Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion Helpful Tips Pullups/pushups helped me reduce pain a lot!

Hi all,

I'm not on medication so I have a milder case than many of you. My AS symptoms used show up at 5 am in the form of back pain. As time went on, that 5am crept earlier to 4am and then to 3am.

I have tried almost everything short of the really strong medications - including the LSD/NSD diet, Perfect Health Diet, Paleo, NSAIDS, yoga, swimming, meditation, vitamins, supplements, etc but nothing really seemed to work.

Recently, I have had several nights of little or no pain and I am very happy about that! Here's my story:

About a month ago, I went very strict on Paleo, and at the same time I started working out at the gym a few times a week at night. I would do pullups to exhaustion, pushups to exhaustion, and lots of crunches. I hadn't worked out this hard consistently in several years.

Within a few days I started noticing that my morning back pain was significantly decreased.

I have figured out that I can get away with doing my workout every other day. But if I skip 2 or 3 days, the pain comes back with a vengeance. All I have to do is go back to the gym and do more pullups and pushups and I will be fine for another day or two.

Diet does seem to have an effect on me. If I do my pushup/pullups, even if I had eaten poorly that day, I can still sleep that night with little or no pain. If I eat well that day, the pain is even less. Poor diet can be overcome with exercise. But with no exercise, good diet does not manage my pain. Good diet + exercise is the best for me.

If I were to guess, I would say that it is the pullups that are helping me the most. But I always work out the back and the chest on the same day.

This has been a great breakthrough for me. I hope this might be helpful to someone! Happy holidays!

Scoco- great news...
keep working out as your body allows. I was in a near remission some years back and was able to do some extraordinary work outs for my age.. I believe the amount of exercise you are talking about somehow changes our gut digestion. Are you also using your legs.... the big muscles use that sugar in your system.

but a poor diet will in time catch up to you...

welcome

Working out did make me feel better. I had a bad shoulder and started hanging for it.
Then tried a pull up and could do one or two. I’m 73 in pretty good shape but have to be selective on which exercises I can do. Got into pull ups chin ups and push ups but I guess my technique was off it hurt my shoulder more and branchial.
I have forward head tilt and recently my AS has been really bad. I found out you shouldn’t do hanging or pull ups with advancing AS not good for spine?

I’m bummed because I’m getting worse with pain and stiffness so working out has been limited