The Benefits of Swimming from an old sleever

[RRT]

Hi everybody. As you can see I got my sleeve in 2013. I chose swimming as my go to exercise. Why? I have a bad right knee/leg from a car accident and don't want to stress that out(pain 24/7 365). Also I work 12 hr shifts and am on my feet 90% of the time. Pounding my poor knees even worse(work in a very busy hospital). So I started swimming in 2013 after my surgery and pushed myself to get to my goal of 2 miles. And I did. Hoping beyond hope that losing all that weight would make a difference for my knee. No it didn't. Ok so I went back to night shift in 2014 and stopped swimming. Yikes! I have a lot of hanging skin and boy did not swimming make that worse.

Its 2016 and I have a night shift schedule that is good and I'm swimming again! I used to swim 2 miles 3 times a week. I will swim that when I'm off from work. Now I am building back up so I can swim that 2 miles. LOl. In the morning I'm pushing myself to reach 1 mile(33 laps). I swim the backstroke.

Why am I writing this? For all of you with health issues swimming is fabulous. Especially those of us with knee issues. It is very low impact on the knees. And since I do the backstroke it is an intense work out for my upper body. And I feel so damn good after swimming.
I will be 60 in July and not bad for a old lady.

Also as a side bar. If you stopped working out after a year or two post surgery? Swimming is a good alternative to maybe jump start your exercise goal and get back on track. You can do Aquasize and that is certainly awesome also. I was so embarrassed when I first started swimming and I knew people were looking at the "fat lady". Got over that real quick as I went through 3 swimsuits that got progressively smaller.

[Melissa888]

Swimming is my go to exercise as well. Just love it in the water and very easy on the entire body, but....what a workout!!

[Merry Mary]

Congrats on finding an exercise that worked for you. Swimming helped me a lot as well. Once I was cleared to exercise I got in the pool. Yes, I had the same concerns about a bad knee and how I looked, "the fat lady", but decided I didn't care what anyone thought. I took water aerobics classes and swam laps. Initially it was hard but getting back in the pool day after day it got easier. I also added weight training on days I didn't swim. Is my knee better, nope, and it won't be until it's replaced. It's certainly not as sore/achy as it was 220 pounds ago

[Munecagirl85]

I need something low impact i thoufht swimming would be my thing, but it makes my lower back hurt incrediable bad! And my knees hurt so ellipital is all ive found which will not bother me much tredmill walking and bikes swimming hurt!

[WANAGL]

Hi everybody. As you can see I got my sleeve in 2013. I chose swimming as my go to exercise. Why? I have a bad right knee/leg from a car accident and don't want to stress that out(pain 24/7 365). Also I work 12 hr shifts and am on my feet 90% of the time. Pounding my poor knees even worse(work in a very busy hospital). So I started swimming in 2013 after my surgery and pushed myself to get to my goal of 2 miles. And I did. Hoping beyond hope that losing all that weight would make a difference for my knee. No it didn't. Ok so I went back to night shift in 2014 and stopped swimming. Yikes! I have a lot of hanging skin and boy did not swimming make that worse.

Its 2016 and I have a night shift schedule that is good and I'm swimming again! I used to swim 2 miles 3 times a week. I will swim that when I'm off from work. Now I am building back up so I can swim that 2 miles. LOl. In the morning I'm pushing myself to reach 1 mile(33 laps). I swim the backstroke.

Why am I writing this? For all of you with health issues swimming is fabulous. Especially those of us with knee issues. It is very low impact on the knees. And since I do the backstroke it is an intense work out for my upper body. And I feel so damn good after swimming.
I will be 60 in July and not bad for a old lady.

Also as a side bar. If you stopped working out after a year or two post surgery? Swimming is a good alternative to maybe jump start your exercise goal and get back on track. You can do Aquasize and that is certainly awesome also. I was so embarrassed when I first started swimming and I knew people were looking at the "fat lady". Got over that real quick as I went through 3 swimsuits that got progressively smaller.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
I'm so looking forward to swimming again! I'm waiting for our pool to warm up (no heater). I'm going to keep your distance goal in mind when I start again!

[CyndieB]

Thanks for posting this! My surgery is this Friday. I am 61 and have awful painful knees. I was hoping I could get out of knee replacement surgery with this, but maybe not. I'm doing the sleeve for a lot of reasons. Fighting weight all my adult life. I want to be able to move again. Hopefully alleviate at least some of the pain in my knees. Also, I wouldn't mind NOT looking like Jabba the Hutt either. ��

[pastr_pat]

Anyone try swimming after left leg amputation. Lost it due to bone infection.

[Ann2]

I'm not doing water aerobics now -- am one of the lucky ones whose knees no longer hurt after WLS and losing 100 pounds. But BOY, did I love aquarobics when I did. I have no doubt that at some point I'll go back to it. We're all getting older AND better, eh?

Thanks for the reminder. And I'm glad swimming is working so well for you.

P.S. Now I'm curious about how hard I'd have to work to swim now, since I no longer am wearing a "floater suit."

[overdoneit]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We have water aerobics class 4 times per week.....Mondays and Thursdays @ 9 a.m. & 5 p.m. I have depression pretty bad at times and getting awake in time for the morning class is really hard on me. So therefore I don't always get my exercise in. For some strange reason I never thought about just 'free swimming' by myself until I read your post. I don't know why it is i'm unable to think of these things on my own! Duh!!! Maybe I can make myself go more often than class time. I don't swim well on my belly but maybe I can do the backstroke or something. I've got to find something my hips, knees and 'bad balance' can tolerate in order to get some more of this weight off. I'm 14 months post op and I've never lost my cravings and sweet tooth, so the scale isn't being friendly to me. Always share what you all are doing because I don't always think about what's available to me until I happen to read it here. Thanks!

[Sarcastic_Bard]

I do an aquastrength strength training swim class 2-3 times a week and I love it. It's a fun alternative to just busting out some weight lifting/cycling; don't get me wrong, I really love weight lifting (I feel like an Amazon woman when I see my muscles flexed!) but the swimming doesn't feel like exercise. It just feels like I'm playing around and having fun. Swimming burns soooo many calories for me so I have to make sure I account for that.