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Originally Posted by swampmonster14
So do you recommend exercising through the symptoms? I was under the impression that exercise should be stopped upon having symptoms (brain fog/headache/etc). With this approach I have a limit of light aerobic (walking or exercise bike) for 10 minutes and not been able to improve my tolerance for a couple of months now. So instead should I exercise everyday and just push through? THanks for the help and post.
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Hi Swamponster,
Officially the protocol does recommend exercising sub-threshold for symptoms but this prescription seems more to avoid discomfort than any evidence that exercise needs to be sub-threshold to improve PCS.
From the anecdotes I’ve seen the Cognitive FX centre programme is very high-intensity and involves physical activity for much longer than 10 minutes a day.
So yes, I would recommend you push through as opposed to only doing light aerobic exercise and plateauing without significant improvement (my experience the first time I tried exercise).
The first time I tried exercise I did the same thing as you – I did very light aerobic exercise for 10-20 mins daily and only noticed a slight improvement in tolerance and basically no effect on my general PCS symptoms.
I must warn you though that in the short-run intense exercise will make your overall PCS symptoms much worse so take that into account if you’re currently working etc. I’m a student and tried this over my summer holiday.
The first week or two definitely sucked because I was having a raging headache all day as a result of the constant intense exercise (my headaches before starting intense exercise were much milder) but the 2 weeks after that were like magic for me and I experienced rapid overall improvement in my PCS. But do take breaks every 2-3 days of exercise.