My GENTLE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Workout! (Level 1 - No Equipment)

Transcript

okay let's do this now the first thing that you have to do and this is very very important is that you have to get your fake eyelashes on because without I was laughing when I was getting ready for this video cuz when I was actually doing these exercises I looked terrible I was in my pajamas and bare feet and greasy hair definitely no makeup on I would just kind of crawl off the couch and go to the space on the floor in front of the couch and do my exercise there and then go back to the couch [Music] [Music] how are you doing I am here in my workout gear ready to go cuz I am about to show you what my chronic fatigue syndrome or any exercise program looked like when I first got started the reason I've come to appreciate that a video like this might be helpful is because so many of you have been asking me specifically to show you what my exercise looked like what what specifically did I do and what did I do at every stage of my recovery so the one I'm doing today is super gentle very simple can be done from home in your living room in your kitchen no equipment required I have got a yoga mat that I'll be using which will help if you've got one if you've got hard floors it will make give you a softer space to do your exercises on but it's not it's not necessary you can do it without so it's important for you to know I'm not a doctor of fitness or a health care professional of any kind I'm just sharing my experience I am just literally showing you what my workouts have looked like at various stages of my CFS recovery so it will be up to you to talk to your trusted health care professionals and make your own decision and do your own research before trying any of this for yourself exercise with chronic fatigue syndrome or any and my experience is something that needs to be practiced with extreme caution because physical exertion in my experience can do a lot of damage to someone with this illness I had a lot of failed attempts over the years before I finally figured out a way to do this and do it successfully so I really just want to put this out there to you with a huge caution warning I guess just I wouldn't want anyone to jump into anything that isn't safe for them that is going to make you worse going to cause damage so please be careful just to let you know how these videos are gonna go and what you can expect from here so they're gonna be in different levels so today will be level 1 the level 1 is when I first started exercising with chronic fatigue syndrome successfully what specifically I was doing and what that looked like now if this is looking like it is too hard for you if this is something that you're considering but what I'm doing looks like too much then I would invite you to check out a video that I've done just talking about incorporating more movement into your day because that is where I started before I started exercising at all and if what you're seeing looks too easy for you perhaps you're a bit stronger you're a bit further along in your recovery or your illness isn't quite as severe then hang tight because I'm also soon putting out more videos for level 2 and level 3 that show exactly what my exercise program look like what I was doing as my body was getting stronger and as my recovery was progressing I think it's worth mentioning if you haven't seen any of my other videos that exercise was only one piece of my recovery this wasn't the sole thing that allowed me to recover from chronic fatigue syndrome but it was a significant piece of that so there are many other things that I had to do many other changes things I had to do to support my body and to help it heal so if you're interested in learning more about that I've done quite a few videos on these topics already so I'll put some links in the video description if you want to check those out alright so as I dive into this I just want to remind you to if you'd like to see the future exercise videos if you could like this video if you're enjoying the content topic and ring that little gray bell to make sure that you get notifications when the future videos come out this way you won't have to search for when my future exercise videos come out I will come to you okay let's do this so level 1 what exactly did my level 1 look like for me so the first thing about level 1 is that this is when my workouts lasted anywhere from between 1 minute and 15 minutes so I truly did start with about one minute of exercise and it took me roughly about three months to get up to a point where I was doing 15 minutes of exercise and that was three months of pure dedication to recovery to my exercise program and to working really hard on getting well so it was a really gradual extremely slow and gentle process and level 1 is also all about building strength so I didn't do anything at all resembling cardio nothing high-intensity it was all strength training exercises about building up muscles slowly in my body and building up strength the third thing about level 1 is that when you're doing it in my experience when I was doing it it needed to feel too easy for me even in my weakened condition it needed to feel like I could probably do more I had to keep it very small it had to be so gentle that it kind of felt like it probably couldn't really be helping anything at all in those first three months this is where I needed to stay to ensure that I wasn't crashing and that I wasn't doing damage and I wasn't setting myself back it wasn't until I committed to sticking to this extremely small strength training program consistently week after week after week that I finally after all those years of failed attempts started to see progress the fourth thing about level 1 is that at this stage I was only working out every second day I tried doing every day I really