Body and Spirit

Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Amiee Walker, Dick Nunez, Barbara Nolen

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Series Code: BAS

Program Code: BAS000052


00:15 If you or somebody you know suffers from fibromyalgia or
00:18 chronic pain syndrome you'll want to stay tuned for the next
00:20 Body and Spirit.
00:24 ¤ ¤
00:49 Hello, I'm Dick Nunez, Wellness Director of the Black Hills
00:53 Health and Education Center. Welcome to Body and Spirit.
00:56 Today we're going to be talking about fibromyalgia and chronic
00:59 pain syndrome and other things that just cause us to hurt for
01:02 no explained reason. When we look at pain it can be very
01:05 frustrating when you have no idea what to do about it.
01:08 But exercise has actually been found to be very helpful
01:11 especially if we keep it in conjunction with God's other
01:15 natural remedies including proper diet, lots of air, lots
01:18 of rest. All those things are key components to having a
01:20 strong immune system and for feeling good. The Bible talks
01:24 about that if we turn to him he is faithful to heal us and I
01:29 believe that people can get great relief from all these
01:32 conditions we mentioned with a good exercise program and a
01:34 good overall lifestyle program. So today we're going to focus
01:37 on the exercise. We're also going to discuss some of the
01:40 things we can do about these conditions. So if we're ready,
01:43 let's go ahead and get started. Helping me out today will be
01:45 Barbara and Amy. Anytime we deal with a condition like
01:51 fibromyalgia or any type of chronic pain syndrome, we have
01:55 to be real careful about how much we stimulate the muscles.
01:59 If we overdo it, we can actually make ourselves worse.
02:02 So we're going to just gently warm up here with just some
02:06 easy arm circles. With these conditions, you might want to
02:10 stop frequently and let yourself rest. We do not want to take
02:15 you into a situation where you're going to be getting a
02:18 lot of lactic acid buildup. Okay now let's go the other
02:21 direction; just gently going over and let's do 5 more times.
02:31 Last one and relax. Okay what we're going to do is we're just
02:41 going to push our hands together. Keep your elbows up
02:45 so your forearms are parallel to the ground. Okay, now we're
02:49 going to rotate the hands. We're going to push out and
02:56 draw back and push out and draw back. We're working the
03:01 pectoralis major or the chest muscles now, but you want to
03:06 be careful of how hard you push. You can always go harder. I have
03:10 a philosophy in exercise: you can always start to easy.
03:13 That's fine because you can always add more. But if you
03:17 start too hard you can set yourself back. We never want
03:21 to see anybody go backwards, we only want to see a good
03:28 progress. Let's do about 10 more of these. There's 2, 3,
03:39 4 and 5, good keep going, 6, 7, 8, 9, one more time, 10.
03:50 Okay now we're going to rotate back to the prayerful position
03:54 and go back and forth this way. You want to stimulate the
03:57 muscles, you just don't want to overdo them. Exercise is
04:01 such a key component as far as increasing circulation and
04:04 making you feel good. Sometimes I find people who have
04:08 fibromyalgia or chronic pain or chronic fatigue syndrome,
04:12 they'll find that after they do the exercise they actually feel
04:15 better. Okay, let's go 5 more each way. That's 1 and 2, 3,
04:25 4, last one and 5. Now we're going to stretch those muscles
04:31 out. We're just going to gently lie back and feel it stretch.
04:38 Bring it across, pull the shoulder blades apart. Let's
04:47 lie back again. Feel the stretch and cross and pull it apart.
04:54 Very good. All right. Barbara is you could get out towels
05:01 for us. We'll get our expensive exercise equipment here, your
05:07 basic hand towel; nothing fancy about them. Okay, what we're
05:11 going to do is we're going to use these to give us our range
05:15 of motion. Now for those who do not have any pain conditions,
05:19 pull really hard on the towel as if you want to tear it in
05:23 two. For those who do have pain or arthritic pain, let's just
05:28 take the towel and gently bring it up and pull it over, up and
05:33 over. Good. When you have these type of conditions you
05:36 also want to have a good dietary program. Make sure you eat lots
05:40 of fresh fruits and vegetables. Try and abstain from things
05:43 that you know are not going to be healthy for you. Take care
05:45 of your body because it's the only one you're going to get.
05:48 We find that as we eat properly we find our immune system
05:52 getting stronger. Also we want to look at getting lots of
05:56 water. Water is such a key component for keeping our body
05:59 clean. That's very helpful. Getting outside and getting
06:03 lots of sunshine and fresh air. That's very important.
