Training/Exercise with Lupus (Nottingham)
Training/Exercise with Lupus (Nottingham)
Before I even start:
What is lupus?
Lupus is an autoimmune disease – in which your immune system attacks healthy cells by mistake – that can potentially damage many parts of the body.
Symptoms
Symptoms of lupus vary from person to person, from severity to the body parts affected. Although no two cases of lupus are the same, other most common symptoms include:
Symptoms can flare up and settle down
My client Sam's background (her name has been changed)
Sam has severe systemic lupus. The side effects she has include, extreme fatigue, joint pain, swollen feet and is often in a lot of pain. Her flare ups vary. She's had them so bad that she can't get her shoes on as her feet are so swollen, in constant pain, has been forced to use a wheelchair and spends most of the day either sleeping, or just not having the energy to move much. She has also been in intensive care several times. So the condition does greatly affect her day to day life.
Sam was fairly weak, especially her grip, before she trained with me. In a test she had done, she struggled to walk 50m and her legs were shaking. She would always need to use her arms when squatting down on to the sofa or when using the toilet.
Sam had a previous bad experience with a personal trainer who didn't take the condition seriously. He tried to push her too hard, and didn't understand that her program had to be adjusted for her. Unfortunately, most personal trainers aren't very good at their job. In previous articles, I've written about the low standards in the fitness industry. Sam came to me with very low expectations. She later told me that when she started, she didn't expect expected that she wouldn't be able to do much, and would give up within a couple of weeks.
The ways strength training has improved Sam's life
Training with Lupus
After I spoke to Sam, I started doing some research to see what other people who have lupus did to keep fit. After looking through varies forums and and Facebook groups, I found that most people just didn't do anything as they found it too hard or tiring.
The only recommendations I saw were for people to l walking, swimming, bicycling, low-impact aerobics to improve strength and prevent osteoporosis. These are all fine things for everyone to do, but they are a poor way to strengthen your muscles and to prevent osteoporosis.
I couldn't find anything on lifting weights for someone with lupus. This didn't surprise me, most people, and this includes personal trainers, don't know enough about training in a safe and effective way.
I knew she needed to get stronger. Getting stronger makes everyday activitiesmuch easier. She has a lot going on outside of the gym, so we agreed on training twice a week. She didn't need to train anymore than that, and it be likely would have had more negative effects than positive if she did more days.
We started off light, as I would with anyone who is just starting training, and tried to keep the volume low. We actually still did too much, as after the first two sessions she had to sleep for hours to recover. The gym is meant to improve her life outside of the gym, not take so much out of her that she couldn't do anything when she got home, so we had to make some changes and reduce the amount of sets that she did even more. Normally only 3 or 4 exercises a workout and only one or two work sets for each exercise. This worked much better. She kept getting stronger, while still having energy for the rest of the day to get on with her life.
Training during a flare up was different. If it was too bad, she should stay at home. Sam is a very determined person, and wasn't one to give up easily. I knew if she felt training would make it worse, it was best she didn't train. Most of the time she was able to train during a flare up. I had to make some changes to her training. We had to reduce the weight she doing. Training was more about keeping her moving than getting stronger. Her balance was noticeably worse during a flare up, and this greatly increased her chance of injury with any exercise that involved balance, so I removed any exercises that involved much balance. For example, swapped out the bench press for a cable press.
I try and get Sam as strong as possible, while doing as little as possible.
Key points I learnt for strength training with a client with lupus
If you live in the Nottingham area, have lupus and want to start training, get in touch with me through this website, or through 07778768761.
- I’m not a medical professional. None of this advice should be taken as such.
- I don’t have formal qualifications to work with individuals with lumps (no such qualification exists)
- All of this article is based on experience training a client with Lupus. The symptoms and severity of lupus can vary from person to person, so there isn’t one way to train for sufferers and it would need to be adjusted for each person. For people who have very bad joint pain, lifting weights might not be a good idea.
- If you’re after medical support, contact your GP.
What is lupus?
Lupus is an autoimmune disease – in which your immune system attacks healthy cells by mistake – that can potentially damage many parts of the body.
Symptoms
Symptoms of lupus vary from person to person, from severity to the body parts affected. Although no two cases of lupus are the same, other most common symptoms include:
- Extreme fatigue
- Pain or swelling in the joints
- Rash across your cheeks and nose
- Swelling in the hands, feet, or around the eyes
- Headaches
- Low fevers
- Sensitivity to sunlight or fluorescent light
- Chest pain when breathing deeply
Symptoms can flare up and settle down
- Often the disease flares up (relapses) and symptoms become worse for a few weeks, sometimes longer.
