Recent research has found xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV — a retrovirus in the same family of viruses as the AIDS virus — in nearly 98% of about 300 patients with so-called “chronic fatigue” syndrome. The study was performed and a paper co-authored by 14 scientists at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, the National Cancer Institute, and the Lerner Research Institute (Cleveland Clinic). While the highly credentialed team cautioned that they had not yet proved that XMRV causes the syndrome, the lead researcher, Dr. Mikovits, said she thought the virus would turn out to be the cause of not just chronic fatigue but other illnesses, including being linked to particularly aggressive prostate cancers.
Showing posts with label Fibromyalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fibromyalgia. Show all posts
23 October, 2009
XMRV : I've got that....
Recent research has found xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV — a retrovirus in the same family of viruses as the AIDS virus — in nearly 98% of about 300 patients with so-called “chronic fatigue” syndrome. The study was performed and a paper co-authored by 14 scientists at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, the National Cancer Institute, and the Lerner Research Institute (Cleveland Clinic). While the highly credentialed team cautioned that they had not yet proved that XMRV causes the syndrome, the lead researcher, Dr. Mikovits, said she thought the virus would turn out to be the cause of not just chronic fatigue but other illnesses, including being linked to particularly aggressive prostate cancers.
03 March, 2009
Book Review: Strength Training for Seniors
STRENGTH TRAINING FOR SENIORS by Michael FeketeMy review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've made it a habit to read a few exercise books. The practice of exercise has changed so much that it is hard to keep up with best world practice. My complication is that I'm 60 years old and suffering from Fibromyalgia so the standard approach of most texts to get you to work long and hard is not something I want to do.
02 March, 2009
The impact of using Kettlebells
I just came back from a workout.Since I've been rather ill the last fortnight I settled for 12 kgm Kettlebell (KB) singles but I prefer to use 16 kgm when I've not been set back by inactivity.
When I first used KB -- given that most of my activity had been upper body work ( a gym obsession) I was floored for three days. Previously I had tried to utilize a range of exercises to work my lower back and encourage easier squats. In fact the only previous time I'd used KB was as hand weights so I could slide down a wall with my back against it into a squat.
Then my trainer after listening to my concerns about 'getting low' tried me on KB.It was a bit annoying as the kettlebells had been sitting on the side of the gym all the time I'd been there, among the dumbbells.
The first thing I noticed about the KB -- aside from new pains in new places when I first started using them -- was that I was 'aware' of my pelvic area in the same way I was when I had been using Tai Chi and Feldenkrais movement regimes. I thought this was extraordinary given that it takes so long to get to that sense with Tai Chi and with Feldenkrais the 'awareness' is only short lived after each session.
It was because I had been using those disciplines in the past -- 12 years previously -- that I was so keen on 'getting down' once again..
So today I mixed it up and follow my preference in what I want to do. I allways start with rope jumping and try to sustain it through as much of 5 minutes as I can. I'm sixty and overweight with Fibromyalgia and the skipping is challenge which hass given me more dexterity of movement and an exertion 'rush'.
Then I box on the bag for three rounds or work out with focus mitts.
I like to then get to work on the kettlebells. I used to use hand weights but the KB leave them way behind. For the moment I keep to the basic drills so I can focus on my technique and try to get the reps up rather than the weight.
Since I've been reading a little bit on CrossFit I now also try to do pull ups to finish off my session. Thats' my main goal for the year ahead -- 'a' pullup.
At home I vary that a bit but while I try to get the gym three times per week -- at home I am practicing 'tabata squats' with a lot of success now thanks to the KB break through. This week I should be getting my own KB -- probably a 16kgm but I may defer to the 12 kgm. I have to go way across town to get them.
My wife follows a similar program -- she has major posture and tenosynovitis issues ( esp as she is in the last stretch of her doctorate) .
So my main complication is that if I overdo it and stress myself out too much I'm going to be in bed and very stiff and sore. The first few weeks with KB were like that and I think my trainer probably over loaded me -- although I presume I was in for it anyway as it was such a shock to the system. But the marvellous thing was how quickly KB registered with my body -- and until then I'd been going to the gym for 20 months -- building up my strength over that time and consolidating a routine with most of it with weekly trainer sessions.( My trainers are boxers by the way).
If you consider that I began more or less -- initially at home exploring boxing type workouts -- only able to exert myself for 10 minutes, to now being able to handle a full quota of sessions and reps I've come a long way. But you see the more I trained the more 'aware' I became of my body (and my aches and pains) so I could more easily protect myself and advance at a pace I could handle. So my aches and pains are getting less not only because i am 'fitter' but also because I'm more attuned with my bod and can navigate it better without so easily over doing it. That doesn't mean I don't over do it -- just that I've got more chance of controlling my stressors.
How I did this I blogged about here: My exercise journey...so far.
When I first used KB -- given that most of my activity had been upper body work ( a gym obsession) I was floored for three days. Previously I had tried to utilize a range of exercises to work my lower back and encourage easier squats. In fact the only previous time I'd used KB was as hand weights so I could slide down a wall with my back against it into a squat.
Then my trainer after listening to my concerns about 'getting low' tried me on KB.It was a bit annoying as the kettlebells had been sitting on the side of the gym all the time I'd been there, among the dumbbells.
The first thing I noticed about the KB -- aside from new pains in new places when I first started using them -- was that I was 'aware' of my pelvic area in the same way I was when I had been using Tai Chi and Feldenkrais movement regimes. I thought this was extraordinary given that it takes so long to get to that sense with Tai Chi and with Feldenkrais the 'awareness' is only short lived after each session.
It was because I had been using those disciplines in the past -- 12 years previously -- that I was so keen on 'getting down' once again..
So today I mixed it up and follow my preference in what I want to do. I allways start with rope jumping and try to sustain it through as much of 5 minutes as I can. I'm sixty and overweight with Fibromyalgia and the skipping is challenge which hass given me more dexterity of movement and an exertion 'rush'.
Then I box on the bag for three rounds or work out with focus mitts.
I like to then get to work on the kettlebells. I used to use hand weights but the KB leave them way behind. For the moment I keep to the basic drills so I can focus on my technique and try to get the reps up rather than the weight.
Since I've been reading a little bit on CrossFit I now also try to do pull ups to finish off my session. Thats' my main goal for the year ahead -- 'a' pullup.
