When the going gets tough, the
tough get going - as in 'moving!' I know that exercising
is out of the question for my many Lymies – I mean, everything already hurts just
sitting there, so of course it’s going to hurt to get moving. And it does – but in my experience, only the
first few minutes.
I’ve had more sick days (my
chronic Epstein Barr Virus is flaring up, so I’m feeling sick with a side of
sick) lately, so I must admit I have not exercised in a few days. But I did have a good stretch there when I
exercised pretty frequently – and let me tell you what I mean by 'exercise': watching
The Biggest Loser on Netflix,
marching in place, with a can of soup in each hand in lieu of weights – just kind
of waving my arms around. Lifting the
knees up when I could for a few steps, stepping side to side, doing maybe one
real exercise – bicep curls maybe? And
just doing that (of course with the curtains closed so no one sees me flailing
around) for 20 minutes until the egg timer dinged. The first 5 minutes were pretty headachey and
I had to slow down because of dizziness, but after that, it wasn’t bad at
all. I broke a bit of a sweat and got
the blood moving around. And I felt
better for the whole rest of the day! Maybe there’s something to this exercising
thing.
For those who aren’t as sick,
swimming is a great option – the water takes the weight off your joints, so you
can move with less pain. But at this
point, any movement is good. Even just
standing up every hour. I found this
great article – written for non-Lymies – about why it’s bad to sit all
day. I shared it on my Water With Lyme
Facebook page a while back and I’ll link to it here, because it is just so
good! http://lifehacker.com/5879536/how-sitting-all-day-is-damaging-your-body-and-how-you-can-counteract-it
And I know it’s part of Dr. Burrascano’s guidelines to
exercise – in fact, he says that exercise is crucial to the Lyme eradication
plan. Dr. Burrascano says: “Despite antibiotic treatments, patients will
NOT return to normal unless they exercise, so therefore an aggressive rehab
program is absolutely necessary. It is a fact that a properly executed exercise
program can actually go beyond the antibiotics in helping to clear the symptoms
and to maintain a remission.”
To read more about Dr. Burrascano and his ILADS-based
guidelines, go here:
Plus, it's nearly spring! So do the hustle everybody! Get up!
It’s fun! It’s free! ;)
