Can you try swimming? Swimming is often a good workout with low pain and easy on the joints. I do not have Fibro, but have been told that light movement is best for the body--prevents stiffness and increases blood flow.

I got a few different DVD"s and depending on how I feel that day, I pop in the one that corresponds.

I just got a new one called "Easy Yoga for Easing Pain". When I first played it I thought OMG ths is going to be too easy! But guess what? I was in pain when I did it and as it progressed, so did my pain. I only did what I could do and the narrator/instructor encourages you to just do what you can. It did help to loosen me up and feel much better. Pain level might have been the same but overall I felt better for having put forth effort and stretched which always feels good.

I have DVDs for days I feel real good and in between and bad days. I also swim and use the water for resistance which works out really well if the water is really warm. If the water is cold, forget it!

I also joined MFP so I can be connected with others who are in pain and still want to take GOOD care of themselves. It helps so much to have others with pain to talk to and be motivated with to eat right!

I have found that almost any non-plyometric-based workout DVD will do. It will be tough at first, but modify and do what you can. Can't do the whole video? Do 10 minutes of it, aim for 15 next time. Can't do a move? Modify it to something you can do (step-outs instead of jumping jacks, for example).

I've also found that if I'm sore after a workout the next day I *have to* work out to make the soreness go away faster.
The more days I move, the better I feel. Consistency is key.

Stationary bike with no resistenance/incline is great, too, if you have access to one.

I too have fibromyalgia, but I'm very lucky because I can do resistance training and cardio. I have been told by doctors that swimming and gentle water aerobics are the best exercises for those starting to exercise. So you might want to find a pool facility with trained pool exercise instructors and talk to them about your fibro before you join or jump in the pool. If they don't seem to know anything about fibro, find another pool! I also found 2 myfitnesspal groups that are us fibros. Check them out...I'm sure you can get more help from them.

I was also told by the Rheumatologist that diagnosed my condition that exercising is like walking a tightrope between a pit of alligators on one side and the grand canyon on the other. If you don't exercise enough you fall, and, if you exercise too much, you fall...it can be very difficult to find a happy medium, but it can be done. You just have to keep your eye on the goal of getting stronger. Hope this helps!

I have had the best luck with yoga and walking. Some days are better than others, of course. I tend to walk on days I feel stronger and stick with yoga when I am having issues with pain. Tai Chi has been helpful on especially painful days.

I got the easy yoga CD swfloridagal recommended. Boy do I have a long way to go, even the sitting sessions had me in tears. General stretches I can do most of the time (If I can keep my balance on numb feet). I've had a bad pain week, lots of 8-10 days. Gotta keep trying!

I've found that whatever exercise I do, if it's not in a therapy-temperature pool, I'm almost immobile for 1-3 days. Therapy temp seems to be aimed at arthritis; it's warmer than a heated swimming pool and not as hot as a jacuzzi-hot tub. The physical therapy place I go to keeps theirs at 92-94 degrees Fahrenheit.

When I go there, I can walk for an hour constantly without a problem in the pool - I keep walking while doing other exercises, I walk to warm up in the pool, when I feel good I walk against very light current. I'll feel tired after and for a day or so but have energy again before the next visit. My attempts at 'land' pt always have me aching no matter how lightly I take it.

I found that doing Yoga worked best to get me moving. Increased my breathing and was overall good. I tried swimming and aquasize but I really hurt after that. Walking is good and I also like a bit of Biggest Loser basic aerobics minus the impact. They have 10min segments so you don't have to do it long. Also just sitting on a bike and pedaling at your own pace - that works for me too.

I lived with 17 years of fibromyalgia and exercised like many of you. No matter which exercise - the pains were present and the crashes inevitable.

Now 15 pain free years, I don't exercise. Instead I do physical activities I enjoy such as playing soccer, skiing, walking with the dogs, and riding a bike...

In my 32 year journey of being in pain, exercising, learning how to resolve it by un-exercise and now teaching people how to successfully master and overcome physical pain and muscular stress & tension... so you can do ultimately do what you want with your body.