At home I vary that a bit but while I try to get the gym three times per week -- at home I am practicing 'tabata squats' with a lot of success now thanks to the KB break through. This week I should be getting my own KB -- probably a 16kgm but I may defer to the 12 kgm. I have to go way across town to get them.
My wife follows a similar program -- she has major posture and tenosynovitis issues ( esp as she is in the last stretch of her doctorate) .
So my main complication is that if I overdo it and stress myself out too much I'm going to be in bed and very stiff and sore. The first few weeks with KB were like that and I think my trainer probably over loaded me -- although I presume I was in for it anyway as it was such a shock to the system. But the marvellous thing was how quickly KB registered with my body -- and until then I'd been going to the gym for 20 months -- building up my strength over that time and consolidating a routine with most of it with weekly trainer sessions.( My trainers are boxers by the way).
If you consider that I began more or less -- initially at home exploring boxing type workouts -- only able to exert myself for 10 minutes, to now being able to handle a full quota of sessions and reps I've come a long way. But you see the more I trained the more 'aware' I became of my body (and my aches and pains) so I could more easily protect myself and advance at a pace I could handle. So my aches and pains are getting less not only because i am 'fitter' but also because I'm more attuned with my bod and can navigate it better without so easily over doing it. That doesn't mean I don't over do it -- just that I've got more chance of controlling my stressors.
How I did this I blogged about here: My exercise journey...so far.
20 February, 2009
Strength Training Exercise and Fibromyalgia -- My posts to the CrossFit message board
This is the thread and these are the posts I contributed:
I've had Fibromyalgia for 24 years and I'm a 60 y/o male when most sufferers of the condition are female. Way back then I ran and swam daily and when the condition kicked in I've been on this roller coaster ride that has impacted on my 'fitness' greatly. I'm about one third capacity of where I used to be in terms of doing stuff -- everyday stuff, exertion,etc.
The physiological features of FMS have always, understandably, interested me because there's a ready option in doing less so that you are less stressed by pain and stiffness. I was a RN and also --when my condition kicked in -- trained as a massage therapist when I couldn't work a full time job.
En route I've explored a few 'fitness' and exercise modalities as well movement regimes like Feldenkrais and Tai Chi. I even helped teach Tai Chi for a time -- and I've done walking and everyday pool exercises in line with the presumed wisdom about light exercising to maintain flexibility.
But the reality is -- and I have the intimate knowledge of my own body to prove this -- that light is a mistaken course as is just aerobic.None of these approaches arrest the condition. Inasmuch as they have an impact they slow its course but disuse and stiffness bears down upon the muscular skeletal system nonetheless. So, five years ago I was walking with a cane and thought I'd be in an electric mobile thing in a few years.
So here's what I did, because i think it's an interesting story.
#1 I switched from a walking cane to trekking poles -- either singly or in pairs and the shift pulled me upright as my shoulders rose to the higher grasp. I no longer walk with any aids.
#2 Since I had difficulty mounting a bicycle, I built myself a scooter -- a dog scooter -- and pushed that. I know use a (Norwegian style)kickbike. to get around.
#3 Two years back I started at a boxing gym with a weekly trainer. It has taken me the best part of 20 months to register physical gains as I slowly built up my exercise capacity.The literature in regard to FMS is dead wrong in regard to pain management and the like -- weight training in the context of boxing exercise has been the best thing I've ever done to deal with my condition.
It is because I've really taken to kettlebells that I found my way to CrossFit -- as I did a search, "Fibromylagia" + "Kettlebells" and found this thread.. After watching the videos I'm gonna find my own way into CrossFittery.
The kettebells were very important for me because they broke through a sort of amour that had constrained my lower back and core. Granted a light workout with the bells meant that I spent a good part of the next 3 days in bed -- but as I kept at it, moving the weight up slowly and restraining the vigor of my workout -- I'm getting to a level of confidence with fewer side effects.
So what's the drill with Fibromyalgia?
Lesson 1: Weights. Push the envelope slowly. Don't over do it or the client won't come back or won't be able to. I cannot as yet comment on gymnastics although I've taught myself to skip.
Lesson 2: The FMS client has to set the parameters. Not you. There's no room for a Boot Camp approach. Its' all about , I guess, movement awareness and confidence with the routines an you gain strength.. (And the knowledge -- like this -- that others have also done it). Group sessions are no good-- it has to be one on one.
Lesson 3: Pain in FMS is relieved and restrained by exercise that pushes the body rather than simply moving it. My first break through was to relieve upper body pain through the poles and then by weight lifting and boxing. Lower body pain only began to lessen by using the kettlebells. Sit ups were a waste of time.
Lesson 4: FMS is also a sleep disturbance complicated by the depth of restful sleep you get. An exercise regime that strains the body a bit (but not too much) is the very best hypnotic(?2-4 hours before bed). I'm trying to establish an evening routine of workouts so I can harvest it effect on my sleep pattern. The problem is I'm more tired, stiffer and cumbersome as the day wears on. But that's another consideration -- designing an at home routine that promotes good rest.I can come home from a gym session and sleep for up to three hours -- so there's no ready solution here.
I guess the main thing to note is that I'm having my best Summer in years -- and Summer here in sub tropical Brisbane, Australia -- is always my worse time.Its' the strength training routine I'm no exploring and, inasmuch as I understand the CrossFit philosophy I think there are a few aspects there that are very relevant to where I need to go but without over doing it as bed is a bugger of a place to spend your life.
Furthermore, while I'll never be free of this stinking dog -- as weather changes set me off and I always will get relapses big time -- the heavy training I am now doing enables me to bounce back quicker so that I'm less incapacitated. when I do have relapses. Even "having relapses" is nice change as I was chronically ill all the time for years so there seemed hardly much variation!
In real time, my first achievement was to be able to move my session time up from 10 minutes to 30. Now I do 40 intense minutes at home most days. But some days I tun up and am just happy that I can make it though my half hour so I just gotta do it light. (I say "light" and try to distract my instructor by prattling on and sharing anecdotes. Some days I literally cannot walk home the one mile from the gym.)
But that's OK. In FMS: no pain/no gain!
Inflammation would be good in FMS if it could be located.
In comparison your everyday arthritic has it good cause they 've got identifiable symptoms. The reserve option is usually pain killers -- not that they are very effective -- and Tricyclics which impact on sleep patterns and reduce pain and stiffness.
