Before ms I must admit I was a bit lazy. Don’t get me Wrong I’d love long walks through the countryside at the weekends, but that was about it! Since diagnosis iv pledged to get my life, health and waist band back in check! I’d like to know what exercise works for you? Every time I say ill do something everyone around me tells me not to because ill make myself worse! Surely I won’t will I? Surely I need to keep going so I don’t just seize up?! Why is everyone against me trying to be healthy? I’m not the kind of perso. That can go running or go the gym as I get bored easily. I need a fun class. Recently I have tried pole dancing class (fitness class I can assure you!) that was great fun, but I wasn’t very good, and kept falling off, not in the slightest bit graceful! The latest thing I’m enjoying is caveman training, sledgehammers, tractor tyres, baseball bats weights and ropes! It’s great for shouting out and getting rid of the stresses of life. I must admit it kills me after, but the next day I feel great and I’m starting to feel that little buzz of energy. I enjoy it because its a short burst of exercise as I can’t do those long walks anymore, either my hips seize, or I need the loo, usually both lol. People around me keep telling me to give it up and ill make myself worse. Is this right? What exercise do you do? What exercise is “safe”? Or do I just sit back down, never exercise again and be miserable and fat??
I love yoga. Didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I do but it’s as easy or hard as you want it to be. Once you have learnt the basics you can search for a tougher class.
I stick with a basic class as it’s plenty for me. It stretches all the muscles and you can feel it working. Personally I do find it strenuous enough and it’s not all slow and boring. Some bits of the class are quite dynamic sequences. It helps with my co-ordination and balance and i find my legs and arms don’t ache so much when I keep up with it.
Right now, I’m recovering from a relapse so I don’t think I would make it through a whole class but I’m still doing the basic warm up stretches daily and I know about it if I miss them.
Tracey x
I do pilates twice a week, I am in a gentle pilates class and find it really helpful. It has improved my leg strength and my core strength, i feel fitter and have finally lost my baby belly after 3 years! The instructor makes sure we only do what we can, gives us alternative moves if we don’t feel we can manage.
Mostly i find my energy levels improve afterwards as well, makes me feel less fatigued. As long as you excersise at your own pace, it’s unlikely to make you worse. Good luck,
Laura x
Hi Madmadge
The only reason it would make you worse is if you overdo it. If I get hot for example it makes everything worse. If I overdo it it makes things worse so just pace yourself and stop as soon as you feel yourself getting hot.
I do 10 minutes on my exercise bike a couple of times a day and that is about right for me anyway.
Hope you find something that works for you.
Take care
Shazzie xx
Hi
Yoga, T’ai Chi and Pilates are all good for MS.
The MS Trust also do a helpful ‘Mr Motivator’ DVD especially for people with MS.
Everyone’s MS is different and so what one finds helpful will not necessarily help another.
The best advice is not to overdo it or get too hot.
I go to the local gym on the GP referral scheme. The instructors have been really helpful and supportive. I also do yoga.
I also used to love walking, but it’s now a distant memory. Still I can still enjoy the view and an all terrain mobility scooter would enable access to a lot of countryside.
Find what suits you and do it!
Good Luck
Anne
Nintendo Wii with the help of a 4 wheeled walker!!M
No, it isn’t right. Give those people your best, ‘drop dead’ polite smile and ignore them.
Whatever works for you will be good for you. Many of us find that,if we get too hot, those symptoms that are always there or thereabouts will get worse for a bit until we cool down again, and that fatigue from over-exertion can take a while to recover from. But not everyone finds that, and some people who do find that decide they can put up with it. I think the most important thing (and your post suggests that you think so too) is to find something you like. The thing you enjoy is the thing you will be bothered doing, and that is the main thing.
Pilates and yoga and the like tend to be more popular than the kind of terrifying stuff you are into! But they might not give you what you need, or not all of it anyway.
I miss country walks more than almost anything else, so I do feel for you.
