Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Excercise - Whats good ? Whats not?

I was wondering what type of exercise people find doesn’t aggravate them to much, I used to be really active run, do weights, cycle and teach group fitness classes, over the past year this has dropped to walking twice a week and light stretching. I find that the other types of exercise especially weights and cycling aggravate my thoracic region and ribs to much. Should I just work through this? I think I find excuses for every flare up… Help!!!

As one who takes excercise, (usually with a pint glass!) I can assure you that swimming is probably the best for AS. I am going to try cycling shortly & I will try to update you on my success or otherwise. Give the water a go - don't know about the beer though!? Good Luck - Hank

Before I started the No Starch Diet, any exercise was difficult. Once I got the inflamation of the sacrum eliminated, I found swimming to be fantastic. As long as I swam everyday, it eliminated all the other stiffness and pain I had, which was being caused by my Candida overgrowth. If I didn't swim, I had trouble getting out of bed in the morning, from so much stiffness developing overnight. But the pool had to be very warm. A cold pool was no good for me, it made me even more stiff and in more pain. I swam at the YMCA, which specialized in arthritis programs, so the pool was around 84-87 degrees. You can also check at your local hospital or with a physical therapist to find a warm pool. I swam laps, working my way up to 60 minutes continuous swimming (I could only do 5 minutes in the beginning). I also did deep water walking with a belt on, and participated in water fitness classes.

After being on the Candida diet for 3 months, which totally restricted sugars, including dairy and fruit, all my pain and stiffness throughout my entire body was eliminated. So now I can hike, bike, do yoga, rebound (mini-trampoline), even lift weights, probably anything I want to do would be OK now. Which is amazing, because in the past I was afraid my neck would snap if I tried any of these activities, I couldn't even turn my neck back then, without crying out in pain.

Of course if I am in a flare, its back to rest and no exercise. Luckily that doesn't happen to often these days. The swimming was a life saver for me, when I was in such pain, it was the only thing that helped me to live a semi-normal life, and allowed me to enjoy my days and sleep again.

http://myankylosingspondylitis.blogspot.com/

I am a runner. What I have found is that I have to add distance slowly otherwise I end up in more pain than others. I always feel better after a run. I think any kink of exercise is good just be consistent. I tried swimming several years ago, but I could not keep motivated.

good luck

Antoniette, there is no reason you cannot exercise now. You just need to be careful not to push it in areas that are currently in pain.

My thoracics can also get very bad, but I always found that pilates helped a great deal. You might want to look into a good pilates class, making sure that the teacher can work with you to adapt exercises based on your condition on any given day and/or to take into account that there are one or two pilates exercises that we with AS should not do. I only do pilates matt work and even if I only do my warm-ups my thoracics always feel better afterward. You will find that the range of motion and stretching involved with pilates, not to mention the breathing technique that's involved, will help a great deal.

I also do cardio, but use the elliptical because it is not hard on my joints; there's no impact, you see, because your feet never leave the pedals. I also walk everywhere I can. Swimming in a warm water pool will also be of great value to you.

And I do weight training - for muscle toning not muscle building - low weights, high reps. Shoulders and legs one day, triceps and chest the next, biceps and back the next. I never work the same area two days in a row (ie shoulders & back). Listen to your body, if your shoulders hurt, don't do shoulders that day. If your knees are bad, don't do legs. You may find that if you're careful, you will feel much better overall for doing weight training.

Flexibility exercise is of great importance to us. Again, however, don't overstretch an area that has pain. If it feels tight, that's one thing; if there's frank pain, that's a completely different kettle of fish. My usual advice to anyone with arthritis who is starting a fitness program is to work it up extremely slowly.

Work your way up to 15 minutes in one go of stretching/flexiblity (5 minutes at a time 3 times a day to start, for instance, and working it up from there to a full 15 minutes at a shot). Once you can do that, then start with strengthening/weight training. Take it extremely slowly, listen to your body. Once you can do 15 minutes of that plus 15 minutes of stretching, then add the cardio. By that time your muscles will be accustomed to the work and you won't injure yourself doing the cardio. If you can only do 1 minute of cardio at a go, then do 1 minute, 15-20 times a day. Build it up slowly to 15 or 20 minutes at a go.

The mistake alot of people seem to make is that they push it too much after a prolonged period away from exercise (or if they've never exercised). You cannot do the entire Jane Fonda workout the first time out, if you know what I mean. The other mistake is working through the pain. I do this, but only if the pain is light and I've learned to tell the difference between pain that is telling me to back off and pain that is sitting in the background complaining for lack of use. Not sure if I worded that clearly.

I am no doctor, nor a physio-therapist, nor a fitness expert, but these are the guidelines that have worked for me. I hope they help.

Hugs,

HI Antoniette

I am newly diagnosed but have probably had AS for about 10 years and have always exercised. I don't know if this is why I don't have a lot of damage or pain but I know that I will always continue on some exercise program with the caveat that I need to not only strength train but also do ROM exercises as well. If you did not know from my screen name for the last two years I have trained quite a bit with Kettlebells. This system of training is probably too intense for AS and so I originally moved away from it after I found out I had this disease. I went back and forth for the last two months on how I should be training trying to get the right balance. I immediately started streching and as usual took it too far and found my muscles very sore from being pushed to hard. I then started focusing too much on my core training, thinking I needed to make sure this area was very stabilized. I just kept going in one hundred directions at once but I think now I have finally got some balance to my training and I can still use my Kettlebells when I want to. I have always swam so keeping this constant aways helps me. I swim three days a week, 45 mins of freestyle. I do cardio on a bike, eliptical or stepmill for 30 mins on the other days. I lift with my Kettlebells (modified) on two of my cardio days and the other day I work specific free weight exercises. I stretch for 10 mins in the morning and evening every day and if I am really stressed I add in some qi gong. I know this sounds like a lot but if you add all the time I spend on ecercise on any given day the longest I spend working out is an hour and ten minutes. This seems to be working nicely for me now and I feel it is a very balanced routine for me. Like Kat said, start slowly and try to make sure you have a balanced plan in place. For me having a plan makes it so much easier.

Good Luck

Chris

Hiya,

I think it's where you are at and what you can get away with. Your exercise may need to stop sometimes and other times you can increase quickly. I think some of us do ok like that for years and then it changes very quickly and the problems we had just escalate.

Others are affected very badly when they are young and some never know about it until they visit the Dr for something and get x rayed and find out they are fused all over....

I think you know after a while what you can get away with....sometimes you try and force it and it helps other times it's a disaster.

Dave

I agree with Dave that it is probably where you are at with the disease. When my SI's were at the worst, I could do no exercise... not walking or stretching. When my AS was under control I did a lot of swimming, biking and some weight training.

I still stretch and walk and have been playing a little tennis lately. Finding time now is more difficult.

Tim

Thanks For all your replies, I'm sure the key is moderation, I tend to be an all or nothing person :-)
I will however give swimming a go. Thanks

Hi, Antoniette:

Swimming is best, especially if in minor flare but it is not safe to exercise when in severe flare ups.

Walking is good.

Jogging is not good.

Light weights over full extensions is good but power lifting is not good.

Get out of inflammation by doing the diet:

Diet is a 10

Exercise can be a 4

Drugs are a 2

You need 13 points to avoid severe long-term damage.

Please don't exercise through the pain; it is not a good idea no matter what your tolerances are and especially if you are using drugs to mask some of the pain--that obviously makes the ability to listen to your body much less effective.


Good luck,
John