Strength/muscle building with PMR

Should be "Or has there been a negative..."

I found TaiChi very helpful. However, if I can't get to class I go on YouTube and just do the TaiChi warmups. There are all sorts of styles and workup durations to suit anyone's taste. Some are 8 minutes long others are 30 min. I just pick what is doable for me and how I feel that day. I feel so much better and more energetic after the warmups.

I get strengthening excercises with gentle yoga.  It works so well.  I am usually in no pain after the 1 hour session which I take twice a week.

I also do at least 5-8 minutes of some of the same exercises in the morning which helps me to get going....

For the 5 years I had PMR with no pred I did aquafit classes every day Mon-Fri. They aren't strengthening exercises in the conventional sense of the word - but everything you do is against the increased resistance of the water - 7x that of doing the same thing in air. It includes using woggles and dumbells in the water - like weights as a result. It worked well for me - I couldn't do stuff on the gym equipment but I could do aqua. 

It's like everything - try it and see how you get on. But start with very low reps and weights and increase very slowly.

I don't think you need strengthening exercises as much as you need stretching and flexibility exercises. That is the way to reduce or eliminate stiffness. Everyone has stiffness in the mornings. It comes from being immobile during the night. I would suggest that you start your day with some activity that you like ( walking  or yoga or whatever)  for 20-30 minutes and follow that with gentle stretching. You will feel better the rest of the day.

If you would like to increase the strength of your muscles, then the best way to do that (with PMR) is to kick up the intensity of your exercise. For example, if you are walking, start doing more hills or/and steps. This will increase the strength and endurance of the muscle that you use.

I've exercised throughout, continuing exercise and even attempting to increase it for over a year undiagnosed, and never have stopped.  Movement essential, but heavy exercise inadvisable.  I like NIck's comment about the need to promote flexibility and range of motion rather than attempting to build muscle.  I practice tai chi, when weather permits (it doesn't right now) do Nordic walking a few times a week and also walk a fair amount every day.  Long standing yoga and physio exercises begin and end my day.  Have found shovelling during a recent snowstorm very hard on me and dreading the blizzard due to hit us Monday and Tuesday.  Before starting pred something like shovelling was not a problem, although simple actions like standing up or getting out of a bathtub were very hard to do, so I don't know how much of the muscle weakness is caused by pred, or the result of having had PMR for several years now.