Physical Activities for Multiple Sclerosis: Six Varieties, Advantages, and Safety Guidelines
In a significant stride towards managing the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), regular, moderate, and MS-tailored exercise routines have been found to offer numerous benefits for individuals living with the condition. These routines, which emphasise regular, gentle, and personalised physical activity, have been shown to improve mobility, reduce fatigue, strengthen muscles, enhance balance, and promote mental health.
For those with MS, common symptoms include numbness or tingling in the limbs, muscle weakness, and fatigue. However, exercise can help combat these symptoms and significantly improve the quality of life.
**Key Exercise Types and Their Benefits**
Gentle stretching and walking contribute to enhanced mobility and reduce stiffness, common in MS. Regular movement helps maintain joint flexibility and muscle function. Strength training, even in short durations, can combat muscle weakness, a prevalent MS symptom. Balance exercises, crucial for reducing fall risk and improving stability, are also beneficial.
Low-impact and water-based activities offer safe ways to stay active without overexertion, reducing stress on joints and helping with fatigue management.
**How Exercise Improves Symptoms Over Time**
Regular exercise has been shown to reduce MS-related fatigue by up to 65%, simultaneously boosting energy levels by about 20%. It prevents deconditioning, enhances muscle strength, and may alleviate symptoms exacerbated by fatigue. Targeted balance training improves proprioception and coordination, thereby lowering the risk of falls and enhancing independence.
Exercise consistent with MS-specific guidelines also helps reduce depression and anxiety, improving overall emotional well-being in people with MS.
**Practical Recommendations**
Incorporating short, manageable sessions of stretching, walking, or strength exercises daily or multiple times a week is recommended. Pacing strategies and cooling aids can help avoid overexertion and overheating, common triggers for MS symptom flare-ups.
Seeking guidance from physical therapists specialising in neurorehabilitation is crucial to tailor exercises to individual capabilities and progression. Utilising activity monitors or step counters can help set achievable goals and maintain motivation.
**Specific Exercise Options**
Yoga, a mind-body practice, improves flexibility, strength, and promotes a calm mindset for people with MS. Adaptive tai chi, a gentler alternative to yoga, focuses on deep breathing and slow, gentle movements and can help improve balance, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress.
Progressive strength training can improve muscle strength, posture, and balance for people with MS. Water sports provide several benefits, including preventing overheating, promoting low-impact exercising, and improving balance and coordination.
**Safety Measures**
When exercising with MS, it's important to stay hydrated, use a wall or railing for extra stability, stretch before and after each workout, pay attention to the surrounding environment, and slow down to complete all exercises using the correct form and technique.
It's also crucial to stop exercising if experiencing excessive fatigue, lightheadedness or dizziness, overheating, confusion, loss of balance or coordination problems, or any other concerning symptoms.
Multiple Sclerosis affects 2.3 million people worldwide. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society offers useful advice for practising yoga with MS and recommends working with a qualified yoga teacher, especially one who specialises in MS or adaptive yoga, to find the poses that work best for individual needs.
In conclusion, regular, moderate, and MS-tailored exercise routines offer significant benefits for individuals living with MS, improving mobility, reducing fatigue, strengthening muscles, enhancing balance, and promoting mental health, thereby helping manage symptoms and improving quality of life significantly. Consulting a doctor before starting an exercise program is recommended for people with MS.
- Individuals living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can benefit significantly from exercise routines that are regular, moderate, and tailored to their condition.
- These exercise routines focus on gentle, personalized physical activity which enhances mobility, reduces fatigue, strengthens muscles, improves balance, and promotes mental health.
- For those with MS, common symptoms include numbness or tingling, muscle weakness, and fatigue, but exercise can help combat these symptoms and improve quality of life.
- Gentle stretching and walking contribute to enhanced mobility and reduce stiffness in MS, while regular movement helps maintain joint flexibility and muscle function.
- Strength training can combat muscle weakness, a prevalent MS symptom, even when performed in short durations.
- Balance exercises are crucial for reducing fall risk and improving stability in people with MS.
- Low-impact and water-based activities offer safe ways to stay active without overexertion, reducing stress on joints and helping with fatigue management.
- Over time, regular exercise reduces MS-related fatigue by up to 65% and boosts energy levels by about 20%.
- Targeted balance training improves proprioception and coordination, thereby lowering the risk of falls and enhancing independence.
- Exercise consistent with MS-specific guidelines helps reduce depression and anxiety, improving overall emotional well-being in people with MS.
- Incorporating short, manageable sessions of stretching, walking, or strength exercises daily or multiple times a week is recommended.
- Pacing strategies and cooling aids can help avoid overexertion and overheating, common triggers for MS symptom flare-ups.
- Seeking guidance from physical therapists specializing in neurorehabilitation is crucial to tailor exercises to individual capabilities and progression.
- Yoga, adaptive tai chi, progressive strength training, and water sports are specific exercise options that offer multiple benefits for people living with MS, when practiced with caution and under professional guidance.