wanted to do every day especially with such small workouts it seemed like I should be able to manage every day but I couldn't it was too much so for me every second day is what I needed to do for other people they might be able to manage every day but for me I needed to stick to every second day to ensure that I wasn't doing too much and there were times when even that I wouldn't be able to stick to I had to be really quite flexible with my schedule and the last thing about level 1 that I'll say is that it's about valuing consistency over intensity it's all about getting up and doing that same thing day after day or every second day and just keeping that written in stone as much as you can so it's not about how much it's more about how often ok so I'm about to show you the actual exercises that I did I'm gonna give you ten today that I did but I did not do these all at once at least not to start with although I think it's important to work your whole body in the beginning and those first few months I wasn't too stressed over making sure I got an even distribution of chest workouts and glute workouts and calf workout cuz at this point I was struggling so much and my body was so weak so anything I did I knew was gonna be helping me in the beginning I would just pick two or three of them for that day and then I would set a timer however much time I had decided that I was gonna do it so if I was gonna do it for two minutes I'd put a countdown timer on my phone put it on the floor and make sure there was an alarm that was going to go off after two minutes because otherwise it's just too tempting to keep going and when the time is up you're done so what you can do as you go through your workouts through the weeks is just rotate it so if you started with two or three from the list on your first day the next time you work out pick the next two or three and then the day after that the next two or three so that over time generally you are working your whole body and typically it's important to do a warm-up before a workout but these workouts are so gentle that I didn't do a warm-up because most of the exercises that I was doing are considered in the workout world as warm-ups themselves so kind of my whole workout was a warm-up really so there is no need to do a warm-up for my warmup alright are you ready let's do this okay so number one this is the seated shoulder press and this is working your shoulders or your deltoids now this is an exercise that people typically do do with weights at the gym but because your shoulders are such a small muscle it really doesn't require a lot of weight especially when you're first getting started to work them these can be done seated or standing but during my recovery any exercise that could be done seated I did seated so sitting straight up in your chair you're gonna start with your hands at shoulder height palms facing in and keeping your elbows below your wrists slowly raise and lower your arms okay next we're gonna work our triceps which are the muscles on the backs of our arms so these are triceps bench dips so you start with your arms straight braced behind you shoulder-width apart on a surface so this can be a counter a table a coffee table whatever you like your legs should be bent at about a 90 degree angle if you're using a higher surface it will be a bit of a bigger angle than that so once you've got your arms braced on the surface you're gonna lower down as far as you can and then just return back up and keep going with slow steady repetitions now I've got my legs bent here but if you wanted this one to be slightly more difficult you could do it with your legs straight the straighter your legs are the more difficult the more challenging of an exercise this will be all right next chest workout so I'm gonna show you some incline push-ups off of either a wall or a counter so we'll start with the wall ones so stand with your feet on the ground about shoulder-width apart and then put your hands with your arms straight placed against the wall slightly wider than shoulder-width apart now bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest towards the wall keep your body straight and rigid throughout the movement and then just push your body back away from the wall until your elbows are extended but again not locked and just keep going like this with slow steady repetitions so a bigger range of motion here will mean a better workout so if you're getting your nose all the way to the wall you're gonna be getting a better workout than if you're only doing small movements it's just with the smaller range of motion so these can be done just about anywhere you just need a stable surface such as a table a bench a wall a bed a coffee table whatever you can find all right number four is some doorframe and this is to work our back and biceps so you're gonna stand with your feet together in the center of the doorway and then grip the doorframe and about shoulder height the farther your feet are forward the harder it will be so if you want it to be slightly more difficult just inch your feet a little bit further ahead now let yourself lean back and slowly pull yourself forward and then return and just keep going with slow steady repetitions all right next I'm gonna show you some good mornings they're called and this is going to work our lower back muscles and core and a bit of our hamstrings so you're gonna do this one standing with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands placed behind your head so stand upright brace your core and pull your shoulders back now hinge forwards from your hips not your waist allowing a slight bend in your knees but keeping your back flat you're gonna lean forwards until you feel a slight stretch in your hamstrings but just don't go beyond horizontal horizontal is as far as you go and then reverse next we're going to work our abdominals