Fibro Myth #3: If you just exercised more, you'd feel better

Fibromyalgia is NOT caused by lack of exercise.

In this world, there are many things that can result from not exercising - obesity, increased risk of heart disease etc. But, fibromyalgia is not one of them. You, your friend or your family member did not develop fibromyalgia by forgetting or neglecting to exercise.

If you've been closely watching a fibromyalgia sufferer's life, chances are you've noticed a marked decrease in the exercise they do, possibly even to nil. What you are seeing is symptomatic, not causative; ie. Your friend slowly loses the ability to exercise as it is becomes more and more painful to do so, because they have fibromyalgia, not the other way around. Your friend might be able to continue gentle exercising such as gentle forms of yoga, water relaxation exercises or short walks when they have sufficient energy to do so. Unfortunately, vigorous forms of exercise such as swimming, marathon running, hiking etc are no longer advisable as they trigger significant amounts of pain.

Personally, prior to fibromyalgia, I used to love to walk and run. Most people find running on a treadmill to be boring and repetitive, but I used to love it. I begged my dad for years to get a treadmill for our house. But over the years, I slowly lost the ability to run on it. I used to enjoy nature walks and hikes, but once again, I had to cease them due to my increased levels of pain. I've had plenty of doctors along the way, who've thought that by getting me back to exercise, I'd get better. In fact, for two years, this is what my physiotherapists tried to make me do. And I didn't know any better at the time so I tried with all my might. The only effect I ever saw was the pain shoot from my arms to my legs, causing me to be unable to walk or stand because of unimaginable pain levels in my legs.

So friends, exercising more is not the cure to fibromyalgia & in a large proportion of cases, trying to exercise at pre-illness levels will actually cause significant harm and increased pain levels.