New member, question about Lyme and exercise

Welcome to the forum msamberade!

What you want to do is avoid strenuous exercise, particularly aerobic: A drop in T-cells post-exercise makes it inadvisable for Lyme patients. It is also easy to hurt yourself doing other types of exercise between your weakness and the effect the antibiotics have on your tendons.

But we have to do something, right!? Between the slow gut movement and spending way too much on the couch, the weight piles on, doesn't it?

I started back with gentle exercise: going for a stroll (slowly increasing distance and speed). And then I started gentle water exercise, again, working up endurance and strength gradually. Once I wasn't as wobbly I started weight-lifting under the oversight of a trainer who had had Lyme disease and so had done all the research.

She had me do lifting to increase strength and endurance but we increased things very slowly. It was pretty hard at first.

At the start the fall out from the exercise was a horrible herx and a couple days of misery (I couldn't believe I was voluntarily making myself feel bad)! But it got easier over time and having some of my strength back felt so good.

It is important to detox after exercise. A long hot shower, a nutritious snack afterwards, and a nap are good as well. And make sure you only exercise every other day -- very important.

The slow gut motility will be helped by the exercise. At least mine was. I also helped that by eating small meals four hours a part and piling on the veggies.

Good luck!