I don't want to take up this thread with treatment options, but I point out that with Tricyclics -- the standard treatment -- there's usually an associated weight gain and that impacts on an exercise regime. Whether exercise can replace the use of Tricyclics is something I'm keen to investigate in real time exertion.
But for instance I can crawl to the gym (with stiffness and pain and mental fog)for my session and go though the most limited of workouts and come away with greatly reduced pain levels. So long as I tick the main "circuit" boxes -- even in light pencil, I'm ahead!
To give you and idea : I live near an urban train line and often use it to travel across town. I may have an appointment and leave my house for the 6 minute walk to the station. Only when I'm mobile does my underlying condition that day begin to register. (I think that's important as exercise tells you where you at in the way that no exercise will not)So when I get to the station I have to walk up this 30 degree ramp -- and every so often -- far too often -- I have to turn around and go back home because I cannot ascend the ramp. If I do I'm dragging on the hand rail to do so.
There's two factors here: One is whether I can walk up the incline -- and the other is once I get where I'm going,how do I manage to drag my body back home again?
But the very next day, or maybe even later that very day -- I can do a 30 minute workout or push my kickbike 5 kilometers.
So we aren't talking about constancy. This is a mercurial condition harnessed I think by playing around with the pain and exertion threshold. And, if I kick in some adrenalin -- the pain is overridden such that if I'm crossing a street in stiffness mode and a big semi trailer bears down on me I can run across to save my skin when I began the crossing shuffling. I may not be at my fastest, but I have leeway in that context to do more than I thought I could. Thats' always the case.
So I think you can always exercise regardless how you feel --so long as you pitch is ts demands on your physiology.
Exercise is a war with your body's seeming preference.
Another feature of exercise worth while noting is that it has proven a boon for concentration which goes into free fall with FMS. Memory and focus do suffer with FMS and --as the contribution here from a woman with FMS indicates re typoes(as my own surely) -- a sort of poor typing discipline, aphasia and dyslexia kick in. In that regard I've found the discipline of gym exercise -- the counting and the numbers/calls -- the noting of the clock -- very useful in retaining my mind to work with more focus.
For instance it took me a long time to master the number/punch scatter that occurs with focus mitts. It took me 12 months to be on the right punch for the call for a whole workout. Now I hardly lose it as I've retrained my head to lock into what I'm doing.
Well a diagnose can also offer its own burdens because that by default can be a sentence if you let it.
I just read Katrina's excellent paper and note the scattered nature of the conclusions from research into exercise programs.But what I wrote before is true: it has taken me close to 2 years to register observable,albeit subjective, changes in my FMS. That comes after many years of experimentation with different modalities and an extended period during which my condition was deteriorating.
There is a difference between improvement in symptoms and symptoms not getting worse and the literature doesn't recognise that divide as the latter is hardly a research topic registered in standard hypotheses. Exercise is a given -- an absolute imperative -- but what form of exercise is best suited to also encourage symptom moderation is the main question.
I guess my answer, for now, isn't so much low intensity at all (eg: Tai Chi, a water aerobics, etc)but reasonably high intensity workouts so long as it is of short duration (eg: approx 30 minutes ) -- with consideration that the intensity is varied according to symptoms presenting on the day.It is very important for me to attend my weekly session with my trainer, regardless of how I feel, as the routine has to rule. And outside that time I need to follow a regime that includes at least two other workouts in any one week (although I usually do more in any seven day period -- at least that's always the plan).
I've done daily water workouts(we have a pool here which I used even in winter when I'd wear a wetsuit), tai chi, walking, stretches, cycling, sauna and massage -- and my conclusion thus far is that I'm now on a bit of a winner. I haven't got my head around the ways and means of CrossFit so I cannot say what application that philosophy may have to FMS -- but my initial reaction is supportive of its utility.
I also have an interest in getting off Tricylics for pain or reducing my dosage so that I can be free of the side effects but these meds do reduce pain significantly (and, of course, they ameliorate symptoms of depression).
But I do think there is a case to be made for drafting a trainers charter for FMS clients as it's clear that many professionals are ignorant of the nature of the condition and have not one iota of a comprehension of how to relate to it. At my gym, with another trainer, I would have given up long ago because I would have been macho overworked. My complication is that I'm highly motivated and don't make a habit of saying I have Fibomyalgia, so I'm not about being passive or playing at victim hood either.
So what's my conclusion? At least anecdotally, from my POV.
FMS sufferers can do 30 minute workout sessions if the program is graduated and pitched not so much on a week to week rising scale of attainments but how the symptoms present on the day. Of course more challenging exercises has to be built into the overall graph of the program --if only for a sense of accomplishment -- but the impact of the program may not be felt for many months.
I don't think what exercises are performed is so important but consideration should be given to ameliorating pain in specific regions of the body.I am always a touch confused with FMS as to its record of impact and pain in weight bearing as against other muscle groups -- and I'm thinking more about that in regard to the use of kettlebells which are devices that seem to tick a lot of boxes. Boxing was excellent for ameliorating my upper body and upper arm pain and I had been using a leg press machine for my lower body. But kettlebells were more effective in dealing with lower back and thigh ouch points. This may have something to do with why chiropractors recommend them .
I should also point out that there is a safety issue with FMS in any gym as the nasty 'fibro fog' can greatly undermine concentration even, at times, independent of muscular pain and stiffness symptoms.So treat such clients like children in a gym situation if required.That means instructions may have to be repeated several times so that the procedure is adhered to in complete detail.
In summary I guess I have to revert to and recommend the standard gym mantra: no pain/no gain -- so long is due consideration is given to variability.For instance I worked out this morning by myself at the gym with skipping, leg presses, kettlebells and a bit of very light clean and jerk over 30 minutes. I felt fine and walked another 3 kilometres afterwards to grocery shop in 30C heat (86F) . .. But tonight I could hardly walk once the weather change kicked in and I had to drag myself across town and transit by hobbling.
(But you see I still hobbled foward. That's the point.)
Tomorrow, I expect to be OK for another (light) morning session because I know that the catalyst for the stiffness wasn't the workout....But that's the drill. What the exercise gives me is "bounce" -- I can recover much quicker from such relapses which other times used to last days or even weeks.
That's the core treasure that exercise like this offers me -- that and the amelioration of some pain symptoms more generally day to day.And yes, body/movement awareness -- that's crucial.
