[Kelly_S]

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

No, this isn’t about the limbo! It’s about a special kind of exercise called “low impact” that coaxes out calories oh-so gently.

Your backbone slips, your joints all pop, you knees won’t bend and your hips won’t hop! But is that any reason to give up exercise totally? No-o-o-o! I bet you’re glad to know that, too. You deserve as much of a chance as anyone to lose the weight you want.

All you need to do is focus on what’s called “low-impact exercise.” You’ve heard of that, right? But I’ll explain it anyway. (I was born to explain, ya know!) low-impact exercises puts less pressure on the parts of your body that hold you up: your knees, your hips and so on. See, when you jump up and then come down for a landing - while you’re say, jogging, jumping rope or taking a wild-‘n’-crazy aerobics class - your legs are support your weight and then some extra Gs too! We call that high impact. Sometimes the pressure is so much that you can actually damage or wear out a muscle, joint or bone…and let’s not forget that it hurts too! Ouch! Honey, my own knees could tell you stories.

High-impact exercise is okay for lots of people, but it makes some of my friends uncomfortable. You might be one of them if your knees are weak (and it’s not just because that special someone just passed by!), your joints are out of whack, you’re pregnant, or you’re very heavy and just starting on my plan (or any plan). What to do? Do yourself a big favor and choose low-impact workouts like the ones in our little chart. Or go ultra-low with the exercises that follow! You do them sitting or lying down, so they don’t put any weight on your legs at all! (They’re you can-do solution if you are in a wheelchair or bed, too.)

You should know that changes are, you won’t quite be able to get your heart pumping hard enough to call your exercise aerobic and give you those hearth-healthy benefits we all love. And if you’re sittin’ in a chair or lyin’ in bed, your exercise won’t be the “weight-bearing,” bone-building kind. But I always like to end on a positive note! Lemme just tell you what you do get from waving your arms around, moving your upper body and shaking a leg or two:

1) A fantastic opportunity to burn calories! The longer you exercise, the more calories you burn and the more weight you lose. These exercises will use up to 3 calories a minute. It may not sound like much, but just remember that little things mean a lot! If you keep going for 10 minutes, that’s bye-bye to 30 calories. You make it to 20 minutes? So long to 60 calories!

2) A chance to build muscle, also know as the body’s own calorie furnace! Muscle needs more calories to live than fat does.

3) An automatic cheer-up. Exercise always makes me feel better, and lots of my friends tell me it does the same for them. Could it be its stress-busting powers? That great I-did-it feeling? Both, I betcha.

So here are a few low-impact exercises to try. Now, I’m not gonna tell you how many times to do each one…just stick with it as long as you can (being sure to stop before you feel any ouches!!!).

Fly with Me. I know you don’t like to get down on the floor, but most of us sleep lying down right? You can do this one in bed, if you remember to park two full cans of soup on your bedside table the night before. (I always like using cans for workouts because they remind you that you “can” do it.) Lie on your back and hold the cans (other small, heavy objects are fine too) way out to your sides. Now hold on tight, raise the cans over your head, then drop your arms back down.

Getting a Leg Up. Lying on your back, bring your right knew up to your chest, then drop it back down. Do as many as you can, then switch to the other leg.

Circles of Life. Hold your cans, stick your arms straight out to the sides and make large forward arm circles. Do as many as you can before switching to backward circles.

Seated Reach-Out. Bend at your waist and let your arms drop near your feet. Now re-e-e-each out and lift your arms as high as you can. To burn more calories, hold a couple of full cans. Here’s what I hope: that these low-impact exercise have a big impact on your life.

EASY DOES IT!

Yep, exercises don’t have to be hard to be effective! Just check out about how many calories these low-impact exercise use:

DANCING: ballroom - 4 calories a minute; twistin’ - 7 calories a minute
WALKING: brisk - 5 calories a minute; racewalking - 10 calories a minute
SWIMMING: treading water - 5 calories a minute; backstroke, breaststroke, crawl - 11 calories a minute

BE SURE TO CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE BEGINNING ANY EXERCISE PRO[/i]

From Richard Simmons and Friends, Vol. 6, No. 7, April 2000