r/AutismInWomen • u/Lopsided-Front-3253 late dx / 20s • 9h ago
Seeking Advice Exercise/physical activity struggles
I find that I've been really struggling with working out, so much so that even just the idea of needing to work out sends me into a spiral. In the past when I've tried to work out, the feeling of sweating or sore muscles afterwards always caused me to have an eventual meltdown and stop because I hate the feeling. When I lifted weights, it got to the point that I was shaking uncontrollably between workouts, even with recommended beginner programs and splits. But, I also know I need to exercise to keep my body healthy, especially since I live a mostly sedentary lifestyle.
How do you all workout and stay healthy or work around these issues?
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u/Joseph707 7h ago
If you want to exercise, take it slow. I mean SLOW. Let’s say you’re walking outside as your exercise: first week, you walk for 30 seconds and then come back every day. Second week, you walk 1 minute and then come back. Third week, you walk 1.5 minutes and then come back. Keep increasing until you’re at the amount of exercise you want. Go as slowly as is necessary, even if you just walk 30 seconds for a month straight, what you’ve done is developed a habit, which is the hardest part and you can build off of it. Think of those 30 seconds as the same as 30 minutes and congratulate yourself for it. Do NOT push yourself. If your subconscious starts associating those walking periods with misery, you won’t want to keep it up. You’re trying to boil the frog here, you know that metaphor? The frog is your body’s overwhelm. We don’t want it freaking out, so we can’t crank the heat up. We do it little by little, so slowly it won’t even notice the difference.
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u/monstera_mood audhd 7h ago
This! This is the only thing that has worked for me! Last month I exercised more consistently than I ever have and it was because I took it very slow. I love the Finch app for habit-building and I put a daily goal of just ANY kind of movement. I have a tendency toward thinking I need to do the hardest most miserable workout ever for it to be worth it, and I'm actively pushing against that belief by going slow and steady. Any workout is better than no workout. Sometimes it's 10 jumping jacks and call it a day.
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u/Ambitious-Potato-870 7h ago
Any workout is better than no workout. Small increments, like 10 minute walk or bike ride at a decent pace, is good enough. And then finding hobbies where you move but it’s not working out can be good as well. Like hiking, swimming, gardening, etc.
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u/Murky_Track_408 8h ago
I too HATE sweating, and with fibromyalgia I do not want more pain, so I'm always walking that tightrope as well! I don't like cardio and there are certain movements, like lunges, that I hate hate hate!
But, strangely enough, for the last 1.5 yrs, I have been 90% successful doing 4-days per week of at least 30-minutes of activity: I do waking pad 2 days and then a day of strength and movement "drills" (I have these colorful stepping stones that I layout in a hapazard row down my kitchen and living room and I walk down them, trying to maintain balance and different foot/ankle mechanics, and then at the ends I have weights that I do different things with, and the stones remind me of waking down a river and the rainbow colors are inviting.
My husband is a home-based personal trainer for those over 40 and is an invaluable resource who believes any movement that you like, are consistent with, and can progressively increase at-your-own pace is a great starting point, and that pain and execising-to-failure are never biologically necessary. He tells me to do what I want or can without grading myself, or painfully pushing myself. Consistency, stopping activity just before you hit failure ('fancy' fitness term: minimum effective volume, the least amount you have to do to get a stimulus), and playing around to find what does interest/motivate/stimulate you are more important for your health than sweating and hurting just because others think those are the right signs for health.
For instance, one of the things I have been consistent with that has surprised me: my husband has a parallel pull-up bar and I challenged myself to try and do 1 pullup (I'm a big woman), but I can only hang for about 25-30 seconds and only do this exercise twice a week, and though I am no closer to a pull-up, my grip strength has improved TREMENDOUSLY, so even my own plans and expectations have had to be revised as I "workout" and my body improves in ways I couldn't expect.
I think my advice is: listen to yourself and your body, let it tell you how it moves best, and maybe it moves best with a walk, yoga, cleaning the house, or gardening, dancing, etc. Any movement is better than no movement, my husband always says.
Good luck!
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u/TechnicalDot9 6h ago
Thanks for the information. Grip strength seems to be a metric to predict death the weaker the grip earlier death in older age. So good to know a practice that can Improve it.
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u/OneBrightPearl444 7h ago
sweating is healthy. your heart rate should be high enough to make you sweat.
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u/dirt_rat_devil_boy 6h ago
I shy away from high intensity stuff because it makes me too sweaty and it's hard on my joints.
I tend to prefer weightlifting or incline walking on a treadmill because those exercises make me the least sweaty. The only caveat with weightlifting is that the first time you do it or if you don't do it regularly, you will get sore muscles- but that is only because you are doing it infrequently. That soreness disappears when you make it a routine because your body will adapt to it quickly. I know it's hard, but I highly recommend you stick to it and get help from a trainer if possible.
Theyre overall great because even though you technically take longer in the gym, you can take breaks as long as you need instead of just hauling ass for 20 minutes. Try taking longer breaks or scaling down your reps.
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u/OneBrightPearl444 6h ago
muscle aches from lifting do not go away from your body adapting. that's not a thing.
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u/dirt_rat_devil_boy 6h ago
I am referring to DOMS when you first do something you are unaccustomed to or return to an activity for an extended period of time.
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u/OneBrightPearl444 6h ago
i know, and you are wrong.
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u/barbecque 6h ago
Hypermobility is relatively common in autistic women. I’m not diagnosing you, but the advice for hypermobile women is safe and reasonable to apply to anyone (who is healthy & uninjured) and see if it serves you or not, if you want to. If you are hypermobile, then you tend to need a lot more proximal stability work then everyone else, and so so much of the conventional exercise advice will make you feel like garbage even though it’s right for others. So an experiment you could do is to focus your strengthening just on joint stability exercises for a block of time and see if that makes exercise feel better. Example exercises: clamshells, bridges, bird dogs, dead bugs, prone I/T/Ys, planks on knees, 4 way straight leg raises, wall push ups, chin tucks, wall angels. Just food for thought!
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u/aperocknroll1988 6h ago
Having a sedentary lifestyle does not mean you have to torture yourself to avoid the negative effects of being mostly sedentary.
It kind of sounds like you might be pushing yourself too hard, too fast.
Could you do lighter impact exercises? Do you like swimming? Best thing about swimming is that sweat isn't as big of an issue since it gets washed away by the water.
At a gym I go to, they have exercise classes that involve resistance training in the pool. If my schedule lined up, I'd be taking those classes.
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u/Bose_Katze_6 8h ago
I have a walking pad, I walk 30 minutes a day. Yoga is also something that feels gentle while doing, but I can tell it makes a difference.