Anyway I'll leave that for my contribution and maybe check back in months with a similar homily....By then I should be more familiar with CrossFit ways and means.
The physiological features of FMS have always, understandably, interested me because there's a ready option in doing less so that you are less stressed by pain and stiffness. I was a RN and also --when my condition kicked in -- trained as a massage therapist when I couldn't work a full time job.
En route I've explored a few 'fitness' and exercise modalities as well movement regimes like Feldenkrais and Tai Chi. I even helped teach Tai Chi for a time -- and I've done walking and everyday pool exercises in line with the presumed wisdom about light exercising to maintain flexibility.
But the reality is -- and I have the intimate knowledge of my own body to prove this -- that light is a mistaken course as is just aerobic.None of these approaches arrest the condition. Inasmuch as they have an impact they slow its course but disuse and stiffness bears down upon the muscular skeletal system nonetheless. So, five years ago I was walking with a cane and thought I'd be in an electric mobile thing in a few years.
So here's what I did, because i think it's an interesting story.
#1 I switched from a walking cane to trekking poles -- either singly or in pairs and the shift pulled me upright as my shoulders rose to the higher grasp. I no longer walk with any aids.
#2 Since I had difficulty mounting a bicycle, I built myself a scooter -- a dog scooter -- and pushed that. I know use a (Norwegian style)kickbike. to get around.
#3 Two years back I started at a boxing gym with a weekly trainer. It has taken me the best part of 20 months to register physical gains as I slowly built up my exercise capacity.The literature in regard to FMS is dead wrong in regard to pain management and the like -- weight training in the context of boxing exercise has been the best thing I've ever done to deal with my condition.
It is because I've really taken to kettlebells that I found my way to CrossFit -- as I did a search, "Fibromylagia" + "Kettlebells" and found this thread.. After watching the videos I'm gonna find my own way into CrossFittery.
The kettebells were very important for me because they broke through a sort of amour that had constrained my lower back and core. Granted a light workout with the bells meant that I spent a good part of the next 3 days in bed -- but as I kept at it, moving the weight up slowly and restraining the vigor of my workout -- I'm getting to a level of confidence with fewer side effects.
So what's the drill with Fibromyalgia?
Lesson 1: Weights. Push the envelope slowly. Don't over do it or the client won't come back or won't be able to. I cannot as yet comment on gymnastics although I've taught myself to skip.
Lesson 2: The FMS client has to set the parameters. Not you. There's no room for a Boot Camp approach. Its' all about , I guess, movement awareness and confidence with the routines an you gain strength.. (And the knowledge -- like this -- that others have also done it). Group sessions are no good-- it has to be one on one.
Lesson 3: Pain in FMS is relieved and restrained by exercise that pushes the body rather than simply moving it. My first break through was to relieve upper body pain through the poles and then by weight lifting and boxing. Lower body pain only began to lessen by using the kettlebells. Sit ups were a waste of time.
Lesson 4: FMS is also a sleep disturbance complicated by the depth of restful sleep you get. An exercise regime that strains the body a bit (but not too much) is the very best hypnotic(?2-4 hours before bed). I'm trying to establish an evening routine of workouts so I can harvest it effect on my sleep pattern. The problem is I'm more tired, stiffer and cumbersome as the day wears on. But that's another consideration -- designing an at home routine that promotes good rest.I can come home from a gym session and sleep for up to three hours -- so there's no ready solution here.
I guess the main thing to note is that I'm having my best Summer in years -- and Summer here in sub tropical Brisbane, Australia -- is always my worse time.Its' the strength training routine I'm no exploring and, inasmuch as I understand the CrossFit philosophy I think there are a few aspects there that are very relevant to where I need to go but without over doing it as bed is a bugger of a place to spend your life.
Furthermore, while I'll never be free of this stinking dog -- as weather changes set me off and I always will get relapses big time -- the heavy training I am now doing enables me to bounce back quicker so that I'm less incapacitated. when I do have relapses. Even "having relapses" is nice change as I was chronically ill all the time for years so there seemed hardly much variation!
In real time, my first achievement was to be able to move my session time up from 10 minutes to 30. Now I do 40 intense minutes at home most days. But some days I tun up and am just happy that I can make it though my half hour so I just gotta do it light. (I say "light" and try to distract my instructor by prattling on and sharing anecdotes. Some days I literally cannot walk home the one mile from the gym.)
But that's OK. In FMS: no pain/no gain!
Inflammation would be good in FMS if it could be located.
In comparison your everyday arthritic has it good cause they 've got identifiable symptoms. The reserve option is usually pain killers -- not that they are very effective -- and Tricyclics which impact on sleep patterns and reduce pain and stiffness.
I don't want to take up this thread with treatment options, but I point out that with Tricyclics -- the standard treatment -- there's usually an associated weight gain and that impacts on an exercise regime. Whether exercise can replace the use of Tricyclics is something I'm keen to investigate in real time exertion.
But for instance I can crawl to the gym (with stiffness and pain and mental fog)for my session and go though the most limited of workouts and come away with greatly reduced pain levels. So long as I tick the main "circuit" boxes -- even in light pencil, I'm ahead!
To give you and idea : I live near an urban train line and often use it to travel across town. I may have an appointment and leave my house for the 6 minute walk to the station. Only when I'm mobile does my underlying condition that day begin to register. (I think that's important as exercise tells you where you at in the way that no exercise will not)So when I get to the station I have to walk up this 30 degree ramp -- and every so often -- far too often -- I have to turn around and go back home because I cannot ascend the ramp. If I do I'm dragging on the hand rail to do so.
There's two factors here: One is whether I can walk up the incline -- and the other is once I get where I'm going,how do I manage to drag my body back home again?
But the very next day, or maybe even later that very day -- I can do a 30 minute workout or push my kickbike 5 kilometers.
So we aren't talking about constancy. This is a mercurial condition harnessed I think by playing around with the pain and exertion threshold. And, if I kick in some adrenalin -- the pain is overridden such that if I'm crossing a street in stiffness mode and a big semi trailer bears down on me I can run across to save my skin when I began the crossing shuffling. I may not be at my fastest, but I have leeway in that context to do more than I thought I could. Thats' always the case.
So I think you can always exercise regardless how you feel --so long as you pitch is ts demands on your physiology.
Exercise is a war with your body's seeming preference.
