I always end up just feeling like shit and, because of my CMT, I take longer to recover. What may take a normal person a few hours to recover from will take me an entire day. My normal is being constantly fatigued, exercising just exacerbates it. Hell, not to even mention that my doctor even told me that running is not a good exercise for someone with my condition because of the inevitable atrophying of the extremities means that impact from my feet hitting the ground is damaging my joints.

I'm also autistic and the sensory overload of being sticky from sweat and overheated from exertion literally makes me want to flay myself to escape my own skin.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah you should definitely avoid running. At a guess, maybe in-pool exercises would be less uncomfortable? Keep you cooler and balance out the skin sensations? But with fatigue issues you'll want to stay shallow enough to stand unless you're a good floater, and have someone near the pool just in case.

Or is exercising something you should even be doing? Maybe you have a doctor's excuse!

[–] Crankenstein@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Doctor has advised "low impact" exercises such as swimming and cycling as alternatives

Those would be good alternatives if I had access to them. No pool anywhere nearby and no infrastructure to cycle safely. Rural area is aggressively anti-cyclist. Like "people will run you off the road into the ditch for laughs" aggressively anti-cyclist. Too poor to afford stationary equipment, much less a home with a yard to put a pool.

Even still, I'm fighting a losing battle. My body will atrophy no matter what I do. All any exercises will accomplish is slowing the degradation. Already have partial loss of use in my hands, haven't been able to play my guitar in over a decade now, and only a matter of time before I can no longer use my legs.