[katiedeschenes]

With all the weight I've lost, I haven't really focussed on any toning. Yes, I do have resistance tubes seen here RESISTANCE TUBES - Body sculpting made easy and I have used one of the tubes to do a type of bicep curl and have tried to work on triceps as well but I need all over toning. Here's my problem. A lot of the exercises with those tubes require you to get on the floor and I can't do that. My knees hurt when I lean on them on the floor so that makes getting up and down off the floor difficult.

so stuff like situps and pushups are out for me because of the arthritis. I can do exercises in bed and do my leg stretches in bed before I go to sleep. The tubes do work well for me for my arms but I need more ideas on what to do with them. And I also need toning everywhere else on my body.

Oh and I am working on squats. I used to have to bend at the waist to pick things up off the floor because bending my knees and squatting was too painfull but now I can squat. I just don't know how many squats because I usually do one here, one there.

So I'm clueless as to what to do. I need to tone up and firm up but don't know how.

Does anybody have any ideas at all? Just give me some ideas, anything you got and I can try them out to see if I can do them.

[msmartini]

If you can do squats... they work wonders on toning your lower body!! Regular squats... squats in the ballet position... squats holding weights... squats holding weights in the ballet position... also stair climbing holding weights. Do as many as it takes to get to muscle exhaustion... Ouch!! But it works!!

[katiedeschenes]

I don't have any stairs. lol None at work or at home.

the ballet squat, I can do that. my toes pointed to either side so my heels touch (well, not touch, they are 6 inches or so apart)and then squat. I can do those and I'm working on regular squats too with feet pointed to the front. I haven't done any lunges or anything while squatting... maybe I can try that...

[alphaphi7]

Hi! I had an injury a few months ago that didn't allow me to get up and down off the floor. My personal trainer started me on the execersize ball and I love it! You can do sit up, crunches, push-ups, squats, etc. on that sucker and there is no painful getting up or down off the matt. She added dumb bells to my crunches and sit-ups and it helped tone me up pretty quickly. It takes a little effort to learn how to balance on those things, but once you have it, I think you will be pleased with the results.

[katiedeschenes]

Yea, I have the exercise ball too. I tried doing exercises while putting my stomach on the ball and that just hurts my stomach and chest too much. I tried doing a situp while on the ball and I don't have the back strength or health for that (dengenerative disc disease in back, aren't I lucky?) I keep trying that every once in a while but always end up feeling like a turtle stuck on it's back. LOL

I know, I'll keep trying though. Thanks for that reminder!