Exercise for People with Chronic Pain

Exercise is a great way to help ease the effects of chronic pain, promote weight loss and less appetite, and feel good. When someone suffers from chronic pain they have to alter the type of exercise that they do. As a person who has suffered from chronic pain, I still regularly exercise.

I often find myself swimming and walking. If you suffer for any sort of leg, knee, foot, or ankle pain swimming can be a great way to exercise. You could free style swim, breaststroke, backstroke, or do whatever style you like. You do not have to lap swim, you could tread water in the deep end. My favorite and a relaxing way to swim is to tread water in a warm water that is deep. I often move around my legs and arms. This is very low impact and usually not as strenuous as lap swimming. You could also go into a lap pool and walk or run. This is good if you have a lot of pain in your lower body.

Walking of course is the best way to exercise if you have some sort of upper body pain such as a shoulder injury, arm injury, or wrist injury. You can walk as fast as you please. You can power walk or walk slowly. You can do this outside, in a shopping mall, at the gym, or on a treadmill. It depends of course on the weather condition outside and what your favorite style is. You could also jog or run if you can handle it. Of course running or jogging is a lot more strenuous than simply walking.

If you suffer from head pain or pain all over your body on both your upper and lower body you will have to be a little more creative. The most low impact form of exercise is swimming, followed by walking. You could try to walk on a very smooth and supportive surface. You can swim in warm or cold water depending on how this affects you. You can space out the amount of exercise you do. Instead of working out for 30 minutes, you could split it up to 3 segments spaced out of 10 minutes. In between you could take a break, ice a part of your body, apply some heat, go in a hot tub, or perhaps take a pain medication your doctor recommended.

When it comes to exercise it really is helpful and beneficial to everyone. Even those who suffer from chronic pain. You need to figure out what works for you. Perhaps in the past you could be very hard and strenuous on your body. Now you may need to take it very slow and split up your workout. Always remember to discuss your exercise plan with your physician if you feel it is worth while.