Does your doctor pay attention ?

No, I don't think he is really listening to you. You do extremely well to go swimming four times a week already, what more does he want? I tried the water exercise last year. It was called aquatonic but it was so exhausting I gave it up.

I am another who thinks your swimming is probably better for you than trying to get up and down the stairs for fifteen minutes (what planet is he on for God's sake!). If you can swim 40 lengths in as many minutes you are going great guns. Swimming is also weight bearing so has to be better for you if your joints are painful. I like aquarobics; it's a bit intensive, but you do feel better for it.

I'm afraid not, greyduster
The best exercise for your bones is the weight-bearing kind, which forces you to work against gravity. Some examples of weight-bearing exercises include weight training, walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, tennis, and dancing. Examples of exercises that are *not weight-bearing include swimming*and bicycling
Exercise for Your Bone Health - National Institute of Arthritis and ...
www.niams.nih.gov › health_info

While swimming is fantastic exercise, good for your heart, lungs and muscles it will not protect against e.g,osteoporosis as it is not weight bearing exercise.

My GP suggested an excellent choice of exercise would be to go up ad down the stairs for 15 mins everyday.

Does he mean continuously going up and down stairs for a total of 15 minutes or the total of journeys throughout the day because you have forgotten something (or several somethings)?

I guess it depends what the aim of the exercise is - if it is to get your heart rate up and give your muscles a workout, then swimming is fine. And you sound as though you are doing loads against all the odds.

If it is to try and increase your bone mass, then weight-bearing exercise is the thing. But it has to be tailored to your capabilities, and this is where your GP is not thinking. To suggest you go up and down the stairs so many times is clearly silly, and he/she will finish up having to give you more pain relief if you do that - or sending an ambulance to mop you up from the bottom of the stairs!

In your circumstances then simply walking as much s possible and sitting as little as possible is probably the best thing to do.

Or you could ask your GP to send you to a physio for advice on weight-bearing exercises that you can safely do.

In answer to your question, no, I don't think you GP was listening to you. What did he say when you told him he was talking through his hat?

I have just started swimming again purely for the cardio work out. I do lots of walking but really needed to push the heart beat up more and swimming does that. I do notice several people walking up and down the pool. It makes for an interesting game of dodgems with the swimmers ? So I asked one woman why and she explained she was recovering from a knee operation and this was recommended.

Would you be able to walk like that?

You're right mawbroon - what I meant to say is that it takes the weight off your joints! Anya it is called aquajogging and is quite relaxing when you get used to doing it. We do it as part of our aquarobics sessions - you can increase or decrease the speed as you wish.

He meant in one go Jalima to raise my heart rate ( or kill me!)

My bone density is fine as far as I know.

Anya I think pool walking is the way to go for me , I'm a good swimmer so walking is tougher I think. I might pop up to see the personal trainer to see if the exercise bike or treadmill is an option.

I def won't be killing myself on the stairs

Tell him you know too many people who broke their wrists falling down stairs!

or ankles. (although I didn't break mine falling downstairs.)

Really must start exercising again and trying to walk more.

I would have asked him how he thought you could do it, given your disabilities?

When doctors, do not think and say stupid things they should be challenged. It wasn't just that he wasn't listening, he wasn't looking either.

Weight bearing exercise is best and swimming can be very bad for hips. Climbing stairs will keep the knee joint working and the hips engaged, it will also increase cardiac load.

But Izabella climbing stairs is bad for my knees luckily there's nothing wrong with my hips .

Even if I could do it, I climb one stair at a time holding onto the bannister . Coming down I come down the same way but more slowly in case my knee gives way .

I think I shall just do some pool walking and ignore the GP

I had a really serious spinal injury and, after extensive surgery, my neurosurgeon told me the best exercise I could do is swimming or cycling. I have a terrible fear of water so it's cycling for me but, if you have problems with your knees I think swimming sounds perfect

I found that swimming made knee problems worse. Stairs don't. Climbing or descending stairs, or hills, can make my knees hurt but I think the exercise is also good for them. It's a different kind of pain from the one that swimming caused. I think your doctor might know what he's talking about, n&g, but I guess you know your own physical limitations. Hope you can find what helps your knees, if anything

I've had to stop swimming and other aerobic exercise that I used to do a lot (cycling and Scottish dancing in particular) because they left me 'wrecked' for inordinate lengths of time when I developed ME.

Before knee op I was told to walk in water or swim but NOT breaststroke which, apparently, would be a very bad idea.
Then they closed and demolished the local swimming bath ?

One GP I worked with maintained that patients know their own bodies best when it comes to exercise. His pattern was to ask what they enjoyed and then build on that. He would grumble away at his colleagues when they complained a patient was non compliant with the specific exercise tegime they had recommended. He was also one of the least chatty doctors, often curt but he did listen to his patients no matter the issue and they appreciated it, he had a very loyal following and excellent results. If we take that approach n&g you know your body best, you are already very active, you now know which aspect of your physical fitness your doctor would like you to improve. You can achieve it with the right advice and without impossible stair climbing. Is there another doctor you can see in future?

Rarely does the GP listen I am sorry to say and there seems to be a set agenda. I do wonder if it is a coping mechanism because they are so over burdened. There certainly seems no empathy or even knowledge of the patient as the notes are rarely referred to on my visits.

The last GP I went to see at the beginning of this year used so much jargon that I really had no idea what he was talking about. I know that I am reasonably intelligent as is DH so I turned to him and asked if he understood what the doctor was talking about and was totally unsurprised when he replied succinctly, "Not a clue, all ggobbledygook".The more the doctor tried to explain the more inexplicable it all became. I have to admit that I got the giggles and actually laughed because the whole thing just seemed so funny and farcical! I had such a headache by the time I returned home and I was certainly none the wiser and was still without the help for which I had gone to him.

N&G Your visit seems to have been on a par with mine! 'Horses for courses' springs to mind when it comes to exercise.

*n&g. This is a difficult one. I have a relative moved to a bungalow due to bad knees and things became worse as she never "did steps". It may be such a scenario at the back of your GP's mind. Have you had a full assessment with a physio?

My mother moved to a bungalow when my father died when he was 62 and she 60. She had asthma but little physically wrong with her. In a matter of years she was having to haul herself up the few steps from the garden and went everywhere by car. She didn't believe in exercise, proud of not following the physio's instructions after she broke her leg and telling me that my global aggressive osteoarthritis by the age of 40 was my fault because I did aerobics classes. In no time at all she was moving throughout the bungalow holding on to her trolley and by my age was more or less stuck in her armchair.
The advice to me from my wonderful rheumatologist was don't move to a bungalow and consider each step of the stairs to be of benefit to my aching knees and dodgy ticker. We have a tall house with a lot of stairs and it definitely pushes my heart rate up, as do my four swimming/hydro exercise sessions every week.
15 minutes on the stairs does sound silly in your case, but as others have said walking against the water is an excellent exercise. I can make movements in the water that I wouldn't dare to try on dry land. I also was told to avoid breast stroke and learned the hard way to follow that instruction.
As for does the GP listen, I envy anyone who has a GP who does.
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I think it's down to good luck with GPs, I had a wonderful one for over 22 years, he would listen & understood all my problems as he knew me well.

Exercise is a difficult area, I now live in a Park Home with a few steps, I find Winter months are more difficult as I get out less & suffer with my knees (cartilage). Summer I am much better, gardening & short walks help. Physios are good help & often contradict what a GP has told you

If you see a trainer at th gym he/she might be able to suggest suitable exercises. Tou. Ours are vey good, working wih people of all ages and weights and various disabilities as well as the young and fit! This is a local leisure centre, not expensive.
I must admit I am lucky as my GP, though very busy, always takes the time to listen and explain properly.

Considering the risks of a fall associated with going up & down the stairs for 15 minutes every day, I would have thought you'd be much better carrying on with all your swimming and not take any notice of what your GP has suggested to you. Not all GPs know what is best for their patients, that's for sure...!!

I agree with Nellymaggs and her rhematologist. My mother, who lived to nearly 90, always said that moving to a bungalow wasn't a good thing for the elderly. She felt that the stairs gave her valuable exercise - but she did not have painful joints and she did have poor bone density.

If your bone density is fine then I would suggest that load-bearing exercise is less important for you. The swimming sounds great, ideal if standing gives you pain.

Clearly your GP doesn't have a clue - or he was not paying attention to you or your notes.