Workable workouts

GONE are the days when water workouts and low-impact aerobics classes were the only options for overweight exercisers. Instructors and trainers now are bringing heavy gym-goers further into the fitness fold with exercise programs created or modified specifically for bigger bodies.

“Plus-size people need a fitness world that fits them,” says Kelly Bliss, who specializes in exercise programming for heavy people, and who has a line of plus-size exercise videos titled “Fitness With Bliss.”

Although some active, overweight exercisers can keep pace with their leaner counterparts, those who have been avoiding the gym can find mainstream fitness classes too fast, too strenuous or filled with too much fancy footwork. The solutions include slower music, simpler moves and the assistance of various types of equipment.

“The biomechanics of a 250-pound body are very different from the biomechanics of a 120-pound body,” says Bliss, an aerobics instructor in the Philadelphia area. To get the idea, she says, try moving side to side while holding a cantaloupe out in front of you; then try it with a watermelon.

“As a large mass moves and changes direction, it requires much more strength,” she says.

Large thighs and big bellies also can make some conventional fitness moves such as high leg lifts difficult or impossible. And some gym equipment simply isn’t large enough for large people.

With many Americans now overweight or obese, the fitness industry has to adapt, says Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise in San Diego. “It’s a business opportunity, but at the same time they’re serving the needs of the clients,” he says.

IDEA Health and Fitness Assn., a trade group for the fitness industry, included a session on obesity issues at its July convention in Las Vegas. And a section in the June issue of the group’s magazine, IDEA Fitness Journal, details how fitness instructors can tailor a range of exercise classes and activities to an overweight clientele.

One key way is to keep the choreography simple, says New York fitness instructor Rochelle Rice.

As president of In Fitness & In Health, a fitness center for plus-size women, she recommends quarter turns instead of half turns or pivots, and a “step-together, step-touch” movement as an alternative to the “grapevine” -- in which one foot crosses behind the other when traveling from side to side -- which she says may be difficult for people with large thighs.

Equipment can help. For yoga classes, she recommends using chairs, blocks and straps to modify poses that might otherwise be impossible. She suggests that overweight women with large breasts do sit-ups on an incline to keep the breasts away from the neck, where they could interfere with breathing.

Cycling is often not a good idea for overweight people, Rice says, because the seats are usually too small and uncomfortable.

Bliss recommends that fitness instructors use slower music, at a pace of 125 to 128 beats per minute rather than the typical 148 beats. The slower beat allows for more controlled, safer movements that don’t jerk the joints.

But the slower pace doesn’t necessarily mean heavy people aren’t working out as hard. It takes added effort to move extra pounds, Bliss says. And a knee lift may involve pressing against the resistance of a big belly, increasing the difficulty.

Personal trainers working with overweight clients often focus on strengthening areas such as the back and abdominals, to improve posture and support heavy torsos. They also are careful with knees and ankles, aiming to strengthen them but not apply too much pressure.

Rice says some of the most important changes a fitness professional can make when working with overweight people have to do with attitude and vocabulary.

Phrases such as “burn the fat” and “flatten your belly” may strike the wrong chord with overweight people, some of whom may be perfectly happy with their size. And even for those trying to lose weight, too much emphasis on shedding pounds can be overwhelming and discouraging.

It is the attitude of personal trainer James Cox that helped Judith Holtz, who once weighed close to 500 pounds, to get on the path to fitness.

After Holtz, 50, of Westchester, tore cartilage in her left knee and couldn’t be operated on until she lost weight, she took action. She underwent gastric bypass surgery and started exercising at The Sports Club/LA, which is next door to and affiliated with the physical therapy center she attended.

“What I like about James is he never felt sorry for me,” she says, “and he never said I couldn’t do anything.”

Cox says he assessed Holtz as he would any other client and then designed her workout and gauged her progress. Although her weight factored into that, the more important issues were her overall health status and her knee injury.

“I wouldn’t always associate overweight with lack of mobility,” Cox says. “There are athletes out there who are heavy who move like dancers.”

Holtz says Cox keeps her weak knee in mind, but he doesn’t go easy on her. “We’ll play squash for an hour, and he won’t let me win a point from him,” she says.

The best part is that Cox made fitness fun for her. “He gave me a baseball bat,” Holtz says, “and this was a kid who in school was never picked for a team because I was overweight. And I’m good at it.”

Besides batting balls around at the gym, she also boxes, plays basketball and squash, swims, uses the elliptical trainer, and works out with weights.

Holtz, who now weighs 320 pounds, works out four to six days a week. “I used to hate to exercise,” she says. “Now I love it.”

But not all heavy exercisers are hitting the gym to lose weight. Robin Mingle, 56, an attorney in San Francisco who’s been at 275 pounds for almost two decades, has been taking a plus-size fitness class at the World Gym for more than a decade. Her goal is to stay mobile.

The class doesn’t make her feel as if she can’t keep up with the fast crowd. “It’s just more comfortable to be among your peers and not be the dunce,” she says.

For large people who don’t want to go to a gym or can’t find one that caters to their needs, home videos, DVDs and online resources also can offer special workouts.

Cinder Ernst, who devises individualized DVD training programs, acknowledges that she’s targeting her services to a crowd that can be difficult to motivate. “It’s a tough market to serve,” she says, “but the market is growing.”