The Exercise Catch 22!

If we aim too high physically we crash - maybe permanently lower.

If we aim too low physically we loose condition, muscles and bone.

So where is the happy medium?

I suspect we have a line we must not cross above, because doing so causes harm.

It's like a glass ceiling.

We can stroke this ceiling gently if we are careful, and it will wobble down for a bit as PEM - but break it and it will shatter and reform at a permanently lower level....

So how do we avoid crossing this glass ceiling during life's surprises - like when we get a virus, or an unforeseen extra activity or stressor?

I've been told to use the 60% rule, .... ie Stay 40% below the glass ceiling. The principle being to always leave a little in reserve.

Yet how do we find WHERE that glass ceiling is if we are aiming to never touch it? And crossing it risks permanent loss (as has been my case several times to date).

I get a few warning signs as I approach my glass ceiling so I can back off. They can be tiny signs at the time. Things in the past I would have ignored!

Yet I find, I MUST keep backing off as that is the only way to stay well for me.

Not backing off quickly enough after a glass ceiling incident has, in the past, meant I quickly broke the new lowered ceiling and so had a double whammy down down ..... which is scary scary!

It might look like this on a graph:

Click on image to see a bigger version

Personally, I've been ill 28 months now, and only recently have I managed to achieve an 8 month period without further decline. 

It has been suggested there are two types of ME patient... 

- those who are most likely to over do things, and 

- those who are at risk of doing too little? (Really?) 

I know psychiatrists like to think we are all the second type.

I suspect however that most ME folk are the first type.

We ALL want to do MORE, so we are more likely to be at risk of "over-doing" than "under-doing".

Exercise programmes that advocate any "increase" are therefore dangerous, because early "successes" are simply using up our safety net and causing us to sail much too close to our personal glass ceilings.

Then it only takes something little, to send us hurtling into the glass and smashing it and lowering it permanently. This is why Graded Exercise Therapy is so harmful.

This is why we need to budget so carefully, CHOOSING what to spend our energies on, but not trying to force our broken metabolic systems to spend more energy than our current energy income allows.

The glass ceiling will move up only when it is good and ready, but trying to force it up is a risky business....

Does this make sense to you? What do you think?

**********

Related posts:  
Why NOT Exercise?
Pacing for ME and Using a Fitbit
A few Notes on using a Heart Rate monitor for Pacing