Exercise Update
By patgalca
@patgalca (18481)
Orangeville, Ontario
January 30, 2016 1:41am CST
I do try and get on the treadmill 5 days a week. My weekends are too busy (or I have blow dried my hair and don't want to get all sweaty so stay off. I could do Sundays if I don't have writing group but Sunday are lazy days for me.
I didn't get on the treadmill yesterday so I got on today for 35 minutes. I told myself I wasn't going to push myself. That I was only going to do about 20-25 minutes. I also was going to try and do that twice a day but that only happened once, maybe twice. I was watching a recorded episode of SVU while on the treadmill and kind of got caught up in the show. I was watching the clock on the treadmill but just felt strong enough to keep going. So I went for 35 minutes and forced myself to stop there even though I might have been able to do another 5 minutes.
We shall see how I feel tomorrow. Will my legs be killing me? We'll see. I just feel I've been sitting around the house for way too long, way too sedentary. I feel I need to get up and move around. Treadmill and carrying laundry up and down three flights of stairs should be enough.
I hope I don't feel too badly tomorrow. By the way, this pain from exercise is not just pain from exercise that everyone experiences when they first start exercising. I have fibromyalgia (chronic pain, chronic fatigue, etc.) and have to learn my limitations and to pace myself. But sometimes I start something and I just don't want to stop.
I'm getting tired so will go to bed and hope I don't wake up in a lot of pain. So far my legs are not hurting from my 6pm trek on the treadmill.
3 people like this
4 responses
@yukimori (10192)
• United States
30 Jan 16
I've found that the deciding factor for me in how bad my fibromyalgia pain is seems to be how well I sleep at night rather than how much I do during the day. Of course we're all different, but you might notice a trend if you keep track of that, too. Exercise definitely can help improve the symptoms, but then you have to be mindful of overdoing it because too much can wipe you out for a few days. It's a ridiculously fine balance some days.
It might take a few months (or more) to really start to get a feel for where your limitations are on a given day. It gets a lot easier as time goes on, though, and finding a medication (or combination of them) that works well can do wonders, too.
1 person likes this
@yukimori (10192)
• United States
31 Jan 16
@patgalca I agree, figuring out the limitations and how to pace myself was miserable.
It's great to hear that you didn't have too much trouble with the aftereffects of yesterday's exercise. Have you ever found that you seem to pay for something more than one day later? I've occasionally had that happen... really hate how it throws me for a loop!
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
31 Jan 16
@yukimori When I went to Hawaii I was very healthy. I think it was a combination of the warm weather, very salty air, and possibly the movement of the boat helping me sleep at night. Not too sure about the last one. While there we went parasailing, trekking through the woods to do zip lining on 5 different zip lines (crossing a rope bridge, walking inclines and climbing stairs), and surfing (an hour and a half on the water not only surfing but lying on the board paddling around). I was so surprised that I felt no after affects of any of those - especially the surfing. My husband told people when we got home that he was surprised how well I kept up. I didn't sleep at all for the 12 hour flight there but slept all the way home. After I got home to Ontario in November I totally crashed. I was in bed for a week! I asked my doctor for a prescription to move to Hawaii. 
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (91150)
• United States
30 Jan 16
Hope your exercise doesn't leave you hurting and that you can jump on the treadmill again. Three flights to carry laundry would be enough for me
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
31 Jan 16
Sometimes I do it purposely and carry different loads so I can go up and down a couple of times for exercise rather than stuffing all the clean clothes in a basket and carrying them up in one trip. I did 35 minutes on the treadmill yesterday simply because I didn't feel like stopping. 
