Pillar 2 – Exercise

Exercise is the second pillar of our 4 Pillars.  The reason it is important is that exercise stimulates the flow of blood around the body and to all organs. Good blood flow is vital to avoid painful crises and episodes.

OK we are not talking about joining a gym and spending hours a day on a treadmill or doing weights endlessly. What we are looking at is very low level fitness work that works the whole body but slowly, especially at first.

The aim is to mildly elevate the heart rate by say 10% and that’s easily done by walking to the next bus stop or by walking to pick up a pint of milk rather than taking the car.

Later on we work at more general overall cardiovascular work with the intention of getting your circulation to be the very best it can be – given the limitations of sickle cell.