LogFAQs > #979631535

Uglyface2 posted...

I'm diabetic and need to exercise, and weight loss would help. I can't do aerobics because I live in an apartment upstairs. Squats get my heartrate up, so I've been doing those.

Alright, thanks for sharing. I think an effective strategy, if its about cardio and getting your heart rate, would be to superset them with another exercise. If you arent familiar with the term, a superset means doing 1 exercise for a certain amount of reps/time, and then IMMEDIATELY moving into a different exercise and doing that (usually involves a different muscle group)

so in your case, you want to keep your HR up and are able to do a lot of squats, but they also cause you what you have labeled as unbearable pain. If you could do a moderate amount of them that does not trigger the pain (how does 20 at a time feel?), then immediately jumping into another exercise (idk what equipment you have, but if you are just doing body weight stuff then maybe jumping jacks or push-ups?), then immediately getting back to the squats (for less reps) and continue until you get the amount or effort that you are wanting

so it would look like

squats for a set of 15-20 (or whatever is high enough for you but does not trigger the pain)
10 jumping jacks (or a diff exercise)
squats for 9-10
6-8 jumping jacks
squats for 4-6

and all of that would be one set, and there would be no rest or very little rest (like 3 seconds) in between the exercises
the reps that I gave you for that are also just me giving a rough guess; adapt for what works for you, but the overall flow to it is what I would recommend

am I making sense with what I just said? Feel free to ask any questions