It is commonly thought that complete rest after a workout is the best way to recover. Taking a day off and letting the muscles rest and repair does work for some people. I have found that with Fibromyalgia the soreness after a workout is far worse than when I used to be healthy, even the workouts themselves are harder to do. Taking a full on rest and recover day is not best for me.
Staying active with Fybro is hard work, the workouts are always more challenging, the aches are worse and some things you have to modify the heck out of just to accomplish in your own way. If I take a day off after I feel terrible. In my case I have found that a ten minute walk then a five-minute warm up really helps with my flexibility and my ability to keep proper form and follow through to the end. The bit of flexibility and looseness that is gained from that fifteen minute warm up is a game changer. After my workouts I make sure that I do a five-minute cool down as well as five minutes of stretching after.
Doing Les Mills Pump there are schedules rest days. Rarely will I attempt a full rest day. When I do I get stiff and sore, and jumping back on the Pump bandwagon the next day is extremely hard. This is where active recovery comes in. Besides my warm up and cool down I stretch, constantly. Anytime i start to feel stiff or the pain level starts creeping up I stretch. On my days off I may just jog, do some yoga or low impact aerobics. If I am really sore I do yoga. What I am saying here is something is done to keep myself moving. With fybro it is very easy to sit down and not move. Your body doesn’t like moving, but doing it is best.
It has been documented over and over the importance of exercise and stretching for fybro patients. I can say personally that it is making a huge difference in how i feel physically. I certainly am not in as much of the fybro pain, yes, there is pain and exercise is not a miracle cure, I am not making any claims that it is. What I am saying is that activity helps. You may have to struggle in the beginning, but gaining that strength and flexibility makes life so much easier. You have to be willing to power through for it to help. People with Fybromyalgia are more likely to have inflamed and tight muscles, poor circulation, poor posture and more toxins in the body. Regular stretching and exercise can help relieve those symptoms. Start out slow, don’t stretch too hard or hold poses too long. Keep it static.
After almost 90 days of exercise my symptoms are lessened, I have learned my limits and what I can do to feel better. I have learned that I have to work twice as hard to get a work out in as a healthy person does. I have also learned that I am worth that hard work and that I can do it. I have also learned that active recovery works best for me.
Today is a scheduled rest day with Pump so I am going to warm up with a walk and spend the day weeding my garden area (It looks terrible!) so I can get my veggies planted.
I did find a new chair I really liked. I need to find a couple more I like so there are choices. And no luck on a TV/media stand. I think we need to make the two-hour trek to Ikea maybe. Haven’t even started looking for shelving for the archway wall. The house is a huge mess. Furniture all over, the stuff from the walls strewn about which leads to making more clutter. How does that happen? Things will be in order soon enough. I can’t wait for the living room, Purple room (sitting and treadmill room right now but soon to be an office), steps and hallway to have it’s pretty new floor coverings!
