Starting Easy... REALLY Easy

In September, I was hospitalized for four days while doctors tried to find my mystery ailment, which had recently become outright debilitating. When they kicked me out with no answers, I was about ready to brain someone, so I may not have been listening super great at that point. But one thing the neurologist said cut through my irritated fog - "Make sure you are exercising. You don't want to become deconditioned."

When you have full-blown POTS, the last thing on Earth you want to do is exercise. But it bugged me, probably because I used to be a competitive 5k runner (ok, maybe I was the only one who viewed me as competition) and I felt like she was calling me weak or out of shape. There was a time that I spent a full 45 minutes on the treadmill at an 8-minute pace. Deconditioned? I'll show you deconditioned.

Hip Thrusters.

In the beginning, all I did was roll out of bed onto the floor and perform a small set of calisthenics. That's it! I started off with 25 crunches, 25 hip thrusters and 5 pushups. Then, I crawled back into bed.

Pushups can be performed on your knees.

At first, I did that once a day. Then I started doing it twice a day. Then three times. A great way to build overall endurance is to use shorter bursts of tolerable activity. So I did that every single day - three short sessions of calisthenics.

Over time, my endurance grew. My sessions grew, too. I added on more crunches. I brought in some simple quad extensions, squats, calf raises, side lying leg lifts, flutter kicks and "Supermans" for my back. I started setting a timer on my phone and making myself keep exercising for 15 minutes, rotating between sets of different activities.

Do NOT put your hands behind your head!

After about 2 months I was able, ready and willing to start hitting the gym for cardio and weight training. But it started small - very, very small.

So even if you feel terrible, try it. If you have tried other exercise approaches and they just didn't help, give this a shot. Start easy, build up slowly. Get down on the floor and do 25 crunches, 25 hip thrusters and 5 pushups. Try to do this 3 times a day, a few hours apart. See how you feel in a few weeks. If you stick with it, I'm guessing you will feel a difference.