From this article, Exercise Recommendations for Chronic Fatigue Sufferers Spark Debate:
A study by British researchers suggests that exercising beyond the point of fatigue is one way for people who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to build strength and feel better.
And this:
"Whatever the mechanisms underlying fatigue," he notes, "exercise therapy is likely to become ... increasingly important ... particularly in the management of chronic fatigue syndromes."
The article states that there is no unanimity on the role of exercise and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but one can conclude that strength is good forCFS sufferers and too much exercise is bad. A stronger body tires less easily. The catch 22 is that the exercise necessary to induce strength gains might result in greater fatigue for CFS patients.
At Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Personal Training in New Orleans the personal training sessions are short (25 to 30 minutes) and infrequent (once or twice a week). You won’t spend hours in the gym several times a week, and you will be less likely to feel rundown. Our personal trainers here in Austin and in New Orleans guide you through a brief but demanding workout. Yes, it is demanding; that is where the results come if given plenty of rest and recovery afterward.
The article mentions exercising beyond the point of fatigue. That is precisely what stimulates the body to change. After such exercise the body, as a form of self protection, becomes stronger if given plenty of time to recover. We place a premium on recovery to avoid the possibility of over-training. Some with superior recovery ability do workout twice a week, but most do it once. One personal training session a week is all you need to stimulate improvement. Come in each week, improve each week, and in a few months you will be significantly stronger and far less likely to fatigue as easily.
Strength Training for Those Who Have Heart Conditions
From this study, Strength Training Early After Myocardial Infarction, comes this quote:
“In selected patients, low-to-moderate intensity strength training performed early after infarction is effective and may have lower rates of cardiovascular problems than aerobic exercise.”
The selection of those patients as candidates for strength training is will beyond the pay grade of personal trainers and falls under the purview of a doctor. Once a doctor clears the patient for exercise special care is given to bring the client up to speed slowly.
At Kelly Personal Training in Austin and at Ultimate Fitness in New Orleans our personal training sessions follow a simple dictate: Perform a little more exercise than one is used to handling and then rest and recover adequately. This applies to recovering patients and advanced athletes. For the advanced trainees doing a little more than they did last time will be difficult but doable. For the recovering patients it will not involve much to take them to a point of exercise they are not used to handling.
Both groups will improve but the recovering patients often show the most profound improvement, as they start at a much lower base line. Each week they come in a little stronger and each week we progressively increase the weights lifted by small increments. After a few months they are dramatically stronger.
Aerobic activity has been stressed as necessary for cardiovascular health. This cannot occur if the muscles are too weak to allow adequate aerobic activity.
Another quote from the study:
“For the three treatment groups, 30 of 42 subjects had one or more cardiovascular complication (arrhythmias, angina, ischemia, hypertension, hypotension) during the aerobic exercises as compared to only 1 subject with complications during the resistive exercises.”
An interesting result that speaks for itself.