06:07 Being temperate in the things we do, making sure we get a
06:11 lot of rest. Rest is a key component for people who have
06:14 these type of disorders. So often I see people have very
06:18 bad schedules, working all sorts of crazy hours and pretty soon
06:21 low and behold they have some type of autoimmune disorder
06:24 that they really wish they didn't have. So by getting
06:28 proper rest, getting to bed early enough, take advantage
06:32 of those most valuable parts of sleep, getting up early and
06:36 getting yourself fit enough that your pulse rate is low enough
06:40 that you can truly enter into rest. It's also important to
06:43 remember the way God made us that we take one day in seven
06:47 for total Sabbath rest. It's very helpful for our overall
06:51 health. Okay. Now let's hold it overhead. We're going to go
06:58 back and forth now. You want to feel the stretch. Again for
07:03 those who do not have the problem, go ahead and pull real
07:07 hard. Get as much out of it as you want. Those with
07:12 fibromyalgia or chronic pain syndrome be very careful about
07:15 what you do. If you need to put your arms down, that's fine.
07:24 And let's go 5 more each way. There's 1, 2 and 3, 2 more, 4,
07:32 last one and 5. Okay, let's set our towels down for a
07:37 moment. We're going to stretch the muscles we just worked.
07:40 Put your arm up. See how we're doing there. Good. Oh, you've
07:43 got lots of flexibility. So has Barbara. Okay, we look good.
07:47 Let's hold that for 10 more seconds. Stretching is a very
07:50 key component for any pain type condition. You want to have good
07:54 range of motion. That'll help you to do the simple things of
08:00 life. Okay, let's switch again. Okay, let's hold that for 10
08:05 more seconds. We're going to hold each stretch for about a
08:09 10-15 second time period. We've got 5 more seconds to go, 4, 3,
08:14 2, 1, good. All right we're going to do the shoulder area.
08:19 Now the shoulder area is very complex. There are lots of
08:23 muscles up there that allow up to rotate our shoulders or
08:27 rotate our arms around. You have 16 muscles that attach into each
08:30 side of the scapula, plus you have the deltoids that cap off
08:33 the shoulders. You have the trapezius coming off the neck.
08:35 So we're going to try and work all these areas. So we're going
08:38 start out by just having our hands down to our sides and
08:40 raising up and down and up and down. For those at home who are
08:46 wanting to go harder, get some hand weights, grab some books,
08:51 grab some jars, some water jugs, something so you can give
08:56 yourself some resistance and make this more difficult.
09:01 We're looking to get range of motion. That's the main thing
09:04 we're after; get the blood circulating. For many even this
09:08 exercise, just raising up, is very difficult. I remember a
09:11 man who came out to our center. He could only do this 5 times
09:14 when he first started. Three months later he was able to do
09:18 this same exercise with a 20 pound dumbbell in each hand.
09:21 So I've seen great things happen even with people who
09:24 have lots of pain and, yes, I've seen many people with
09:28 fibromyalgia and chronic pain syndrome get much better in a
09:31 very short period of time. But it's implementing all the
09:35 aspects of healthy living, not just one but everything.
09:39 And, of course, the most vital is that trust in God. If we have
09:42 that, we can really anticipate great things happening to us.
09:50 Okay, let's do 5 more, 3 more, and last one. Good. Okay,
09:58 now let's just rest. We're going to shrug the shoulders up and
10:02 around. Try and get the motion through the trapezius and
10:12 scapular area. We're going to do 15 of those. Good, 7, 8, 9,
10:21 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, one more time, 15. Now back the other
10:29 way. Do 15 of those, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
10:49 15. Okay now let's just shrug the shoulders up and down.
10:55 If we practice this, we'll be very good at telling people,
11:00 I don't know, I don't know. Good at shrugging your shoulders
11:10 and let's go 5 more, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Now we're going to take our
11:18 hands to the front, we're going to draw them up and back down,
11:26 up and down. Remember if you need to rest, go ahead.
11:29 Otherwise keep going. Also if you want to use weights on this
11:35 one, that's fine. It'll give you more resistance. Also we've
11:40 found it helpful for those with these type of conditions to get
11:44 regular massages. Hydrotherapy has been found to be good.
11:49 So there's lots of hope for people who have pain. Don't
11:53 just give up; that's the worst thing you could do, because as
11:57 your muscles get weaker the pain will intensify. Okay, let's
12:09 go 10 more. Keep going. And 5 more, and down to the last 2.
12:18 Okay, good. Relax. Okay we've just got to shake the arms out.
12:24 Now what we're going to do is we're going to stretch the area
12:28 out a little bit. Let's start by turning our head to the side.
12:36 Now the other way. Turn and turn, turn, turn. Two more each
12:44 way. There's 1, and there's 2. Now let's bring the arm up and
12:50 cross it over and stretch that area. There you go. Let's put
12:56 it out here nice and straight, Barbara. There, good. Okay good.
