Arthritis/Fibromyalgia/CT and Martial Arts

[shaolin_al]

Hello I am a 28 year old man suffering from fibromyalgia which causes consistent pain in my arms, shoulders and back. I haven't trained martial arts in a couple years but am dying to return to them. I live in the West side of Phoenix, AZ and was wondering if anyone else on this forum suffers from any of these ailments and which styles do you practice? Or can anyone recommend styles to me besides tai chi or the internal arts that you think could benefit me without causing more damage. Thanks in advance.

 

[Danny T]

Sir,
I know and understand your pain. I am 55 and I was diagnosed with fibromayalgia about 15 years ago and rheumatoid 3 years ago. Training with the pain can be very difficult however, once warmed up pain levels drop a lot. For me after cooling down is the worse and the following morning. I train Wing Chun, BJJ, Muay Thai, Kali, as well as erobic and anerobic conditioning 5 days a week. What I can no longer do is train hard but twice a week the other days are more working technique and timing. I only sparr two or three times a month now and it sucks but I do what I can. I wrap my hands and use more padding in my gloves to lower the shock to the knuckles. I am using a water heavy bag more these days though I do perfer the more solid heavy bags. Muay Thai is the worse for me so I only train it moderately 1 time a week and running is out. I do a lot on a gazell and an olipitical machine. For strength I work kettlebells. Is it painful? Yes! But at this time of my life, as long as I can do it I will.

For those who don't understand, think of the worse and hardest work out/sparring session you have ever had with the deep bruising, the pain and stiffness you suffered for the next two to three days. Live with that all day, every day. Even the hair on the arms and legs hurt. For the arthritis, those of you who have done any stick work and have had your knuckles struck a couple of times with the stick, the stiffness and soreness of the joints. Live with that in most of the joints in your body. It is excruiting to shake someone's hand.

It will depend upon your desire to work through the pain, and how often you are willing to do it.

Good luck.

 

[Sigung86]

A salute to you and your determination, Danny T. :ultracool