Hi all,

Quick question. This idea that exercise helps relieve the pain of AS- I totally get the "move it or lose it" thing but it just doesn't ring true for me... The more active I am throughout the day, walking/bending/lifting the more it hurts! It hurts to bend etc but it also hurts later in the burning/aching/inflammation kind of way.

So when you say exercise helps what do you mean? You work out and to feels better WHILE you're exercising? Just after? Or does it keep symptoms at bay a bit more in the long term?

Right now I'm not exercising at all outside of daily activities working and chasing a toddler but that's because my pain is totally out of control right now. I'm starting celebrex soon and hopefully that will help enough that I can get moving again.

Hi Micheline,
As a rule, inflammatory arthritis pain is worse at night, first thing in the morning, and during periods of inactivity. It's one of the aspects of the illness that differentiates it from osteoarthritis which generally gets more painful with use. My doc described it to me years ago as the 'inflammatory proteins pooling up in the affected areas'. When you get moving increased blood flow helps to thin them out. This may not be scientifically correct but it gave me a good picture of what was going on.

I never experienced pain relief from exercise, if the pain is from inflammation. On the contrary it made things worse.

But if the pain is mechanical, like stifness or loss of ROM(range of motion) after an inflammatory period, it helps.

So, for me, contrary to what Wendy told, exersize doesnt seem to help the root cause, pain-wise.

Never the less, i try to move it, to postpone fusing.

Looking back, when the spondy symptoms were mild, exercise definitely helped. The hallmark stiff back often responded well to heat and to movement.

However, when I was in a vicious flare, any type of exercise or strengthening activity made things worse. I often felt that I was very susceptible to joint or muscle injuries. I did everything that the PT instructed me to do, but every exercise seemed to make things worse. As the disease tightened it's grip on me, it was pretty depressing.

So like you, I have had poor results with exercise when I was in full flare. Now that I am managing the disease successfully, I can do any physical activity that I used to without concern of injury or pain.

Hey - a fellow 'Squamptonite' , small world!

Exercise and inflammation is quite the conundrum...
When I have my inflammation levels under control (in my case, via diet) I am able to do a fair bit these days, as in two decent mountain bike rides in a one week period (that's a good week).

Before I got my inflammation under control, when things were at their worst, I couldn't do anything active, absolutely nothing, without setting off even more inflammation (pain, swelling, and stiffness). No vacuuming, not carrying groceries, etc.

So for me the key is to have overall control of the inflammation, and then carefully exersice to 'match' where I'm at. I definitely need 'rest days' in between active days, so things can calm down, since a lot of physical activity can flare me just as much as food can.

I sent you an FB message Micheline
/Kristine

Thanks for your responses, everyone! Kristine, I think I am a lot like you. When my inflammation is well managed, I'm able to exercise as long as I listen to my body and take appropriate rest. I've just never found it to relieve any symptoms which is what I find confusing about all the literature about AS that says it gets better with activity.

2 years ago, before I got pregnant I had been running and doing CrossFit quite successfully. I had a bad flare right before getting pregnant and I think things have just progressed from there. My daughter is now 15 months old and I'm currently in the middle of the worst flare I've ever had. I'm at that point where I can't do anything without pain- not household chores, walking the dog, or working. So of course I can't really exercise either.

I am going to do my best to get this under control and just think back & remember the good times where I was able to be more active. I know I'll get back to it one step at a time.

I never found that my AS got permanently better with exercise, but I could get temporary relief with exercise if I could get past the initial pain and stiffness. After I warmed up from exercising, the pain levels would go down drastically. But the pain would quickly come back when I cooled down. When playing sports, It would take a while to warm up, then I would have to keep playing hard, for as soon as I would slow down, the pain and stiffness would come back.

I believe this is typical for AS, thus the "the literature about AS that says it gets better with activity." It's only temporary.

Otherwise, exercise seems to help slow down the progression of AS, especially careful stretching of the back.

--Greg

That's how I understand it, Greg. For most inflammatory arthritis, exercise will temporarily relieve stiffness and pain and may slow down some of the damage. But the pain and stiffness return, particularly at night and at rest n

Exercise has been my life saver. I am a runner, and I can tell a big difference if I go a week without running. I run, and do a little weight lifting.

This is most similar to my experience.

For me, exercise is a delicate balance. Most times, gentle exercise, like walking is good for me. But if I'm in a flare, even walking is out. So I walk on the good days and avoid it on the bad days.

I used to swim but that always bothers my SI joint now.

And anything that causes me to "rotate my hips" is bad for my SI joint:

so, no: vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, raking, snow shoveling. I suppose many forms of dancing would also be out, but I was never a dancer so it doesn't matter.

I do feel pretty good after a good bike ride, but only if not in a flare at the time.

and like Former Foodie, my enthesitis was so bad, that in a flare, I could easily tear a tendon or ligament. The LDN hasn't helped everything, but the one thing it did for me was prevent me from tearing tendons and ligaments and improved the tendinitises a lot as well.

So, exercise for me is a delicate balance. Gentle exercise is good (walking and biking and some yoga poses are ok, swimming and excessively moving the SI joint and some yoga poses are out) most of the time, but when in a flare, I have to sit on ice and wait it out….

