Exercise

I don't know what did more harm --- PMR or prednisone.

Since PMR is a condition that usually doesn't cause permanent damage to joints or muscles then I need to hold prednisone responsible for some of the harm. In my case, some of the blame must be pinned on inflammatory arthritis too. I hope underlying inflammatory arthritis isn't pertinent to most people with PMR.

I'm off prednisone but my rheumatologist says I still have PMR. I'm still being treated for PMR but I'm on a biologic instead of prednisone. I want to put prednisone behind me along with my battle with daily pain. Yes, prednisone relieved most of my pain. However, if I didn't take prednisone the pain would return. Frankly, the pain would return before it was time for my next prednisone dose. I waged this battle for more than 12 years.

The biologic I currently take for PMR has helped me tremendously. Not being treated with prednisone has made a world of difference in my ability to exercise. I can do so much more now compared to when I was still taking prednisone. When I was still on prednisone, I didn't exercise at all because the fatigue was just too overwhelming. The fatigue had to be caused by adrenal insufficiency assuming I still have PMR like my rheumatologist says.

My excercise is mostly aquacise these days but I also do resistance exercise with elastic bands. I also do aerobic excercise doing the treadmill, steps, and push-ups. I can do 50 pull-ups in the water which really helps my ego!

A physical therapist supervises an exercise class that I attend. I do at least an hour or more every day doing "something" that I consider to be exercise. I don't worry about overdoing anything or pacing myself. However, the exercise I currently do is a far cry from what I used to do when I was younger. I just turned 70 so I try to keep what exercise is feasible in perspective considering my age.

The biggest difference I notice is my recovery time. I can push myself pretty hard and I recover quickly. When I did anything remotely strenuous when I was on prednisone it would wipe me out immediately and I didn't recover until I slept for a few hours.

Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is muscle pain that begins after you've worked out. It "normally" starts a day or two after a workout. I felt muscle pain within a few hours and it persisted for days so it wasn't normal. Sometimes I needed to increase my prednisone dose the next day if I did something too taxing. Almost anything required a lot of work so I avoided doing anything at all.

Now I have "normal DOMS" which actually makes me feel good. I feel like I accomplished something now when my muscles are a little sore the next day. I think prednisone wasted away my muscles and now I see a bit of muscle tone which is good for an old guy.

Sounds awesome, Dad. And so glad you found a medication that helps and does not harm. Great news.
So glad you can work out without pain and are gaining the goodies from exercise. There are so many.
Can you tell me, what do you do in your class that the PT runs?
May you continue to feel well and thrive!!!!
Keep moving! Take care and thanks so much for sharing.

We do 4 stages of about 15 minutes each.

Stage 1 is a brief warm up on the Cubii. Then we do neck, arm and leg stretches. After stretching we do our first round of "big stuff" as the physical therapist calls it. I usually do 30-40 push-ups while inclined 45 degrees on a sturdy table. My push-ups are followed by a choice of sit-to-stand exercises or steps. I usually go up and down twelve steps 4-5 times. These cardio exercises are just as a person is able and we do them independently.

Stage 2 is arm exercises while seated with elastic bands or weights. The arm exercises are a combination of biceps, triceps, or arm pulls (diagonal, horizontal and vertical). The arm exercises are followed by a 2nd round of big stuff.

Stage 3 is leg exercise while seated and again with elastic bands. Clams and straight leg lifts with some core work - alternating knee to elbow touches. Then we do a 3rd round of big stuff.

The last stage is balance work. Standing on one leg with toe taps to the front, out to the side and to the rear. We also do standing on tippy toes and squats. We do 2 sets with 10 to 15 reps of each of these. Then we do a 4th round of big stuff

We finish with relaxing things like shoulder rolls, head rolls and self hugs.

Wow. Amazing workout. Good for you, Dad.
Tell me about the Cubii! Reminds me of a mini-elliptical.
Also, what do you do for triceps?
Love how the workout covers all areas. I'm envious as I can't do all this anymore...due to the upper arm pain.
Thank you for sharing all this wonderful info.

The Cubii was issued to me by the VA for being enrolled in the MOVE program. Mine looks like this one but I can't say that I like it that much. It was good when I first started exercising again when sitting was about all I could do.
https://www.amazon.com/Cubii-Elliptical-Adjustable-Resistance-Turquoise/dp/B074F1S194/ref=sr_1_5?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7-nFM5q4sutFO8vheZspaR_gjNfF5N0zxpXz0xS1Xe9yIldj-ZgNRKg7HwGs2V1OBUsFDDlQeqtief2JTXOzDK_vyGSpk18qthyRb7FJ7r8FDWjRMx5VKUysODfqRjNEKLk8sflyuB-NMYGtU6uGkTFUlJ07oX9SMYbe-SgJTMjSh2DazgLhR0wSUXuq0cCzHmmOlIm9TgvpgJWBQLuj2_CrVOrUPowZrovsJ4JCtHs.rs-AvUNhTkN7oDNiu924kCP7CiMEagB1K4Z2-LHG4M4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=409982989382&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1015844&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16991343789047164814&hvtargid=kwd-316736175784&hydadcr=26610_10407607&keywords=qubii&qid=1727709813&sr=8-5
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My triceps are either with a 5 pound weight or with an elastic band. I hold one end of the elastic band to the back of my head and straighten my other arm straight up. I turn my face away in case the elastic band snaps. Otherwise I lift the weight from my shoulder over my head. People do it a variety of ways.

