Exercise for someone with chronic pain

[Only me]

I really need to find a way to exercise. I am average weight but I definitely need to tone up. I am under extreme stress right now and I think exercise would help. I have fibromyalgia, severe chronic low back pain and a heel spur so it's hard to find exercise that won't hurt. I have started walking a bit more now that the weather is nicer. I don't have access to a pool. Any suggestions (books, DVDs or anything else)

[Pawz4me]

Yoga.  It's great for strength, balance and flexibility.  Tight muscles are a very common cause of low back pain, so it's possible you'd find that yoga really helps with that.

 

There are lots of videos on YouTube.  DoYogaWithMe is a free site with lots of good videos (they do encourage donations).  There are several yoga subscription sites, including Yogaglo and MyYogaOnline.  I'm sure someone else can recommend more resources.

[fairfarmhand]

Pilates and/or yoga.  Very gentle, but does get you in shape.

[gardenmom5]

an easy yoga dvd. you could start with a yoga for non-flexible people to start.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'm also going to suggest yoga, but something gentle, not Power Yoga.  Also, Tai Chi, in fact Tai Chi might be the place to start, then move on to some yoga.  I've done practices online (that were streaming) that used Tai Chi as a warm up then went into standing poses, this way you avoided putting weight on the wrists (no sun salutes).  

 

Pilates could also be excellent. If you have access, I would suggest a studio, so that you can find someone to discuss your medical issues with.  They might know better how to direct you.  

[MBM]

Two books that might help you:

 

Eric Goodman and Peter Park's book and DVD -- Foundation: Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, and Move With Confidence. Goodman is a chiropractor who developed a series of exercises to help his own bad back pain. If you want to get started right away, you can find quite a few of the exercises on YouTube.

 

Pete Egoscue's Pain Free. Egoscue also had to figure out how to treat his own pain and he did. You can find Egoscue clinics around the US.

 

The May, 2014 issue of Discover magazine has an article about chronic pain and brain imaging studies done by Sean Mackey, an expert in pain at Stanford's Division of Pain Management, that you might find interesting. What they saw in the brain images of those with chronic pain (from the article):

 

The amygdala, a region involved in memory and emotions, was less dense than expected. Lowered density usually means that nerve-cell bodies, known as gray matter, or the material around them, have thinned out or died. But tissue was more dense than normal in the sensory cortex, the cerebellum (which orchestrates movement) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortes, which handles higher-level activities like movement planning and abstract reasoning.

 

The changes in density probably mean that these brain regions are not functioning normally, but Mackey doesn't know why these regions in particular were affected.

 

 

Another thing you could do try is meditation, which can beef up the gray matter around the amygdala significantly. You might want to consider doing a simple breathing meditation for a period of 20-40" per day. The more you do, the more quickly the gray matter builds up. (Richard Davidson and other neuroscientists have proven this to be true.) Another very simple meditation is to just stop and identify what you are feeling throughout the day. So, at different times you'd ask yourself, "What am I feeling?" Just identify the feeling, don't say "I am feeling ----" because you want to merely identify it by itself as something that is just there. No judgement about how you're feeling either. You might not even know what you're feeling. It's all about just recognizing, becoming aware. It's easy to do and actually quite powerful even though it seems too simple.

 

An article about chronic lower back pain and meditation:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304395907002436

 

More articles:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=meditation+pain&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C14&as_vis=1

 

ETA: Another thing you could do is to remember a time in your life when you felt very happy and pain free whenever you feel pain. I heard this from a pain specialist on a Ted Talk (I think). After doing this for awhile, associating the very happy feeling with the pain helps to re-route the circuit causing pain. Might be worth a try.

[maize]

Have you tried a trampoline or mini rebounder? I have arthritis pain and I find that I can do rebounding type exercise as long as I don't try to bend my bad need to much.

[Miss Marple]

Agree with those who mentioned Yoga.  I have had chronic back issues for years and yoga has helped tremendously.  In fact, I have been off yoga for the past several months due to schedule issues and my back is acting up again.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ask your doctor if he will "prescribe" physical therapy for you.  It has helped me so much.  They don't do the work for you, of course, but they directed me to stretches and exercises that have really helped me.  Part of my issue is that the right muscle doesn't always do the job it is supposed to do.  They've been able to show me how to get the right muscles involved.  Pushing through chronic pain can make things worse.  Yoga is difficult for me personally because the static poses make me cramp up.  

[Liz CA]

Ask your doctor if he will "prescribe" physical therapy for you.  It has helped me so much.  They don't do the work for you, of course, but they directed me to stretches and exercises that have really helped me.  Part of my issue is that the right muscle doesn't always do the job it is supposed to do.  They've been able to show me how to get the right muscles involved.  Pushing through chronic pain can make things worse.  Yoga is difficult for me personally because the static poses make me cramp up.  

 

While Yoga and core exercises have done wonders for me, you may want to check with a PT first to make sure you are doing the right thing like Jean suggests.