Dead in the water now. My feet are killing me. I'm able to get up and move around for about three hours before my feet start hurting to bad to walk on them. I have exercised in the water before and whilst it felt good it never stopped the fusing.

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm going to do what I can to get the pain under control and then do a bit more exploring on the exercise front.

Micheline- so are you exercising?

I will be very happy for a dry warm summer

I believe some proper exercising will benefit to the body and loosen the pain.

Hey First time poster.
I think i'm a typical case of what they are talking about.

I try and keep as active as i can. Running, Gym, Obstacle course (Tough Mudder Etc) Non contact sport etc.

I really notice in the times where i have lazy/slack days where i don't do alot other than hang around the house my symptoms usually flare up. (SI joint pain and stiffness etc.)
If i have a prolonged period of inactivity a few days etc it takes me a week or so to be able to get things back under control so i can do things again.

However that being said i do have periods where i have flare ups and am not able to do much. But these have been less frequent and shorter in duration since i have focused on keeping active.

God I don't even know where to begin.

Some of the comments here scare me.

Exercise is the most important thing in medicine aka life. Exercise is good for like every condition under the sun and wendy pretty much summed it up right because of circulation and this thing called physiology.

physiology has its own laws and there are key times when and how physiology works namely during sleep and exercise. Edit: Forgot to add this but during these times you could say "this is where the magic happens". That one is important. A lot of other things can influence physiology too like diet, medication, injury and infection.

To go even further exercise is very important of musculoskeletal diseases like diseases of the joint hinges.

Finally AS is inflammatory and for this reason exercise is good because of the inverse.
EDiT again: Oh and I'm sorry I left a very important one out. Exercise also thins and redistributes inflammation. THIS IS GYNORMOUS for the functionality of the patient. It is anti-inflammatory too but the latter has much more of an affect on the disease and for this reason, ultimately, slows the fusing processes. It also slows the hardening of the inflammation for this very reason. Also there are different types, and facets of the catch all phrase "inflammation"

These key things are why exercise is not just important but the cornerstone to good health, especially in a systemic inflammatory joint disease of the back joints.

BTW I'm bored, how's everyone's exercise going? Stick with it!

Oh and I think someone brought up another good point about weight lifting and feeling worse or something.

1 thing you may have to be careful of is exercising properly. Hopefully you can just do this but if you can't you have to modify how or what you are doing. Make sure to pay attention to this till you don't have to anymore. Well at least by focusing on it.

I have been off work for about 3 years, and those here who know of what I have been through the last few years know the half of it.
It has put my life as a single father into a financial tailspin, I basically lost everything, mostly my independece. I have been humbled and humiliated to say the least.
This is my plan to get my life back, tonight I am going to join the YMCA
tomorrow, I am going to kick AS
I have had a hard life, and unless I can back to work, I expect my life, and quality of life to further diminish. Now days i at least feel like some rehab, and lifestyle changes would benifit me. If i am going to recover enough to at least Try one more time it is going to come with trying and excersise.

hi elmerfud
if your ymca has a pool try water arobics. the water makes exercise a little easier on your body. some thing that you can do at home is yoga for arthritis. i have been doing yoga for a few months and i am moving better, i guess the real test will be winter. good luck mike

Feeling fit is pain relief no. one.

I finally did join a gym, I have been working at it for a month now,
and already pulled soHopefully my leg, so I took a few days off.
I noticed it is really difficult to be very active when not working.
So I am working on my stamina more than anything. Just being on my feet for an hour at a time Iis a start. gotta love mindless walking on a treadmill.
I don't know if it will help my pain, but I know if I continue to be a couch potato things will get worse, And I have had enough of the bad.
I got my daughter a membership also and we go everyday, I take her to work, then do walking, and then I go again with her after she gets off work.
I do seem to fall asleep faster now, and Iam trying to resist taking naps during the day. I am trying hard to make positive changes in my life, I would love to rebound from my last few years and put it in the past.

I would have to agree with some other commenters. That advice is purely situational and you anyways have to listen to your body. When I'm not in a flare and have mild symptoms I've found stretching and moderate exercise feels good, but a month or so ago I was in a moderate flare and I felt terrible after working out. My breathing was terrible and I also have knee problems associated with my AS so doing regular cardio exercise was nixed by my rhuemy. I believe someone also mentioned that AS pain is generally worse at night and in the morning (when in a moderate flare I can't even function until after 11 am).

All that being said I have to stress again to listen to your body, if it's painful, stop, and talk to your physical therapist and/ doctor about whether that activity is right for you. GOOD LUCK!

Hi all,

I just posted in the "Helpful Tips" forum about how pushups and pullups have been the ONLY thing that have worked for me to reduce my pain in the past few years:

https://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=508209#Post508209

I had tried LSD/NSD diet, Perfect Health Diet, Paleo, NSAIDS, yoga, swimming, meditation, vitamins, supplements, apple diet, juice diet, etc and none of them seemed to do anything for me.

I am not guaranteeing it will work for you but I am so grateful that I started these exercises. Please try them - I hope they work for you!

If you can't do full pullups or pullups, there are lots of exercises that work the same muscles. Search Google or Youtube for examples!