My exercise adventures, pre-diagnosis

For awhile I dreaded that a doctor would tell me I needed to exercise more to help my arthritis. I envisioned miserable jogs or feeling forced to find time to go swimming. Exercise is an important part of being healthy, though, so why do so many people feel that way?

For me, the problem was this idea that the exercise had to be a certain type, and that’s not true at all. I’ve been able to get myself a lot healthier by finding things that I genuinely enjoy doing, even if they’re not typical exercise options. That may seem obvious, but it’s been harder to accomplish than I thought.

I’ve tried many things: ignoring that I have arthritis, exercises that are supposed to help arthritis, modifying normal exercise for my arthritis. Some of those, as you might be able to predict, have worked better than others. Surprisingly, though, I’ve found that some supposedly “arthritis-friendly” exercises actually aren’t, for me. My journey to find exercise that works for me has varied with my symptoms and my stage in diagnosis.

Pre-diagnosis, I was still in high school. I’d been having symptoms since middle school, but no one could tell my why. This post will cover what it’s like to navigate the physical activity aspects of high school, mostly not knowing I had arthritis.

Marching band

The first regular exercise I did, after I grew out of playing outside as a child, was marching band. That was a mistake to do with arthritis, but at the time, I didn’t know I had arthritis. Standing in the field hurt my back, and I got pain down the backs of my legs and on the sides of my hips, but I was told by the trainer it was piriformis syndrome, and dismissed completely by a second trainer. (It was arthritis and bursitis, I know now.) Plus, sitting on the bus for hours on the way to tournaments was torture.

Then, I hurt my shoulder. We were told to hold the full weight of our instruments in one hand for an award ceremony, something we had never practiced before. My shoulder has never been the same. I was told at first that it was muscle weakness, but a year of physical therapy didn’t help. My rheumatologist thinks that it might have been a muscle tear at first, but it has since turned into recurrent bursitis and tendonitis.

If I had known I had arthritis, especially a kind that causes enthesitis, maybe I would have been more careful. Then again, maybe not. The culture in marching band definitely looked down on self-care, and I’m stubborn in the first place.

To put it into perspective: after I quit marching band, I once had a marching band mother ask me why I was no longer in it. When I said my shoulder was still really messed up, she told me that her daughter still did marching band even though she’s had to have surgery on both knees because of it, like it was something to be proud of. Marching band people can be crazy. No thanks.

I left marching band after completing my first season. I regret that I couldn’t do it longer, but I couldn’t keep going when I didn’t know why it was hurting or how to make it stop. If you’re going to be a part of something like marching band with an invisible illness, be ready to have to push back against people who doubt, at least a little bit.

Swimming

We were required to swim as a part of gym class, one two-week unit per year.  When I had no idea what was wrong with my body, I actually had no problem with swimming. (Or at least, I didn’t notice a problem.) By senior year, though, I knew I had arthritis, even if doctors couldn’t pick a type.

Swimming is supposed to be very good exercise for arthritis, because it’s so low-impact. Right? Apparently, not for me. Being in the water might be good for joints, since it takes the weight off them, but I can’t swim on my stomach without hurting my back and giving myself bad acid reflux. So, not great exercise… Luckily my doctor agreed, and I spent the swimming unit in the shallow end, walking back and forth.

Push-ups and stuff

Also in gym class, we did basic warm ups everyday: sit-ups, push-ups, stretches, etc. The daily stuff I could make it through. Even if push-ups are hard, ten is doable. But then there were the tests.

We were graded on how many push-ups we could do, but push-ups made my wrists hurt, not to mention my shoulder. Every push-up I did was lopsided. (They still are. My body hasn’t cooperated when I’ve tried to fix it. It’s an ongoing project.) Then there were sit-up tests. By senior year, the pressure sit-ups put on my lower back made them almost unbearable. Since it was just once a year that we had to do the tests, though, I just pushed through it.

Looking back, I probably should have given my body a break, but… who wants to be the kid sitting out? I didn’t want to draw attention to my health problems, especially since they were still unexplained. Trying to explain that to other people just felt embarrassing. It felt like I was making a big deal out of nothing, when my symptoms didn’t even have a name.

Biking and skating

I never was big on biking much. It was always too uncomfortable for my tailbone and other things in that area. It makes sense now, although I didn’t understand why at the time.

I soon realized, though, that I had an alternative: roller skating. On inline skates (Rollerblades), I could keep up with my sister on her bike, so I could still go the same places. Roller skating soon became my favorite kind of exercise. I could skate to the ice cream shop, the library, the store…

If my hips were hurting, they stopped after warming up a bit. Skating didn’t get rid of the pesky pain down the back of my leg, but I could feel like I was pushing the pain out of the way, at least. Focus on other sensations. Get somewhere.

Unfortunately, while skating is great for the summer, it’s not so great in rainy, icy, or snowy weather. Exercising in winter always seems to be the challenge.

Once I was diagnosed, or at least, once I figured out what was wrong with me, I could finally understand why some exercise might be more or less painful for me. I’m still struggling to find an exercise to keep me active in the winter, though, which I’ll talk about in my upcoming article about my exercise adventures, post-diagnosis. Subscribe to get it when it comes out!

-Bri

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