The importance of exercise
Overview: why is exercise important?
OMS incorporates exercise into its lifestyle program due to studies showing that exercise both improves mood and general well-being in people with MS as well as fitness and function.
Considerations when exercising with MS
Exercise is a key part of the OMS recovery program, you should pick whatever form you enjoy and works for you. It is of course important to consider your MS symptoms when planning and undertaking workouts of any kind.
What are my exercise options?
If you can do it without difficulty, we recommend at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise three to five days a week. However if this is too much, don’t be discouraged. Even walking is an excellent way to exercise.
A list of exercise tips for MS
Here are some tips to help you understand how different exercise styles help with different MS symptoms.
Useful OMS exercise pages
We have lots of helpful pages and resources that cover exercise tips and ideas - here we have picked out some of the most useful pages to help you increase your exercise level. This includes frequently asked questions, guided exercise videos, a specific exercise based podcast episode and a downloadable exercise planner to help you keep track of your exercise based goals.
Exercise for all
Whether you suffer from vertigo or feel unsteady on your feet because of poor coordination and/or muscle weakness, this can have a significant impact on your day-to-day life. Although exercising can help, we tend to feel nervous or apprehensive when our balance is poor.
Research carried out indicates that exercise has a beneficial impact on cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, fatigue and general quality of life for those living with progressive MS. So it's really important to develop and maintain an exercise regime.
No, exercise is not a miraculous cure for everything, and doing 10 yoga triangle poses a day will not solve all your problems. But yoga does offer useful tools to keep your pelvic floor and bladder healthy.
Spasticity might affect your ability to exercise but the good news is that stretching can help decrease the impact of spasticity. Understanding some basic principles will help decide which muscles to stretch.
Exercise blog posts
It can often be inspiring to read how others in the community are including exercise in their day-to-day lives. Take a look through our exercise specific blog posts, it may just give you the boost you need to start including more exercise in your daily life.