When you’re in pain of any degree, it can be tempting to avoid exercising. But inactivity leads to stiffness and low stamina as well as reduced strength and range of motion, all of which can exacerbate existing chronic conditions. Regular exercise is shown to improve our overall health, reduce pain and boost our energy and overall quality of life.

We have put together a selection of exercises that you can try at home, all that are gentle and  suitable for those with existing conditions. We recommend beginning any exercise routine slowly and monitoring your symptoms mindfully so that you find a regime that supports your wellbeing, helps you manage your ongoing condition and lets you notice any changes in your pain.  By beginning your regime at home you control to decide the right duration, time of day and intensity at which to try the activities.

It is important to work with and consult your physical therapist or doctor when embarking on a new regime of exercise, and to remember that it isn’t a ‘quick-fix’ but rather part of an ongoing self-care regime that you can create to support the management of your condition and overall wellbeing.

Time to read: 7 minutes

Strengthening your muscles doesn’t need to be done at a bodybuilder level to make a real impact on your muscles and joints. Strengthening the muscles in your body will take pressure off your joints when in use, protecting weaker areas such as old injuries and reducing their experienced pain from the reduction in everyday strain.

There are many small, affordable sets of weights on the market for home use or alternatively people use home found substitutions such as canned food, filled water bottles or buckets with garden soil in, to name a few examples, adjusting the weight to what is comfortable and needed. Some find adding small ankle or wrist weights for periods can be useful, to maximise strength improvements from everyday movements such as walking or reaching. Alternatively, you can train to great effect using your own body weight, with programmes designed to maximise your own bodies resistance. 

We recommend finding an experienced trainer to support you with embarking on these regimes. It is crucial in instances of serious injury or chronic illnesses that your doctor or physiotherapist is consulted before the undertaking of a weight training regime, and that you discuss what kinds of exercises and weights are best for your body.

Yoga has been practised over many centuries, with its proven results in physical and mental health. Physically these include increased flexibility, muscle strength, tone, respiration ability, cardiovascular health, energy and overall athletic performance;  metabolism balance and weight reduction; greater muscle strength for injury prevention. Mentally, participants report a reduction in stress, pain and feelings of anxiety and depression, with improvements in sleeping, immunity, concentration mental clarity and calmness.

Yoga practise is available at all ability levels, making it highly scalable for a long term regime that continues to challenge your capabilities as you improve. Even someone who is bedridden can benefit from the meditative aspects of yoga and participate in breathing exercises and engage their muscles with passive movements (tensing and relaxing muscles while stationary).

Some movements in yoga are considered too extreme for all participants, and many involve the spine and other joints, so it is important to begin gently under the instruction of a qualified trainer, paying attention to your body and it’s limits.

The benefits of foam rolling have to do with the mobility of the fascia. Fascia is a fibrous layer of connective tissue that surrounds all of the muscles in our body. Without proper mobility, fibers of the fascia become cross linked and they bind to muscles and nerves, inhibiting normal motion and causing pain. If we don’t stay on top of our flexibility in our muscles, it will affect our joint movements and therefore lead to incorrect technique and further injuries. 

The good thing about a foam roller is that it can get right into your deeper tissue, like a massage but without the need of someone else physically having to be there. 

The above exercises are some great options for increasing your activity levels and managing the high pain levels associated with chronic illness or injury. If you identify as having a long-term or chronic illness that causes physical pain and discomfort, we would encourage you to give one or more of these exercises a try. Incorporating exercise into your life is by no means a cure or a quick solution to health issues, but it has been clinically shown that it can improve both your physical and mental health. 

The benefits of KYMIRA when exercising with a chronic injury or condition

KYMIRA products provide the ideal support for beginning a new exercise regime, particularly for those with existing chronic conditions and injuries. With the patented infrared technology built into the clothing themselves, they are medically certified and clinically proven to support you with pain relief, improved temperature regulation, increases to circulation, cellular energy production and decreases in potential injury occurrence. Clothing is designed for exercise and casual wear, worn by athletes, recoverees and sufferers alike.