Since I am unable to wear closed toed shoes or even socks anymore because doing so brings redness and pain, I can no longer go to the gym, and walking a ways in sandals simply isn’t practical.
Has anyone found a way to exercise? Please share.
There are a couple things that have worked for me. Doing HIT (high intensity interval training), this gives the most bang for the buck. get a couple dumbbells and go to a crouching position lift the weight up and over your head while standing up. Do 10 sets of 10 reps. Use a weight that you can handle well. This should be done within 15 to 20 minutes. Rest for 30 to 60 seconds between sets. Also use a kettle bell swing it to a couch position with the kettle bell passing between your legs, then swing to a standing position with the kettle bell arching to just above your head level. Again 10 sets of 10 reps. Hit gets your heart rate up and works the most muscle groups at one time. Also puts your body into fat burning mode. For optimal health Do this twice a day. Probably morning and early afternoon would be best as flares are less common when your rested. Both of these exercises can be done bare foot, and in the kitchen or concrete basement floor. After your done run a few inches of cold water in the tub then take your shower, this will give your feet a chance to reset. Hope this helps. I pray that God will give you grace and peace.
Like you, I am unable to do much with my feet, and shoes pose a problem. My husband built a heavily padded platform over the pedals of my personal elliptical machine. I stand on the platform and work my arms to get some cardio. It also strengthens my upper body. I flex my knees slightly to strengthen my thighs. I get a pretty good workout this way. I’m 69. So far my bone density is normal.
FYI I have diabetic peripheral neuropathy in my hands and feet. I caused additional permanent nerve damage in the balls of my feet and my big toes by aggressively jamming the front of my feet into the pedals while using my elliptical machine 2 years ago. At the time, I was doing 30-40 miles weekly. My doctors only ever applauded my exercise regime & said I was their “best diabetic patient.” After 10 months of toe jamming, my feet came so painful I was basically bedridden for several months. I even had to use a wheelchair for a while. 2-1/2 years later, I can stand & walk short distances, but if I’m not careful how I walk and put too much pressure on my big toes and the balls of my feet, they become extremely painful. Because of the sequence of events, I strongly feel my zealous exercising contributed to me developing EM.
Beth L.
Have you tried swimming, aqua fit, hydrotherapy?
I hadn’t thought of swimming…don’t know why I didn’t…but it is a stellar suggestion. Thank you.
I have found I can exercise early in the mornings, but cannot in the afternoons. I seem to tolerate it much better if I workout before about 7:00 a.m. Swimming is a great option as well!
I wear crocks to the gym. Closed toed so they pass that requirement, but they breath enough to get in 20 minutes of workout. Then blow the A/C on my feet all the way home to cool them down.
Before we understood that I had EM, my doctor restricted me from exercising, except in a pool or in Physical Therapy. This is because even light, simple exercise caused painful, slow to heal muscle injuries.
Now I have a hard time even getting to the pool in my gym because of the burning feet. Walking that far causes a big flare up.
I have amazing shoes, sandals, that are open and have very soft, squishy soles. They don’t make them anymore, unfortunately. Easy spirit heel risers, antigravity collection. They radically changed the later ones and they were not great anymore. Then they stopped making them. I wear them unless there’s a lot of snow on the ground.
Sometimes I keep a different pair of shoes in my bag, on ice, and then switch when the ones I am wearing get too hot. I put the hot ones against the ice pack, and then when the new ones get hot, I switch back.
If you can find some shoe that works well for you, buy a gazillion pairs. I wish I had.
It also helps me to have ice water on hand to drink while I work out. Even in physical therapy, the heat from exercising makes everything flare up like crazy. And I put cooling things on my chest while I work, and under my feet when I am not working my feet. I do feet things at most every other time so they can cool down inbetween. I have some that hang on my chest. And I can grab those with my hands occasionally, becuase I have EM in my hands too.
For a while I worked out using exercise programs on the Wii. Especially the ones with stretchy bands. I kept a chair nearby and sat inbetween exercises and cooled my feet. That worked really well until I got tendinitis all through my arms. As I said, I have strange muscle problems. But I think most people would be good with that program.
The cooling things I use most are frozen waterbottles, plopped into long, thick, plush chenille socks. Direct ice is quite bad, if you had not heard. I hope the thick chenille dampens the cold enough to make them ok. The socks are long enough to tie 2 of them in a knot and I can hang that part around my neck for my hands and for general cooling.
Keep trying until you find what works for you! The key is to keep looking and experimenting and creating things. Eventually, I have found that there is usually a way.
For example, riding in cars was hard because the hard floor was painful. Eventually I found a squishy bleacher seat pad that I leave down there. Now I can even take read trips. I put some of my sock covered ice bottles down there to touch my foot against when my feet burn too much. Sometimes I have one with me to rest my feet on when I have to take my hot shoes off.
Keep trying, and good luck!
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Kundalini yoga is amazing exercise and focuses on many aspects of the body. Stretching, breathing exercises, especially stretching and exercising the sciatic nerve and spine. You can do anything from simple and easy routines and crank up the difficulty depending on how you can handle it. It’s very low impact and has been a perfect exercise when I have flare up. Although I only get them on my hands, well very rarely feet. Say when I go 4 miles down a steep mountain on a hike, my feet will get bothered.
Check these guys out the dvds are amazing. https://www.raviana.com/dvd-products
Thanks for the idea, I appreciate it.
Unfortunately even very mild, gentle stretches cause problems for me. Unless I am in the pool.
I do wish I could tolerate yoga! I think it would be wonderful.
Very isolated physical therapy stretches seem to be ok, in isolation. I can do one every few hours. Usually.
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Exercise, Exertion, and Bending over provide a Throbbing Lightheadedness and increased heart rate. Thus causing EM to flare. If I could handle these issues I might be able to tolerate the flare from small walks for exercise anyway. (I have used exercise in the past to increase endorphins and control pain for my other chronic pain issues) Because of having both Raynauds and EM I can only lower my temperatures slowly and slighlty before Raynauds kicks in. Making swimming and such difficult.
Has anyone else with these issues found help?
Yes, but not consistent. Try laying on floor and try bicycling, crunches, etc. I used to be quite active, but the past 14 yrs have slowed me down. As that is how long I have had EM. Good luck to you, Patty 
I started with biking and have gradually worked back into normal gym workouts and running. I initially flared horribly but my body has seemed to adjust to the exercise and I hardly flare anymore. It took about 4 months of flaring while working out for my body to adjust but I am glad it finally has.