Goals and Exercise + Pain

[Llamabean]

Hey all – I need some advice.

My boyfriend and I are both trying to get more in shape. I need to lose about 40 pounds, but we are having trouble setting goals for him.

He is a short (5’5”), compact, extremely muscular person by nature, and BMI just doesn’t work for him. When he went into the military 4 years ago he had to starve himself for two weeks to hit the 169 limit for his weight to get in. At the end of basic, he was 190 and very lean. Since getting out of the military he has gone up to 206 – and obviously doesn’t have quite as much muscle as he once did.

The first question is this – what should his goal weight be? If he was at 190 just out of basic, should he aim for just below that? This would assume that his muscles wouldn’t quite be as honed as they were in the military, and expect a lower weight for that. None of the weight estimation tools really apply to someone who is naturally as muscular as he is.

Second- he left the military due to an injury. He has a bad back and fibromyalgia. He is in constant pain, and has been classified as 20% disabled because of it. This makes it very difficult for him to exercise. His doctor recommended a recumbent bike which we purchased– but he still ends up hurting pretty badly after. He did personal training for a while, but found the sessions just too intense. We are trying out working in the pool just to get his heart rate up, but he feels like he isn’t really doing much – and that hurts too.

He finds this very discouraging and I don’t know what to tell him. Basically, he feels limited in his work outs, and doesn’t even really know what goal to aim for anyway. Any advice?

 

[maleficent]

I dont have any good answers -I'm honestly suprised at the men and fibromyalgia - but the girlfriend of a buddy of mine is a massage therapist - a large amount of her clients - are women who get regular massages as a treatment for fibromyalgia... has he tried any sort of alternative treatments for this... like massage therapy.

as for a goal weight? don't focus on a specific number -just end up where he's comfortable... goals don't have to be number related but maybe getting thru portions of the day pain free -if swimming is pain free -then do it..

 

[Llamabean]

I dont have any good answers -I'm honestly suprised at the men and fibromyalgia - but the girlfriend of a buddy of mine is a massage therapist - a large amount of her clients - are women who get regular massages as a treatment for fibromyalgia... has he tried any sort of alternative treatments for this... like massage therapy.

as for a goal weight? don't focus on a specific number -just end up where he's comfortable... goals don't have to be number related but maybe getting thru portions of the day pain free -if swimming is pain free -then do it..

Thanks for your advice. We were surprised at the fibromyalgia diagnosis as well - the doctors had always said it was in his head until his sister was diagnosed. It is coupled with a degenerative disk disease for a heaping helping of suck.

Unfortunately - nothing is really pain free - but on the bright side the doctors have given him a clear bill to do whatever exercise he feels he can stand. It's tough because sometimes he can't tell the difference from injury pain and I'm-not-doing-this-exercise-correctly pain.

I will keep posting updates and let ya'll know what kind of solutions we manage to find.

Thanks!