with some crunches so if you've got a mat it's a good time to get it out and you're gonna lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor and place your hands behind your head so that your thumbs are behind your ears do not lace your fingers together hold your elbows out to the sides but rounded in slightly tilt your chin slightly leaving a few inches of space between your chin and your chest and then you're just gonna curl up and forward so that your head neck and shoulder blades lift off the floor now you can hold for a moment at the top position of the movement and then lower slowly back down our seventh one is to work our glutes and a bit of our core and shoulder muscles so these are called donkey kicks so again on your mat if you've got one get on all fours with your hands stacked directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips make sure that your back is flat and tuck your chin slightly so the back of your neck is facing the ceiling so without rounding your spine I've got a naturally rounded spine so it can be difficult for me to completely straighten mine but most people can keep their backs completely flat for this of keeping that 90-degree bend in your right knee slowly lift your leg straight back and up toward the ceiling your max height is right before your back starts to arch or your hips begin to rotate and then just return to the starting position our eighth exercise is some squats so this mainly targets the thighs the quadriceps and the hamstrings and also the gluts so you're gonna stand with feet a little wider than hip-width toes facing front you're gonna drive your hips back bending at the knees and ankles and pressing your knees slightly open and then you're gonna sit into a squat position while keeping your heels and toes on the ground chest up and shoulders back so strive to eventually reach parallel meaning that your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle and press your heels and straighten your legs to return to a standing upright position so that is your movement and then just keep going with slow steady repetitions number nine on our list today is some static lunges so this primarily works your quads and your glutes so you're gonna keep your upper body straight with your shoulders back and relax to your chin up you can pick a point to stare it in front of you so that you don't keep looking down and plant pull plant both feet on the floor in a split stance with your left leg forward and your right leg back insuring that your feet are shoulder-width apart and now you're gonna bend both knees approximately 90 degrees when done correctly your front knee should be aligned with your ankle and your back knee should be hovering just off the floor and then push back up to the starting position so you're going to repeat all the reps on that one side however many of you choose to do and then you're going to switch legs move the other one forward and the other one back and then do the same amount of reps on the other side and number 10 our last one in our list today is some calf raises which are working you guessed it your calf muscles so stand on a flat surface with your toes pointed straight ahead and then just lift your heels off the floor to flex your calf muscle pause for a moment in that flexed position and then slowly return to the floor and again just to slow steady repetitions until you're done all of your reps so that's it that's your 10 for today so if you think that these will be helpful or appropriate or useful for you you can use this video just replay it if you'd like you can mute it then you don't have to hear me yapping in the background and maybe put on some music if you like although in my experience I had to be very careful with music and exercise with chronic fatigue syndrome and in the beginning for quite some time I didn't use music at all before I got sick I always blasted music when I was working out I think most of us do but in the beginning when I was still really struggling the music could be very draining for me it could my energy energy that I wanted to be conserving to be putting into my strength training now I also always stretch after my workouts because I don't know what you find but for me with chronic fatigue syndrome especially when I started exercising my body was almost always really tight and really sore and I found that stretching just did me a world of good in terms of speeding up my recovery and reducing my pain and helping me to sleep better so I would stretch after my workout no matter how small the workout was and then quite often I'd have to stretch again quite often every day I'd stretch again before I went to bed and sometimes I'd have to even get up in the middle of the night to stretch some more all right there you go that's it that's my level one workout in a nutshell I hope something in here was helpful for you as always I encourage your comments your suggestions your feedback I'd love to know what you want to hear more of in the future so please let me know because I very much tail these videos according to your suggestion and if we're not already friends on social media let's change that today find me on instagram on Raylan dot Agel or Facebook I'm Raylan Agel I'm there chatting with so many of you already almost everyday people all over the world it's really just amazing so please reach out please say hello because I'd really love to chat with you and get to know you a little bit better and whatever you're facing right now let me know how I can help I am here for you keep going keep working you have got this I know it can feel like this insurmountable challenge like something that will never get past when we're facing chronic illness but many of us do and I believe that you can too so hang in there so that's all for today take care of you guys and I'll see you in the next video [Music] you