Another feature of exercise worth while noting is that it has proven a boon for concentration which goes into free fall with FMS. Memory and focus do suffer with FMS and --as the contribution here from a woman with FMS indicates re typoes(as my own surely) -- a sort of poor typing discipline, aphasia and dyslexia kick in. In that regard I've found the discipline of gym exercise -- the counting and the numbers/calls -- the noting of the clock -- very useful in retaining my mind to work with more focus.
For instance it took me a long time to master the number/punch scatter that occurs with focus mitts. It took me 12 months to be on the right punch for the call for a whole workout. Now I hardly lose it as I've retrained my head to lock into what I'm doing.
Well a diagnose can also offer its own burdens because that by default can be a sentence if you let it.
I just read Katrina's excellent paper and note the scattered nature of the conclusions from research into exercise programs.But what I wrote before is true: it has taken me close to 2 years to register observable,albeit subjective, changes in my FMS. That comes after many years of experimentation with different modalities and an extended period during which my condition was deteriorating.
There is a difference between improvement in symptoms and symptoms not getting worse and the literature doesn't recognise that divide as the latter is hardly a research topic registered in standard hypotheses. Exercise is a given -- an absolute imperative -- but what form of exercise is best suited to also encourage symptom moderation is the main question.
I guess my answer, for now, isn't so much low intensity at all (eg: Tai Chi, a water aerobics, etc)but reasonably high intensity workouts so long as it is of short duration (eg: approx 30 minutes ) -- with consideration that the intensity is varied according to symptoms presenting on the day.It is very important for me to attend my weekly session with my trainer, regardless of how I feel, as the routine has to rule. And outside that time I need to follow a regime that includes at least two other workouts in any one week (although I usually do more in any seven day period -- at least that's always the plan).
I've done daily water workouts(we have a pool here which I used even in winter when I'd wear a wetsuit), tai chi, walking, stretches, cycling, sauna and massage -- and my conclusion thus far is that I'm now on a bit of a winner. I haven't got my head around the ways and means of CrossFit so I cannot say what application that philosophy may have to FMS -- but my initial reaction is supportive of its utility.
I also have an interest in getting off Tricylics for pain or reducing my dosage so that I can be free of the side effects but these meds do reduce pain significantly (and, of course, they ameliorate symptoms of depression).
But I do think there is a case to be made for drafting a trainers charter for FMS clients as it's clear that many professionals are ignorant of the nature of the condition and have not one iota of a comprehension of how to relate to it. At my gym, with another trainer, I would have given up long ago because I would have been macho overworked. My complication is that I'm highly motivated and don't make a habit of saying I have Fibomyalgia, so I'm not about being passive or playing at victim hood either.
So what's my conclusion? At least anecdotally, from my POV.
FMS sufferers can do 30 minute workout sessions if the program is graduated and pitched not so much on a week to week rising scale of attainments but how the symptoms present on the day. Of course more challenging exercises has to be built into the overall graph of the program --if only for a sense of accomplishment -- but the impact of the program may not be felt for many months.
I don't think what exercises are performed is so important but consideration should be given to ameliorating pain in specific regions of the body.I am always a touch confused with FMS as to its record of impact and pain in weight bearing as against other muscle groups -- and I'm thinking more about that in regard to the use of kettlebells which are devices that seem to tick a lot of boxes. Boxing was excellent for ameliorating my upper body and upper arm pain and I had been using a leg press machine for my lower body. But kettlebells were more effective in dealing with lower back and thigh ouch points. This may have something to do with why chiropractors recommend them .
I should also point out that there is a safety issue with FMS in any gym as the nasty 'fibro fog' can greatly undermine concentration even, at times, independent of muscular pain and stiffness symptoms.So treat such clients like children in a gym situation if required.That means instructions may have to be repeated several times so that the procedure is adhered to in complete detail.
In summary I guess I have to revert to and recommend the standard gym mantra: no pain/no gain -- so long is due consideration is given to variability.For instance I worked out this morning by myself at the gym with skipping, leg presses, kettlebells and a bit of very light clean and jerk over 30 minutes. I felt fine and walked another 3 kilometres afterwards to grocery shop in 30C heat (86F) . .. But tonight I could hardly walk once the weather change kicked in and I had to drag myself across town and transit by hobbling.
(But you see I still hobbled foward. That's the point.)
Tomorrow, I expect to be OK for another (light) morning session because I know that the catalyst for the stiffness wasn't the workout....But that's the drill. What the exercise gives me is "bounce" -- I can recover much quicker from such relapses which other times used to last days or even weeks.
That's the core treasure that exercise like this offers me -- that and the amelioration of some pain symptoms more generally day to day.And yes, body/movement awareness -- that's crucial.
Anyway I'll leave that for my contribution and maybe check back in months with a similar homily....By then I should be more familiar with CrossFit ways and means.
| Originally Posted by Stephen R. Lampl  Meg, For right now, though, she continues to have issues with any "standard" weight/resistance exercise - - she is normally bed-ridden for two or three days afterwards. |
Yeah, well that's the case unfortunately but the main issue is that you aint gonna die. I think too much has been written about the dangers of physical exertion in FMS.
While stress is very real and potent and exercise is indeed very stressful, it is stress with a return. I spent too long playing up to those notions, too long being protective and careful that I may 'overdo it' while pandering to 'range of motion' regimes premised on aerobic notions.
I've just spent the last three days in and out of bed -- and most of today asleep -- primarily because of weather changes -- but I know that I will recover and I will bounce back much quicker because I've toned up the old bod with regular workouts.
Without it there's this down time envelope that may persist for awhile as though my body has lost its memory of how to navigate itself back to normal mode. Thats' the trick: with FMS in free fall you forget what 'well' is like and accept passively what the illness throws at you so you try to negotiate comfort by its terms: prostrate rather than upright.
Easy. But the very worse response.
I've spent two or three days stiff, sore and often asleep and bedridden after a workout too. Every time I up my exertion level is it may happen but the trick is to negotiate the curve nonetheless -- working a little bit longer or a little bit harder as the weeks go by: gambling with your body's response.
This may seem totally ridiculous as though it's only invested true grit -- but if you do your homework and chart your recovery time, you bounce out of relapses faster . You'll note a steady gain in controlling your symptoms: less pain, fewer analgesic medications, more vitality, etc. The real trick isn't the sense of exertion but the somatic awareness.
