for now that is NOT super hard) so I am working on stamina, flexibility and muscle building.

I have ordered new shoes (bright blue ones - so pretty!) and they should be arriving any time now. I have another pair picked out as a reward for when I am up to 6 months of exercise. I've never bought cute running shoes before. Usually the reward part was food, but this is much better.

The boobs are now restrained better as I'm double bra-ing it (read about doing that on some of the bra sites discussing exercising while giant boobed) until I can find some good quality sports bras and I'm holding off on the jogging until then.

My current (winter) schedule is:

walking 3 miles 5X/week;

yoga class 1x/week,

self-guided yoga routine 1x/week

bodyweight routine 2x week

And I have one total rest day where I don't do anything at all. And I have the option of upping to 2 total rest days depending on how I shuffle my walk/exercise routines around.

And at this point, I am having to restrain myself from exercising more. I keep telling myself that building muscle and losing fat happens AFTER the exercise and only if I do a proper rest. And that I don't want to burn myself out either. Seriously never thought I'd be so happy and enthusiastic about this!

One of the other side effects I've noticed over the past month is that I am not depressed all the time any more. I have ALWAYS been a depressed person and used to be on meds and see a counselor for depression. I still get sad and angry about stuff, but I have noticed a remarkable lifting of the cloud that I've lived in for most of my life... and I'm pretty sure it's due to my getting up and out there and moving my body more.

So thankful I had the surgery - it really did give me a whole new life.

Edited January 20, 2016 by FrankiesGirl

[Chrystee 838]

@FrankiesGirl Isn't it a great feeling?

And its amazing to be able to buy sports bras at the store!! The fila brand is pretty good.. I get them at kohls.. always on sale..