How To Re-Condition

[abbyw]

Hi,
I have had POTS for around a year and a half now. I was never the biggest athlete, and I think I would tire more quickly than others, but I was OK, active and would exercise daily by doing brisk walking for around half an hour.

Since POTS, I get tired very quickly from doing basic housework - washing a sink of dishes, putting in a load of laundry, picking up toys, etc. I am trying to walk every day, but after around 5-10 minutes, I am short of breath. I can do around 15 minutes of regular paced walking, but then I have to rest afterwards.

How do I get myself back into shape? I like swimming, but I am too lazy to take the half an hour drive to the pool, do the whole dressed, undressed, get used to the water, get out of the pool and freeze, shower dress, go home thing. I feel like I need some routine that I can implement slowly, as the walking daily doesn't seem to be improving my stamina at all.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Abby

[hholmes13]

I was having a really tough time last summer. I couldn't walk much without being incredibly dizzy. At that time, even laying down wouldn't get rid of the dizziness. Since I was on STD, my work had me going to a physical therapist. He had me doing strengthening exercises I could perform sitting or laying down. I started very slowly. I then found a free recumbent cycle in the classfied ads and started using that at home. I could barely do 10 minutes at first without feeling horrible. I kept very slowly building on that. Then, while at my family's cabin I realized that my dizziness subsided somewhat while being in the water. I started walking/jogging in the pool at the gym at my work daily. As I got better at that, I decided I needed to be able to walk on regular ground. I started doing walks around my neighborhood. I eventually started to jog/run. I had worked up to 5 miles at a time. However, then I went back to work full time and my body was not going to cooperate working full time and exercising that vigorously. (I also think for me, the reason I started to improve last summer was also that I had begun Mestinon and it was starting to work.) Most steps of the way, exercise was so difficult. After every exercise session, I was so tired/dizzy that I would usually fall asleep on the couch for a good hour or two (even after just 10 minutes on my cycle). I was always very athletic before I got sick in 2011, and POTS has really put a cramp in my lifestyle.

I'm not sure what type of routine will work for you but I advise starting very slowly. Everyone is different, but more than likely it is going to take awhile before exercise stops wiping you out. Eventually you hopefully will build a little more tolerance for activity. It's frustrating and some days you may feel horrible (at least in my experience) but hopefully if you keep slowly building it may get better. If you could start with exercise you can perform sitting then progress to walking it might get easier.

Good luck, Abby! I hope you can find something that works for you.

Heather

[looneymom]

Hi Abby,

I would suggest that you start slowly. MAYO told my son to exercise 3-5 times a week. However, my son was really exercise intolerant. He started by riding a recumbuant stationary bike. He started with a minute and rode Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only. He upped his time by one minute every week. He also goes to physcial therapy twice a week. They work on core and leg exercises. Since he had the flu, he lost a lot of his upper body strength. He struggles to lift his hands straight up. So once again, he is trying to get this strengh built back up. Before he had POTS, he was a very active boy. A physical therapist has been very helpful with my son's condition.