Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Support Group

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cloudsintheysky 03/19/2013

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has any tips on building strength and endurance? I am able to walk, but only for short distances - maybe 5 mins or so. I would like to be able to walk longer and I'm wondering if anyone has had any success with extending the time they are able to walk before fatigue sets in.
Thanks very much for your help. :)

deleted_user 03/19/2013

Yes, breathe and relax. Do everything your body hates and it'll get better!

Orsova 03/20/2013

I built up my walking, adding about 5min each week until I now walk for over half an hour.

The other activity I do is aqua aerobics and have increased my strength quite a lot over the last three months. When I started I was very weak and unco-ordinated. Now I am much stronger and my balance has improved.

It has been a very slow process!

samona 03/20/2013

Recently I was in physical therapy and I had asked the same question to my pt. She said that short 1-5 min intervals of exercize was great. I was a bit surprised but she was right. I would sit in the eliptical machine and work for 1 min intervals and rest in between. She told me that learning to exercize this way would be a tough process and she was right again.

cloudsintheysky 03/20/2013

thanks for the great tips! Samona - are you now able to do more than 1min intervals comfortably? I do hope my body might get better - I'll try pushing through and keep adding extra time. Right now I've been trying to walk 5min and rest 5 min up until i walk a total of 20 min. It makes it more doable this way, but I still find I'm quite tired by the end of it.
I've started forcing myself to exercise more and I feel it has been helpful and I've felt more contented, so I think it is good for my mood also. Thanks everyone!

deleted_user 03/21/2013

Strength and endurance are not part of the same subset. I was never in the service but I trained for two years; graduated from basic training at Fort Knox, etc. What the Army prized the most was endurance.

And with endurance a lot of things can be accompolished.

cloudsintheysky 03/22/2013

Thanks ravenouswolf! Do you have any tips on how to increase endurance? I think my problem is that my muscles fatigue easily, so I'm hoping I can improve this somehow.

Anne8 03/23/2013

Clouds in the sky, thanks for this post! I am in the same boat as you, and would love to know how to improve endurance. I also get pretty worn out after about 5 minutes. I am in a city where you need to either walk or get the bus. The buses aren't great, so I find myself spending hours extra every day just getting back and forth places. I would love to increase that time so that I could catch our (rather pathetic) metro occasionally, which is a hair too far for me right now

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