Exercising and RLS (Half-Marathon Training)

[aluminumium]

Hi everyone,

Just interested to see how people deal with exercising as a hobby around RLS, particularly if exercise tends to exacerbate RLS for you?

I go through ups and downs, but at the moment doing pretty well. However, I’ve signed up for a half marathon next month and so pushing my body more than usual, and my RLS has been so bad because of it. Last night was a real struggle to get to sleep again, worst night I’ve had in a while.

How do people toss up the whole exercising to be healthy vs RLS issue? And anyone have any tips at all? I think maybe a cold bath to dip my legs into might be the thing that does it for me?

As ever, interested in a variety of opinions! And I’m currently on 25mg of pregabalin, as well as some magnesium I take daily.

[Joolsg]

Aerobic exercise is known to worsen RLS so marathon training will be a problem. The advice is to train in the morning or early afternoon and avoid in the evenings.Weight training or yoga or pilates are good exercise regimes for RLS as they help build muscle and dopamine is stored in muscle (& dopamine helps RLS.)

Good luck in the half marathon!

[aluminumium in reply to Joolsg]

Thanks Jools!

[Matmoo]

I struggle with this aspect as well as I’m a keen cyclist and when I up my cycling significantly it exacerbates my condition. I now try to be a bit more modest in my ramping up of my training, so my body doesn’t fatigue too much but sometimes I can’t help myself. I try and manage it through supplements such as magnesium etc but as I’ve got older (56years) I’ve had to rely on more pharma measures such as gabapentin and sifrol which I have now got off. Medicinal cannabis has helped significantly but recently I’ve had to supplement with oxycodone which is helping to some extent.

Overall, I’ve had to rationalise that the exercise is part of me and critical to my physical and mental health and I’ve just got to manage as best as I can. I’m not going to let RLS take that away from me.

[aluminumium in reply to Matmoo]

Thanks for this, really good to hear your side of things there.

[RLSofManyYears]

I have certainly noticed my RLS getting worse after using my muscles a lot e.g. a weekend workparty. Sometimes it happens the same night but it can happen 2-3 nights afterwards. However I have also found that in the middle of a bad night some exercise can help me get back to sleep. I use a stand-up vibration plate for this and after 5-10 minutes then my thigh and calf muscles are well worked out.

[Munroist]

My RLS gets worse after exercise with legs more twitchy and up for longer at night before I settle, but like others here I love cycling and walking so I put up with it and occasionally write off the following morning to get some decent sleep. I find two things help:

1) Avoiding the most strenuous muscle contractions so on the bike spinning more on hills and generally pacing myself so that I'm not always at my limit. Walking I go uphill more steadily and find that just dropping from 3 mph to 2.5 mph makes a big difference to the severity of the RLS. As a side effect I've found that my overall times are almost unchanged, hills are often faster on the bike and I get to the end of routes with a little left and actually enjoy myself more.

2) I have been trying to supplement my iron and have managed to get my ferritin from 75 to over 140 by taking Holland and Barrett Gentle iron (iron bisglycinate) a double dose every other night, at least 2 hours after any other food with a slug of vitamin C and orange or some juice etc. and I'm pretty sure this has also helped to moderate the twitching afterwards. This regime was recommended by others on this forum and there's logic behind it and it seems to be working.

At night if I have to get up I normally do something like empty the dishwasher for 20 minutes walking as much as I can, and then do some stretches on quads, calves and hamstrings before going back to bed.

Good luck!

[BAK524]

Hi I have an observation about running and RLS. I have exercised regularly for years, three times a week, usually weights (twice a week) and treadmill (once a week). When covid hit, they closed my health club, so I started running 3-4 miles three times a week. Once I started running on a hard path surface, my RLS went nuts. Previously I would have one or two episodes per week in the evening, and then it increased to daily during the daytime. The outdoor running also increased my back pain, so I stopped. My RLS eased (but didn't disappear!). I suspect that the repeated pounding of the running was impacting my spine (I have a diagnosis of anteriolisthesis) and exacerbating my symptoms. Now, the health club is back open and I swim, cycle, and do light weigh lifting. For me, aerobic exercise does not seem to be a problem, but anything that affects my back seems to be an issue.