I have not exercised, and I have a list of excuses. I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot, both my knees are messed up with Arthritis, by the last three steps on the stairs I sometimes have to use my hands to get the rest of the way up. And now I am lucky enough to be fighting a Frozen Shoulder. Seems if you have Diabetes that you are more apt to get a Frozen Shoulder. So I am laying on my stomach on the bed, arm over the edge and working on the exercies for it. But I am having a hard time with the pain to continue with any exercise I start. I am trying to be a big girl and put on my big girl panties and just suck it up and do it. I know the exercise will help my knees, and of course have to do the ones for my shoulder. But my foot just hates it all, and then I am limping around with a cane until it calms down again. I cannot wait until it is warm enough to open the pool and actual swim. So there are my excuses, funny that one of my WW meetings was about excuses, and just stop them all, and do it.

What about walking? That's a good start.

Walking is good with all things except the plantar fasciitis. I do have an orthotic insert for my shoes, and orthotic shoes, but they only help for a short period of time. My plantar fasciitis is permanent, unlike some people who seem to have it get better. Walking is the exercise I do start, in little bursts, but normally by the time I just pick up groceries, or vacuum the floor it is enough to have me unable to walk without pain. I know again sounds like an excuse. I have to figure it out, and at times I know I am going to have to get up the guts to work through some pain. This is the only part of my life that gets me a little down, a friend is doing a walk to raise money to help send a child with Cancer to camp....WW is doing a walk also, I would love to be training and doing the one with my friend and the one with WW like the past, but it is not going to happen this year. Thanks for the help.

You don't mention if you belong to a gym-recumbant bikes are a great workout assist for folks with mobility issues. You are seated in a regular seat not a bike seat-you don't have to climb up to get on it either. Most come with handles to move your arms back and forth and up the cardio, but with a frozen shoulder, that probably won't be possible at first. When you do use it start out on the lowest resistance level the bike allows and start slowly until you've built up some endurance. Ultimately you want to shoot for about 1/2 hour on the bike.
Another good tool that you could use at home would be resistance bands. While they don't do much cardio-wise thay can sometimes help with re-hab range of motion and make rehab go faster.
Maybe your Physical Therapist could suggest a facility with an indoor pool that you could use. Many of those places also conduct exercise classes in the pool.
Hope this helps some!

It does help, thank you very much...my Physical Therapist at the moment has me on the beginning levels of movement for my shoulder. Things can only go up from here.

ya! i was just going to suggest the recumbent bike as well, or aquafit classes. Lower impact stuff.

Hi. My plantar faciitis has gotten better, but when I first started out I used an elliptical. No impact on the feet and didn't bother my bad knees either. The recumbent bike always makes my knees pop and they'll swell up the next day. Swimming is great exercise too - can't wait until the local pool opens for lap swim.

I don't know what kind of resources they have available around you - a lot of the gyms here offer aquatic programs to non-members (usually at a marked up rate - but still cheaper than joining the gym) as well as park districts here. It might be worth poking around.

Like my gym has a water walking class that is pretty popular, free for members but they let non-members pay to sign up for it. Very low impact but can get people moving decently. Despite having "walking" in the name they go back and forth different ways - bunny hops, lunge/cross country ski motions, jogging, etc.

Of course easy enough to do on your own too if you can get access to an indoor pool, though sometimes these things are more fun (and keep you on track easier) when they are in a group and structured.

My husband also has this and his job forces that he walk almost 5 miles every day. It does suck and he spends a lot of time when he gets home in pain and not doing much walking but he has to walk for the sake of his job.

LOVE the elliptical! I have OA in my knees too and the elliptical has saved me!

Sally, yoga cured my plantar fasciitis. Gotta strengthen & stretch those foot muscles to take the strain off the fascia. Maybe get a DVD or look into a class in your area?

I also used to tape my feet to walk. Google plantar fasciitis taping for some ideas.