Many people are exercising and don't realize how certain exercises and methods take us further into our compensations - such as an elevated shoulder or rotated hip or extended spine. Many exercises work at the sub-cortical areas of the brain where learned movement is handled. In this area, muscular stress or tension cannot be released by most exercise methods

What this means is, you can exercise all you want yet the stress and high tension levels in the muscles do not leave or dissipate merely 'cause you're working out or working harder.

Mri's and x-rays cannot see when nerves are trapped in the fascia. The fascia is what houses the muscles. There are more sense receptors in the fascia than in the muscles. When we move, we move along certain coordination patterns or chains or sequences of movement. We're one piece and we can affect the 17 layers of muscles we live with and the fascia which connects it all as an entire movement system.

It's not a mystery when I used to crash and would continue since my tension levels were high. Many "normal" people who workout are still living in pain and cannot resolve it.

Our learned habits, compensations and substitution patterns more likely undermine our best efforts.

So if there is a best exercise, there are things we can do to set up our ability to exercise and move comfortably.

First, walking is considered the best exercise which is preposterous. We are a two-legged animal and this is what we're here to do. I know how it was when I used to walk a mere 25 ft, and my body would flare-up in pain... I get that. I used to think everyone else was crazy for thinking walking was an answer.

I used to stretch for up to 2 hours per day - traditional stretching, contract-relax, therabands, pnf (pro-prioceptive neuromuscular faciliation) since I was told I better keep my flexibility. Even though I practiced yoga, my knees still remained up to the ceiling sitting crossed-legged and my downward dog wasn't wagging its tail.

What I didn't know then, I now know and many, many, many others have realized. Stretching in the way most of were taught actually gets the muscles to be tighter. Why? http://gravitywerks.com/about/free-somatics-exercise/stretching-is-out/

I'm just the messenger... and a divorce counselor for stretching on the side. ; ) There is ample evidence to go about maintaining length in our muscles in another way.

Animals with a spine, naturally NEVER stretch. That's right, Fido contracts his muscles rather than stretching. When your pet cat rounds its back, it isn't focusing on the length of the back, it is pulling its belly in to contract those muscles. This sets up act 1 of what is called a pandiculation.

Animals and babies in the womb contract along a series or chain of muscles. That morning stretch you do in bed... check that the next time you do it. Feel instead what you are contracting. Again, this is act 1 of a pandiculation.

Act 2 happens when we let go of the movement we attempted. If done slowly with awareness, you can feel what muscles are letting go and which ones are self-correcting. Those that self-correct are the ones which either hesitate, misfire or have a jerky quality. When this happens, you are directly working in the cortex rather than in the sub-cortical area of the brain.

We've learned that the cortex can reset muscular tension through some feedback loops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4A8OjeOfQo

The 3rd act of a pandiculation is when we stop, pause or rest so the brain can release chemicals of relaxation... and now you know what Fido has been doing all along.

Healthy animals aren't going to a fancy gym, training by running, lifting weights and doing all the human things we "think" we need to do to stay healthy. They merely pandiculate some 7 - 10 times in the morning and 40 - 50 throughout the course of a day.

When we follow their lead and remember to do what we did as small children, we are in effect self-correcting and re-programming our movement software via the brain's natural ability to do so. It's like un-exercise if you will.

We're setting up the building blocks to successful movement, thus once our nervous system has been re-awakened, the muscles remember their function so we can successfully exercise and as a bonus master the signal of pain and discomfort.

If the exercise you do is setting you back, you can get back on track by changing tension levels so the muscles behave more functionally and the compensations we've adapted to... begin to let go and we return to our former happy self.

Then comfortably exercise all you want if this is what you want to do... me I'm going to move like an animal and be free of pain and discomfort. Woof, woof, meow.

I walk almost every day with my dogs and it feels good when I'm able to manage it. I also climb the stairs at work instead of using the elevator so I get that too. On my best days, I just do all the physical activities I want to do (clean house, dance, play with my grandchildren, etc) and those are great if I don't do so much that I have payback later. I really appreciate what swfloridagal said about the importance of rest and rediscovering who we are as people without external things defining us. Thanks!

I plan to check out the links EduardoBarrer suggests as his explanation makes sense to me. And anyone who has lived with Fibro that long and become pain free has something worth learning from.