Aching from the most minor of exercise

Welcome @spiker, We are all a little different with our pain experience and tapering off of prednisone. I do think it was harder for me when I got down to around 5 mg prednisone and I had to taper by smaller amounts. Since you mentioned you were diagnosed earlier this year, I'm wondering what your starting dose was since you are already down to 5 mg. Exercise is good when you have PMR but it's sometimes easy to over do it but that doesn't seem to be the case from what you describe. How long ago was your last taper down and how much?

I started at 10 mg in January, then tapered to 7.5, then 5, then 2.5. Pain returned so I'm back up to 5. I've been reading that many of you taper much more slowly.

I went back up to 5 mg three weeks ago.

I had my rheumatologist prescribe some 1 mg tablets so I could taper down smaller amounts which helped when I got below 7.5 mg.

Yes, the usual taper is much slower and in smaller increments. A drop of 2.5mg in one go (under 10mg) would almost certainly bring back a flare and full-on pain in most people. Is there some reason the doctor told you to drop the prednisone so quickly? And most people start on 15mg - 25mg prednisone for polymyalgia rheumatica. In Australia the standard start dose is 15mg.

Even with much slower reductions, there were times when I could do very little or the muscles became very sore and stiff. Different activities affect us all differently. Careful and paced activities in the yard and garden are okay for me but I'm not game to try things like swimming. Others say that water exercise helps.

Do you have regular blood tests like ESR (erythrocyte sedimentary rate) or CRP (C-reactive protein) to check if inflammation is out of control again? If it is, the prednisone is too low to do its job.

I was diagnosed with PMR April 2023. For me there’s no rhyme or reason for doses of prednisone or other medication and pain!!! sometimes certain dose works and then the same those doesn’t work. sometimes I have pain in one area and other times it pops up in other areas I never know. I did learn that is necessary to listen to your body if some exercise that you’re doing is too painful just go lighter just do whatever you can comfortably because doing something is better than doing nothing!!! my very best wishes to you!!!

I do get regular blood tests, and they are always normal (after starting prednisone). I didn’t have very severe symptoms at the beginning, so perhaps that why I started at 10 mg.

spiker, I *feel* your pain......
Pain strikes when it wants to, besides PMR type aching, I have Baker's cysts. Neither of these conditions respond well to exercise most of the time, whether it's walking or lightly strengthening. I can tell my body misses and needs to work out as I've done for decades and decades. Today, I will really suffer as I did, at low intensity, a Bone Building class I've done since 2017. Of course, this curse sidelined me from doing anything physical starting in Jan '24 but I decided to go ahead and work out anyway...lighter with strengthening and no jumping around with cardio. Whether I hurt or not. My take is that I'll just see what happens.
I do wish you the best, not sure what I'm doing is a good thing....prob really increasing the inflammation. Who knows. I do not take steroids. So there's that.

Sorry that exercise has been hard for you.

I taper a .5 mg every 2 weeks, it seems to work for me. Maybe try that?

My daughter is correct in saying that there are no heroics in pain. Maybe drop to 4.5 mg in a week and see if that works.

The other adage that applies - "Slow and steady wins the race".

Good luck!

Do you not get flares by dropping .5mg every two weeks? I thought that was too fast. I'd sure like to drop that way. I was told to stay at the same dose for a month. I'm really curious as to how you feel. Love this site to get others' ideas and answers.