Pmr and recommended exercises

Mornings are totally out for me, I know I couldn't do spinning...and I can't bike.  Actually it's hard for me to stand for any period of time...right now I walk about 3 times a day, short hops, and I do a couple physical therapy exercises from last summer (clams and stretches).  But somewhere I saw a link for exercises to do with pmr, but can't remember where...not even sure it was on this forum.  No luck googling it either.  Thanks for your suggestions...glad they are helping you!

Awww, thanks. It’s so easy to get discouraged.  A pmr person I know who has had it for 14 years and is now doing so much better (finally at 1 mg pred) told me the first 2 years are the hardest.  I’m not quite at 1 1/2 Years so even if she’s right (we’re all different), I have a ways to go.  It seems that if I don’t try to move my muscles, I will have such tremendous muscle loss...I have flab where I used to have muscle.  Discouraging....

Twopies it is easy to get discouraged, I was discouraged last spring, EileenH and another person on the forum got me moving, just that 1/6 of mile, then a bit more, nice easy pace. Today I took a day off, been skiing the past 6 days, and walked to the grocery store and back 6.25 miles 24° f light wind and snow. Just think last spring Dead Tired after 1/6 of a mile. Thank God for the forum to get me up and moving. Think Positive get that smile on your face and start. Good Luck ??

Holy kerschmole. So happy for you! Yes, these posts do give me hope which I why I keep returning. So far today: will get in 5000 steps in 3 walks, light housework, couple little yoga poses and couple little physical therapy exercises for hips.  If I could do that every day it would make me feel a little better but some days I just can’t. Thanks for your kind and helpful words.

Good for you Twopies, do not over do it good steady works for me 🙂

Even on the days you feel you can't - make yourself go out of the door and walk to the corner and back. You would be amazed how much different you feel even after just a couple of hundred yards. And I'm not just saying it - I'm speaking from personal experience. Six years ago I could barely get to the village using crutches, 2-300 yards at most. But making myself go out was the difference. Walking a short distance and then having a rest often meant I could manage quite a bit more. It was slow, leaning heavily on crutches, but it was movement and it was fresh air. 

what's a kerschmole!

Ha ha!  It's a saying like holy cow or holy smokes or wowee!  Probably misspelled it....

Thank you! There seems to be so little I can do...except walk...in short spurts.

Hope you are on the mend!

A session with my rheumy and an infusion of painkiller, to be repeated daily for the next week (except the weekend) seems to have achieved a fair bit already!!!! 

I found I could have more enjoyable walks by picking a destination where I could rest - lunch for example - so I walked there, had a long lunch and walked home.That meant I could do twice the distance before lunch than if I just went out and back home. Or catch a bus and walk home...

Thanks. Couldn’t do Pilates in a million years.  I can do a couple yoga poses that a yoga instructor showed me—that’s it though.  They are laying on the bed, simple moves that don’t kill me. I can do them maybe every other day.  I’m not one of the lucky ones (not that any one with pmr is lucky—); I’m never pain free.  Not even from the beginning on highest dose.  My pain and stiffness lets up around 3:00 pm, I can’t get around much till after that.  

Have you ever tried taking your pred at night before bed?

No...how do I start that?  Give up a morning dose and wait until night to take it (that would put me at 36 hours without a dose the first day) or take the first evening dose the same day as the morning dose on the day I start which would put me at 11 mg within 12 hours...oops, probably don’t want to do that, huh?

I’m just about at 5 1/2 mg pred now, using dsns method.  Could try split dose again...3 and 2 1/2...or 4 and 1 1/2?  Morning and evening split.  

What do you think? Interested to know. Thks.

When people start this, they take their morning dose and then take another dose in the evening, so they actually do get extra pred that day.  After that they skip the next morning dose and try the evening dose for a while to see if it helps.  Some people split the dose, generally two thirds in the morning and one third in the evening, and again they start this by taking a normal dose in the morning of the day they are going to switch over.  As we are all different you can only try things and see what works best for you.

And I find walking is best.  It's free, you only need good shoes no other special equipment and you can do it whenever it suits you. There is a man who posts sometimes and if I remember correctly when he started posting he was very sedentary  but started with short walks every day and relatively quickly built up his strength and stamina so that he could do more and I think is skiing again - not all of us can do that, of course, but it goes to show we can improve our situation relatively quickly.  Whatever you do, don't overdo it, but be consistent and regular.  Better to have a ten minute walk every day (which will soon become fifteen, and gradually more or maybe two ten minute walks) than to knock yourself out by walking for an hour and doing nothing the next day while you recover (as an example).  Good Luck!

No - exactly the opposite: take your morning dose and take the next day's dose immediately before bed. You will have one 24 hour period with a bit more pred but that doesn't matter and you'll just feel a but better! Unless you take your morning dose very late - and that may not help you if you do - you would take 11mg in about 16 hours: say 7am and 11pm.