13:01 Now hold that for around 15 seconds. You have 10 to go, 9,
13:08 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and switch. Remember when you
13:20 stretch do not take it into an extreme pain range. You simply
13:24 want to give it a nice steady pull, feel the muscles being
13:29 stretched. Don't bounce; hold it steady. Five more seconds,
13:34 4, 3, 2 and 1. Good. Now what we're going to do is we're going
13:39 do a biceps/triceps combination exercise. We're going to curl
13:43 our arms up like that and then we're going to turn and push
13:47 down. We're going to rotate so our thumbs are turning in
13:51 and that'll give the maximal contraction of the triceps.
13:57 Ready? So let's come up and then down, up and down, up and
14:02 down. Good, keep it going. Now this is a pretty simple movement
14:08 and not really very intrusive to the muscles so if you need
14:14 to use weights, that's fine. Otherwise, I strongly encourage
14:19 you just to do the range of motion like we're doing.
14:23 Again, you can control how hard you work because if you flex
14:26 the muscles up hard you can get a good stimulus on them.
14:30 I've found through my years in body building that just by
14:33 flexing your muscles for a long period of time, you can make
14:37 yourself very, very tired. In fact, often times after an
14:40 opposing routine you're extremely warn out and can be
14:42 sore the next day just by practicing a lot of opposing.
14:45 Okay, keep going. Up, down, up, down, good. Keep going. Let's
14:52 do about 15 more. We're going to get a lot of repetitions in
15:01 here, 2, 3, 4, good, 5, 10 more let's make sure we flex those
15:10 twice as hard down at the bottom. There's 2 and 3 and 4
15:20 good, 5, 5 more times; 1, 2, 3, 4, one more time, 5. Okay,
15:27 just let the arms shake out a little bit. Now what we're going
15:31 do is we're going to take just a moment to get a few breaths
15:35 of air. So we'll take a nice deep breath through the nose
15:40 then out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through
15:46 the mouth. One more time. Good. Okay, let's go ahead and get the
15:52 towels out of here. Barbara, if you want to just go ahead
15:56 and drop those on the chair over there. Getting those nice
16:00 deep breaths is important for a couple of reasons.
16:02 It encourages us to breath properly, but also gives us just
16:05 a little time to rest and help bring that heart rate down to
16:08 get us ready for the next phase of exercise which today is going
16:11 to be legs and we're going to start out by warming the legs
16:15 up by stepping out to the side and just stretching back that
16:18 way. Now we're going to switch over to the other side so we
16:24 stretch on the inside of the thigh then down, over, good.
16:28 For those that want to make it a little harder you can lunge
16:33 down a little deeper. For those with pain I strongly suggest
16:37 we just keep it in a very safe range. Remember, you can always
16:43 add more. You always want to start on the safe side. Okay,
16:51 let's do 10 more each way. There's 1, 2, you want to feel
16:56 it stretch on the inside of the thigh each time, 3, good,
17:11 control, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3 more, 8, 9, and 10. Now lean back over
17:22 to the side. Now let's just stretch. Feel it stretch, 5 more
17:34 seconds. Over to the other side now. Feel that stretch and 5
17:43 more seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1, relax. Good. Okay. Now we're going to
17:53 do some squatting. Legs should be a little bit warmed up.
17:57 Now we do the squat. Squats can be a very difficult exercise but
18:00 a very important exercise. For those who have pain, we're not
18:03 going to do a very large range of motion, but for those who
18:07 aren't in pain, you can go ahead and take this down fairly deep.
18:10 So we're going to cross the arms the feet are a little wider than
18:13 shoulder width and toes are turned out slightly. Now we're
18:17 going to push back with the hips and back up again. Okay.
18:21 We're not going very deep and we're going to come all the way
18:25 up. Okay, up. Push the hips back. We don't want the knees
18:29 to go over the feet at all. And we're coming all the way
18:35 up when we do these. If you want to make it harder go down
18:39 deeper and don't come all the way up. That will keep the
18:43 tension on the thighs and give you a much greater training
18:47 affect. Okay, we're going to do a lot of repetitions. Doing okay
18:59 so far? Good. Amy, all right? We're going to do 20 more.
19:07 If you need to stop at home that's fine, then do so.
19:14 For those who are regular watchers of the program you
19:19 know there are often times we will stop and hold things.
19:23 We're not going to do that today. That's not a good idea
19:31 for those with chronic pain. I think we have 10 more, 1, 2,
19:40 and 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, one more time, and 10. Good.
20:00 Now my assumption is that if you do have pain, it's difficult
20:02 for you to get on the floor, so we're going to do everything in
20:05 a standing position today. So what I'd like you gals to do
20:08 is to come over by me and put your hand on my shoulder.
