How Long Does It Take To Get Your Core Muscle Strength Up?

[looneymom]

My son is doing specific exercises to strengthen his core muscles. His goal is to be able to go back to school for a half a day next year. He is able to sit up on a posture ball for about 25 minutes before his back muscles start hurting. He is able to walk and stand around 25 minutes before his legs start shaking and back starts hurting. I know he is making progress but is seems so slow. Is this normal?

[Chaos]

How long has he been down? We used to tell our patients as a general "rule of thumb" to count on 2-3 days recovery time for every day they spent in bed. That's for a "normal" patient who had a surgery or something and was having a "normal" recovery. I'd hesitate to say what's "normal" for someone with POTS. Does he have other stuff going on besides POTS...like EDS?

[looneymom]

The first time our son went down on us was Labor Day 2011. He was unable to walk until late December 2011. He was taken to MAYO in December 2011 and was diagnosised with POTS. MAYO titered a meds he was on to help with nerve pain, but he went down hill . Our guess is the meds caused the problem. He was bedridden for almost 4 months January 2012-April 2012. Started him on an Amino acid supplement and he was able to sit up 4 weeks later. Since he has been on the amino acid he has always been able to set up. The neurologist thought is was a fluke and had us take him off of it. Guess not because he went down on us after a week and could not sit up, or raise up. Put him back on supplement and three weeks later he stands up. The neurologist has told me not to take him off the supplement ever again. This past summer he start shaking and having tremors from waist down. Our neurologist has told us this is an involuntary muscle movement. She will not diagnoise him with turetts since this all started after the pots diag made December 2011. His last blood test show very low levels in dopamine and seratoin. We have been trying since the first of April to get these levels to raise up with amino acid supplement. Had another test last month and only seratoin came up 5 points ( he is now at 21) starting range on test 81 and his dopimine is still unmeasurable. Our cardiologist and neurologist think this may have to do with a defiency in his body. So he has been put on a shake thast loaded with amino acids. My son always does his exercises in the morning because sometimes he is shaking so bad in the afternoon, he is unable to walk or exercise. Just wondering if other POTS patients go through any of this. My son goes to pt twice a week and he is making progress. I am assuming the longer the muscles have not been used, the longer it takes to get them built up. EDS has been ruled out but concerned about MCAS.

[roxie]

I wonder this too. I've verb exercising for a while now. I've gotten up to 15 mins a day (not all at once) but my muscles hurt so much all the time. I have EDS and that may play a part but I keep wondering when will it not ache all the time?

[imre]

Yoga is actually good for core muscles and posture and is less strenuous than lifting weights or cardio. It may sound a bit hocus pocus but it has helped me a bit and is worth a try. Stick with it though, no point in giving up after two weeks, I would say 3-4 months and you should see results. Discuss with physician first of course. Hope he is able to get back on his feet soon.