It's real hard work to get a sense of that.
Yesterday morning I worked out at the gym on kettlebells and skipped; did a little boxing, tried to do a few pull ups, and was a bit stiff in the afternoon and had to sleep as a weather change swept over the town.
All my chores and my routine were put on hold.(Eg: I write journalism and none got written so I missed my deadline)
This morning I walked to the railway station to attend a meeting but couldn't climb the ramp and had to come home. I went straight back to bed and then slept to early afternoon..
Nonetheless I walked the dogs for 40 minutes this afternoon had a meal and went back to bed. So I went out between naps.
I have a session with my trainer early tomorrow morning and I'm hoping to be able to make it and last the full 30 minutes.I almost postponed it and thought: let's risk it -- let's see how I pull up when I awake.
Obviously a big component of this is cognitive -- by working out I get to sit in the driver's seat and feel a bit like 'can do'.It puts me in a sort of co-control.
That's because, in my estimation, surviving FMS is an exercise in opportunism -- you do the best with what you've got at any one moment.
It's a series of levels I guess which you engineer. My base level is cooking an evening meal. If I do nothing else in the day at least I should be able to do that. Sometimes I can't manage that, maybe a few times each year. Another level is walking the dogs. A third is working out for 20-30 mins or pushing my kickbike..
Then there are other levels -- with the advantage of using a gym being a regular reason to get out of the house. (I try to get to the gym at least 3 times per week) I actually think I have pandered too much to 'working from home' . And having a session with my trainer is a major event for me every week -- it's like going to church. (But the day -- or for the 2 days after -- I never plan on achieving much as my sessions with the trainer are harder than the ones where I push myself)
So I have these levels and some accompanying aims. The levels give me a meter of where I'm at and the aims push me along.
So I had to increase my session times from 8 minutes to 30; skip rope from 20 skips to maybe a few hundred now; box work out on the bag longer than 30 seconds to a succession of 2 minute rounds,etc. There is nothing special about such gradations except that I'm occasionally physically and mentally gah gah. Nonetheless I can expect to increase my weight and resistance regime and as I wrote above -- I am saying I do now register qualitative results after 18 months to 2 years of this!
I've never found a direct result between 'x' amount of exercising and illness moderation immediate after or within a set period of time. I don't have that luxury so it is a mistake to expect there is a direct immediate relationship between the two. And the research I've seen about exercise & FMS tends to fall into that trap. The research period is of such short duration that there is likely to be a placebo effect in play as much as physiological gain being registered.
I cannot then say -- well go for it! CrossFit for the Fibomyalgics -- because I don't understand CrossFit much. I think the exertion level may be too intense from what I've seen on the videos. But the perspective, the exercises themselves, the postural correction and the challenges of the main routines should be within my own reach overtime time.
[For instance I'd like to be able to do one pull up sometime over the next year...]
I like the CF approach primarily because it starts with the squat and I've learnt that the squat, for me, is a powerful means for me to overcome pain -- just as weight training (and boxing)has impacted on pain and stiffness in my limbs.
But since I've had this beast for 24 years now....I have its measure a bit. And I guess the main thing is to do what someone suggested here and ignore it. Transcend the illness and instead deal with the range of symptoms as they occur. So when I come to my session with my trainer -- nothing is set in stone. If I have a few symptoms that day we work around them. And in a normal gym what you lose on the swings you can gain on the slides....
{That also suggests that any trainer working with someone with FMS should only address the symptoms not the illness as though its somehow pre-ordained rehab. I haven't bothered my trainer with a diagnosis I just say 'arthritic' and "it varies" and we trim the work out to suit the day. No sweat. }
I've also learnt that working out has to be niche driven -- that is by being opportunistic. If I was asleep for a good part of today I seized the window of walking the dogs just as if I cannot work out at 10am and may be able to do so at 7pm.
While stress is very real and potent and exercise is indeed very stressful, it is stress with a return. I spent too long playing up to those notions, too long being protective and careful that I may 'overdo it' while pandering to 'range of motion' regimes premised on aerobic notions.
I've just spent the last three days in and out of bed -- and most of today asleep -- primarily because of weather changes -- but I know that I will recover and I will bounce back much quicker because I've toned up the old bod with regular workouts.
Without it there's this down time envelope that may persist for awhile as though my body has lost its memory of how to navigate itself back to normal mode. Thats' the trick: with FMS in free fall you forget what 'well' is like and accept passively what the illness throws at you so you try to negotiate comfort by its terms: prostrate rather than upright.
Easy. But the very worse response.
I've spent two or three days stiff, sore and often asleep and bedridden after a workout too. Every time I up my exertion level is it may happen but the trick is to negotiate the curve nonetheless -- working a little bit longer or a little bit harder as the weeks go by: gambling with your body's response.
This may seem totally ridiculous as though it's only invested true grit -- but if you do your homework and chart your recovery time, you bounce out of relapses faster . You'll note a steady gain in controlling your symptoms: less pain, fewer analgesic medications, more vitality, etc. The real trick isn't the sense of exertion but the somatic awareness.
It's real hard work to get a sense of that.
Yesterday morning I worked out at the gym on kettlebells and skipped; did a little boxing, tried to do a few pull ups, and was a bit stiff in the afternoon and had to sleep as a weather change swept over the town.
All my chores and my routine were put on hold.(Eg: I write journalism and none got written so I missed my deadline)
This morning I walked to the railway station to attend a meeting but couldn't climb the ramp and had to come home. I went straight back to bed and then slept to early afternoon..
Nonetheless I walked the dogs for 40 minutes this afternoon had a meal and went back to bed. So I went out between naps.
I have a session with my trainer early tomorrow morning and I'm hoping to be able to make it and last the full 30 minutes.I almost postponed it and thought: let's risk it -- let's see how I pull up when I awake.
Obviously a big component of this is cognitive -- by working out I get to sit in the driver's seat and feel a bit like 'can do'.It puts me in a sort of co-control.
That's because, in my estimation, surviving FMS is an exercise in opportunism -- you do the best with what you've got at any one moment.
It's a series of levels I guess which you engineer. My base level is cooking an evening meal. If I do nothing else in the day at least I should be able to do that. Sometimes I can't manage that, maybe a few times each year. Another level is walking the dogs. A third is working out for 20-30 mins or pushing my kickbike..
