tendonitis and exercise

Hello, I'm new as of today. I was diagnosed with a "good" case of tendonitis pretty recently and told to stay off of my foot as much as possible (which is impossible with 5 kids). I want/need to lose around 125 pounds and want to do it right and healthy. I know that I should exercise to "help" it along and walking is what I am limited to, however I'm supposed to be off of my foot-WHAT can I do??? I'm so out of shape that I'm scared to try to ride a bike (not to mention I can't take all the kids) and swimming is NOT realistic for me either. Any suggestions?? Thanks for listening.

Welcome to FS! I see your dilema! What about trying a stationary bike? We have 6 kids in our household so I know time is never yours! A gym is probably out of the question, but maybe you have room somewhere? You can look in your local recycler/pennysaver or Craigslist for people getting rid of them if money is an issue. Or last resort maybe talk to your doctor. Hope that helps!

Until you can use your foot, you can always do upper body workouts. Inexpensive hand weights are available at Wal-Mart and Target and you can do all sorts of exercises with them. Aerobic exercise is good for heart health & for increasing your metabolism, so you should try them whenever your doc gives you the go ahead. However, in the meantime, any exercise you do helps to burn calories & build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn every minute of the day.

Welcome to FS Victoria! Walking really helps me, so if that's all you can do for now, then it's a start. I only have two boys (and a dog) but we get up in the morning and all take a walk together before I go off to work. I know it must be so much harder to get everyone ready in the morning, but I have found that it helps me to get the kids involved. So work around your schedule and see about getting the whole family moving in September Good Luck with your weightloss journey, hope to see you along the way! ~Donna

Stay off your foot? Plantar fasciatis? Do the stretching/icing that your doctor recommended.

As for exercise- yes, it helps to burn calories. But 80% or more of weight loss -especially in the obese - is from diet. So spend the time while your foot is healing really nailing down your diet.

If you're supposed to be off your foot as much as possible, then I wouldn't recommend any exercise that has you on your foot at all. Unless your doctor says OK, I'd probably stay away from biking.

Some things you can do:

- lots of floor stretches.
- upper body weights, as someone mentioned.
- plunk yourself in a chair in front of an aerobics video and do as much as you can without standing up. If you have something like a desk chair that swivels, you can even "mark" the footwork without putting any real weight on our foot.
- remember the bicycle thing you used to have to do in gym class? start on your back, roll so that your feet are up in the air and your hips are supported by your hands, then pedal an air bicycle.

Really, though, if your doctor said stay off of the foot then I'd do my very best not to exercise in a way that puts weight on it. Maybe do a web search for exercises for people in wheelchairs?

Your first priority should be to help the foot heal as quickly as possible. You can definitely find ways to get in some exercise without using the foot, but I'd say that healing should be priority #1 and exercise #2.

Yep plantar facitis AND peroneal tindonitis. It's getting better though, me and the kids went for a 10 minuted walk and it just started to really hurt when we were almost home, so that's an improvement. YAY!

I get tendonitis in my wrists all the time. it's terribly painful and I can't imagine even considering walking on my hands during a flare-up. If you feel you must exercise, there are a lot of "sitting" exercises you could do while you get your diet on track and let your foot heal. Do a Google video search for them - or just follow this link which is the search.

Hi Victoria,
I know what your facing...I don't have the kids but am recouping from a broken ankle...I've been using the stretchie bands to keep limber...I even have found a few moves on my back with casted foot in the air...be creative...and, good luck and get healed.
Pat