Sunday 27 April 2014

ME/CFS clinic - appointment 7 heart rate and cardio



The time between appointments has been a bit longer hence the reason I haven't blogged in a while. At my last appt on Friday we chatted about my progress and I explained that the viral infection had hindered things but now I'm managing two ten minute walks on work days and have been doing the Pilates exercises twice a week.

To be honest I'm not sure Pilates is for me. I find it a chore to do and think I would much prefer to do yoga so I think I`ll go back to my `beat fatigue with yoga` DVD.

My therapist explained about MET which is the metabolic equivalents of how intense an activity is. So making the bed, carrying heavy groceries, swimming and unloading the washing machine are all considered to be of high MET value. She gave me a calculation to figure out what my maximum heart rate should be during exercise so I can avoid PEM (post exertional malaise) the next day. Interestingly she said this also applies to a regular person doing exercise (although they could maybe push up to 80% of their resting heart rate). 

Here is the calculation:

220- (your age) = (answer)  then x by 0.6 = (answer) then x by either 0.60 or 0.75 depending on whether you want to work at 60 or 75% of your heart rate (or anywhere in between). The total should give you a number roughly between 100 and 140. Hopefully that makes sense as maths was never my strong point at school!

I now have a cardio circuit to do but I`m going to attempt these on the days I'm not working. Will let you next time how its gone. Hoping I`ll be as fit as this by the end of the programme :D






2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this latest update, Alayne - I'm glad I haven't missed a post in your series!

    The MET is interesting. Unloading the washing machine and hanging things up is one of the few household things I do when I can, and it had felt more tiring than I thought it had a right to be!! If you can use this to avoid the PEM then that would be great progress!

    Well done with your activity level and good luck with your new circuit. I have to say that I found Pilates very hard work (and no fun at all) and didn't keep it up. I like the exercises in my Yoga for Wimps book, but my favourite is qi gong.

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  2. Glad you are finding it interesting Jo :) I've never tried with qi gong. Will have to investigate... X

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