Another success story - 63 year old female with fibromyalgia

[Brodie Butland]

Though I know we hardly need another data point showing that barbell training works, I remember a thread a while back asking about whether SS could be used for people with fibromyalgia. Well, here's an answer.

Back in November, I taught my mother how to perform the squat, deadlift, press, and bench press. She is 63 years old, detrained (used to work out, though not with barbells), just barely over 100 lbs, and has severe fibromyalgia and an arthritic hip...has been on meds since I can remember. When I first taught her the squat, she could barely eek out three bodyweight squats...lots of knee shaking, trouble reaching depth without relaxing lumbar, etc.

This past week, she managed a 50 lbs squat for 10 reps. Form looks pretty good. She also has reported that about 90% of her fibromyalgia symptoms have disappeared, most of her hip mobility has returned, and the arthritic pain is significantly better. The "really bad" physical days simply don't exist anymore.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have always wondered about how much of fibromyalgia is the result of sitting on the ass. I don't know any lifters with it, and I don't know any that have developed it.

[Paul1]

I love reading success stories like this.

My area of expertise is tickborne and mosquitoborne infections, so I get a TON of referrals for what people think is Lyme disease.

But a huge chunk of my Lyme referrals are either fibromyalgia or related syndromes (like chronic fatigue).

I basically do three things for this group of patients: recommend better sleep hygiene, recommend exercise, and recommend getting back to school / work / social lives. (There are meds that are ok, but it's no substitute).

Mark -- I don't think the primary problem is sitting on one's ass. I think that's without doubt the end result -- not just sitting on one's ass, but a real withdrawal from school, from work, from social lives, etc.

And one reason I don't think the primary problem is inactivity is because the VAST majority of the fibro patients I see were extremely active (and usually very bright and highly functioning) before they became symptomatic. I had one 18-ish boy, who was an elite sprinter and was trying out for some Special Forces division or another, who became "incapacitated". There was a teenage girl I saw recently who was a very accomplished ballet dancer who had much the same story.

I think the primary problem is 'hyperesthesia', i.e. an abnormally heightened pain awareness. This is definitely known objectively for the related disease irritable bowel syndrome. And for some reason people just get overtaken by this pain awareness -- they start to live their symptoms. And the more they give up on the things they like to do, the more their symptoms just begin to rule their lives.

So I have made it a mission to get this group of people exercising. I have actually recommended Starting Strength for some, though I think first and foremost people need to start doing the physical activities they like (and that they know they like). So I got that teenage girl dancing again (and it made all the difference -- she got back to school).

I think there is something about feeling like you've used your body productively that is extraordinarily reassuring to people with fibromyalgia. There is a good pain from exercising -- and the trick is to get people to realize that they sometimes need to find the good pain in order to suppress the bad pain.

[MattJ.D.]

I have always wondered about how much of fibromyalgia is the result of sitting on the ass. I don't know any lifters with it, and I don't know any that have developed it.

this isn't quite the same thing, but have you ever noticed that like once old people stop moving they seem to wither away and die...

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think the primary problem is 'hyperesthesia', i.e. an abnormally heightened pain awareness. This is definitely known objectively for the related disease irritable bowel syndrome. And for some reason people just get overtaken by this pain awareness -- they start to live their symptoms. And the more they give up on the things they like to do, the more their symptoms just begin to rule their lives.

Stef has mentioned that she thinks this is the case.

[tertius]

Paul, were all/a majority of your fibro patients high-performing individuals who were subject to very high stress loads and in very high stakes situations (in the sense of psychological loading for success or failure for the things they were undertaking)?

[Paul1]

Paul, were all/a majority of your fibro patients high-performing individuals who were subject to very high stress loads and in very high stakes situations (in the sense of psychological loading for success or failure for the things they were undertaking)?

Many of them, yes. A majority? Hard to know, I don't always ask the questions, it depends on the context in which I'm seeing them. But my impression is yes, that they're disproportionately educated and disproportionately high achieving -- and in pediatrics they often have highly functioning parents.

In a lot of cases, when I see people fairly early on in their fibro, they remember some antecedent illness. Like they were great, thriving, athletic, etc. And then they caught the flu or mono or had knee surgery or something, and everything fell apart. They never got over their symptoms, and it became this downward spiral.

So I see what you're getting at, and I agree -- there may be some 'conversion disorder' aspect to this, i.e. it's a sort of somatic disorder where psychological stress gets sublimated into physical symptoms.