Rochelle recently asked if I’d be willing to share what workouts I do for fibromyalgia. I’ve tried most everything, but they all seem to do more harm then good. There are a few basic things that I do.

Tae bo. Yes, this sounds straining & it is. I do the tae bo 8 minute workout. Yup, 8 entire minutes. It also has like 5 minutes of cool down time. I tried over a several month period to work up to the 30 minute workouts. I found that even if I did it everyday, the fibromyalgia just wasn’t allowing it. I wasn’t getting stronger. I just kept getting more & more exhausted. My muscles seemed more tender every day. I understand that this is usual when started an exercise regime, but after months my body was still feeling worse every time I did it. Eventually people were begging me to go back to my usual workout because I was just so cranky & tired.

Pilates. There is a series of videos called 10 minute pilates. Granted, each one focuses on a different area, like there’s a special one for abs & another one for thighs. So if you wanted a complete workout you’d have to do several videos. I can do two a day without any negative side effects, but I usually just go for one.

Then of course I have to just get my exercise time up. The last I heard the doctor say was that in general people needed to exercise 40 minutes several times a week. I don’t own any exercise equipment. The only time I get to go to a gym is when I’m on a vacation at a fancy hotel, which isn’t often. The one thing I do have is a small trampoline & it’s invaluable with fibromyalgia. I can jump or run on it for thirty minutes & not have any extra pain the next day. The only thing that I’ve found to have as low an impact on me is swimming. Unfortunately, there aren’t any indoor pools around here. How do you exercise with fibro?

There are only a few workouts that I can do with fibromyalgia that do more good than harm. So, during the winter when I can’t get out & walk I alternate between one tae bo workout & one Pilate’s work out. Needless to say, this gets monotonous after awhile. I get so bored with it that I dread it more than I dread working out (which is a lot). I know what the instructor is going to say before they say it.

I find that it’s helpful to mute the TV. I turn on Pandora. Everyday I use a different station. When a song fits the movements perfectly, it’s like being in a ballet. I get so involved in the song that I forget that I’m working out.

On Saturday I decided that going for a hike would be a welcome change from my usual workout. It was sunny & I was anxious to forget that I still have several months of winter left. It was a gorgeous day & I was just in enthralled in the beauty of everything. It was like the wine of the month club for the soul. I was so lost in this magical world that I forgot one important rule. The first rule of hiking is that for every step you take, you have to take one on the way back. Fine, that’s not an official rule, but it should be. By the time I realized this, I had already overdone it. Then, I still had to walk all the way back.

Usually when I do too much I’ll be a little sore the next day. Two days later, I will be in agony. I don’t know why it takes so long. Today, the pain hit, along with my second ever migraine. The good thing about days like today is that I am excited to get back to my usual pain level. Yes, that’s the life of a fibromite. I would love to feel normal & be pain free, but I’ll just take my old pain level back. How long does it take for your pain to hit when you do too much?