The Exercise Prescription For Reversing Fibromyalgia
The main things to remember with fibromyalgia and exercise are:

• Listen to your body - there is a difference between pushing toward improvement and forcing an injury
• Learn to establish the difference between muscle soreness and aggravation of fibromyalgia pain
• Start out slowly and gently and build up your resistance, intensity and time
• Always warm up, cool down and stretch carefully

Fibromyalgia and exercise can go well together as long as you start slow and keep doing it. Exercise, relaxation, and positive thinking reduce your allostatic load (bad stress response) and allow you to increase your level of daily activity. Your fibromyalgia exercises should be designed to gradually build muscle and enable you to do more intense exercise for longer periods of time without straining or causing undue pain. Exercise will help you relieve your pain and make you feel more in control over your own care and well-being. The following are some guidelines as you proceed with your fibromyalgia exercise program:

Stretching, Breathing, Relaxing
Stretching improves your flexibility, ensuring that your joints can move through a full range of motion. Deep breathing allows additional oxygen to be transported to every cell in your body. Relaxing your body and your mind allows you to release the pressures and demands of the day so that you may better perceive your world in a positive, constructive manner. Stretching, breathing and relaxing are essential to your fibromyalgia exercise program because they allow you to perform your daily living activities easier and more efficiently. Also, by improving your flexibility, you prevent your muscles, tendons and ligaments from shortening and weakening, thereby reducing your risk for injury and pain. To ensure maximum benefit:

• Stretch on a daily basis and warm-up before you stretch
• Try various techniques, such as meditation, yoga, visualization and progressive relaxation
• Get in the correct, comfortable position to begin each session
• Select very simple movements to start your program
• Concentrate on stretching the muscle; do not bounce, push or be overanxious

Strength or Resistance Training
This allows you to improve the overall strength of your muscles. Developing stronger muscles will allow you to perform the activities of daily living - such as bringing in the groceries - with more ease, thereby reducing your fatigue. Having stronger muscles also means an increase in your lean body mass and a decrease in body fat. This has the effect of helping you burn more calories that will help in weight loss. Decreasing your weight will have positive effects on your joints and joint pain.

Cardiovascular Aerobic Activities
Aerobic exercises such as jogging or bicycling improves the way your heart, lungs and muscles operate. The net effect of this is a decreased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, decreased cholesterol level, and a stronger heart. By adding aerobic activities of 30 minutes duration, three days a week, you will reduce your risk for heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. You will also find that exercising will improve the amount of energy you have and prevent you from becoming easily fatigued. Below are a few types of aerobic exercise you may want to try:

• Walking. You may want to start your slowly by walking for 5 minutes the first day. The following day you should add a minute to your walk. Keep adding 1 or 2 minutes a day until you are continuously walking for 45 minutes a day. Maintain this level for a while and then slowly add in another daily walking or other type of exercise session.
• Cycling. Cycling takes weight off the legs, hips and lower back. Cycling is a tremendous heart and lung conditioner. As with the other types of exercises, begin slowly and work your way up to a goal of bicycling for 60 minutes daily.
• Water exercise. Aerobic water exercise may be best tolerated because it eliminates pressure on the body. Water temperature is important. You should avoid any situations with extremely warm or cold water as this may make your symptoms worse.

The most important thing is to get started and keep going.
Start with easy stretches, slow, low impact walking, leisurely swims and light resistance with elastic bands. Don't try to do too much because it is very important that continuous exercise becomes a permanent part of your healthy lifestyle.