If exercise is supposed to HELP fibromyalgia… why can it sometimes make you feel worse?
Something came out recently that really caught my attention.
A huge new study found strong genetic evidence pointing to the brain and central nervous system as a major part of what is going on with fibromyalgia.
And honestly, this explains so much.
If you’ve ever dealt with fibromyalgia, chronic pain, or a body that seems to flare from things other people tolerate just fine, exercise can be so confusing.
You’re told you need to get stronger.
So you push.
Your body pushes back.
Then you assume you’re weak, out of shape, or doing something wrong.
But exercise is still one of the most helpful things we can do for fibromyalgia. The part we don’t talk about enough is intensity.
Research tends to support starting lower and gradually working toward moderate exercise—not constantly pushing into very hard exercise your body may struggle to tolerate.
For a sensitive nervous system, harder is not automatically better.
This week’s tip: Use your breath as your intensity gauge.
Every so often during your workout, say a full sentence out loud.
If you can speak comfortably while still feeling like you’re exercising, you’re generally around a moderate effort.
If you’re gasping or can only get out a few words, back it down.
Slow your pace.
Make the movement smaller.
Use lighter weights.
Take a break.
You don’t have to wait until you feel terrible to adjust.
That’s the part I really want you to remember.
Your next step: Choose one Cocolime workout this week and practice staying in that “I’m working, but I can still talk” zone.
If the instructor (hopefully me 🤭😉) moves faster than your body wants to go, let them.
You don’t have to keep up.
Modify, pause, or slow down and make the workout fit you.
That isn’t doing less.
It’s learning how to give your body enough challenge to get stronger without turning every workout into another stressor it has to recover from.
And for those of us with sensitive systems, that can be a huge shift. 💛
One more thing before I go…
I don’t want you to walk away from this thinking fibromyalgia is just a nervous system problem—or that the pain is somehow only coming from the brain.
There’s another really interesting piece of this research that we need to talk about: fascia.
Researchers are finding physical changes in the tissues surrounding our muscles that may be another important piece of the fibromyalgia puzzle—and may help us better understand some of the signals the nervous system is responding to.
So next Sunday, we’re doing Part 2: Fibromyalgia + Fascia—what the research is finding and, most importantly, what we may actually be able to do about it. 💛
A few quick Cocolime updates:
🍎 Apple TV is here! We’ve added an Apple TV version of the CLF TV iPhone app! You can find it in the App Store on your Apple TV and download it for free. If you already have an account on your phone you can just login on your TV with the same account. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so right on the TV app.
📱 iPhone app update: This week we published some improvements so don’t forget to update it.
🤖 Android is coming: We’re working on the Android app now and hoping for approval soon. Stay tuned!
🥥 250 coconuts! Our private Cocolime community has officially reached 250 members. If you haven’t joined us yet, come say hi. It’s free, private, and a really nice place to share your story, get encouragement, and ask questions directly from me or other members.
And truly, thank you for being here.
Whether you’ve been with Cocolime for years or you just found us, your support means more to me than you probably realize. 💛
Until next Sunday 😘
Suzanne