Could Exercise Prevent or Significantly Lessen the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia?

To me it really seems that this has become a major issue for so many Americans over the last decade. I am sure it has been around longer but I really started to notice it towards the end of 2005 as I had several clients come in with it while I was still working at ADAPT. During this time I started to research the issue more thoroughly and it seems to be put into the same category as many arthritis issue. Specifically Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The pain symptoms tended to be in the back with the patients I worked with but as I researched it seemed like it could impact just about every area of the body. To get a little more background, check out this great information on Fibromyalgia from WebMD. The link I am sending you to is discussing the benefits of exercise in treating the Symptom but use the tabs on top to navigate through all the information it provides.

Here is another article from Health.com regarding how exercise can impact Fibromyalgia. In both articles it discusses the importance of exercise on not only treating the pain symptoms but also the many other benefits it offers the patients.

I agree completely (obviously) but i also want to take the specificity of what type of training you do to another level. Pain, fatigue, soreness, joint discomfort, and other ailments can all be greatly impacted by the position the body is in. We have talked many times about the importance of proper body alignment. Your body is designed to have a perfect relationship between the muscular and skeletal system. The muscular system when trained for high levels of efficiency will perform the task of keeping your skeletal system in perfect alignment.

If your body is able to maintain a position of good posture it will greatly reduce the amount of stress that is placed upon both the muscles and joints. Poor posture is a byproduct of muscular inefficiency. Muscles become compensative as they try to keep the body working as best it can despite its lack of muscular efficiency. This means certain muscles will be working much harder than they should to compensate for the lack of other muscles doing their job of support and movement. These muscles tend to become overly developed in comparison to the muscles that lack the necessary stimulus to stay in an active productive state. Once this occurs you have now created a situation where your body is much more susceptible to pain and fatigue.

So when dealing with a symptom like fibromyalgia they are correct in my opinion when they stress the importance of exercise like Yoga. Any type of exercise that help to align the body is going to attempt to make your body move more efficiently thus keeping unnecessary pressure out of your joints and muscles.

We have given away some free exercise routines in the past that are workouts designed to help with posture and alignment. We are also working on a few very affordable routines you can purchase to help with this very issue.

In the meantime if you know someone who is suffering from fibromyalgia or if you are dealing with it yourself please do not shy away from exercise, it could be the best medicine you have in your fight against it. Just be careful what exercises you do. Choose exercises that will improve your posture and your overall muscular efficiency.