Ok, I know this is silly. I know I feel like a noob just posting it but maybe I just need a little assurance so I don't use guilt to do something dumb. Today I couldn't excercise because my knee is a little stiff. Now I know it's best to listen to any restriction your body is telling you about. Hence, my knee is a little banged up, I need to rest it for a day or so until it is well. Now what I don't want to happen, which has happened in the past, is my head first jump into the pit of guilt. I feel guilty because I can't excercise and so how do I comfort guilt--by eating. I know it's destructive and I am choosing not to do it. Someone please reach through this screen and give me a good shaking. ARGH!!!

I was talking to my friend about this exact thing today. He just started exercising a week ago by walking at the park and today told me his shins really hurt. I told him to take a day or so off and let them rest because they are not used to working so much. He said he can't because he would feel guilty and would go into a slump. We are going to go swimming tomorrow for exercise instead. Do you think you could do a different type of exercise that would not require much use of your knee, even if it's only ab work or something just so you feel like you were still productive?

It's a common occurence, I think!

When I set my exercise goals, I never actually plan to workout every day, because I know that I WILL need some time off. Now, if a body part is just sore, sometimes you can work it, but there are times when taking time off is not laziness, but HELPFUL. You may think working through the pain is a good thing, but look at it this way, if you injure it further, you'll be forced to do less later.

When I first started working out with a trainer, we were doing upper and lower body work. We started doing squats, and at first I was okay. But after a while I started having some ongoing knee pain. It got worse and worse, to the point where my knee would hurt when I was driving my car and had to brake!

Finally, one day at the gym, I bent down to retrieve an item and had a SHARP pain in my knee. So sharp that I cried out. Sharp pain in knee = bad. My trainer told me this was NOT normal and to see a doctor.

It turns out that I have some chronic knee problems -- many women do. Mine is some deterioration, and I had made it worse by strengthening the wrong muscles for months! On top of what is a sort of arthritis was a lot of inflammation...

I went cold turkey on the lower body exercises, and moved away from weight bearing cardio (even walking hurt sometimes).

It took months for some of the inflammation to go away. During that time I had to be very carefuol of the knee. It even bothered me during yoga -- especially the transitions in a sun series.

Over the past year or so, I have been working on strengthening the muscles around the knee to give it better support. I work a lot with my trainer on working the muscles I would in lunges and squats without putting pressure on the knee. And even then, some days I can't do it. I've learned to pay attention to the pain and revise what I do accordingly. I CAN do more weight bearing cardio (e.g., treadmill, walking, jogging), but I will always have to be careful. And some days are better than others...

All this to say... take some time. I took a chronic, low level problem and made it much much worse.

It's pretty common for heavy people to run into difficulties/pain when they start working out, but all you can do is listen to your body. See if you can find something else to do that doesn't hurt your knee.

Kudos for working out, though. I found that I couldn't get much movement out of my body when I was around 300lbs, so I didn't try.