How I Became Consistent With Exercise While Living With Chronic Pain

When you live with chronic pain, doctors often recommend you exercise regularly because movement can help prevent more pain. It is not as easy to be consistent with exercise as people make it sound, because sometimes exercise triggers more pain, and it’s the last thing you want to do. Most people feel better when they exercise, but because of pain, a lot of the time I feel worse, because it doesn’t matter how low-impact my exercise is, pain is often triggered. When I first started experiencing chronic pain, I needed to avoid exercise, when the reality is I needed to exercise smarter to accommodate my pain, not train harder. Exercise with chronic pain is difficult and not possible for some people but for many of us, exercise is not completely off the table. I struggled with being consistent with exercise for many years and didn’t because I didn’t feel well enough and avoided exercise, but over the years, I have been able to get back to exercising. How can you exercise while living with chronic pain? In this post, I am sharing how I stay consistent with exercise despite my chronic pain.

I do not exercise like I did before pain- One of the biggest mistakes that I have made while exercising with chronic pain is trying to exercise in the same way as I did before chronic pain. When you live with chronic pain, sometimes you have to exercise in a different way, and as soon as I realized that, my pain improved, and I was able to be consistent with exercise. I can do a lot of the same exercises that I did before pain, but sometimes I am not able to do as much of it because my pain is often triggered during exercise, and I have to do less of it, and that is okay. It is so important that you listen to your body when you are exercising with chronic pain because you are only hurting yourself when you try to push through the pain. I struggled with motivating myself to exercise and for the longest time was not consistent and it wasn’t until I accepted the reality that I could not exercise like I could before pain that everything changed. My pain can sometimes still be triggered during exercise, and there is nothing I can do to prevent that from happening, but I do have less pain when I exercise in a way that supports my pain le

I drop the weight on higher pain days- I love weightlifting and most days I am able to lift fifteen pounds while wearing five-pound wrist weights without triggering more pain. Most days I am able to lift heavy but if I didn’t sleep well or am not feeling my best, I can’t always do that safely. The last time I exercised, I ditched my wrist weights because I was having a little bit of a headache all day and knew that lifting heavy could turn a minor headache into a full-blown migraine, which I did not want, so I ditched the wrist weights. Weight lifting has a lot of health benefits, and if you are able to resistance train without increased pain levels, I highly recommend you do it, but if you are struggling with pain, lifting heavy weights might not be the best idea. If you feel a little bit of burn during your workout routine, it is good to push through the pain, but it is so important to know the difference between pain you should keep going and pain that you should stop. I used to try and push through pain during exercise, and it wasn’t until I learned that pain flares are not something you should push through because it will likely do more harm than good.

I focus on good nutrition-.When I started exercising with pain, I was not very consistent because I had pain levels that prevented me from exercising, which made it very difficult to be consistent with my exercise routine. I still live with pain and cannot wait until my pain is a zero to exercise because that will never happen, but I have been able to improve my pain levels by eating healthier. People sometimes think that if you do a hard enough workout you can eat whatever you want and never gain weight, but that is not always true because nutrition plays a major role in your fitness progress. I did not have the healthiest diet when I started exercising, and once I started prioritizing healthy eating I was able to be more consistent because I had lower pain levels, which gave me more energy. Healthy eating did not cure my pain by any means, but even the smallest improvement can make exercising easier.

Sometimes I take more rest days– When you live with pain, sometimes it is difficult to exercise five to six days because pain is very rarely convenient and unpredictable. It is frustrating to have to take a rest day when you want to exercise, but sometimes it’s the only way to prevent your pain from getting worse. People often think that rest is laziness, but I don’t think so, and rest is often necessary to recover if you are in a pain flare. Everyone should have rest days, whether you live with chronic pain or not, because your body needs rest to be able to build muscle, and if you are going hard seven days a week, you aren’t giving it enough time to recover. I am consistent with my walk because it’s lower impact but sometimes I can’t be as consistent with my strength training due to pain, and that is okay. I do what I can, and some days that is heavy lifting while days it’s a little stretching.

Make sure you sleep enough- When you live with chronic pain, sometimes it is difficult to get enough sleep because the pain often prevents you from getting good quality sleep. Most people who have a fitness goal know that they have to eat healthy and exercise consistently to reach their goal, but what is often overlooked is the importance of sleep. I can’t control when my pain prevents me from sleeping, but I do try and go to bed at a reasonable hour because when you are sleep-deprived, it triggers more pain and makes exercising more difficult. I notice a major difference in my performance when I sleep well and when I don’t, because poor sleep affects your energy levels, and sometimes I am not able to complete my workout when I am sleep deprived. Some days I will go to bed early and not sleep well, but I do try and sleep enough because when I am well rested, I have lower pain levels and can push myself harder.

Do lower-impact exercise– There are a lot of people online who make YouTube exercise videos that are specifically for people with chronic pain, that are lower-impact. High-impact workouts are great and burn more calories, but aren’t always an option for people struggling with pain and often lead to more pain. If you struggle with exercise while living with pain, I would look into lower-impact movements because low impact does not mean it’s less effective, and only means it’s not as hard on your joints. Low-impact exercise, such as walking, is sometimes the only way to get your body moving without more pain.

Exercise with chronic pain is difficult, and it is often believed that exercise is completely off the table for everyone with chronic pain but that is only true for some people. I cannot exercise like I did before chronic pain, but if I prioritize pre- and post-workout nutrition and sleep enough, exercise is possible. I always temporarily feel worse after exercise because pain is often triggered during exercise, and I can’t control that, which is why I have to prioritize listening to my body over maxing out my workouts. Exercise can help some people improve their pain, but you have to do it right, or you could end up worsening your pain, and no one wants that. Movement has always been important to me because I struggle with constipation, but I have had to exercise a little differently than I have in the past because of pain. and that is okay. Do what you can because some movement, even if it’s only five minutes, is better than nothing at all. How do you exercise while living with chronic pain? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.

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