Then there are other levels -- with the advantage of using a gym being a regular reason to get out of the house. (I try to get to the gym at least 3 times per week) I actually think I have pandered too much to 'working from home' . And having a session with my trainer is a major event for me every week -- it's like going to church. (But the day -- or for the 2 days after -- I never plan on achieving much as my sessions with the trainer are harder than the ones where I push myself)
So I have these levels and some accompanying aims. The levels give me a meter of where I'm at and the aims push me along.
So I had to increase my session times from 8 minutes to 30; skip rope from 20 skips to maybe a few hundred now; box work out on the bag longer than 30 seconds to a succession of 2 minute rounds,etc. There is nothing special about such gradations except that I'm occasionally physically and mentally gah gah. Nonetheless I can expect to increase my weight and resistance regime and as I wrote above -- I am saying I do now register qualitative results after 18 months to 2 years of this!
I've never found a direct result between 'x' amount of exercising and illness moderation immediate after or within a set period of time. I don't have that luxury so it is a mistake to expect there is a direct immediate relationship between the two. And the research I've seen about exercise & FMS tends to fall into that trap. The research period is of such short duration that there is likely to be a placebo effect in play as much as physiological gain being registered.
I cannot then say -- well go for it! CrossFit for the Fibomyalgics -- because I don't understand CrossFit much. I think the exertion level may be too intense from what I've seen on the videos. But the perspective, the exercises themselves, the postural correction and the challenges of the main routines should be within my own reach overtime time.
[For instance I'd like to be able to do one pull up sometime over the next year...]
I like the CF approach primarily because it starts with the squat and I've learnt that the squat, for me, is a powerful means for me to overcome pain -- just as weight training (and boxing)has impacted on pain and stiffness in my limbs.
But since I've had this beast for 24 years now....I have its measure a bit. And I guess the main thing is to do what someone suggested here and ignore it. Transcend the illness and instead deal with the range of symptoms as they occur. So when I come to my session with my trainer -- nothing is set in stone. If I have a few symptoms that day we work around them. And in a normal gym what you lose on the swings you can gain on the slides....
{That also suggests that any trainer working with someone with FMS should only address the symptoms not the illness as though its somehow pre-ordained rehab. I haven't bothered my trainer with a diagnosis I just say 'arthritic' and "it varies" and we trim the work out to suit the day. No sweat. }
I've also learnt that working out has to be niche driven -- that is by being opportunistic. If I was asleep for a good part of today I seized the window of walking the dogs just as if I cannot work out at 10am and may be able to do so at 7pm.
Prospects for 2009
I'm having the most comfortable Summer I've had in years , thanks to my exercise regime. Despite the occasional relapses -- this week of almost three days -- I can bounce back out of bed and get back on my feet doing the normal stuff in one quick turn around.
The main motor for this is the workouts which I now do 3-4 times per week with a trainer conducted session each Friday. But it has taken me all of 20 months to get to this level of 'fitness' response. Nonetheless my progress now is heartening and I'm able to work harder and longer.
The key elements of my routines are:
The main motor for this is the workouts which I now do 3-4 times per week with a trainer conducted session each Friday. But it has taken me all of 20 months to get to this level of 'fitness' response. Nonetheless my progress now is heartening and I'm able to work harder and longer.
The key elements of my routines are:
- Skipping: I can skip! Despite my continuing heavy weight I can skip hundreds of times in one place without much strain to my system. So each workout begins with skipping.
- Boxing: I do at elast three rounds of boxing -- either on the bag or focus mitts. I love it.
- Kettlebells: My regime has qualitatively changed since I seriously took up with kettlebells. It has given more the ability to work on and activate my lower core regions and opened a brand new world up to me. I'm now exploring dead lifts as well and pull ups. In the same mode I've been exposed to a range of exotic training regimes: CrossFit, Underground Strength and Tabata
- Kickbike: Betwixt and between porting me hither and yon is me on my kickbike.
10 September, 2007
My regime is a' kicking in
At the mo I can boast that I am coasting along nicely with a series of applications that are all part of my Kickbiking journey. The kickbike --and my journey with same -- is a metaphor for the whole package. It's a marker of what's cooking in way of my physiological makeover.Biking
I do of course kick -- I own a neighbour-made dogscooter and I've been kicking it along for a few years. I'm also only a few weeks away from obtaining a Kickbike (as can be seen to the left above --that colour too) which will take me up another major notch as the Kickbike is a lot easier to kick along than a dogscooter.
But I try to get out and about on my dosgscooter every day if I can manage it. The problem is that it offers journeys that are not as long nor as easy to execute as what the Kickbike promises. So if I shop I do it with the dogscooter -- but I'm not scootering it for the sake of a relaxing ride.
But as a shopping tool -- the dogscooter is grand. Its' my mule.
Boxing
The other core element is the boxing/box exercising. Typically I'm engaged so much that I doing background research on the sport, which is also called Fitness Boxing. I used to do Tai chi -- I even helped teach the form -- and somewhere within me is a memory of the complete form...but I think 'fitness boxing' is much better as a exercise medium because it pushes the physiological envelope and can selectively work on or rehabilitate focused regions of the musculo-skeletal and cardio-vascular systems.
It is also eclectic, flexible and pragmatic enough to be relevant to a whole spectrum of other engaged activities or sports -- from kickbiking to sitting at a computer work station.
What strikes me as very radical is the way that boxing fitness is harnessed. Its strict time quotients and surges of demand engineer a very intense and holistic work out. It may niggle you a bit in regard to the pain barrier but like all boot camps you soon get to graduate.
Eating
My sentence has been that as I age with my illness to accompany me, worsening ill health has progressed in tandem with weight gain. While I've always done daily exercise and kept to a reasonably good diet without much in the way of over eating -- genotype(my father was a diabetic) and the so often sentence of immobility has conspired against me and I'm pre-diabetic.
I would tear my hair out because despite my lifestyle I was being encased in a layer of blubber that in turn only served to further limit my mobility.
Over the past five years as my health got worse and especially over the last two -- it appears I have been sentenced to not only suffer big time but also to be further sentenced to increasing handicap and probably of a shortened time on earth.
I've hardly ever been an 'ideal weight' in regard to those codifying markers such as the BMI. Even when I was running close to 50 kms per week every week I never got below 75kgm and later I touched that weight only after spending a year on the Pritikin diet soon after I fell ill.
