I cannot exercise except in mini doses. I can do 10min at a time, and cumulatively, can get 30 a day. If I did all 30min, I would hurt the next day.
My ra doc said to switch to swimming as that has benefited many of his patients. Additionally, he says that once you are on a biologic, even marathons are a possibility. I did enbrel briefly and it worked great, but I'm off now by choice as my ra is super mild...but exercise can really ruin things if overdone.

my first RA doc gave me this advise when I told him what you have told us.
"alternate days of any particular exercise".
I recommend swimming AND/OR water therapy exercise, geared toward arthritis.......you may find info on that from local hospitals or the YMCA , I think.
( I go to a pool for people with disabilities; and warm water is important )
I hurt myself even doing gentle water stuff, sometimes....You have to find that balance, a new "normal". your desire to avoid family health issues is understandable but if you overdo it , you will crash and burn and then can't do anything.
so walk one day, ride the next, swim the next.......or whatever you come up with.
depending on where your pain is and what style bike you have, maybe another type would work better.....?
I know I have looked at recumbants and there are many different ones.
Also, the yoga/Tai Chi I learned at the pool (the teacher had modified it for arthritis which was great) taught me also, that after a workout, soak in Epsom salts and then maybe use a pain relieving cream........(such as Ben Gay, etc)
Massage therapy can work wonders as well. :-)

I am currently in PT with a very good PT-ist, who reminded me that studies have shown that exercise is just as benificial if broken into sessions...5-10 min a time, if you have to. I used to ride my exercise bike 60 min a day, but I startd 5 minutes, twice a day, and increased as that became easier.

The most important thing to remember in exercise is patience with your body!

I am excited that my next PT will be in the water! Hope it's as nice as it sounds!

When I was really bad, I was told I should even limit how much walking I did in a day - a trip to the grocery store was too much and I was getting large bakers cysts which were at risk of rupturing. As I gradually get it more under control with meds, I've been able to exercise more and more. Mostly yoga, light reps, walking and bike riding so far. But if a joint is aching, it's wise to give it rest until the flare is gone, otherwise we risk doing permanent damage. It would be really hard to gauge how much to do with your accompanying health issues.

If it's swollen, don't exercise it.... It took me a year to regain a lot of my function. Feet are still a mess, but as long as I don't run or stand too long, it's all right. I also had severe shoulder problems and am only now really doing well, but know not to overdo it in one sitting... or I will pay with loss of range of motion for days.

Swimming, yoga, all good. Know which joints are your worst and baby them for a while...and don't doo too much in one sitting. It's not like before when you overdid it and were just sore... you can damage joints permanently!

Hope you feel better soon.

I swim every other day, and it really helps. If I'm lazy one week, I start hurting like crazy, and my stiffness goes into overdrive. I swim for an hour, but in the pool, your joints don't hurt.

Lin

Tai Chi for Arthritis classes are another option. If needs be, you can do the exercises whilst sitting on a chair.

I feel your pain--literally and figuratively. I was big into exercising, but that is all gone now. I've read the marathon things too--so far hasn't happened with me. I felt kind of like that on Methotrexate but had to get off it b/c of liver issues. Enbrel just doesn't seem to be cutting it. I got an exercise bike to try to exercise in small doses. It worked great the first week,but the second week I could hardly walk because of ankle pain (and I had started knitting again and ended up with wrist pain). . Then yesterday my diarrhea came back, and I ended up with back pain. I really need all this physical crap to ease up a bit as I am getting discouraged. So the answer to your question is a "oh heck yeah", RA makes exercise darn near impossible. I was swimming once a week which is great except some idiot dove into the pool and came up into my back when I was doing the backstroke (I was the only person in the pool at the time). What are the odds? He apologized like crazy which was nice, but in the end didn't help my back one bit. You definitely can do more in a pool though. I manage to stay in the pool exercising for three straight hours with only minimal pain. Compare that to walking which I can do for about ten minutes and the difference is dramatic.

I have the same problem. I was diagnosed more than a year ago and still have not been able to figure out a balance on this. Part of the problem for me is I may feel just fine while I try to exercise, and still feel fine right after. I don't find out a made a mistake until hours later!

I've been diagnosed for about a year and a half and it's been damn near impossible for me to exercise almost the whole time as well. I try to get in activity when I can, but it's hard when my right knee is so messed up that grocery shopping makes it so that I can barely walk for the rest of the day, so walking or riding a bike or anything that puts stress on my knee is pretty much out. I'm currently doing physical therapy for my knee and trying to build a bit of strength back up in that knee, and I do feel a bit better after the small bit of exercise I get there, but I've just got one more week of PT. I could keep doing those exercises at home because they're not so bad. I've heard great things about swimming, but I don't have access to a pool (except the one at my apartment complex which is only open in the summer and is always filled with excited children - not a good place to exercise). I'd love to try water aerobics if I could afford it or had the time to get into a class (only classes I can find where I live are when I'm at work). I like pilates - unlike yoga, which unless I avoid a lot of poses, involves putting some stress on some joints that hurt a lot, pilates is mostly core exercises, so I feel like I get a lot of nice stretching. I try to do that for 10-15 minutes when I'm up to it. If I do more than that, I may feel like I've overdone it and regret it the next day, but 10-15 minutes at a time is good enough for me.

It's like everyone else says, you've kind of got to change your outlook and the way you exercise. Try smaller periods of time more frequently with rests in between so you don't burn yourself out or cause damage. And figure out exactly what kinds of exercise is good for your body - swimming seems to be almost universally recommended for people with RA, but other things depend on the particular joints affected and how you're feeling that day. Go with what your body tells you.

When I talked to my Rheumy about this topic, he said to allow the pain to be my guide. If it hurts to do it, don't do it. That doesn't mean you have to give things up, it just mean to listen to your body. If your flaring, rest. When your not, resume the activities to your body's limitations. There are days where I can go non stop, and days where I can't even walk to the bathroom without pain.

Well I keep hearing and reading, " if you have RA you should exercise even if your in pain, it will make you feel better with less pain " I dont think the people who say this can have an inkling as to the pain those with RA go thru. I used to go to the gym 5 times a week for several years, I loved to exercise and it made me feel much better, healthier, now I can't even bend down to touch my ankles a few times without causing a full body flair. My hope is to find a med to help enough to allow me to get back to the gym and work out just a small amount a couple times a week.I hope your find your med to allow your exercised to be resumed also.

Maybe only superheroes should be active when in pain!

Like others have been told to keep as active as possible and walk, gym, swim if possible but gentle and regular to keep up the supporting muscle structures and body rhythms etc. Also not to do if in pain - or at least not the places under attack.

Go to Curves which has hydraulic machines and mostly do the circuit as prescribed but only do what I can otherwise. Today I cant go at all as standing all day when helping with food at function on Saturday and by the evening couldnt walk as new attack! So overdoing it isnt good!

Swimming great but dont do it as often as could.

I admire people who can still cycle - it's not safe in my country so wouldnt do it anyway but hands on handlebar issue with RA too.

Exercise Rules:

Don't exercise anything that hurts

Exercise less than you think you "can" do

Never start doing anything more than 5 minutes, and wait a day to see if you overdid it

Gentle stetches are your best friend, stretch until it starts to hurt, then back off, and hold for a few seconds.

While stetching, do it slowly, so you can stop as soon as it hurts.

Patience in exercise, especially if you did a lot of exercise before. is boring, but boring is better than pain

I get pretty ticked when I see stupid magazine and website writers promoting exercise for 'people with RA'. All RA sufferers are different. I'm sure with mild RA with a few bad joints, it can usually be a positive experience. But not all of us are so lucky. Do you have moderate to severe RA and taken the advice from these writers pretending to know what they're talking about? Done permanent damage because of it? I think that's good grounds to sue. Surprised it hasn't been done yet.

I agree with those that said stretching is helpful, while my RA is still bad, I find stretching when I get up (when I can) seems to help reduce the length of my morning stiffness - which can last as long as 6-7 hrs on one of my bad days. I previously said I do light yoga. To clarify - I do what I can along with yoga videos, while muting the dialogue that annoys me (which is most of it) "Keep stretching - harder harder! Push yourself!" NOT good...

There's a really good article on RA warrior about this here:
http://rawarrior.com/should-rheumatoid-arthritis-patients-exercise/