I'm relatively new to PMR and this forum, but I've noticed that quite a few of the people who write in for one reason or another seemed to be dedicated exercisers. I too exercised a lot, some would say excessively for my age, which is now 76, prior to PMR diagnosis, and I continue to do so as much as I can since the diagnosis. I don't know if anyone has ever looked into the relationship between those who get PMR and how physically active they were before the diagnosis, but it makes me wonder is somehow the stress of vigorous exercise on elderly bodies might be a trigger some form of autoimmune reaction. I have done martial arts since a teenager and ski, play golf, and do pilates, but about 6 mos before the PMR diagnosis became obvious I started lifting weights, primarily hoping that it would help the osteoarthritis in my knees. I made rapid gains in the amount of weight I could lift, until about 3 mos before my PMR diagnosis, when I had to decrease the weights as I thought they were aggravating my joints. The weights kept decreasing until they were about 1/4th of my best. I'm now almost back to original weights, on 10mg prednisone, tapered down from 20mg. Anyway, not really a scientific survey, but I'm wondering if my there could be a common pattern of exercising hard triggering PMR.