Gentle muscle building exercise, any tips?

[stamford1234]

My arms are pretty puny, I would like to build some muscles up. I am frightened I am wasting away. Small frame 5' 6", 118lbs. I keep to a low carb, high fibre diet with lots of protein. Feeling fragile and I don't want to be waving my arms around and getting sore for no purpose

[Bkin]

Hi stamford, can you get on a pulmonary rehab education course, that would help you I would say. BLF do a dvd as well which will help you get started.

Wall press ups you could do at home.

Use baked been cans as dumb bells for bicep curls, triceps, shoulder lift etc, or you can use 2 x 500 ml bottles of water (one in each hand).

Stretchy bands also good.

Donna Wilson has some very good lung exercise videos you may want to check out on you tube: youtube.com/watch?v=iIrAUL_...(Not working as expected?)

[stamford1234 in reply to Bkin]

thanks for this. Very grateful

[Badbessie]

Hi there are some great exercises on YouTube. Some of them you are able to do sitting down and are very gentle.

[stamford1234 in reply to Badbessie]

Thanks bessie I will give it a bash

[Kristicats]

I use the BLF exercises from their exercise handbook. You can adapt it to your level of fitness and it has a handy record for you fill in to keep track of your progress, exercise days etc.

[stamford1234 in reply to Kristicats]

I have just ordered a copy. Thanks

[SORRELHIPPO]

You have already had in the answers so far, all the ones I had come across, except for the ones I used to suggest for people at home (the wives used to love these) gentle dusting and polishing of level surfaces, and depending upon stamina and balance, cleaning the inside of windows, as far up as can be managed in safety, no going up step ladders !! These activities help increase the motion round the shoulder joint and work on stretching the muscles. A lot of exercises work on strengthening the flexors, but you need to do full stretching as well. (of course you could always say this would be too dusty for you!!)

[stamford1234 in reply to SORRELHIPPO]

I had a feeling there might be some housework involved - oh well! Thanks. Lots of windows to be getting on with and quite satisfying too.

[Hidden]

I use NHS exercises:

nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/s...

nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/b...

nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/f...

Hope it helps.

[stamford1234 in reply to Hidden]

Great, thanks. I will be as fit as a lap soon