Muscle Soreness vs. Fibromyalgia

Tuesday night I had my first real workout session with a personal trainer. My trainer is super great and so easygoing. I was relaxed, and he was gentle on me but also pushed me a little. I think all in all it went really well.

Except...that yesterday I felt like I was surely dying. I emailed him and he kindly reminded me I’m not dying :) and to keep hydrated, keep stretching, and eat protein to help rebuild the muscles and keep me from being so sore.

It’s just such a difficult thing though—to tell what is actual muscle soreness from being so out of shape, and what is actually the Fibro rearing its ugly head. I’m so thankful this trainer is so familiar with Fibro and has worked with so many people with it & has seen success. We did strength training Tuesday night which really surprised me, thinking that Fibro people weren’t supposed to do that (and my first chiropractor told me to avoid stuff like that)...but he said no, that’s a myth. Strengthening my muscles will really help in the long-run to improve the Fibro, even if it really hurts right now.



He started me on a lighter weight and fewer repetitions than he’d do with “regular” people who just need to be pushed. He’s learning my signs of when I need to stop and when he can push me on and say “I know you’ve got 5 more in you, come on, you can do it”. So it was really interesting. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to get out of bed yesterday, but I was able to. I wore my tennis shoes to work, parked up front so I’m closer to my office, and can’t climb stairs yet...but it could be worse! My knees are extremely aggravated and feel like they’re going to cave in at any moment (you may have heard me screaming all the way to your house when I rolled out of bed yesterday & today when my knees gave out momentarily!!).

But I’m pushing through (the good kind of pushing)...and I definitely feel so much better from it!!! :) I’m so thankful for this trainer and how great he is to work with. I can’t go to him very often (it’s a lot of $) but when I can, I know it’ll be great. I have one more session with him next Thurs, then the week after that I start a program with a team of people and a different trainer, working out 3x/wk for 4 wks. I met that trainer Tuesday night, he’s also familiar with Fibro, and seems really nice so I’m happy about that. And I'm really thankful for this group and I hope it works out really well! It was free as part of a big promotion when I signed up, wow (normally a decent chunk of change otherwise)!! 



I'm feeling very blessed and thankful right now...despite being mega sore and trying to push myself outside my comfort zone and yet, being careful not to push too hard. It's tricky, but I've got to try.



Do you other Fibro people have any tricks you've learned about telling the difference between general muscle soreness when you exercise and the Fibro? Any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated!