Weight management is harder when you are disabled than if you were abled because your not able to do the same types of workouts if any all. Many disabled people can't exercise and if we can we are severely limited but unfortunately most people don't understand that even our doctors. Doctors often are very quick to judge a disabled person who might be able to exercise fat and lazy without even realizing how difficult it is to create a fitness routine when you have a physical disability. Some people don't work out not because they are lazy and don't want to but they literally don't know what they can do with a physical disability. Fitness is not accessible for disabled people so it can be really hard for disabled people to motivated themselves to want to go to the gym when there are all these barriers. Exercise is hard for me because of my physical disability but I have spent years looking for ways to make it work because even though you have a physical disability and it's hard it's still just as important as it is for abled people. In this post, I am going to give some tips on how I exercise as a disabled person so you can have a better tool to create your own fitness routine.

YouTube is your best friend- YouTube is your best friend- People often compliment my strength and want to know what exercises I am doing to maintain my strength. I am not comfortable publicly sharing specific exercises because I am not a personal trainer and don't want to be held responsible if anyone were to try them and get injured from performing them incorrectly. I will tell that my workouts are quite simple and all I do is a bunch of random YouTube videos that I find fun! I first found my joy in fitness when I experienced burnout from walking two miles a day and was looking for a better way to get active because I was about to give up on fitness. My love for Pilates all started when I searched extreme abs on YouTube and found a pilates video called that. Why I was searching for advanced workouts is beyond me because I was a total beginner but that search is what led me to the fitness channel I still use today! When you are disabled it can be hard to find a workout that you can do because of your limited mobility but YouTube can help make it easier. You can search for workouts that target specific body parts and watch videos before you do them to make sure it's actually possible! Fitness can be made fun but a lot of people convince themselves it can't or they use their disability as an excuse not to workout! I can't say I blame disabled people for not wanting to workout because your disability can take the fun out of it!

Use Pinterest- I have been using Pinterest a lot lately because I still don't have movement in my leg from my recent hip replacement surgery. If you need workout tips but would rather create your own routines instead of following along to a twenty minutes workout out video Pinterest may be the option for you. You can find tons of blog posts and short videos on Pinterest that explain exercises you can incorporate into your routines. My routine sometimes has moves I physically can't do so I have to swap them out and Pinterest is a great place to find new stuff. I have also gotten some good ideas for hip strengthening from Pinterest during my recovery. Sometimes I have to modify becuase of my disability makes some things impossible.

Check Facebook or Instagram- Facebook and Instagram are filled with all kinds of information that can harm you so I most certainly would not suggest you rely on Facebook as your main source for fitness information because you don't have to be a fitness trainer to create an ab workout and post to YouTube. If you have been following a fitness channel for a while and know they are legit it worth checking to see if they have a Facebook or Instagram. A lot of creators put different things on their social media than they would put in their content. The trainers I use always put different moves on their social media and also show you good and bad form of exercies so I always like to check people's social media because you never know what you'll stumble across!

Weightraining- -I don't do a lot of cardio because most cardio moves are impossible with a physical disability. I could go for a short walk but words can't describe how much I hate walking so I would never do it! Walking a short distance to do everyday tasks is not bad but when you turn it into a workout it puts lots of stress on your body. Since I do not do a lot of cardio workouts I look for ways to turn my weight training into cardio! I don't lift light weight because if I am lifting five-pound weight I can't get my heart rate up high enough where I can make it cardio. My arms are much stronger than the average person because I use my arms like abled people use their legs but my arms are not only built from walking with crutches and it's also from weightlifting. Weight training is a good option for wheelchair users and people with physical disabilities in general becuase we use our arms a lot and stronger arms can make tasks easier. 

Try resistance training- When I first started working out I was out of shape and did not lift even very lightweight because I didn't have the strength to do so. My workout consisted of only bodyweight movements and as I got stronger I added light weights which now has led to some reasonably heavy but it took years of training and not giving up! The very first workout I ever did was a weightless arm pilates workout which looked easy so I did it more times than I probably needed to and was sore for several days! Don't underestimate the power of pushups and arms circles because if you do it right it will be challenging! If you want to get weights but can't afford to adding pulses to pretty much any move will make it more challenging.

Walk around as much as I can- I don't love cardio because I kind of ruined it for myself when I walked two miles a day at the beginning of my fitness journey. I am afraid to do cardio because when I did that I caused a lot of damage to my back that took years to come back from. I don't really do much cardio workouts but I do try and walk around my house some and add little cardio moves in my workouts when I can. My wheelchair doesn't even come into my house much unless I am recovering from surgery and need it because I don't have enough strength to do even basic tasks!

Disabled people that are able to workout should try to be as active as possible but I don't judge people that don't want to because not everyone has hours a week to creat a new routine. Humiliating someone by calling them fat and lazy is not helpful nor is it motivation to help someone get in shape. I wish professionals would show disabled people exercises to help them be more inactive instead of just staying lose weight and workout because that's easier said than done. Exercise is a little bit easier for more because I can move my legs more than most people but it's hard because I don't have the same use of my legs as abled people do and most leg workout are not accessible to me. Exercise with a disability is hard and most people are not motivated to do it not becuase they don't want to be healthy and fit but fitness is not accessible. We need to stop shaming disabled people for not working out until there is a better way for disabled people to have access to more accessible workouts! The only reason I am able to stay in shape is because I spend hours a week finding workouts I love and eat healthily but not all disabled people will do that! How do you stay in shape as a disabled person?