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Exercise and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The usual advice for anyone diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is to take light regular exercise, short walks usually. Exercise is key to maintaining a healthy body and mind - the human body was evolved for movement. Unfortunately for a sufferer of CFS/ME even small amounts of exercise can cause exhaustion for days and weeks after. So exercise and Chronic Fatigue is something that needs to be tailored to each individual, and there is no external formula for how much or how often you should exercise. When I was diagnosed I was fortunate that I knew about Yoga, different forms of Tai-Chi and Qi Qong and later learned about kettlebells, all of which gave me an alternative to just going for walks - particularly because my leg muscles tired the most quickly.

Do not "Push on through"

Some in the medical profession used to belive M.E / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is entirely psychosomatic - largely discredited now. I wonder how many people who were advised to "push through it" in the early days of ME/CFS treatment have paid for it in extra months and years of illness and exhaustion? Listen to your body and what it wants, not guilty feelings of being a burden or impatience to get back to normal life. If you are not ready for exercise then don't force it. Have the intention to get better and follow the steps necessary to achieve it, but don't use willpower to over-ride a system that really isn't ready. Consider meditation to keep your mental state positive about, but accepting of your physical state.

A good way to assess your physical state is to keep a diary. Keep a note of how much you sleep, how much exercise you are getting, muscular stiffness, anxiety etc. Then if you add in any new exercise or treatments see how your body reacts. You need to look at your health over several weeks to know that it's not just an energy peak or trough - which is a major problem in ME/CFS.

Beware of using willpower to force your body to do more than it really can - that only buries the problem deeper. On the other hand I found more benefit from doing weight training with kettlebells and from doing hard Qi Qong, where I was tensing muscles for maximum effort, than doing the same duration of gentle soft Qi Qong, and it was certainly better than going for a walk, which just wore out my leg muscles. So don't assume that the right exercise for you must always be slow and gentle.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - the energy debt

My accupuncturist made this observation: Chronic Fatigue is rather like being in debt - every month your paycheck goes in and your balance looks healthy - but if you don't set aside a big chunk to pay off your debts, the interest pushes you further into the red. So when you have energy, don't just spend it. Budget your energy and you have more chance of getting out of energy debt and back to health. For example, when I started using weight training, I knew it was working for me because not only did my energy increase, but the periods of low energy came less and less frequently and I recovered from the low points in days not weeks.

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