Your Fibro Questions Answered: Exercising with Fibromyalgia

I am going to be taking part in the fibrobloggerdirectory.com Your Fibro Questions Answered to help those who need a little guidance or who are looking for advice. The first question is below:

Can you please help explain how I can get started with exercising – I want to but can’t get up off the lounge most days and can’t even do all my housework. From Fleur in Passadena.

It can be very hard to do exercise with fibromyalgia as in our case ‘no pain no gain’ doesn’t work. For me the gym is completely out of the question. However I do try to get out of the house for a walk each day and it helps to ease my body especially if I’ve been quite sedentary that day. It’s also good for the mind as it gets you out in the fresh air and natural light. Being cooped up in the house can make you feel very isolated and low, but getting even five minutes of fresh air can lighten your mood and help you feel you have achieved something.

I have also found tai chi actually helps a bit. It’s been proven to be beneficial against other forms of exercise for those who have fibromyalgia. It is a form of exercise that involves slow relaxing movement. It helps warm up your body without stretching and you can go as small or big with the movements as you want. I would recommend going on YouTube and following the 18 movement shibashi tutorial as it goes through a variety of moves that are easy to follow. You could then pick out your favourites and do them for a few minutes a day. The best thing is they can be modified to seated instead of standing as well!