When you are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, your doctor will recommend a lot of different lifestyle changes to help you better manage your health. While you might be tempted to incorporate a full exercise routine into those changes, it's not necessarily in your best interest. Aggressive exercise can actually lead to more intense autoimmune problems, so you'll want to be careful about how you do it. Here are some tips for safe exercise when you're dealing with an autoimmune disease.

Always Warm Up And Cool Down

Especially when you have an autoimmune disease, your body needs time to acclimate before you start physical activity. Muscle fatigue, inflammation, and similar problems that come with autoimmune conditions will lead to more pain during your workout otherwise. Stretch gently, working all of your major muscles and joints. Then, after your workout, do the same to cool down and allow your body to relax a bit.

Opt For Low-Impact

Any kind of high-impact exercise can intensify the inflammation and joint pain that often accompanies autoimmune issues. Opt for low-impact exercises, like walking, yoga, and similar activities. That way, you don't cause more damage to your joints with high-impact workouts, like heavy aerobics or weight lifting.

Know Your Body

Make a point to listen to your body. If you wake up in a lot of pain or you're suffering from significant muscle fatigue, skip the workout for the day. Adding a workout on days when you already feel bad is going to intensify your symptoms and may cause autoimmune flares that cause longer lasting pain.

Don't Work Out Every Day

Don't work out more than a couple of times a week if you're doing any kind of cardio. Things like yoga can be done on a more frequent basis, but anything that stresses your body should be limited to twice or three times a week at the most. That gives your body time to rest between your workouts and minimizes the strain on your autoimmune system.

Make Sure You're Resting

Fatigue is a common problem with autoimmune disease, and working out will often intensify that fatigue. Make sure that you're getting the rest that your body needs every day so that your autoimmune system has time to ease and recover. Also make sure you are doing workouts designed for your own level of fitness, such as those from DIY Active.

For more tips, talk with your doctor or a fitness specialist who understands autoimmune conditions. That way, you can be sure that you're doing your new workout properly and not worsening your condition.

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