These days I do a lot of Pilates-type exercises given me by the physio. For cardio work I use an indoor ski-er. No fear of working up a sweat with my speed of walking these days, so I need something like that to give the heart and lungs a bit of exercise.
Exercise is so important for us - do not let anyone put you off!
Alison
Gym not only do you work all your muscles you get out and be a bit social. Each machine has a picture on what muscles they work and everyone knows what parts of the body are weak so you go on the machines that are right for your body. Most machines you sit on so its great if you don’t have great balance.
If you can’t get to the gym order a rowing machine from argos it will work your legs, ankles, core stomach muscles and arms and if you fall off your only 6" off the floor.
It really is true muscles, arms and legs can awaken and get stronger through a routine of real exercise.
The MS society do a DVD for people with ms either standing
or sitting exercises.
Whatever you choose do it in moderation as overdoing it and heat
can make your symptoms worse.
Pam x
I find Pilates very valuable in keeping up my core strength and it eliminates the back pain I sometimes start to develop. Unless you have some other condition, or have a fall due to fatigue, I don’t believe exercise can make you worse. I have regularly exhausted myself going walking with my hiking poles which did nothing worse than drain down my energy levels for a couple of days. However, this isn’t necessarily the best way to exercise. A physiotherapist I had told me that the best way to build up stamina is to exercise as much as I felt I was able to do comfortably, but not to push past the fatigue point all the time. I don’t know what the medical explanation for this is.
(Regarding the people around you telling you that you’ll make yourself worse - I wouldn’t listen to people who don’t know what they’re talking about for advice on things like this. If you’re still unsure, talk to a specialist MS nurse / neurologist / physiotherapist / good GP.)
Urgh version 2.0
Get moving.
Experts used to think that exercise would increase fatigue in MS patients, but recent data suggest just the opposite. “Regular activity increases energy and improves mood. And it actually plays a neuroprotective role in the brain, staving off some MS-related damage,” says Thrower. That may explain why, in a National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) survey of more than 1,000 people with MS, 85 percent said that exercise had a positive impact on their lives. If you’re currently not able to work out the way you once did, that’s okay; the main thing is to move as much and as often as you can.
Rest of article is here http://www.everydayhealth.com/multiple-sclerosis/living-with-multiple-sclerosis.aspx
Thanks guys, I am enjoying the exercise, as intense as it is its only 30 mins and later in the day I feel great and feel my energy levels have improved! Just gets to me all the people telling me to stop all the time!
Good for you madmadge it’s nice to hear others making an effort. Don’t listen to anyones MS advise unless they have MS or a Neuro Bod.
Good luck with the physical stuff
Use it or lose it - thats my advice
Patrick
[quote=“patrick_b”]
Use it or lose it - thats my advice
Patrick
[/quote] Similar to my gran and grandads advice “the day I stop is the day I die” 85 & 86 and still go on several mile treks each day!
My GP who has now retired was brill. He said the fitter you keep yourself the better you’ll fight and cope with relapses and recovery from them. I used to run a lot even after diagnosis …it was my main hobbie. Now however since having my son and a relapse last year I can no longer run. However I do still go on the exercise bike, the cross trainer and occasionally treadmill. I’m limping when I get off but who cares. It soon goes when I rest for ten mins orso. I also go on the vibration machines and do pilates
Oops pressed post by accident. Aa I was saying I do pilates too. I do listen to my body and if I’m tired I adapt the exercise. I also try and do my physio exercises am and pm. In my eyes it can only help as long as you don’t overdo it you’ll be fine. I do feel its aided my recovery from relapses too. Some say it helps with the fatigue side of things too. Xxx
If you can exercise safely then do it. If you can’t because it makes things so bad then don’t beat yourself up. Don’t feel pressured. It really is an individual choice. All depending on how badly you are affected by overexertion and heat. You really don’t have to be miserable and fat if you don’t exercise. Afterall some people have no choice but to not exercise.
Just do what you are able to do happily and safely.
Shazzie x