- Symptoms then settle down (remission), but are often still there, but less severe.
My client Sam's background (her name has been changed)
Sam has severe systemic lupus. The side effects she has include, extreme fatigue, joint pain, swollen feet and is often in a lot of pain. Her flare ups vary. She's had them so bad that she can't get her shoes on as her feet are so swollen, in constant pain, has been forced to use a wheelchair and spends most of the day either sleeping, or just not having the energy to move much. She has also been in intensive care several times. So the condition does greatly affect her day to day life.
Sam was fairly weak, especially her grip, before she trained with me. In a test she had done, she struggled to walk 50m and her legs were shaking. She would always need to use her arms when squatting down on to the sofa or when using the toilet.
Sam had a previous bad experience with a personal trainer who didn't take the condition seriously. He tried to push her too hard, and didn't understand that her program had to be adjusted for her. Unfortunately, most personal trainers aren't very good at their job. In previous articles, I've written about the low standards in the fitness industry. Sam came to me with very low expectations. She later told me that when she started, she didn't expect expected that she wouldn't be able to do much, and would give up within a couple of weeks.
The ways strength training has improved Sam's life
- Sam has gone from struggling to walk 50m, to being able to cycle 15 minutes to the gym, have an hours workout, and then cycle 15 minutes back home. She can now go for long walks again.
- She could only manage a couple of steps while wearing a harness to walk with her child that connects to her legs. She has now walked a couple of miles with it and only stopped because her daughter was getting bored!
- She can squat down without using her hands now.
- Her grip strength has massively improved. She can hold on to things much longer than when she first started.
- Her confidence has grown. She now now knows she's much more able to do physical things than she used to think she was.
Training with Lupus
After I spoke to Sam, I started doing some research to see what other people who have lupus did to keep fit. After looking through varies forums and and Facebook groups, I found that most people just didn't do anything as they found it too hard or tiring.
The only recommendations I saw were for people to l walking, swimming, bicycling, low-impact aerobics to improve strength and prevent osteoporosis. These are all fine things for everyone to do, but they are a poor way to strengthen your muscles and to prevent osteoporosis.
I couldn't find anything on lifting weights for someone with lupus. This didn't surprise me, most people, and this includes personal trainers, don't know enough about training in a safe and effective way.
I knew she needed to get stronger. Getting stronger makes everyday activitiesmuch easier. She has a lot going on outside of the gym, so we agreed on training twice a week. She didn't need to train anymore than that, and it be likely would have had more negative effects than positive if she did more days.
We started off light, as I would with anyone who is just starting training, and tried to keep the volume low. We actually still did too much, as after the first two sessions she had to sleep for hours to recover. The gym is meant to improve her life outside of the gym, not take so much out of her that she couldn't do anything when she got home, so we had to make some changes and reduce the amount of sets that she did even more. Normally only 3 or 4 exercises a workout and only one or two work sets for each exercise. This worked much better. She kept getting stronger, while still having energy for the rest of the day to get on with her life.
Training during a flare up was different. If it was too bad, she should stay at home. Sam is a very determined person, and wasn't one to give up easily. I knew if she felt training would make it worse, it was best she didn't train. Most of the time she was able to train during a flare up. I had to make some changes to her training. We had to reduce the weight she doing. Training was more about keeping her moving than getting stronger. Her balance was noticeably worse during a flare up, and this greatly increased her chance of injury with any exercise that involved balance, so I removed any exercises that involved much balance. For example, swapped out the bench press for a cable press.
I try and get Sam as strong as possible, while doing as little as possible.
Key points I learnt for strength training with a client with lupus
- Start with doing very little and see how they react after a session. Lupus is different for everyone, so I would start at the minimum amount of volume and go from there. We can always do more the next session.
- Get them as strong as you can while do as little as she can. Training too hard can cause a flare up, or just take them a long time to recover, so I would careful with how much the client did.
- Progress slowly. Don't make large jumps in weight, or reps even if you think they are capable of it. A little progress every session adds up and reduces the chances of any negative affects.
- It's best if they either don't train during a flare up, or greatly reduce the load and remove any exercise that there is an increase risk of injury with reduced balance and coordination.
- Some exercises might not be possible because of joint pain. There are always alternatives you can do. Some people with lupus have very bad joint pain. For them, lifting weights might not be possible. It vary from person to person.
If you live in the Nottingham area, have lupus and want to start training, get in touch with me through this website, or through 07778768761.