Today we will be talking about the topic of lymphedema and exercises. Lymphedema is a condition characterized by the accumulation of protein -rich fluid in an affected area, could be your arms, your legs, your feet, etc.
Usually, this accumulation of protein-rich fluid causes pain, discomfort, and swelling. Exercises are essential for the treatment of the symptoms of lymphedema. Exercises can help decrease the swelling, improve flexibility or mobility, as well as be able to promote overall well-being.
The Break Down on How Exercise Can Help with Lymphedema Symptoms
So the first thing I would like to speak about is the reduction in swelling. The reduction in swelling occurs when there is pumping action from the muscles. So what’s going to happen is when you start moving, you start exercising, the muscles are going to contract and that’s going to cause the fluid to be pushed out of the affected area into the bloodstream. Exercise promotes blood flow and circulation, which in turn helps decrease swelling and improve healing.
Usually, lymphedema does not come with pain. However, the accumulation of excessive fluid in the affected area can cause pain, as this fluid can stretch the tissue. Exercise can definitely help with this issue, because what happens is when you exercise, you’re pumping that fluid out of the area to the bloodstream, as mentioned before. And the pain is going to feel much better.
There’s going to be a decrease in pain, obviously, and increase mobility.
Tips For Exercising
And these could go across the board. It doesn’t necessarily have to be only for people who are suffering from lymphedema!
The first tip is always consult your physician about what types of exercises you are clear to do. There are different conditions that may not allow you to do certain exercises and you just want to be sure that you can perform them so you can not do any more damage.
The second thing is when you start your exercises, you have to start them slow. Please do not start with 20 pound weights. You can start with one pound if you have never exercised especially. This can cause damage to your musculoskeletal system. You can end up very injured. You can end up in the hospital!
The third thing is please make sure you monitor your body as you exercise. If you need to take rest periods, please do so. Do not try to exercise an entire hour. That will not be good for your body. Again, especially if you’re just starting to exercise, you need to do it slowly.
You have to monitor everything you’re doing and rest breaks are going to be necessary until your body gets into that mode. You increase your endurance. You increase your resistance to the exercises that you will be doing.
Finally, make sure you warm up prior to any exercise. It’s very important to stretch, very important to increase your cardiopulmonary intake before you start a heavy exercise or any exercise that you would like to do. Make sure that everything is conditioned prior to exercising.
The Types of Exercises You Can Do To Help Control Lymphedema
These are only going to be some types of exercises that are recommended. Again, this could be across the board, not necessarily only for people suffering from lymphedema.
Some of the exercises can be flexibility exercises, which is yoga, very gentle on your joints, and very slow control motion. It’s excellent exercise.
The next exercise I would like to talk about is resistance exercises, which you can do with weights, thera-bands. You can also use exercise balls to do some of that resistance.
Finally, the other exercise I would like to talk about is the cardio exercise. With cardio, you can have a different variety. You can use a treadmill. You can use a stationary bike, an elliptical. You can also do swimming, walking, which are pretty good exercises for your general health.
The beauty of exercising is that it will help with your psychosocial and emotional well-being as well as your physical. Exercise has been proven to provide a great opportunity for you to feel better and more engaged into your daily activities. You can check out the video version of this blog post here!
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or you can reach me directly via phone, text, or email. And I look forward to working with you on your path to better health.