Exercise for Lyme Disease Patients – Two Great Ideas

For those suffering with Lyme disease, or suspect that they might be, there is very often little help from the established medical community. In fact in some countries, even getting a proper diagnosis is very difficult, so it’s no wonder that more and more people are taking their health into their own hands and doing everything they can in the fields of diet, supplementation and exercise to combat the wide range of very unpleasant symptoms that come with this condition.

Much has been written about anti-inflammatory diets and useful herbs and supplements for Lyme patients, which can be so important on the road to a cure, but there has been less written about how to exercise properly. In the very comprehensive treatment guidelines on the International Lyme and Associated Diseases website, it does mention that exercise should be done, but not to a sustained aerobic level, and that weight training should be included, as it is anaerobic.

But how can you practically put together such a programme, including warmups, and making sure you don’t neglect the wonderful benefits of gentle stretching exercises that are so important for getting the energies flowing freely around the body again? Here are a couple of suggestions…

1. The Ayurvedic Three Phase Workout.

Ayurveda, or the ancient Indian science of self-healing is arguably the most comprehensive system ever devised for a holistic approach to health. There is no room to go into the full theory of body types and diet here, which would also be very useful in planning a holistic approach to curing Lyme disease, but the exercise principles alone are wonderfully relevant to Lyme patients.

Ayurveda says that we should only exercise to 50% of our maximum capacity. Some time back, Dr John Douillard coined the phrase ‘Three Phase Workout’ when he organised those Ayurvedic principles into an easy to understand system.

Basically, it’s way to keep your heart rate well below the accepted aerobic level of activity by regulating the breath using ancient yogic pranayama techniques. It can be applied to any sport or exercise to keep it in what is considered the ‘safe’ bounds for Lyme patients, and can be used as a gentle workout in itself, or as a warmup for some anaerobic activity such as weight training. Not only that, but it thoroughly oxygenates the physiology on a deep level, and we know how much those nasty little spirochetes hate oxygen, don’t we?

Somatic Movement Education.

This is a very gentle sequence of exercises designed to unlock the various holding points of the muscles and joints, and the subtler levels of the physiology, thus freeing up the pathways of healing to help the body to repair itself. Although it is an amazing way to limber up the body with minimum effort, it’s on the deeper level that this technique really shines.

At those times when those Lyme-induced stiff joints make even yoga seem like too much to bear, Somatic Movement is the obvious choice. With none of the movements requiring you to take them past the point of absolute ease, they can be done with no discomfort at all, and still be just as effective.

The many benefits that you can get from regular practice of a combination of the Three Phase Workout and Somatic Movement will absolutely astound you, and not only help the physical healing process, but leave you with a sense of wellbeing and positivity that is so important in unlocking the many secrets of a permanent cure for Lyme.

I really hope that following through on these suggestions will help you on your difficult quest to regain your health from Lyme disease. Take heart that many have succeeded…

For more info see my book Pure Activity or Brian Ingle’s Somatic Movement video download.

Good luck!

 

Originally posted 2014-02-09 14:10:56.