JENNIE G EXCERCISE/ WEATHER

[Guest guest]

Dear Jennie G,

I read your letter on exercise. How can you excerise so often even

in the afternoons. I live in the north where it is really cold,

even in the summer months and it affects my muscles and joints, it

is too much pain to even consider trying, where do you live, that

you can attempt such vigorous workouts?

CDH

[Guest guest]

Cindi,

I don't exercise that often. I try to go to the gym three times

during the week my daughter is with her father (she alternates every

other week back and forth). I can't go when she is with me. She

has to be in preschool all day, I don't want her to have to sit in a

gym daycare with a stranger in the evening. When she is with me I

try to do exercises at home. Sometimes she thinks its fun and does

them with me. Of course, there are also lots of times she has no

interest. I would stay up and do them after she goes to bed, but I

usually fall asleep too. I'm just so wiped out after working all

day and spending the evening with her.

I do try to work out as often as I can, and I can tell a difference

when I don't do it. I feel worse. When I can exercise, I have more

energy and overall I just feel better.

I don't exercise in the afternoons. That is when I feel best, but I

am at work then. So, since I can't do it when I feel best, I do it

in the evenings (next best choice for me). If I could choose, I'd

do it in the afternoons because I'm less tired then.

I live outside of PA. There are times the weather affects me.

Mostly this year it's just been during high humidity. If I feel run

down, I'll try to go to the gym anyway but I'll make my work out a

little shorter. I am usually there for 30 to 45 minutes, but there

have been times it was only 20 becuase of how I felt. There are

also times I just felt so bad that I didn't go. But I have been

lucky that the prendisone/mtx/Humira are working well and right now

I don't have any stiffness in the mornings and very little pain,

except when I over do it. My rheumy says I am in medically induced

remission.

The work outs I do don't affect my joints negatively. I don't do

anything that causes me pain. When I first went to the gym I had a

trainer show me all the equipment. If it hurt a joint, I skipped

that one and he helped me find a different machine that would work

that muscle group in a different way (so it didn't hurt the joint).

But what was really surprising was that most weight machines do not

require tight gripping with hands or much pressure on feet. I have

problems with feet and hands the most, but also sometimes with hips,

knees, elbows and in the past I've had shoulder issues.

As I have posted before, my going to the gym inspired my mom to try

it too. Her RA is so severe that she has no joints in hands/feet,

she is horribly disfigured, her wrists and ankles are collapsing,

and she is on SSD. She takes Enbrel but her pain is mostly caused

by lack of joints, which is very painful. We were both shocked that

she could actually operate many of the weight machines at the gym.

It is all because of what I said before, most do not require

hand/feet strength. Of course, there were some that I can do that

she can't, like machines that require the person to pull up or down.

My wrists are in good shape, her's are not. So she just skips

those. But she can do enough and she has not felt better in a long

time. She's hooked too. She lives in Colorado, and is often

affected by the weather. But she follows the same philosophy I do,

if you don't feel like you can do it, don't... if you feel 1/2 way

decent go and do what you can do, because you know it will help you

feel better overall. Even though my mom is new to weight lifting

(she goes twice a week now) she has done yoga and stretching

exercises for years. They have always helped her feel better than

she would without doing them, but she feels the weight lifting has

made a big difference.

My RA does not affect my muscles, and based on everything I have

read, strengthening your muscles helps RA. I also need to do this

because I have osteopenia from the prednisone, even though I've only

been on a low dose and not for that long. I'm too young for the

rheumy to prescribe fosamax (no data to say it will work for me) so

the only thing I can do to prevent osteoporosis is weight bearing

exercises and extra calcium. My mom has osteoporosis and does take

fosamax, but the weight lifting can only help that too.

I think it is hard to understand unless you try it. It surprised me

too. It's weird that I can't walk around the mall without killing

my feet and wiping me out for the rest of the day, but I can lift

weights! It just doesn't sound right, but it's true and it does

help so much.

I hope this clarifies for you some. Feel free to ask me anything

anytime.

