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In my opinion, no. I would suggest less intense exercise. Try taking a T'ai Chi or Qi Gong class. They teach you how to balance your weight and stand without putting pressure on your joints. It strengthens your legs too.

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I tried to start strengthening my upper body by just a few wall push-ups. I ended up with a 2 months and still going flare in my arms...Bad flare up! Tread lightly my friend. Sonja44

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Light resistance training is recommended for FMS patients, but you're looking at light-weight circuit training as oppose to free weights. You HAVE to start slow and you will be in pain regardless. You probably want to start with a resistance band first if you haven't worked out in a while. This will probably help your legs in the long run, but may be unbearable at your job in the short term. If you can get a non-narcotic prescribed (like Ultram/Tramadol) that could help with the pain at work, but unfortunately there is no easy route to take.

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I lift free weights, 10 lbs in ea. hand and find when my legs are at their worst, it helps a great deal! If I didn't do the weights it would be much worse without any breaks that I do get from exercising. I do squats and lunges and lots of stretching. I also do water aerobics.

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Water and weight is much better for you then just weight lifting.

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axxie, Do you do water exercises? If so, what kind and for how long can you go before needing to rest?
Thanks

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If you can do it, workout. It helps keep the stress down, but for me I have a lot of neck pain which hinders my workouts. So if i feel good i go, but keep busy doing sonething

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I have always worked out. I used to do spin and yoga back to back. Then the fibro hit and little by little I have had to reduce my intensity to about 25% of what I used to do. My problem is that I will feel great, go and do a weight class at the Y and then be in crazy pain and utterly spent for days! I keep putting myself through this cycle.

When I lay low and simply walk and stretch..I am ok. I guess I can't accept my limitations. After my last class where I did lunges and squats and all kinds of upper body reps with weights, I experienced the worst pain I've ever had and for LONGER.

I have to train myself to do less intense exercise and STAY the course.

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hey Sonja,

Yep water weight is my thing, it's fun and I do it three times a week in a heated pool, I follow along what the drill sergeant shout at us and I try to do it, if not I waddle in the pool and I make up my own little dance. Most of my friends have fibro so the dance routine is never the same and becomes very comicle and fun to do. We all laugh and keeps us coming back. We have women in their 80's others who had terrible motor vehicle accidents, others are fibro sufferers and others have no hearing and it becomes quite amusing to follow the instruction and most of us will just start chuckling and laughing and we forget everything and by then the drill sergeants just throws his hands in the air and say's I give up and starts laughing.

Good to take the mind off the pain and relaxes the muscles and tension and goes along with taking away the flares. But as always I get into trouble and find myself sometimes in a pickle and my fibro decides to rear it's ugly head once in a while.

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I currently lift weights twice a week, keeping the reps in the 1-5 range as the goal is to increase strength, doing about 6-8 different xercises per workout. I also work on increasing my conditioning several times a week with a treadmill and kettle bells, and take Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes 3 times a week. Also, dynamic and static stretching one to two times a day.

Does all of this hurt? Yes, but it feels much worse when I don't, both physically and mentally.

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