Fitness Goals Support Group

Perhaps a vibrating body toner would help

http://www.squidoo.com/BodySculptu...

I didn't reply earlier because I'm not familiar enough with the conditions you listed to be able to give useful advice. I don't think the machine suggested by the previous poster is going to help you. Your physical issues are way more specific for general jiggling to offer much benefit, IMO.

My first instinct would be to tell you to try to find a personal trainer at your local gym. There are trainers who will make house calls if going to a gym is too stressful for you, though they may possibly charge more for the travel time. You might start your search by talking to the physical therapists who worked with you - they may know of someone who could help you continue the work you started in PT. It would be a much smarter investment of both your time and your money.

if you already have injuries to start with you should really take it easy cause if you keep them injured you will never get better. So I say all that to say this. Please first and for most be careful!!! Knees are extremely important the pool is a great idea. Try a few classes at the YMCA or a local pool. A few other cardio exercises would be stationary bicycle. If yoga was hard on the body so will pilates. You need to start out small and gradually build your strength. I would also look into the zone drsears.com or google zone recipes to help get some weight off, because you said you have gained some weight. That weight is also a contributing factor of the pain. I take a vitamin that has helped others with fibromyalgia if you are interested shoot me a msg and ill give you info. You might want to stay out of a gym for a little while just to let your body heal a bit. Also when you do head to the gym get a trainer to show you how to use the machines. even the ones in your building. Often times people go to a gym and don't know what they are doing and end up hurting themselves even worse so Please Please be careful. and keep me posted as to what you choose to do and how you feel. Good Luck!

Some good advice there! You may have to experiment a bit with the no-impact machines though. When I was training for my first charity ride I did too many sessions on a stationary bike (spin class) in the first week and ended up hurting my knees. Turned out that I'm slightly bow-legged and the position on the stationary bike aggravated it. It was helped with rest and then changing the seat height to lessen the stress on the joint.

I would have been wiser to change up the cardio machines I was using so that it wasn't always the same motion all the time. You may need to try out several to see which motions work best for your body - see if you can settle on 2 or 3 you can alternate on different workout days.

I can verify that yoga is not for everyone, especially those with bad knees and some joint issues.
I had arthroscopic surgery on my knee to have a meniscus tear trimmed and some other cleanup under the knee cap. That was in June and despite going to physio 3 days after surgery, and regular workouts at the gym, I still cannot move my knees in positions that are required for some yoga poses.
There are some exercises that you can do to strength all the muscles and tendons, etc surrounding your knees and supporting them; they do help with ROM and flexibility.
For cardio, you can easily try the upright or recumbent bikes, but build up to a steady speed that you can manage. Don't overdo it. \it's really the activity, the movement, that helps with lessening pains and stiffness. Nobody says you have to race; everybody says you should move.
If much of your weight gain was due to meds, you should be able to lose fairly easy now that you have been put onto something else.