Exercise... is this really happening?

Craig has had some pretty huge exercise breakthroughs in the last two weeks. (Just in time for the new baby to stop him in his tracks!)

Last week he played an impromptu, Sunday afternoon, game of soccer with our church. It was perfect for whetting the appetite for more 'aggressive' participation in sport. It was about 25 a side with lots of kids on the field. So nothing too tiring. But there was opportunity for the occasional burst of un-heart monitored 'speed'.

Then 2 nights this week he has managed 60 laps of the 15m pool in our complex without negative after-effects. The second night he says he pushed a lot harder.

So far so good.

Exercise is the last frontier for Craig. He has always tried to do something to be 'active' & maintain a basic level of fitness. Starting at walking from the bedroom to the bathroom and reaching about 20 slow laps of the ocean pool or a medium paced, heart-monitored walk.

We've heard success stroies from two monitored, exercise programs;

1. Start at 1minute of activity a day & add a minute every day for ten weeks. This one has succeeded in getting people back to pre-CFS jogging levels.
2. Start at 1 minute of activity (walking, swimming, cycling) per day. Build it daily by 1 minute until you are up to 24 minutes. Then have a day of rest. Then continue at 24 minutes every second day for 30 days. Then increase as desired.

If you've tried any others with success (or without success!) or have any other suggestions for people, please comment.

We never bothered with a monitored program. Craig just did it himself. Being a Physio he knew the benefits of movement &, being Craig, has been diligent throughout his time with CFS with gentle aerobic exercise and strengthening exercises so his muscles don't atrophy (Way more than me).

I read a book at one point about starting a walking program that said just get up 30 minutes earlier every day & start walking. 30 minutes moving will be better for you than those last 30 minutes of sleep.

So once Craig was at a point where he could exercise, beyond work, we started a morning walk routine which became 45minutes of medium paced walking with a heart monitor. That lasted until our second son refused to sit in the pram & since then we have struggled to exercise together. Craig has been swimming, on the way home from work, with varying regularity.

Craig has needed to maintain a strong body so that he can work. He has a physical job so his motivation is huge. His problem has been getting his heart rate over 120bpm. If he ever pushed himself a little too hard the result was always sore throat and big glands by morning.

But these last two weeks have been different & that's in spite of a very recent, severe virus. He reckons it is all because of SCENAR. He has been working really hard to treat himself since he got sick last month. He says that if he didn't have SCENAR he would be still flat on his back and sleeping 20 hours a day. But, because we started treating him the moment he got sick, he has had a really fast recovery. It seems that possibly it has helped him get over the lingering post exertional malaise dimension of his CFS.

Lets hope this is for real! We'll keep you posted.

If you want more info about SCENAR this is the web address for the people who treated and have since mentored Craig. http://www.scenarhealth.com/ Really nice people & very passionate about making SCENAR more accepted in the mainstream medical world. (In Russia it's used in hospitals but here they think we're weirdos - typical)

Maybe this is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.....(part 5 SCENAR)

Craig returned to Physiotherapy part time in June /July 2004. In October he began looking to buy his own practice so he could be in charge of his own hours permanently. In December 2004 we purchased a small practice on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

At this point Craig was at about 85%. Able to work and rest and play a little. Over the next 2 years focusing on his health he made it to about 95%. Able to exercise regularly but still needing a heart monitor to avoid a sore throat after exercise. In May 2006 we had our first son. A wonderful answer to prayer and possible due to our healthier lives. However, as most parents know, with this great blessing comes a new kind of exhaustion - sleep depravation.

Craig’s CFS symptoms worsened. We negotiated that Lauren would do the night shift & week day shifts alone so that Craig could have extra sleep. When our son was 6 months old we fell pregnant again. Enabling Craig’s extra sleep became difficult with the new pregnancy. So when we heard through the Physiotherapy Association of Australia (APA) about a new kind of treatment out of Russia called SCENAR, that helped the body to heal itself, we decided to give it a go. We longed to get Craig’s CFS get out of the 80-90% rut.

Craig had 5 sessions of SCENAR treatment and purchased a multi-layer therapy blanket to sleep in. His therapist said his condition appeared to be the result of his body being “stuck” on “fight and flight mode” and being unable to switch on to “rest and recovery mode”. He said all his efforts to care for his body naturally had been worthwhile and his body was in great condition, just needed reprogramming! After the treatment he began to be refreshed by sleep for the first time in 8 years! One day after the fourth session, he ran up the stairs. He started telling jokes again. We knew things were different when we went to a social event with strangers soon after the treatment. For the first time Lauren could remember there was no need to negotiate or plan how Craig would recover from the event. We simply enjoyed it.

Lauren also now sleeps in a multi-layer therapy blanket as she found it helped her be refreshed by sleep, despite there not being a whole lot to be had with 2 boys under 3 and being currently 7 months into our third pregnancy. Craig has trained as a SCENAR Therapist and uses SCENAR in his practice. He now treats a much broader range of patients.