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Peripheral Neuropathy Workout Plan to Help Ease the Pain


No matter how old you are, what you do for a living or if you have any health conditions.  The important thing to remember is that everyone needs to make healthy stretching and exercise a part of their everyday routine.

Yes, that’s true even if you have nerve pain or peripheral neuropathy. Actually, you might even say it’s especially true if you have a lower extremity nerve condition.

This type of physical activity gets the blood flowing, increases cellular metabolism, reduces swelling, allows your cells to use oxygen and nutrition more efficiently —among other things.

But here’s the important thing to remember.

Exercise is essentially for healthy management of nerve pain, but it can also be riskier. That’s because, without proper nerve function, you might not notice if you accidentally go too far and sustain an injury. In other words, you don’t hurt when you hurt yourself.

This sounds like a big problem……But the good news is that it is manageable. You just need to have a list of safe exercises to incorporate into your program.

I have created an exercise list or plan and separated it out into four categories of exercise you should consider: flexibility, cardiovascular, strength training, and balance.

Cardiovascular (Aerobic) Exercise

You should work to improve your general fitness level through cardiovascular exercise. This goes a long way toward keeping your nerves as healthy as possible.

Also, important to remember is to concentrate on exercises that keep your heart rate up while minimize risk to your feet from impact forces.

Some examples of this are:

  • Swimming  - My most favourite is swimming as it is awesome cardio with minimal impact on feet and joints.

  • Bicycling - Generally speaking, you’d want to stick with a stationary bicycle since there’s less risk of a fall or crash. But going out on a “real” bicycle may be appropriate if your neuropathy is less severe, and you have a safe, relatively flat, and well paved trail to use.
  • Brisk walking. - This simplest of exercises is also one of the best for neuropathy and nerve pain. It’s like jogging, but with way less impact on your feet. You can do laps around the mall, explore the neighborhood, or hit the treadmill.

Strength Training

Building muscle is another important way to counteract the effects of nerve damage to reduce pain and injury risk. Strength training requires some form of resistance, whether that comes from resistance bands or from your own body weight. 

For example:

  • Chair squats - Stand in front of a chair. Your feet, knees, and hips should all be in line, directly overtop one another. Slowly lower your rear until it’s just barely touching the chair, while keeping knees and ankles directly over the feet. (You can reach back for the chair for stability.) Keep your weight on your heels and knees and ankles directly over the feet. Then, lift back up again, without resting. Do 10-15 reps.
  • Calf raises - Brace yourself against something sturdy (wall, table, countertop, etc.) with your hands, then slowly lift your heels and stand on your tip toes. Then, just as slowly, lower yourself back to the floor. If you do this on a stairway using the edge of step, you can also lower your heels below vertical in the same fashion.

Flexibility

Stretches help keep your joints flexible, which improves your mobility and allows you to be more active without sustaining an injury. We recommend stretching as a warm-up before aerobic exercises, and on your own throughout the day.

Stretches to try include:

  • Plantar fascia stretch - Place your heel on the ground as close to the wall as possible—with your toes as high up the wall as possible. (It may help to do this with the inside of a doorframe rather than the middle of the wall. Slowly lean forward and feel the stretch in your Achilles and the bottom of the feet. Again, do 3 reps per leg, 20 seconds each.
  • Seated hamstring stretch - Make sure you are sitting for this one.  Sit up straight at the edge of a hard chair. Put one leg straight out front, knee straight, heel on the floor, toes pointing up. With the other leg, you’re going to bend your knee as much as you can while keeping your foot flat on the floor. Place your chest over the straight leg and straighten your back until you feel the stretch. Do the same duration and number of reps as before.
  • Standing calf stretch - Stand a few feet in front of a wall (close enough to place your hands on the wall for balance). Step back with one leg so that the knee is straight, and the entire foot is firmly on the floor. (You will need to bend your front knee slightly). Hold for about 20 seconds, completing 3 reps for each leg.

Balance

Loss of sensation in your legs and feet can greatly contribute to trips, falls, and general instability. If you can’t tell where your feet are in space, you’re more likely to lose your footing. But balance is something you can train and improve. Try the following to help build your balance

Calf raises and squats, mentioned in the above section, also double as good balance training. You can also try:

  • Side leg raise - Stand with a nearby source of support should you need it (chair, counter, wall, etc.). Slowly lift one leg to the side and hold for 10 seconds, then slowly lower it again. Switch legs and repeat. As you improve, you can take your hand off the support, or even try standing on a pillow or balance board.
  • Take yoga or tai chi This isn’t really an “exercise” per se, but we’re going to cheat and count it. These disciplines are filled with good exercises and stretches that work your balance and your flexibility within a safe, controlled environment.

So, this short plan is hopefully something you can start with and slowly build on it as you grow stronger and more confident in yourself.


Remember that to prevent any injury, it is always important to start with a gentle warm up and end with a cool-down: After completing the exercise session, gradually decrease the intensity of the activity and finish with a few minutes of gentle stretching. This helps reduce muscle soreness and promotes a gradual recovery.  When you start out, it is normal to feel some slight muscle soreness.

P.S. If you're looking for a 100% natural and effortless way to help your sore muscles, joints after your exercise session or even other types of chronic pains – check out Onecompress Bamboo. 

What is Onecompress you ask?  - It is the easiest, most effective, and most comfortable relief, prevention, and recovery solution you will ever own


Click here to find out more about this miracle product that helped me so much with my peripheral neuropathy pain.  With regular exercise as well as my OneCompress Bamboo socks, I can manage my pain, naturally and without medications and give me back my way of life after ‘pain’ took over.

Use my coupon code: LEIGH and get 10 % off when purchasing any products in the OneCompress Store

We hope this gives you a good idea and good start and that you also find it fun to do!

Important

Although the above might seem quite simple and ‘low impact’, I always suggest that you check in with your doctor or general practitioner before starting anything new or any new programs – especially if you have any concerns about your ankle or foot health.  You can build on the above and you might want to get additional guidelines and suggestions based on your specific condition you may have – for instance Peripheral Neuropathy.


Happy Exercising !

  

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