Move Your Body!
The Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine Bolster our Immune Systems
This newsletter is the second in a six-part series on the pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. The six pillars are nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep, social connections and avoiding toxic substances.
Beth Frates, MD, Lifestyle Medicine Specialist notes that “these six pillars are extremely important to everyone’s well-being, especially during stressful times when people want to bolster their immune systems.”*
Exercise Guidelines
In this newsletter we’re exploring the importance of physical exercise. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s 2008 exercise guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.
The guidelines also recommend strength training twice a week on nonconsecutive days. Dr. Frates points out that “…we need our strength, particularly in our elder years, because that’s when we are at risk for falls.” *
Focus on Moving Your Body
Now, for most of us with fibromyalgia and other chronic illness, 150 minutes of exercise plus strength training twice every week sounds like a pipe dream or maybe a nightmare depending on your perspective. LOL!
I personally like to move my body. What I don’t like is the flare ups of pain and exhaustion and post exertional malaise that frequently occur after exercising. I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.
So, first of all, I hear you. You know you should exercise, you just don’t always know how to do it in a way that is actually helpful. I am right here with you.
Let’s get creative. Did you know that the normal activities of daily living-not sitting- count as exercise? They do! Everyday housekeeping chores such as loading and unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, cleaning the floors and so on absolutely count towards your 150 minutes of exercise. And there are many different types of exercise you can explore as well that can be adapted to be fibro friendly.
Other Types of Exercise
- Aerobic-cardiovascular exercise increases your intake of oxygen through deeper breathing and can be low or high intensity. It includes walking, jogging, swimming, aqua exercise, biking and rowing
- Exercise for flexibility includes stretching, yoga, and pilates
- Exercise for balance includes tai chi, a form of movement training and yoga which helps boost stability and improve core strength
- Exercise for strength and endurance which includes, working with weights or resistance bands, gardening, climbing stairs, dancing, cycling.**
Getting Started
Folks with fibromyalgia tend to be less physically active and have reduced functional abilities due to our overall lowered activity levels. If we are too ambitious as we try to get moving it can result in increased pain and fatigue and even less physical activity. We can get caught in a negative cycle. Been there, done that! You too?
The key to exercise for we Fibromites is to take care to start gradually to prevent musculoskeletal injury and fatigue by using a carefully graded and gradual intensity progression with an aim towards achieving a moderate intensity level.
In other words, we have to be very careful in the movement and exercise we engage in. “Start low and go slow,” should be our watch words.
We can learn to exercise appropriately to reduce pain and improve our symptoms. If our exercise uses more than the limited energy our body can produce then our systems can crash and we can experience that familiar “hit by a truck feeling” a day or so later. Exercise that is too intense or for too long makes fibro pain worse. No fun!
In an article for Harvard Health Publishing, author Kelly Bilodeau, former executive editor of the Harvard women’s Health Watch recommends the following: ****
- When you are ready to begin an exercise program, start slowly. Taking a small-steps approach to beginning an exercise plan can help. Add activity in small doses, every day if you can. Then build up your activity slowly over time.
- For example, if you walked for 10 minutes today, try 11 minutes — a 10% increase — a week later. This approach is especially important for avoiding a phenomenon called post-exertional malaise (PEM). Many people with fibromyalgia have this problem.
- When they feel less pain or more energy, they may try to get things done that they have been unable to do because of symptoms.
- Often, they don’t realize when they are doing too much at once.
- They may wind up feeling so exhausted that it takes days or longer to recover. This is PEM, better known to people with fibromyalgia as a “crash.” A gradual approach to exercise can help prevent it.
- It’s important to check in with your healthcare providers before attempting a new exercise program. I have found that my chiropractor and physical therapist are my best resources for recommending exercise appropriate for my body.
Exercise can be Fun
To be consistent with our exercise programs we need to find something we love to do. It can help to exercise with a friend or family member by taking regular walks or to join a group exercise program at a local activity center, like a gentle yoga class or a water exercise class in a therapy pool.
Maybe you would like exercising at home by participating in an online stretching class or watching an on demand tai chi video. Or maybe you have invested in a stationery bicycle, rowing machine or home treadmill and you can add that activity to your morning routine. Remember to have a warm up and cool down periods as you exercise.
Do you find dancing fun? Put on some music and sway and stomp with the rhythm of the beat. Find something that gets you up and moving even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time.
I think it’s great to mix it up. Try something new. Do some exercising at home, attend a group exercise class at a community center, go walking outside with a friend.
References:
*https://spirewell.com/?page_id=1230
**https://www.ncmedsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1-Six-Pillars-and-Deeper-Dive-002-002-003-FINAL.pdf
***https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/exercise-guidelines-for-fibromyalgia-patients/
****https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/fibromyalgia-exercise-helps-heres-how-to-start-2020101321153
