Exercise can be part of your daily life growing up – including PE at school, playing in teams and having physical hobbies. You may want to keep up and push through pain to be able to be the same as everyone else. You may ignore damage to your body because you are so desperate to take part in the physical hobbies you love.
It is important to think of exercise in all its different forms – it doesn’t have to only mean running, or playing sports. Exercise is also gentle walks and small, controlled movements.
Many with EDS/HSD can fall into a cycle called ‘boom and bust’ and the further into this cycle a person falls the higher the chance of it leading to deconditioning. Fortunately pacing, being kind and understanding to your body and listening to its needs can all help you out of this boom and bust cycle. Even if you did slip into it again with time you’d be able to notice that what was happening more and will have learnt skills to be able to stop you falling into it further.
It is important to be doing some sort of movement every day to keep you from deconditioning.
What is deconditioning and how can I try to prevent it?
Deconditioning is when you are unable to participate normal activities for a long period of time and your body may start to undo some of the work you have done for example your muscles may decondition if you don’t maintain your physiotherapy. It can also happen due to prolonged period of bed rest.
If deconditioning does happen to you the best way out is to slowly add things back in again, always seek appropriate medical advice if needed/where appropriate and if you have new symptoms.
