Anyone with arthritis? I have PRA and am having a horrid time with exercising. I also have APLAS, RLS, IBS, and Fibro. Anyone with any of those ailments that has advice on exercising please feel free.
I think the hesitation may be that, with so many conditions coexisting, people are hesitant to give advice.
Have you talked to your doctor about ways you might get some physical activity? Maybe you can find an indoor heated pool. Swimming is very gentle on the body and can be a great workout. But your doctor will have suggestions more specific to your condition.
You might want to ask in the monthly Physical Challenges thread:
My doctors all tell me to work through the pain, which is crap. They aren't the ones IN pain while trying to exercise. (It never gets better, only worse.) I live in a rural area and nearest heated pool is 60 miles away... That's why I was asking about suggestions on things to try from RA sufferers.
Walking is good. If it is too cold and nasty to get outside, you can walk in place inside. The Leslie Sansone dvd's are good ones. Water exercise is also good, but you say you have none close by. Good luck!
I have fibromyalgia and osteoarthrits. It really is unfortunate that you're so far from a heated pool, because it's the only exercise I can do pain-free (or nearly so). In fact, the water has to be quite warm, so even the average indoor pool isn't warm enough. I found our warm-water exercise facility and programs through the Arthritis Foundation. I don't know what I'd do without it.
Still, even having the warm water pool nearby, I have a hard time getting to the pool as often as I like, especially in winter. Exercising after a warm shower sometimes helps (stretches, walking, hand weights...) I've actually even exercised IN the shower. It sounds painful (and dangerous), but I have a shower chair (I used to need it to shower because my balance was really bad, now I only have to use it during bad flares). Hubby bought me an adjustable shower head, and I put it on the lightest spray (I don't know if it really saves water like it's supposed to, but it's nice and comfy warm), sit on my shower chair, and do stretches and exercise bands and hand weights. If you have severe balance issues this probably isn't a good idea.
I've gotten to where I can walk a lot more for exercise, but it sometimes is painful so it's hard to get the motivation. I find that lying under an electric blanket for 15 to 30 minutes before trying to exercise helps quite a bit. I also usually wait to exercise until my pain medications have peaked (for me, about 2 hours after taking them). During a bad flare, I'm in bed, maxed on my pain med under a heating blanket, and even thoughts of exercise hurt, but on an average day or a mild flare I can usually exercise at least a little.
A couple things that sound stupid, but really helped me was doing tiny amounts of movement more frequently. ). Doing leg lifts and stretches in bed, under the warm blankets. Gentle stretches during commercials, crocheting, knitting or other needlework to keeps hands nimble (hurt like a @#$% when I first started - now hurts more if I go a few days without).
On a super good day, I can do tai chi tapes, or do quite a bit of walking by going shopping (the mall is usually way too much for me, but I can handle Walmart or Sams occasionally, if I use a cart for balance).
It is very difficult to exercise through pain, but warm and slow is the best suggestion I can give. Keep the joints warm and move slowly and frequently. Nothing is more painful than trying to move after sitting still too long.
I find it's virtually impossible to get in a truly aerobic workout anywhere but the water, but "warm, slow, and frequent" movement does really help tremendously. You do have to think outside of what is normally considered exercise though (I'm not sure crocheting would ever be considered exercise by most people), and instead consider opportunities to stretch and move.
I have RA, fibro, IBS, gluten intolerance. With all the crazy weather, I can't get out and exercise and, like you, the nearest heated pool is an hour away.
I bought the Arthritis Foundations "Take Control with Exercise" DVD. It is specially geared for us and it doesn't hurt. I can't always do all of it if I'm flaring but it's the best thing I've found in three years. I also have Walk Away the Pounds but OMG that hurt my hips SO badly I could barely move for days afterwards.
I highly recommend the AF dvd. Where it's geared for us, it isn't going to have harmful moves in it.
Thanks for the recommendation Ann. None of my doctors have ever bothered to find the time to sit down and tell me about the AF or to advise me on exercise. All they say is "walk" and "push through the pain". The more I exercise, the more I flare...
I appreciate the help and support.
The best advice I ever got from doctors came from doctors with personal experience with the situation. Since most doctors don't have personal experience with pain conditions, they don't have a clue.
One one hand, the research "proves" that exercise helps control pain and maintain function, so doctors push exercise, but don't have any practical advice on how to exercise, how to prevent injury or how to know when you're overdoing it. My primary care doctor has some arthritis issues himself, and his mother had them more severely. He at least was honest, and said "I know it's hard, but try to exercise if you can, because it will help," and recommended the water exercise and walking, but admitted he didn't have a lot more helpful advice than that.
It is hard to ignore pain, not only for obvious reasons, but pain performs a function - to tell you when you're doing something stupid. If you ignore it, you can easily overdo it, and then have payback with a bad flare. The scary thing is that you only learn by trial and error how much pain, or what kind of pain you can exercise with. To some degree we do it everyday. No matter how much you hurt, if you can get to the bathroom yourself, you do it - if you can make yourself a meal or do laundry, you do it. And exercise can be the same way. If I do nothing, I hurt. If I do something, sometimes I hurt the same, sometimes I hurt only a little worse. Those are days and ways in which I can exercise. If it hurts alot worse, more than likely I'm overdoing it and going to suffer for it later.
Unfortunately only trial and error teaches you what overdoing it feels like.
I have RA and OA and know the pain. I'm 51 years old and I like the "Real Women (and Men) Beat Arthritis" book for modifying exercises for the body part that isn't working right, at the moment. I did many exercises without any additional weight when my joints were "hot". As I recall there was even a ROM (range of motion) section that you can do lying in your bed! If it wasn't in that book, I'll look around and try to find the resource. But, basically, it made you start moving your joints before you even get up to the shower.
There is hope. I can do 60 minutes (hard and fast) on a Nordic Track and lift 8 pound dumbbells (I started with 1 and 2 pound dbs when my arthritis showed up!). It just took a few years. That's the hardest thing for me to accept...it took me 30 years to get overweight and out of shape...why do I expect to fix it in a matter of weeks. Instead of losing 1 pound a week, my goal is 1 pound a month! That's still a great goal.
BTW, doctors receive little or no training in exercise with the exception of physiatrists who's goal it is to manage rehab (PT/OT). You'll have better luck with a PT or OT who knows the disease.
Arthritis
