#fibro workout

(I am not a medical professional!! These are just things that work for me!!)

​[[ I would also like to acknowledge this may be helpful to others without chronic pain-so if you read this and it helps you then YAY!! more power to ya and good luck and safety taking care of yourselves ]]

•hydrate hydrate hydrate

•stretches before, during, after working out

•focus less on reps and more on using correct techniques and making the most of the workout/exercise (I like to just set a timer on my phone and do an exercise for that duration of time. If it gets too much I’ll pause the timer and take a break until I can continue)

•start small and work up to more intense exercises

•do strength training before cardio

- (I like to start with a walk/run kinda warm up- do the workout- and then finish with a run/walk cooldown)

•change up your workout routine every once an awhile to keep it interesting/ try different types of exercises( Ex: dancing to videos on YouTube, walking around the neighborhood, swimming, sometimes I’ll use the cat to do arm curls lol)

-workout YouTubers are great places to find new exercises and fun ways to keep your body moving

•listen to your bodies limits go day by day, every other day, this and that

•eat after the workout(protein is most helpful to me) and rehydrate or just hydrate some more

- and keep a record of what helps your symptoms and what makes them worse

•go at your pace not what others expect of you or what the expectations are for an able body

•make sure to base your workout on that days pain/energy levels!! No one wants a great workout and then to not have the energy to shower afterwards

•I’m sure there’s more so I might come back and add to this if I remember but feel free to add your own tips too :)

(!!!AGAIN IM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL I JUST HAVE THE OW AND THIS IS WHAT WORKS FOR ME!!!!)

First off, let me say that I have officially decided that keeping a journal of what you do every day is really good idea. I didn't realize how much more I was doing on Day 3 than on Days 1 and 2 until I wrote it all out and Day 3 was a page by itself. That is also really terrifying because it gives you the opportunity to go "whoa, I am doing SO much, I can just not do anything today". I am currently writing this blog post because I have fallen about halfway into that void today and I know that writing to you (all 7 of you, hell yeah!) will make me feel obligated to actually get off my ass and work out tonight instead of continuing to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until my medicine kicks in and I pass out. If we're being honest, I'm probably going to spend a lot of my work out time moving my computer around my room so that I can do both at the same time. Which is cool, right? Because what makes you want to get in shape more than the idea of kicking vampire ass while delivering feisty one-liners? Pretty much nothing.

Anyways, since I find my lists of specific exercises getting longer and longer, until I catch up, I'm just going to tell you the new things that I've added and any major developments.

But if you're trying to do the things I'm trying to do, here's how I'm deciding how many of things to do as I move on. Quite simply, I'm getting to the point I was at a few days before and finding out "hey, I'm not about to collapse. I'll do a few more!" I usually try to go up by 5. So, for example, on Day 1 I did a 40 second modified plank. On Day 3, I got to 40 seconds and felt like I could go a little longer so I tried to hold it for 50 seconds instead. On Day 4 I tried the unmodified version (where your feet/legs are in the position they would be in to do a regular push-up) and found that, while it was a hell of a lot more difficult and VERY BURN-Y, I could do it. So I did.

And I think that is probably the best way for any of us to increase our exercise. Some of us have more mild or more severe cases of illness or have more than one illness/disability. Body types in general differ in how easily muscle strength can be built up. I don't know whether I am seeing such a big difference so immediately because I started from pretty much nothing and any strength feels like a lot of strength or if it's because I have a body which is blessed to be able to build muscle easily. I suspect it is a combination of the two. But just know that how easy it is for your body to actually build the muscles you are exercising depends entirely on your genetics. So if you're not having immediate results like I am, it's not because you're doing something wrong or because you're weak or any of those hateful things we tell ourselves, it is just because your body is not the type of body that was meant to build muscle really quickly. And that's okay because that probably means you have the type of body that will take longer to get to the point you want to be at, but will stay at that point with much more stability once you get there. That may not seem very important now but when you get there and then have a flare that knocks you off your routine for a couple days, you'll probably be able to start back up pretty much right where you left off. Which will be such a relief when it inevitably happens.

In conclusion, move at whatever pace is appropriate for you and don't feel bad about it because you will make progress and when you do you will feel so validated and you will be like "yes! this is doing something! thank every deity ever!".