Do The Hustle

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:

http://researchednutritionals.com/FactSheets/Burrascano's%20Advanced%20Topics%20in%20Lyme%20Disease%20_12_17_08.pdf

Plus, it's nearly spring!  So do the hustle everybody!  Get up!  It’s fun!  It’s free! ;)