So my illness in serving to restrict my activity -- despite my exercise activities -- has also sponsored weight gain.
Since I've been a bit of a cynic when it came to weight reduction diets as they do indeed make you fat my life,nutritionally, has changed radically since I embraced the principles and logic of the GI Index.
And finally, albeit slowly, I'm beginning to lose it--despite the fact that in following the exercises I do, I am replacing fat with muscle -- which is heavier than fat.
So it is slow.
But the GI "diet" is a way of seeing food. It's a qualitatively very different approach to the nutrients you put in your mouth. And it's all backed up by scientific research and not crude caloric quotients.
The GI Diet is not only a way to lose weight but also a means to protect yourself from the toll or threat of Diabetes Type II because it has a kick arse approach to carbohydrate metabolism.
It is, as the rhetoric says: a GI Revolution.
10,000 Steps
Pulling all this together is the 10,000 steps program. This is a walking program that you run for yourself with a pedometer and daily use of the very interactive web pages. It is a program sponsored and promoted by the Brisbane City Council here -- especially through items -- like pedometers and videos-- you can borrow from the BCC library system.
Thats' how I got started by you don't need that entrez point if you live elsewhere.
But the good thing about 10,00 Steps is that it offers you the leeway to trade off walking effort -- in way of number of steps -- with intensity of activity. So I can enter my boxing workouts and my kickbiking journeys along with my walking as elements contributing to my present average of over 12,000 steps per day.
This anchors what I do a lot and generates a feeling for the big picture of all that I do in way of physical activity.
So the 10,00 Steps and the GI diet are a sort of orchestration of the total package I'm pursuing -- and, to my mind, the Kickbike is its symbol of the lot because a 'kick' is a totally holistic physical act.
Later on I want to see what I can do, despite my many handicaps, with such a machine -- the Kickbike --as a measure of my success.
31 July, 2007
Where I'm coming from
I've been trying to generate a better exercise regime for most of this year. I started at a very low level of daily walks with the dog -- something I've done for decades -- but over time I enriched these by employing trekking poles.I've used a cane to walk with for almost 15 years and gravitated to trekking poles as my standard mode of dress. When "walking" for exercise I use two. When walking out and about during everyday activities -- I use one .
I swear by them. Get yourself a pair. They're the best thing I've ever bought.
'Swimming'
I got into the poles not only because I needed a walking stick and was reliant on one but also because I used to do most of my hard core exercising in the domestic pool.
Our pool at home here is a 3 metre diameter round aquaculture tank -- in a Dixie Cup shape --deep enough for the water level to come up to my chest nipples. I'd work out by dragging myself around and around the pool in half hour training sessions.
The action of reaching forward to drag myself along on two feet made me recognise the sense of trekking poles long before I got my own pair. I was cross country ski-ing in my sub tropical swimming pool.
10,000 Steps
Another great discovery has been the 10,00 Steps Program This is a website that offers motivational interactivity as you get to log your progress by keeping your own inspiring records. All you need is a good pedometer and the 10,000 Steps one is the best I've used.
Here is my trekking story below:
Daily Step Log: July 2007
The very low figures are days I could hardly walk
The very low figures are days I could hardly walk
Click on image to enlarge view| Start Date: | 24 th May 2007 |
| Progress steps: | 781,012 (over 69 days, 69 with steps entries) |
| Your next milestone: | 1 million steps |
| Remaining steps: | 218,988 steps |
| Your average steps per day: | 11,319 |
At present I'm trying to engineer a daily scootering regime in preparation to stepping up to the Kickbike plate.
10 July, 2007
About this blog
This blog has been created to log my kickbike journey. I've pushed a dogscooter for a few years as a means to get around suburban Brisbane.
I don't drive and have always relied on public transport, shank's pony and bikes or scooters to get around.
I have also suffered from Fibromyalgia for over 20 years and this has greatly restricted my physical activities while making it urgent that I find ways to be physically active every day.
Due to the associated restraints imposed on my mobility by increasing stiffness and a reduction in my range of movement, riding a bicycle was often very difficult especially the mounting and peddling part of the exercise. (Rather big parts of bicycling are they not?)
So I gravitated to the ease of step on and step off scootering.
After a a terrible bout of ill health during all of 2006 I've been trying to claw myself back to a level of "fitness". As I worked harder at this task and considered my options I began to elevate scootering in my estimation as an activity that could give me the sort of workout and range of movement challenges that could foster a qualitatively faster growth in my physical well being.
Kickbikes are usually promoted as fast and challenging bikes that can push you to the max.
Well, I'm not so much interested in that.
My project is to explore the Kickbike as a rehabilitation machine in the same way you'd employ a gym regime tailored for someone with a physical handicap-- in my case, Fibromyalgia/arthritis.
I'm also very interested in the Kickbike as a commuting tool as I often scoot to and from the CBD portaging my present scooter on the train.
What has been written about scooters -- even the ones with small wheels -- in regard to "trip" utility is very true, I think: over short distances any scooter is probably a better way to get hither and yon rather than the mounting and peddling involved with riding a bicycle, say, to school or to the shops.
The advantage with the kickbike, compared to scooters with smaller wheels, is that you can also log the distances if you have a mind to travel that far.
It is easier to push...and it has other attributes I hope to discover as I log my experiences here on this blog.
Kettlebells are ringing..
As part of my rehab program I graduated to gym work by taking on a personal trainer and I now do weekly sessionS built primarily around a boxing gym approach. It was through that training that I really got interested in rope skipping -- a boxer's workout standard -- and kettlebells.
I luv them bells. Like the kickbike kettlebells are about working your body in an all in general motion demanding engagement of the whole body in executing the swing and lift. The traditional gym approach of repetitively working just one group of muscles is dead boring and has nothing to do with what I'm after. So at hom I like to work with the bells. That and a jump rope is all I need. I also own a pair of boxing gloves and work out on the punching bag I have haNging from my veranda roof
Handline Fishing
For relaxation I took up fishing using a handline and since that's also 'exercise' (and casting a handline with the right arm as I fly fisherman may cast a fly ) really strains the arm time after time, because thats' the way I like to fish: wading and casting.
...and gardening
And since it's also physical, I grow vegetables . So I share my gardening activities here also.
I guess this is a blog about aspiring to an active lifestyle even if so often I'm not active at all.
Dave Riley
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