Now that I am starting to walk every day, I am also losing daylight and good weather.

SO, in comes the $1,000 treadmill...sigh...

I can get it on and walk, but how do I know how fast, how much of incline, etc....

what other exercises can I do if I am only 3 weeks post op?

Thanks in advance!

ask ur doctor...idk. i get banded in dec.

First place to start is steady walking - most of the time, incline for walking or running should be on about 1 to 2% to better simulate outside walking, walking completely flat can actually be harder, if you have a very slight incline, you often find you can go a bit faster because your legs "engage" better. Its like when you're cycling on a stationary bike really fast and the resistance is too low, and you kind of get Jerky, when you add a bit of resistance it feels better and smoother.

Give yourself a week or two, and walk for time, not distance, say 30 minutes would be a good place to start. Try to make it at an intensity where you could talk, but not sing and have a few bursts of a couple of minutes where maybe you couldnt even talk. It doesnt matter if that's only 2 miles per hour, its the intensity for YOU that matters.

Then have a look at your treadmill's programs. Pick any sort of fat burning ones between 30 and 40 minutes, they should include inclines etc.

then after a few more weeks you could start on the serious stuff - some sprint and hill work. My treadmill has some more advanced programs that are pretty good, and if you're a treadmill user, you simply MUST have a look at cardiocoach (www.cardiocoach.com) and when you move to running www.treadmilltrainer.com. These interval workouts come with coaching and great music and they are super duper efficient fat blasting workouts. Cardiocoach can be as challenging as you make it, I run to it outside and make it into sweat through your clothes puke in a bucket kinda stuff, but you can walk to it too. It tells you when to put up the incline, encourages you to keep going, when to sprint, when to rest etc. Its seriously great, there's 7 volumes and they're cheap MP3 downloads.

Oh, and if you're treadmill's near a DVD player check out www. treadmoves.com. these are pretty good workouts, involving walking, jogging and some light strength training, again, you can adapt these to your fitness level by how fast you move. They make the time pass pretty quick.

These programs really are the best way to get the most out of your time and effort on the treadmill, just plain walking really doesnt do an awful lot in the long run, but its a great place to start when you're heavy and/or unfit. I'd really focus on walking steady on a slight incline for a while to start with.

THanks Jacqui!

I am doing 30 minutes and go from 2.5-3mph and from 1%-2% incline...seems to work pretty good for now!:tongue2: