@jmcc - That's a great question. I based all of my tapering on a daily pain and dosage log that I kept when I started my taper from the 20 mg starting dose. I didn't taper down when it was time to taper down if my pain was above 1 or 2 when I woke up before I took my daily dose of prednisone. My first occurrence took me 3-1/2 years to taper off with the last six months going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg dose. I always had some stiffness when I first got up (still do!) so I didn't consider that part when tapering. Just getting up and moving around made a big difference for me.

You mentioned diet, exercise and rest are good. Just a thought, I could really tell when I overdid the exercise since my body would let me know about. I still worry about muscle atrophy and try to do more weight bearing exercises but I need to do more.

Here's some tapering guidelines from the British Society for Rheumatology:

"The British Society for Rheumatology guidelines suggests the following method for titrating the dose of prednisone in people with polymyalgia rheumatica:

-- Initial dose – 15 mg, once daily, for three weeks, followed by;
-- 12.5 mg, once daily, for three weeks, followed by;
-- 10 mg, once daily, for four to six weeks, followed by;
-- A reduction of 1 mg from the daily dose, every four to eight weeks"
https://bpac.org.nz/bpj/2013/june/polymyalgia-rheumatica.aspx
Do you keep a daily pain and dosage log?