HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Going to start with cardio again

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/31/2021 3:49 PM (GMT -5)
My goal is to get back to doing more aerobic exercise this year. 2020 was the year with the least of that in many years. A problem is that I often feel worse after I have done it, especially the one-hour mountain bike sessions.

I wonder if it is die off because of increased body temp and oxygen levels, MCAS, or some other reason? It won't be warm enough for mountain bike for a while so I'm going to focus on shorter sessions. Shadowboxing, short sprints, and jumping rope. I guess it's smart to do it when I have an easier day in school/work and take quercetin after for MCAS.

I ran up the stairs (5 floors) today and it worked well, but I have been feeling a bit worse later in the day, so I wonder if it did affect me.
I have been able to train more weight training, so I hope that I can start doing some cardio now also. Would love to mountain bike more and run outdoor in the summer.

Is there anything that has helped for you, that are able to do some cardio?
Posted 1/31/2021 4:01 PM (GMT -5)
Hi deep_sleep: I'm kinda right where you are, trying to get back into cardio. I can do some pretty aggressive non-cardio workouts these days as long as I don't do 2 days in a row. Last week I tried a light plyometrics routine and it seemed to go well.. didn't really notice any PEM.

For myself I've always assumed it was a mitochondrial/antioxidant issue, rather than die-off or MCAS.

I'm not doing anything special atm, just trying to ease into it
Posted 1/31/2021 4:10 PM (GMT -5)
Nice. Most of my sessions are shorter and not that hard, but I try to train most days instead. Mostly workout with quite small dumbells and some calisthenics at home + outdoor gym, but it has been a bit too cold for that lately. Looking forward to unpack an ab wheel tomorrow.

I think easing into it, as you said is the smart thing to do.
Posted 1/31/2021 4:33 PM (GMT -5)
yep - i would go with the mitochondrial/oxidative stress type explanation also - certainly for PEM.
there are some pretty compelling studies on that now - to do with mitochondrial membrane dysfunction it seems. ref Sarah Myhill and collaborators in the UK

recently I have been able to do 30minutes pretty hard strength workouts - press-ups etc at home every few days

and I have been walking every day around 4 miles at a good pace for a long time now - sometimes on those walks I try to run around 100yards to see how my body responds

initially, this would make me noticeably worse for a couple of days afterward - more fatigue - slower walk the next day - then this seemed to drop off and was less noticeable

but a couple of weeks ago generally feeling better - i did a walk - with a 100yard run in it - and strength exercises all on the same day and i was ill for 2-3 days afterward - just the 100yards of running was knocking me back !

it's freaky how sensitive we can be to aerobic stuff!

think about rest days also - even for fit people - their immune system is suppressed for at least 24hrs after exercise - more so after aerobic exercise - this is the reason that Burrascano MD - the Lyme guidelines guy - advocates exercise strongly - in fact he says people with Lyme will not get better unless they do strenuous exercise - but he states not aerobic exercise and never on 2 consecutive days - need the rest days to allow it to recover.
Posted 1/31/2021 5:07 PM (GMT -5)
There are going to be a lot of differences for different people. I don’t agree with that you cant train two days in a row, especially if you do a shorter workout. Some of my workouts are only 15 min. I worked out 6 days a week last week (my week is Sunday-Saturday), went for a two-hour walk on my rest day yesterday, and did a 20 min workout today.

It helps so much with focus in school/work when doing a shorter workout before lunch.
Posted 2/3/2021 4:00 AM (GMT -5)
I did some more cardio on Monday, and it didn’t work out well. I got a very big feeling of calmness of quercetin, that I usually get when MCAS has been triggered a lot. Then I didn’t feel that well on Monday and Tuesday and just had a bad night's sleep. On Tuesday I was very toxic with stomach crashes.

So it seems that it's something I have to do, in very tiny doses and not that often. I hope it gets better soon as I plan to do one or two mountain bike sessions in March.

More stomach crashes and pushing toxins today. Same thing when I tested curcumin and chamomile. I cant understand how I can function this well and at the same time be so sensitive.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 2/3/2021 7:44:07 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/3/2021 10:38 AM (GMT -5)
that does sound like a PEM like reaction. Frustrating I know - I used to love mountain biking - traveled all over the world to do it - the french alps, the mountains of Nepal, the rim of the Grand Canyon - would love nothing more than to be able to get out in the hills with my old pals - but i know that's just not possible right now without risking a major setback.

i would say focus on the strength training for now - you can still move forward and make gains.

for whatever reason, many of us are just very sensitive to aerobic activity.

the strength training does more to rebuild the immune system it seems in any case - its like the muscles are immune organs in themselves.

if the goal is to get stronger - the rest days are important too - we are all different - but I have noticed that sometimes i will not move forward in terms of increasing weights or reps unless i have added an extra rest day.
there is so much going on inside my body that i simply need more time to recover and rebuild.

in terms of getting outdoors and in nature and getting some useful exercise - i seem to be able to tolerate a fast 4 miles walk every day - but if i try to train with weights every day I just don't get any stronger.

and even a 100yards of running sets my walking back for days - so that's no more than once a week for me

we are all different and all a case of experimenting and working out what works best for each of us - but there a reason the LLMDs that have treated 10,000+ lyme patients say beware aerobic stuff until you are fully functional

try not to get too fixed on one thing as the way forward - experiment, adjust, adapt
Posted 2/3/2021 11:29 AM (GMT -5)
I found that simply adapting to what you can do vs trying to stick to a scheduled plan worked better back then (when lyme was bad) and now today.

I changed my mind on the fly depending on how it was going. If you feel good, go for it and test yourself but remember not to exert to much (playhard now and pay more later caught me by surprise to many times).

My cardio was limited by the structural handicaps from lyme which greatly affected my whole body. Im not a runner, used to do some only for cardio and hated it. My cardio now is just from biking and skiing. Snowshoe is tough if its deep.

Mitochondria dysfunction is so limited in information. I went to a Mito group to gather info. There were no "mito brainy types" in that group to learn from. I went to a "MITO" Dr, did a few tests, he said I didnt have true mito dysfunction. So I scratched that off.

New info (to me) on muscle dysfunction: Potassium leakage between cells. Thats the conductive salt so to speak.

Damaged, even infected muscle can possibly have potassium leakage. I just read about it last week. In a few weeks I plan on trying a "electric tissue healing gismo" (ARP Wave machine) that bridges the gap where this potassium is possibly leaking. There is documented science and proof behind it and FDA passed approval.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply