December: Keep on Moving

[Sunshine 2]

MS creates some real challenges to keep on moving. It helps to inspire each other on how to find ways to move.

Did you stretch in your bed, swing your arms, roll side to side today? Or perhaps you did housework? Or exercised in a pool? Tracked your count of steps? Chased your cat around the home? Pushed the wheelchair wheels with your arms at the store? Post them here and we can support and egg each other on.

REMEMBER: this is a keep on moving thread, not keep on exercising! Any moving is important it doesn't have to be exercise! Even Science proves that.

P.S. Rabbit Rabbit

[agate]

Wow, Sunshine, you're really on the ball! Thank you for starting this very important thread. Keeping on moving is exactly what we're all trying to do.

Some balance exercises that aren't too demanding are described in this article in Consumer Reports (November 21). The "tight-rope walking" is one I find challenging, to put it mildly.

The article has the title "The Training Program That Can Reduce Your Risk of Falls":

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[agate]

Now for the figure everyone has been waiting for--my November step counts on average: 1,559 steps/day (based on 27 days)

Worse than the previous few months but these things happen.

[agate]

Good demonstration of the sit-to-stand exercise:

I'm putting this here for my own use and for anyone else who's interested. Yesterday I ran a DVD I haven't looked at for several years--the Balance and Fall Prevention video that is part of the "Sit and Be Fit" exercise program on PBS that I watched for many years. I found that I could no longer do the sit-to-stand routine in that video at all. I always was able to do it, with difficulty, in the past. The falls I had last December have taken their toll, and I'm going to have to do these sit-to-stand routines regularly if I want my balance to get any better. I see that clearly now.

[Virginia]

I thought the sit to stands were sitting in a chair and getting up without holding to anything. I thought they were always done from a sitting to then a standing position. I will need to look at this carefully and see if I can do them.

[agate]

Where your arms and hands are when you do the sit-to-stand seems to make a big difference. The person doing the exercise in this video has his hands clasped in front of him. I can do the exercise with my hands and arms in that position. They are helping somehow. It's still not the easiest thing though.

[Virginia]

Agate, he is doing them holding on to a chair. I do sits to stands by sitting in a chair (without arms on it) and stretching my arms out in front of me and rising all the way up then I sit back down and do it 20 times.

I do 20 squats by standing and stretching my arms out and bending about like he is for 20 times.

[agate]

Oh dear, Virginia. I've posted the wrong video. Try this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Nati...id:jV9wSXIBSB0

I have a lot to learn about how to post videos....

[Virginia]

Link doesn't work for me. It comes on momentarily and then blinks off.

[Virginia]

I found this. It reminded me to keep my body in alignment with my nose, knees not going over my toes. Thanks for posting.

[agate]

Thanks for letting me know. Yesterday that link was working for me and today it isn't. I went to the American Stroke Association Website and looked through their exercise videos but it's not there any more. For some reason they may have removed it.

The person demonstrating in the video makes the point that if you should try to get your nose over your toes while you're on the way to standing up from sitting. Also he clasps his hands in front of him, about at mid-chest level, while doing the exercise. The recommendation is for 15 of the sit-to-stand exercises each day.

I manage to have added at least two useless posts to this thread and would like to have the bad links removed but it might be a tricky editing job for a moderator. If nobody minds too much, I'll just leave the bad links in place and hope that people will read on to this post now, where I've been trying to describe the video.

[Virginia]

I will do them with hands held as he does. I have been putting my arms and hands straight out in front. The therapist I had back last winter liked that way.

[agate]

I just tried that way too, with arms straight out in front, and that worked nicely too, though I did only 9 instead of 15. Since I'm just starting in on these, I should gradually work up to 15.

Yes, I'm making excuses. I'll try to do the other 6 before the day ends. Really.

[Sunshine 2]

Today I walked ten steps TWICE!!!!! This compares walking NO steps!!!!! Hoping this is a trend.

[agate]

You're definitely onto something there, Sunshine!!!

Does spasticity get worse if a person's muscles are getting weaker due to lack of use? Or doesn't it work that way?

And I managed to do the 15 sit-to-stand exercises every day now even though it hasn't always been easy to work up the time and energy.