20:10 Get a hold your ankle and stretch your quadriceps. Good,
20:17 don't fall off. Okay. We want to just have a steady pull. We
20:22 don't want to bounce it at all. And let's hold that for 5 more
20:28 seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1. Good. Now we're going to switch. Okay,
20:32 you're going to have to grab and put the other hand on my
20:40 shoulder. There you go. And let's hold that now for another
20:48 five seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now relax. Good. Now to stretch
20:55 the hamstring area. We're going to step out and go up on the
21:00 heel and lean gently into it. If you can grab your ankle and
21:07 pull down that's fine. You girls are making me look bad. Okay.
21:18 Hold the stretch 10 more seconds 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Switch.
21:27 Lean forward into it. You might find that one side is more
21:33 flexible than the other. That's not unusual. Stay with it and
21:39 you should balance out. Okay, we'll hold that for 10 more
21:48 seconds, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Okay, now we're going to do
21:54 some calves. We're going to just do one leg at a time.
21:59 Put the foot back. Okay. We're going to press up on the toe
22:05 and then back down again. We'll do 20 of those. Now you can do
22:10 this on a step or a block of wood and get more intensity
22:14 with it. Calves are an area that can get really painful if you
22:21 overdo them. So we want to start with a less aggressive
22:28 exercise. Good. Way up on the toe and all the way down.
22:35 Ten more, that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3 more, 8, 9, last one,
22:49 10. Good. Switch. Okay press up, down, good, up. Way up on
23:00 the toe. If it starts to burn, just go ahead and relax.
23:08 You don't want to take yourself into that type of a range.
23:24 Ten more, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 2 more, 9 and 10. Good.
23:32 Now we're going to do some abdominal. We're going to do
23:41 that from a standing position as well. Okay you can go ahead
23:43 and face the front, Barbara. I'll go ahead and turn a little
23:47 sideways so you can see what I'm doing. Okay. Put the hands
23:50 behind the back. We're going to crunch the abdominals, bend
23:54 over and then up. Keep your abdominal crunched and lie back.
24:01 Okay, crunch over, bend, up crunched and lie back. Crunch
24:06 the abdominals. What I mean by crunch is I mean contract it.
24:11 Lie back so you're blowing out. Flexing it, bend over, up lie
24:17 back. It appears to be a very simple move but it's very
24:23 effective if you have good isolation on the abdominal
24:29 muscles. Again this is one we can do a lot of repetitions on.
24:33 It's not near as difficult as getting on the ground and doing
24:47 them that way. Okay, we're going to do 10 more. There's 1, 2, 3,
25:00 4, focus on what you're doing each time, 5, crunch the
25:12 abdominals, 6, 7, 8, two more times, 9, last one, 10.
25:20 Let's just lie back and feel the stretch there. Just hold
25:30 that for 10 more seconds, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, relax.
25:40 Okay, we're going to cool down with just some trunk rotation.
25:43 We don't want to bounce this at all. We just want to give
25:46 ourselves a nice easy turn. Helps us with the external
25:50 oblique's, the muscles along the sides and it also give us some
25:55 stretching so it makes it so it isn't quite so difficult to
25:59 turn. There are times in our life when we have to turn
26:02 around so I feel it's important to keep all aspects of our
26:06 flexibility intact. Whatever direction God has designed
26:10 our bodies to go, I feel it's important to keep that area
26:14 limber. Okay, we're going to keep going. We're going to do
26:27 10 more each way, 1, there's 2, there's 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8,
26:40 two more times, 9 and 10. Good. Thanks a lot ladies.
26:47 We're all done. Don't be discouraged if you get in
26:53 pain. I remember not that long ago a man called us and said
26:56 my wife is in such pain she's ready for a wheelchair. She was
26:59 73 years old. He didn't know what to do. So he said can I
27:01 bring her out to your center? Well we didn't even have a
27:04 program starting at the time, but he insisted they come
27:07 anyway. So I said, oh go ahead and come. I believe we're there
27:09 to serve people. And she came out. Within two weeks, this
27:13 woman who could barely walk was walking an incredible 6-10
27:17 miles a day. Now in my career I've never seen a turn around
27:20 like that. It really was miraculous to see just how much
27:24 better she got. Now right before she came out she was in
27:27 total despair. She was depressed and didn't think there was
27:30 anything she could do for her chronic pain. There is hope
27:34 and we have to keep focusing the right reason for exercise
27:37 and keep with a regular program. Find something you like and
27:40 you'll stick with and do it for the right reason. Remember
27:44 Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Christ who
27:48 strengthens me. God bless. We'll see you next time.


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Revised 2014-12-17