Many people have problems with their shoulders but my shoulders feel great. I'm amazed that PMR didn't seem to do any harm to my shoulders because that was where most of my pain was when I was diagnosed with PMR. I couldn't lift my arms because my shoulders would hurt so much. I remember telling a physical therapist that nothing could hurt so much without doing some serious damage. My shoulders don't seem to be damaged at all.

My knees and lumbar spine have some serious damage but I don't think PMR caused it. Both of my knees have been replaced. I think inflammatory arthritis did the damage to my knees and spine.

I do an aquacise class Mon-Wed-Fri and the land exercise class on Tues-Thurs. I slack off on the weekend but I try to do yard work outside. I have to sit on the ground and scoot to pull weeds. Otherwise, mowing the grass is like using my rollator.

Thank you, Dad, for all this amazing info. I really appreciate it and admire you for your hard work to be strong and healthy. That is really unbelievable about your shoulders. I totally understand where you're coming from. I can't imagine that mine are not shredded. I feel I am prob hurting them when I do my exercises, so I'm afraid to do much.
Again, appreciate so much your helpful responses. Be well and strong and pain-free!

My upper body is responding well to all of the exercise. From my waist down isn't doing as well. I have some impingement of the nerves going to my legs which causes numbness, weakness and foot drop on the right. The foot drop was an acute event that happened about 10 years ago. The radicular leg pain was awful and I was thinking leg amputation was a good idea.

An MRI was done and showed severe spinal stenosis. A spine surgeon said I wasn't a good candidate for extensive back surgery because of being on prednisone for such a long time. The surgeon didn't think I had enough good bone in my lumbar spine to hold all the hardware that would be needed to fuse my lumbar spine.

Ironically it was prednisone that rescued me from a lumbar fusion. When I couldn't stand the pain any longer, I took 60 mg of prednisone and the pain mostly stopped. A neurosurgeon said pain should be the deciding factor for surgery. Since the pain was tolerable, I elected to postpone surgery and kept on taking prednisone.

My rheumatologist stared at my MRI for a long time. Then she said prednisone wasn't the best solution and prednisone wouldn't fix anything but she was glad the pain stopped.

The nerve damage is likely permanent but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse. Now that I'm off prednisone, the surgeon says I'm a better surgical candidate and is ready to do surgery whenever I'm ready. Prednisone at the time seemed like a good idea but it never seems to solve any problems and tends to create additional problems.

After my recent gift of PMR, I am in total agreement for the Need to Exercise topic. Some mornings it is nearly impossible jut to get out of bed without the legs collapsing, along with that splendid Lethargic/Can't do anything feel. Now each morning I force myself to keep going, no matter what feelings and it works well for my overall improvement during the entire day. I also found that taking my 10mg of Prednisone between 5-6 A.M. with food makes a huge difference. Without the food, Prednisone totally takes my entire body over, at times forcing me back to bed-with food it has minimal effects. Walking is great, even if only for a small distance, then sit down and walk again later.
For the Cholesterol; my Doc put me on Crestor.
We can all imagine a Doctor that "Cures" a disease, instead of throwing R/X pills at it.

I started lifting weight when I was 19. I never lifted competively but I always made time for my workouts. I became a jogger for awhile as well. It is addictive if you try to take care of yourself your whole life then get PMR. I had read it was not a muscle wasting disease but lack of activity could be. So I went from heavy weights(for my age) to barely lifting the bar. I could barely get out of bed but I felt better if I went to the gym. I set up an exercise rotation where I briefly worked every muscle. Everything hurt. I have about 15 exercises I do where I do one set of ten and then start over and do the second and then the 3rd. Then 3 times a week I do the treadmill for 15 min. I do the Bruce protocol on the treadmill. PMR and Covid made gym workouts difficult but I did my best. Once I started steroids I was almost pain free. Like you I had to be careful. I was not feeling any pain. There were days that I just did what I could but I very seldom miss. I go every day for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I have kept the same workout since PMR. The only difference is my 3 sets are the first set is an easy set of 10 for warmup. Second set I add some weight and the third set is where I can barely do a set of 10 or 8. I am 72 now. That has also added a level of humility. I attribute the fact that I burned out PMR in 6 months and was off steroids to my dedication to exercise and knowledge of steroids. Steroid dependency was a lot more serious condition than the PMR. I no longer believe I can build muscle due to age but I can still maintain and strengthen what I have. I also after PMR had all my hormones checked. I have been able to stop most medications that I started from 6 months on steroids. I dont know if this helps. I can give you specific exercises I do. Its just a full range of movement from legs , shoulder, back , abs, arms. They say to let muscles rest a day or two between workouts but I needed to keep blood flowing to everything. I very seldom do single rep heavy weights. Occasionally some young pup fires me up into competing then I pay for it.