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Sup. 
First off I have an autoimmune disease. This is a chronic illness that cannot be cured and caused a myriad or health issues. The biggest ones for me are chronic pain and debilitating fatigue. Both of these issues cause me to be in bed a lot. I used to be in much better shape but over the past year or so I have lost a lot of strength and my cardiovascular fitness has deteriorated.
I feel that not exercising only adds to the problem, however when I have trouble just walking across my bedroom or around the corner to the bathroom, the idea of exercise seems extremely daunting.
Many people have suggested swimming as a very low impact exercise for someone with my problems. I agree this is a great exercise because of the buoyancy. However, I am hoping there are some other exercises out there besides swimming that I can also do. I find it better for me personally to rotate between two or three main exercises to keep some physical and mental variety.
I am sure there are lot of people who have barriers to many exercises because of different injuries and illnesses. I would love to hear exercises suggestions that are easier for people with these issues to accomplish.
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How much do you know about your specific condition? Is it a progressive thing or fairly stable?
Most chronic conditions that I know of do benefit from exercise even if it is just to maintain your cardiovascular health. Hard to know without more detail but if you don't want to say thats fine.
It sounds like impact isnt exactly your problem, its overall energy cost of exercise. swimming is still quite taxing compared to walking, unless its specifically the weight-bearing that is causing you pain.
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Well, it has flareups and regressions. It can get bad enough I would need hospitalization, or not affect me for a year or so. The most you can do is manage the symptoms. Right now I am waiting to get into a specialist for a specific diagnosis. Until then my regular doctor doesn't want to put me on painkillers because of the side affects.
Impact is a big part of my problem because I have severe joint and bone pain (all over-- ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows). Some days walking makes me cry for example. Most movements cause me some pain, even very basic things like moving my fork to my mouth while eating. I know swimming is more exhausting comparatively (I was on a swim team for a year, lol and that shit is hard!). I think it will be less painful for my bones and joints though, and I can get an all over workout. I was thinking something small like 2-3 laps with whatever rest I need between them before doing another. Of course it can change depending on the day.
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that sounds kind of like rheumatoid arthritis but on a bigger scale. If it's anything like that, then water will do wonders for you, but you can do all kind of exercises in a pool other than swimming.
Some rope would let you do a lot of things. You can tie it off to the side of the pool and pull yourself through the water, or tie a plastic bag to the end of the rope and drag it through the water (kind of like pulling on a parachute on dry land).
floatation devices like a kickboard can also be used to give your upper body workouts. anytime you push something that floats down, you're having to work harder. For your lower body, running on the spot/squats can be good, depends what you have the fitness for. you can even hold on to a float and run on the spot without touching the bottom (ie zero impact)
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Go Paleo diet and see if it clears up your autoimmune.
Sometimes getting rid of grains and dairy can actually clear it up to a point where it doesn't significantly impact your life. (If those are offending agents).
As for exercise swimming or cycling is probably a good idea
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I agree that paleo diet would be worth a try in this situation.
For low-impact exercise, swimming would probably be the #1 choice. I know this makes me just agree with eshlow 100% and my post is therefore entirely useless, but I figured I'd just post anyway. You seem to be concerned about swimming making you a one-dimensional type of athlete and would like to mix it up a bit, but if you're only going to do ONE type of cardio, it should probably be swimming. Swimming involves a large number of muscle groups so it will help you stay balanced. But, if you have to add one more, rowing may be a good option. It's low impact and has very low injury rates indicating that it is not harsh on the joints.
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If you can manage it walk up some big ass hills.
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On November 28 2011 03:06 AirbladeOrange wrote:
If you can manage it walk up some big ass hills.
Or a skyscraper :p
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I like the idea of doing resistance exercises in a pool - and I'm sure if you live in a large enough area, there are places that specialize in that kind of thing. If not, I'm sure you can figure out how to do it on your own.
As have already been mentioned, rowing and then cycling are the next lowest impact after swimming, but they're still a BIG step up. If you're feeling especially well and think you can handle them, try it out. If not, stick to the pool. Just get creative here, traditional exercise methods are going to be of a certain difficulty because that's the entire point of them.
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I'm no health or germ expert, but wouldn't swimming expose you to a lot of germs from other people? That doesn't sound like a good idea if you have a poor immune system.
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Try kettlebell swings, snatches and presses.Make sure to check RKC vids to learn the proper form.
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On November 28 2011 04:44 ClysmiC wrote:
I'm no health or germ expert, but wouldn't swimming expose you to a lot of germs from other people? That doesn't sound like a good idea if you have a poor immune system.
Having an autoimmune disease doesn't imply he has a poor immune system, only that it is overly active in targeting the hosts own cells.
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1. Try paleo as mentioned. I have some friends with various auto-immune problems and there are definitely dietary triggers.
2. Try Yoga. I just made a thread about Bikram(hot) yoga but most of the advice applies to all types of yoga
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=288602
It's low/0 impact, has some cardio benefits, and can help with joint pain.
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Drag a sled. Just buy a steel saucer sled and fill it with weights (I use sandbags). Then, attach a rope or some lashing straps and start dragging. I'm a powerlifter, so I do this for cardio and speeding up recovery in between workouts.
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I don't think anything involving walking, running, or climbing qualifies as low impact. You're putting a large burden on your knees and other joints with each step. He even says:
Some days walking makes me cry for example.
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tai chi and qigong is exercise enough and will definitely help and even heal u if u put the effort in..
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Don't just do one sport.
Each sport has different training on body parts, such as swimming and playing basketball.
In order to improve the overall immunity of the body, cross-training of multiple sports is required.
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jesus christ that necro :o
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EPT
