Exercise – the best medicine

We live in a world of advanced scientific, technological and medical practice, but unfortunately, for all our discoveries and inventions are worth, we still haven’t quite achieved the idyllic goal of perfect health for all. Some might even say that with new toxins and stress factors all around us we are actually becoming unhealthier than before.

Increased fitness means leading a normal life as opposed to abstaining from doing the things you enjoy

We’re discovering new cures and treatments for existing ailments, but we’re also discovering new diseases and conditions. Perhaps the most unfortunate in this day and age are those caught in that grey area between the dis-covery of an illness, and its recognition and eventual effective management and treatment.

How can you receive effective and holistic treatment for a disease that is recognised by some health professionals but not others? Being trapped in the grey area essentially translates to isolation and plenty of untreated pain. At best, it might result in treated pain but empty wallets and purses.

Have you ever heard about Fibromyalgia (FM)? Or how about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)? Don’t worry, because neither had I until not long ago. This all changed last night when I was invited to a conference at the Birkirkara local council organised by a local support group, and attended by a hall full of people trapped in the proverbial grey area.

I was happy to represent physical exercise as a potential aid to sufferers. After my brief talk, I was thrilled at the interest and questions I received. Exercise for neuro-immune diseases and other conditions related to chronic discomfort and pain are a fascinating challenge for exercise professionals, as they highlight the importance of effectively applying the basic principles of exercise science.

The problem with many newcomers to exercise is the initial perception of what exactly constitutes a workout. Many of us might assume that a workout should involve slipping on running shoes and going out for a half-brisk walk or jog, or heading down to the gym and using cardiovascular and resistance machines. These perceptions are not necessarily accurate.

A workout for some might involve simply lying in bed and performing some leg lifts over a limited range of motion. For an Olympic athlete this certainly wouldn’t constitute a workout, but for a sufferer of chronic pain, this could be the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest. Here’s why.

Consider a sun tan. A sun tan is nothing more than the skin’s defensive reaction to the stress of the sun, and testament to the body’s natural adaptive ability. If you stay out of the sun, your skin need not contend with much stress, and turns pale. If you spend a little longer in the sun than you are accustomed, your skin will adapt and darken. Spend too long in the sun, however, and the stress will be greater than that with which your skin can contend, and you will get sunburnt.

Exercise works much in the same way, because it represents a stress factor to the body. Do nothing, and your body will never need to adapt, but do too much, and you will get burnt. Getting burnt in exercise terms means experiencing excessive debilitating pain aterwards, or worse, sustaining injury or getting sick.

If you are overly sensitive to physical strain, then remember the analogy of the sunburn. We can easily control the stress of exercise by manipulating inten­sity and time. Intensity is ba­sically how hard you train, while time is how long you sustain that intensity. There is another principle we employ known as frequency. This is how much time you allow between work­outs to allow recovery and overcompensation.

Consider that you have a conceptual threshold. If you jump over this threshold, you get burned. If you went for a five-minute brisk walk and got burned, then you have exceeded your threshold. Don’t give up, because all you need is a little manipulation of intensity and time. To reduce intensity, next time walk slower. To reduce time, go for four minutes instead of five.

You might feel like you are doing too little during the workout itself, but this is precisely the trap you must avoid. Just because you feel like you can go on, it doesn’t mean your threshold isn’t there.

If after your four-minute moderate walk you felt fine, then you know your threshold at the moment is somewhere between a four-minute slow walk and a five-minute brisk walk. This is great, because we have a starting point and you can begin to build your fitness levels from there.

Next time, repeat the same workout. The time after that, increase your speed ever so slightly. Sneak in a little extra intensity with each session, being cautious never to cross the threshold, and always allow up to three days betwen workouts to recover and overcompensate.

In small incremental steps, before you know it you will have drastically increased your intensity and times well beyond that five-minute brisk walk that used to burn you. While your threshold might remain the same, your physical fitness will improve simply because the body adapts.

Increased fitness means you will physically be able to do more without exceeding your threshold. In practical terms this could mean leading a normal life as opposed to abstaining from doing the things you enjoy, or even worse, purposely trying to do as little as possible through fear of getting burned.

So don’t fear exercise, it could very well be your saviour.

info@noble-gym.com