Jennie

> Dear Jennie G,

> I read your letter on exercise. How can you excerise so often even

> in the afternoons. I live in the north where it is really cold,

> even in the summer months and it affects my muscles and joints, it

> is too much pain to even consider trying, where do you live, that

> you can attempt such vigorous workouts?

> CDH

[Guest guest]

Cindi,

I don't exercise that often. I try to go to the gym three times

during the week my daughter is with her father (she alternates every

other week back and forth). I can't go when she is with me. She

has to be in preschool all day, I don't want her to have to sit in a

gym daycare with a stranger in the evening. When she is with me I

try to do exercises at home. Sometimes she thinks its fun and does

them with me. Of course, there are also lots of times she has no

interest. I would stay up and do them after she goes to bed, but I

usually fall asleep too. I'm just so wiped out after working all

day and spending the evening with her.

I do try to work out as often as I can, and I can tell a difference

when I don't do it. I feel worse. When I can exercise, I have more

energy and overall I just feel better.

I don't exercise in the afternoons. That is when I feel best, but I

am at work then. So, since I can't do it when I feel best, I do it

in the evenings (next best choice for me). If I could choose, I'd

do it in the afternoons because I'm less tired then.

I live outside of PA. There are times the weather affects me.

Mostly this year it's just been during high humidity. If I feel run

down, I'll try to go to the gym anyway but I'll make my work out a

little shorter. I am usually there for 30 to 45 minutes, but there

have been times it was only 20 becuase of how I felt. There are

also times I just felt so bad that I didn't go. But I have been

lucky that the prendisone/mtx/Humira are working well and right now

I don't have any stiffness in the mornings and very little pain,

except when I over do it. My rheumy says I am in medically induced

remission.

The work outs I do don't affect my joints negatively. I don't do

anything that causes me pain. When I first went to the gym I had a

trainer show me all the equipment. If it hurt a joint, I skipped

that one and he helped me find a different machine that would work

that muscle group in a different way (so it didn't hurt the joint).

But what was really surprising was that most weight machines do not

require tight gripping with hands or much pressure on feet. I have

problems with feet and hands the most, but also sometimes with hips,

knees, elbows and in the past I've had shoulder issues.

As I have posted before, my going to the gym inspired my mom to try

it too. Her RA is so severe that she has no joints in hands/feet,

she is horribly disfigured, her wrists and ankles are collapsing,

and she is on SSD. She takes Enbrel but her pain is mostly caused

by lack of joints, which is very painful. We were both shocked that

she could actually operate many of the weight machines at the gym.

It is all because of what I said before, most do not require

hand/feet strength. Of course, there were some that I can do that

she can't, like machines that require the person to pull up or down.

My wrists are in good shape, her's are not. So she just skips

those. But she can do enough and she has not felt better in a long

time. She's hooked too. She lives in Colorado, and is often

affected by the weather. But she follows the same philosophy I do,

if you don't feel like you can do it, don't... if you feel 1/2 way

decent go and do what you can do, because you know it will help you

feel better overall. Even though my mom is new to weight lifting

(she goes twice a week now) she has done yoga and stretching

exercises for years. They have always helped her feel better than

she would without doing them, but she feels the weight lifting has

made a big difference.

My RA does not affect my muscles, and based on everything I have

read, strengthening your muscles helps RA. I also need to do this

because I have osteopenia from the prednisone, even though I've only

been on a low dose and not for that long. I'm too young for the

rheumy to prescribe fosamax (no data to say it will work for me) so

the only thing I can do to prevent osteoporosis is weight bearing

exercises and extra calcium. My mom has osteoporosis and does take

fosamax, but the weight lifting can only help that too.

I think it is hard to understand unless you try it. It surprised me

too. It's weird that I can't walk around the mall without killing

my feet and wiping me out for the rest of the day, but I can lift

weights! It just doesn't sound right, but it's true and it does

help so much.

I hope this clarifies for you some. Feel free to ask me anything

anytime.

Jennie

> Dear Jennie G,

> I read your letter on exercise. How can you excerise so often even

> in the afternoons. I live in the north where it is really cold,

> even in the summer months and it affects my muscles and joints, it

> is too much pain to even consider trying, where do you live, that

> you can attempt such vigorous workouts?

> CDH