So, as you may or may not know, the best treatment for POTS is exercise. Exercise is just good for you anyway, but especially so for POTSies! It strengthens the muscles, allowing them to push blood out of the legs when it tries to pool down there. People with POTS cannot just do whatever exercises they want. This is because if we exercise standing, or even upright too long, our body will start the struggle to circulate blood through our bodies. So not only will the POTSie’s muscles be working hard to lift weights, their whole body is freaking out because all of the blood is pooling in the legs! It is very important to exercise supine as much as possible. Alternate between exercises that require sitting up and exercise where you can lay flat.
Starting out, I went to the gym for strength training, the reason being they had exercise machines. The machines allowed me to exercise without standing. I HATE the gym. I don’t know what it is, but for me it is, as Emma would say, yuck. I also hate exercise machines. They isolate the muscle in a way that is completely unnatural and doesn’t transfer to real world strength. There have been studies looking at people who use machines to lift weights and are lifting the same amount as their counterparts who do not use machines. The people who do not use machines have more real world strength! This is because training with dumbbells requires your muscle groups to work as they would in the real world. Machines isolate a single muscle. This will help with the ultimate goal of a POTSie to strengthen muscles to improve circulation. However, if I am putting in all of this work, I want real strength, not strength that only makes an appearance when I am sitting on a gym machine.
So, I set out trying to find as many exercises for all the muscle groups that could be done either sitting or lying. I think I did a pretty good job and will be able to avoid the gym. Out of all of the exercises I’ve listed, only one requires standing. So, if you are ill and need exercises you can do that do not require standing, check out the exercises tab at the top of the page! Go out an get yourself some fun stickers because I have included a sticker chart!
I have been killing myself all week trying to find the appropriate exercise. My fibroed body hates exercise, and I’m debating on whether this is just normal pain from exercise (that is amplified with me because of the fibro) or if I’m really doing some damage. I’m going to give it another week and see what happens. I’m glad to know that other people hate going to the gym as much as I do. That’s why I recently bought dumb bells. Hoping you had a decent day health wise..
That’s so difficult when you can’t tell if you’re actually doing damage or it is just the illness. I have a similar problem with sore throats and not knowing if I have strep or not. I hope exercise gets easier on your body! Part of POTS is exercise intolerance, and while it makes all my symptoms worse, it doesn’t create new symptoms other than your normal mildly sore muscles. Is it similar with fibro? I know your muscles are already sore anyways with fibro, so I can imagine its pretty difficult to decipher if you’ve strained a muscle!
You’re helping so many by sharing your journey, experiences, findings, etc…
Thanks for putting this up (especially the printable version), I was looking for some more exercises too, there is a cool exercise directory online with GIF animations http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html it’s not very comprehensive though.
You’re right about the machines, in terms of versatility compound exercises are more productive. I used to use the machines when the complex I lived in had a gym but just didn’t get enough out of them compared to what else I could be doing, my athlete flatmate never touched them.
When I did kick boxing all our training was HIIT cardio, plyos, bodyweight exercises and stretching, tonnes of core work, the guys who trained just on machines had size but not the balance, explosive power, speed and stamina for boxing. I haven’t been back for years, I don’t know how I would go with that kind of schedule now, I’m doing Jillians 6 pack abs at the moment and it’s probably not the best thing for me. The DVD didn’t look like much but first time I did it I was so sore the next day I thought I had done myself an injury, it made me really unsteady on my feet and caused a flare up in symptoms too, I still feel sick now when I do it but I’m sticking with it to see if it gets better.
I also found I fare better if I use the electrolyte drinks (the no sugar powdered kind) as my potassium especially has a habit of getting low and that’s when I get more symptomatic.
Jillian’s workouts are tough!