Fibromyalgia is a disease which causes chronic body pain. The never-ending muscle and tissue tenderness may also lead to sleep problems. Shooting pain, that may be quite severe, originate from parts of a sufferer’s body that are known as “tender points”. The painful areas may include your:
- neck
- back
- elbows
- knees
Although fibromyalgia may make exercise difficult, it’s vital to be as active as you can. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, regular exercise is one of the most useful treatments for fibromyalgia.
What Exercises Should Be Avoided With Fibromyalgia?
Exercise-related pain is very common with fibromyalgia. It’s not about exercising intensely (which causes significant pain). It’s about exercising appropriately in order to help with improving symptoms.
Exercising intensely (overexertion) leads to the problems that people experience post-exercise, which are called “post-exertional malaise”. This occurs as people with fibromyalgia do not have the energy to condition as others do who can handle the increase in exercise as well as conditioning.
Rather, if the exercise uses more than the limited amount of energy that their body can make, their systems crash. In addition, they will feel like they were hit by a truck for a few days after. Owing to this fact, the key is to find an amount of walking – or any other low-intensity exercises – which you can do and where you feel “good tired” afterwards and even better the next day.
Rather than ramping up in the length or intensity of your workouts, stick with the same amount while working in order to increase energy production. The key to optimal pain relief for people who suffer from fibromyalgia is being consistent with physical activity.
Fibromyalgia-Friendly Exercises
Research has repeatedly demonstrated that regular aerobic exercise improves pain, function as well as overall quality of life in people with fibromyalgia. Many physicians recommend gentle aerobic exercise as the primary treatment protocol for fibromyalgia – this is before any kind of medication is considered. Even if your doctor recommends medication for your condition, it’s incredibly important to be active. If it’s too sore, or you’re too tired to exercise, you can start with walking, moving around in a swimming pool, or other gentle activities. If you do this often, you can build up your strength as well as endurance over time.
Walking
Begin with a short, easy walk and then build up to walking for longer periods of time or ramp up your pace. A good goal is to work up to at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity three times per week.
Stretching
You don’t need to break out into a sweat in order for exercise to be helpful. For instance, try:
- Quiet stretching
- Relaxation exercises
- Keeping a good posture
You need to be wary about overdoing it. The best thing to do is to stretch stiff muscles after you’ve done some light aerobic exercise in order to warm up. This will assist you with avoiding injury. Here are several other hints for healthy stretching:
- Move softly
- Never stretch until you feel pain
- Hold light stretches for up to one minute to get the best benefit.
Most importantly, find exercises which you love, that don’t stress you out and which you look forward to doing most days. This is because when it comes to healing and feeling better, consistency is key.
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
Exercise can help with improving the lives of people with chronic ailments. If you would like to discover more about the benefits of exercise then you need to become a personal trainer. Follow this link for more information.
