Stretching

     Exercise.  What a dreaded word.  It's a four letter word with friends.  As I have gotten older I have learned that it takes more and more effort to stay fit and healthy.  As a person with RA I have learned it is really important to be fit and healthy. 

     When I was first diagnosed I noticed that I could not raise my hands above my head.  Being in my thirties I found this very disturbing.  I had asked my doctor what I could do as exercise and her answer didn't make me smile.  An elliptical.  She said I needed to avoid placing pressure on my joints and this was a good form for me.  It's not that I don't like them.  I harbor no ill will towards the machine.  It's just that an elliptical has always conjured up visions of a gym filled with people, on machines, going no where.  I've never liked the thought of paying for a gym membership and now the thought of paying for the use of only one machine in the entire gym just seemed silly. 

However, the place I was renting had no space for an elliptical which left me in a bit of a pickle.  I asked if there was anything else I could do and she said it could only be stretches or exercises that put no strain on my joints.  How am I going to do that?  And then it dawned on me, the elderly.

That's right, I looked towards the stretching and exercise routines that are recommended for senior citizens.  You can find many to choose from online.  At first I just started with stretching.  I wanted to get my range of motion back before trying to do much of anything else. I did all my exercising in the morning because by the end of the day I was exhausted and utterly unmotivated.  Plus I hoped that by stretching in the morning it would help me fell better throughout the day.

Here's where I'm going to stop and say if you have RA or any other autoimmune disease you need to seriously consult with you doctor before beginning any type of stretching or exercise regiment.  One day of doing the wrong exercise or pushing your body too hard could leave recovering for days or worse doing some real harm to your body.

My initial stretching exercises were very gentle.  I want to emphasis the gentle part.  At no point during my workouts then or now do I wake up the next day feeling sore.  It is my opinion that if someone with an autoimmune disease pushes hard enough to make them feel sore the next day they are going to do more damage than good.  We have to be able to admit to others and more importantly to ourselves that these diseases require that we treat ourselves differently.  This doesn't mean we don't challenge ourselves, we just need to do it in smaller increments. 

I would do my stretching while sitting on a kitchen chair.  The couch or Barco lounger just isn't going to give you enough support.  I would try to sit as properly as I could and slowly raise my arms as far as I could.  When I started to feel pain I would stop and slowly lower my arms back to my side.  I would do this 10 times and the last time I raised my arms I would go a little further and hold for a second or two and then lower them again. 

For my knees I would place my hands on the side of the chair just for balance and keeping one foot planted on the ground I would extend my other leg out.  Not lifting the leg, just extending out as far as I could again stopping when I started to feel pain and then slowly bringing my foot back to the ground.  I would alternate legs until I had done ten for each one.  Again the last extension for each leg I would try to go just a little farther.   

For my ankles and my wrist I did pretty much the same workouts which consisted of up, down, side, side.  Very gently.  I was just looking to increase my range of motion.  Sometimes I couldn't do 10 cycles of these and that was okay in my book.  I accepted what I could do that day and strived to do 1 more the next.

Fingers.  Oh my the fingers!  How they didn't want to move!  To get these going I would form my fingers like a claw and then slowly curl them inward and then straighten them back out.

In the beginning this was pretty much all I could do.  But after a couple of weeks I was able to add a couple more stretches.  I would stretch my elbows by holding my upper arms against my body and bending and straightening my elbow.  I would turn my body at the hip to give my back a gentle twist.  Again these were done from a sitting position and done slowly, gently and stopping at the point of pain.

After almost 2 months I was able to raise my hands all the way above my head.  I was extending my legs all the way.  My wrist and ankles were doing a lot better too.  My fingers still felt thick but at least they were working better.  I now felt I could start doing more muscle building and fat burning exercises.  Still gently, still listening to my body and paying attention to my pain levels.