I agree with jeff97. After spending months with extreme pain and barely able to function let alone work out I self diagnosed myself with PMR. I took 20mg equiv. of prednisone and the pain was gone in 4 hours. From all my reading 15-20mg is about what the Dr likes to start for treatment. Otherwise they start thinking that maybe this is not PMR and maybe yours is not. Your age will also make the Dr hesitant. GCA diagnosis takes double that dosage. I am familiar that some PMR sufferers have found that a higher starting dose is necessary. If your Dr. is willing to work with you, then maybe try going to 40mg for a 2 or 3 days. The prednisone works on PMR and you should be pain free. Prednisone has a lot of complications so you want to try to taper back as soon as the pain is gone to your lowest possible dose. Within the first 12-14 days you can experiment. After 2 weeks your body shuts off cortisol production and you need to taper more carefully. Once the pain is gone you can start to workout. Be careful since you still have inflammation and are taking drugs to mask it. PMR is not necessarily a life sentence.