exercise modification question

[calligrafiti]

Hello all. I'm new here, but rydra_wong suggested this would be a good place to ask about modification to an exercise I'm trying to do. There aren't any weights involved other than my own body, I'm afraid. However, it is a heavy thing.

I've recently started the LifeHacker exercise challenge (although I question the use of the term "normal" in their subhead, "exercise for normal people"), and I'm having some trouble with the squats section of the program. I'm quite fat, and doing more than one or two squats makes my knees hurt a lot. While they show modifications for most of the exercises, they don't show any mods for squats other than using a chair or pole for stability. I'm using a chair. My knees hurt while I'm squatting in a very stable manner.

If anyone here has suggestions for modifications to the standard squat exercise, or alternate exercises that work the same muscle groups, I'd love to hear about them, please.

Comments

[weirdquark]

I don't actually know how well this would work as a modification, but what about step-ups using a fairly high step? If you use a step that's high enough to get your thigh to be parallel with the floor, doing a step-up is sort of like doing a partial one-legged squat, except you don't support your full weight when you're at parallel because your other foot is on the floor. The rest of the motion seems like it would be similar to what you'd do raising and lowering yourself to a parallel squat. (And if using a step that high also hurts your knees, you could use a slightly lower step and work your way up to something higher.)

[calligrafiti]

Thank you!