you are in pain. If it is because of too much stress on your joints then you will need to be careful with anything you do. Losing weight will help for that. But a lot of times pain in muscles is simply that we haven't strengthened them. Weight lifting makes them more flexible, makes our endurance better, makes our bones denser. Yes you must be gentle with your joints, but WORK those muscles. The more you stretch and strengthen muscles the less pain you will feel, (if it is muscle pain we are talking about).

I used to have a lot of pain in my back, neck and shoulders. The main problem is the muscles were too stiff, unexcercised, and not strong, plus they were constantly being pulled in one direction trying to support my heavy bust and leaving me off balance.

Weight lifting has strengthened those muscles, made them more flexible, pain free, and decreased the body weight that was stressing them out!

I walk straighter now, hold my head up high and feel great. Don't be afraid to excercise. Start slowly with anything you can do, and work up to it. Challenge your muscles, lift weights that are as heavy as you can stand, and when they become too light, lift heavier ones. Sure you will feel some soreness when you first start moving muscles that haven't been moved in awhile, take some glutamine tablets and you won't feel the soreness for as long, but don't let the soreness make you give up, that means it is WORKING.