Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Exercise

Whoa, OK, this is a scary one for some people. I know lots of us have had bad experiences with attempting too much exercise and having major crashes as a result. So beware, don't rush into exercise if you have CFS.

For me, exercise is one of the last major stumbling blocks associated with my health. I am usually well enough to go to uni everyday, maintain a social life and stay reasonably well (except the occasional low patch when I have to slow down, take the weekend off and rest up). But despite a few attempts, I don't seem to have been able to get back into any form of regular exercise. Crashes invariably ensue.

But lately I have been fairly well, and have been walking a lot (close to 3km some days, not counting walking to lunch and back which probably adds another few hundred metres). I seem to be tolerating this better and better, which has got me thinking I might be ready for another attempt at some more rigorous form of exercise. In my case, spurred on by the latest airing of So You Think You Can Dance, I would like to resume some classes in jazz dance and maybe either contemporary or lyrical dance. I don't know if I will cope or not, but that raises the big question, what is "coping" when it come to exercise and CFS?

It has now been two and a half years since I first started to experience CFS. Since then I haven't done any form of rigorous exercise for any prolonged period. So I'm really out of shape. I've never actually been like this before, so I don't know how that impacts on my response to exercise, even excluding the influences of CFS. Ever since I was 5 I have been involved in some form of exercise which requires at least 6 hours of training per week. At times I have trained about 12 hours per week in gymnastics, which is pretty physically demanding. So I've never been unfit. What should I expect to experience as a physically unfit person attempting hard core exercise for the first time in ages, even if I am "coping" fine on the CFS front?

I gather some muscle soreness, reduced cardio ability while exercising, and some tiredness afterwards are probably in order. But how do I tell this normal response apart from the "Uhoh, crashing is imminent" CFS response, so I can stop before I go to far? Who knows? Not I, that's for sure. If you have some experience, let me know.

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6 comments

Posted by Ellie at 4:44 PM