Does Exercise Ease Your Pain?

[Keith Watson]

Do you exercise regularly for pain management? I was in a bad state and very sick from getting less and less sleep. So I decided to something about it. My pain is worst in my shoulders and hips so I started walking for a half hour every day. I also estimated my healthy weight range and realized I had to lose more than a few pounds.

After walking for a week I picked up the pace and walked in a different direction every day to see how far I could get in 15 minutes. After another week I started walking for a hour and at that point I had already started to have less hip pain and was losing weight.

With my new confidence I got out my bike and hit the trails. I again started out slowly and found I could bike 7 miles in an hour without any ill effects. By mid summer I was doing 15 miles and averaging 18 miles per hour. I was also dipping below the bottom of my target weight range and feeling great.

The only thing I did not like was maintaining that speed on a public trail was dangerous so I bought a trainer that my bike sits in and still do my 15 miles every day, at home. I have almost no hip pain, no shooting pain and much less shoulder pain. Now I'm sleeping better and eating pretty much what I want!

 

[mariposa]

I'll be interested to see how the others answer, but from what I've seen and heard, simply functioning for my friends with fibro is difficult on a day-to-day basis. When getting out of bed in the morning is excruciating, I can't see them thinking about exercising, although I know that moderate and low impact exercise is recommended. Maybe I'll hear something in this thread that will help them.

I think the key is probably the "low impact" part. Congrats on your weight loss and getting rid of the pain in your hip. Have you been diagnosed with fibro?

 

[Keith Watson]

I have not been diagnosed yet but one doctor said he suspected fibro. I know most people avoid moving when they are in pain, that's what I did but I almost died during the sleep test. It really hurt to exercise but I don't want to die so I kept on going and the pain quickly started to go down. I think it's important to start off slow.

 

[twiztc]

Ok ...I'm no slouch and it annoys me when anyone tells me I need to exercise. Normal ways of going on I rarely stop. I have a mostly sit down office job but I find excuses to walk around. I walk around the building every lunchtime, rain or shine or snow. I swim at my local pool for at least an hour once a week, more if I visit the in-laws or go up to the lake. At the weekend I get enough exercise just doing the laundry going up and down the stairs a dozen times. Plus all the gardening, redecorating, fixing things and cleaning.
All this has made no difference to my pain levels or abilities, in fact over the last few years I have got steadily worse. Now I have days like yesterday where I can barely get off the sofa.
Now I don't mean for anyone to not exercise, I mean I may have been a hell of a lot worse had I not been active but its no miracle cure eithrr

 

[Keith Watson]

No one is telling you what to do. I was curious if anyone else has reduced pain with exercise. I should clarify in order to go 15 miles in less than an hour I am going 18 miles per hour, it's hard work. I have not missed a day since I started bike training 17 months ago that's 7650 miles.

 

[twiztc]

Sorry Keith, I didn't mean YOU was telling me what to do. I just read it back and I did sound a bit harsh.. not my intent... I mean outsiders... busy body types that don't know what we do in our own environment. If regular exercise makes you feel better then keep doing what you're doing. It makes me feel better mentally but physically usually stuffs me up at least for a little while.

 

[Keith Watson]

Oh God, my mistake, maybe I should start a thread asking if anyone loses their temper and gets offended as easily as me.

 

[mariposa]

Oh God, my mistake, maybe I should start a thread asking if anyone loses their temper and gets offended as easily as me.

If I had a dollar... no, just a dime (hehe) for every time I read something wrong or interpreted something wrong that someone typed... well gee, I'd be soooooo steenkin' filthy rich. :lol: It's hard to tell the tone of what someone is saying through nothing but their typing fingers. One of the hazards of the Internet, I'm afraid.

For what it's worth, I get offended with things that most people would just let slide off their back. I try not to let temper show if it flares up, but that's not always easy either.

 

[mariposa]

Sorry Keith, I didn't mean YOU was telling me what to do. I just read it back and I did sound a bit harsh.. not my intent... I mean outsiders... busy body types that don't know what we do in our own environment. If regular exercise makes you feel better then keep doing what you're doing. It makes me feel better mentally but physically usually stuffs me up at least for a little while.

I detest that with a fiery passion... people thinking they know what's best for me, or what will work for me with whatever the issue is. If it's given as a kind and helpful suggestion, great... I can either try it or say I'd rather not.

But it's when someone thinks they have all the answers and tries to boss me around... I don't do well with being pushed or talked to as if I'm inferior and only *they* have all the answers. (Which means, I suppose, that I'd rather be the pusher than the pushee. har har!) :lol:

 

[1sweed]

Keith,
Back when I was first diagnosised doctors used to tell their patients all they need to do was exercise and all would be better again. So lots of fibro folks started working out and pushing themselves to do more and more, by pretending it did not hurt. Some were helped by the constant exercise and others became bed ridden. So it is a personal choice on how and what exercise is best according to the amount of pain you have and what you can handle.

It sounds like you did something that worked for you and I am sure losing the extra weight did a lot of good as well. For me I do exercise in the form of walking, but not speed walking. Any exercise is better than none at all. A friend of mine goes to a local gym and lifts light weight bars for upper body strength. I am unable to do that. But I walk and do a bit of gardening, and housework.

When I first moved here I had to walk everywhere as I did not have use of a car. The walking helped my legs be a small bit stronger, but I had to find my way around town by avoiding the steep hilly streets and sidewalks. The only problem was that my feet became too painful to walk on. If I had not been able to borrow the family car at that point I would have been grounded.

So yes, exercise helps me if I do not over do and push myself to do more and more, as if to prove to myself that I can do it. I am almost turtle slow but with steady progress I do get where I am going and get home again.

P.S. This was a good question!

 

[btatro]

Exercise, more in the form of yoga and stretching, has had crucial impact in relieving some of my chronic back pain. Not only does it work and release tension in my muscles, it also strengthens then which futher assits in injury and stress prevention. Low impact activities such as the ones stated above have helped me tremendously.

 

[MercyL]

I like going for walks as my main source of exercise, but it doesn't really help ease my pain unless I have meds on board, and their circulating more helps them work a teeny tiny bit better.

The biggest pitfall I have found is going to physical therapy and letting them use moist heat, then the traction machine, and then have me do a few "exercises". They would always ask," doesn't that feel a lot better"?

In all honesty, I had to tell them, all of the manipulations are ok, but the session will leave me hurting worse later that same day, and even worse the next.

 

[twiztc]

Oh God, my mistake, maybe I should start a thread asking if anyone loses their temper and gets offended as easily as me.

That's a good one.
I used to be very mild mannered but now, at times I can be raging over the simplest of things that I would have shrugged off before. I think it's due to a temporary lack of concentration and, or frustration. I can't abide stupid people and when I do something Fibro fog stupid I can get very annoyed.

 

[GemmaRowlands]

I know that exercise releases endorphins into the body, and because of this there is a chance that it would be able to reduce the amount of pain that you're in. However, you need to be careful about the exercise that you choose. If you choose something that is going to be harsh on your body, then you might find that it would cause more pain than it would remove. I think that things like swimming are a good idea, because you don't have to put your weight on your joints and muscles, and the water takes a lot of the weight. Just a few gentle lengths could make a great difference to your pain and overall fitness.

 

[angie828]

My husband has found that when he moves around, he does feel better to some extent. He goes for short walks but sometimes the pain is unbearable for him. The other day we walked the driveway and it took him quite a while to do it. But he says that he does not want to just sit like a bump on a log and have it get worse.