Our bodies thrive on movement. When struggling with tick borne illness, people suffer from lack of activity with stagnant lymph aches and pains. Help yourself with lyme move more as you rebuild health
Many experts suggest three main types of movement. Cate Stillman in Body Thrive calls them Hardening, Softening and Cardio, Dr. Eric Grasser named them Strengthen, Soften and Sustain. With TBI & Lyme move more to help you rebuild your strength and mobility with four areas of focus.
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” Jim Rohn
4 Ways To Move More Lyme Rebuild
For enhanced Lyme recovery you need 4 main movement types if you are well enough at a level that sustains then rebuilds fitness. Add conscious breathing to all movement – Relaxes the body and brings more oxygen in.
- Build – Lift weights, kettle bells, try crossfit. These acitivites translate to functional strength to carry groceries, do laundry and yard work.
- Flex – Rebuild joint health with range of motion exercises, yoga, pilates, barre, Qigong. Keep joints healthy and functional.
- Pump – Get your heart pumping with walking, stair climbing swimming, dance, Zumba, boxing. Support a healthy lungs, heart beat, blood pressure and circulation with movement
- Balance – Balancing exercises include poses in yoga, heal to toe walking, simple balance workouts. Reduce your tendency to fall or walk into walls.
Healthy Movement Benefits Your Lyme Recovery Journey
- Gentle movement gets you out of your head and into your body this soothes the nervous system
- Lyme likes it cool, so when you move and heat things up it discourages them from getting too comfortable.
- Walking, swimming all help relaxation and get you into a parasympathetic state, which helps immune system activity.
- Muscle contraction is the pump for lymph. (Alternatives to movement are dry brushing, self massage, and using gravity to assist flow.) This natural pumping action also promotes
- Natural detox action in the cells call autophagy,
- If you sweat. Sweating which carries toxins out through the skin.
- Peristalsis, defecation and regularly moving toxins out of the body.
- Improves muscle tone of the bladder and supports more complete evacuation of the bladder when you pee.
- Synovial fluid to protect your joints and keep you out of pain. Regular movement helps your synovial fluid refresh and maintain the right viscosity to lubricate the joints.
- Lyme likes a low oxygen environment. Fitness supports increased oxygen in the body, and better sleep which discourage Lyme.
Move More And Take Care
It is crucial that you work with your health care team and move more in ways that fit your life and build your health. Never exercise to the point of exhaustion or depletion. For instance it might be that you start with simple conscious breathing and joint range of motion exercises in a chair, or do some stretches on the floor with support to get up or down. You want activity to honor where you are. Work on frequency, duration then intensity as you progress.
Lyme cycles and your movement routines may need to cycle too. Even though your work outs may not increase in intensity as quickly as you like, keep moving. Always clear new movement with your health care team and always move in ways that are healthy for you.