Get more exercise. Start small! Be realistic!
So, the challenge for me and many other CFS'ers is to exercise without crashing the next day! To read more about my previous challenges with exercising you can see the posts "Latest from Pamela", "Exercise is Bad?", "Exercise Tolerance/Intolerance".
It may be a bit confusing for anyone unfamiliar with CFS and/or Lyme to understand how exercise can actually make it better -- most people think that being disabled means one can't exercise, but for these two diseases controlled exercise can actually make it better! Let me reiterated the part about controlled exercise!
The key for me is to keep my intensity (measured by heartrate) low and to keep my duration low. I recently stumbled upon the SHINE protocol by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum. He developed CFS in med school and put together this treatment protocol. The last E in SHINE stands for Exercise: Do not push to the point of crashing the next day. Start by walking as long as you comfortably can (even if that is only two minutes). After 10 weeks on treatment, start to increase your walks by up to one minute more each day as able. When you are up to an hour of walking, you can increase intensity.
So this week in addition to following my wake-up and bedtime routines to get more out of my sleep I'm going to try to get some non-aerobic exercise every day that I wash my face & brush my teeth. If I'm too crashed to wash m7 face & brush my teeth then I'll grant a pass for the exercise; otherwise I'll wear my heart rate monitor to make sure I keep my heartrate below 117 & I'll do some easy Pilates, yoga, weights or walking for at least 2 minutes :) I like what she said about getting credit for the smallest things - even putting on your shoes and walking out the door counts -- I don't even have to really go anywhere! Not much, but enough to start rebuilding my stamina without paying for it the next day. I'll keep you posted as this might be an ongoing one, but it's certainly one thing I can tackle this week.
Good Day
5 comments:
Thank you for writing this. I've been on a similar exercise protocol. I'm up to 5-minute daily walks. Good luck with your new routine!
I've experimented with this a ton (as you know!). During my most recent crash, I stopped exercising altogether. The pain I developed during that time made me realize that although exercise takes something out of me, the alternative is worse. So, what I've come up with is doing yoga in the mornings as well as a little strength building exercising. So far, so good!
This encouraages me to set a walkng exercise or yoga for myself. Hope this goes well!!!!
Good post, Pam. My stamina is very low right now - a walk around the neighborhood last week crashed me, as did a trip to the grocery store. I suppose I could try 2 minutes, though! My problem is always figuring out how to fit in even mild exercise when EVERYTHING counts as exertion with CFS...laundry, cooking, errands, etc.
I have been trying to get lots of rest the past two days to recuperate, and I've been doing little amounts of very gentle yoga. That always helps.
I signed up for the Happiness Challenge, too, on your advice, but I;m not seeing where she posts the weekly goals. Maybe just because I haven't been keeping up on blogs very well.
Sue
5-min walks - yay Alyson!
Shelli, I'm with you - the price of exertion to exercise far outweighs the price of not exercising!
Renee - good luck with the yoga!
Sue, I know what you mean; I've struggled with it myself. But I find that even two minutes really helps with the aches & pains & helps me sleep so sometimes I choose to sacrifice another exertions (laundry, errands, cooking) so that I can spend a couple of minutes exercising. It's a hard choice with a family.
For the happiness challenge, the new weekly goal is posted each week at http://www.happiness-project.com/; it took me a couple of weeks to nail down the exact location, but it's on the main page (no sub pages) - you just have to scroll down to the bottom. Week three is 'Toss & Organize'
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