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Muscle burn from doing repetitive motions

Dmitri

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
When I do repetitive motions like brushing teeth or even just holding an arm up while using a phone, I quickly get a burning pain in the activated muscle. The discomfort dissipates within a few seconds of stopping, but it limits many everyday activities. Climbing stairs does the same to my legs. This, combined with quick exhaustion and shortness of breath, was the reason I could never swim for more than short bursts.

I thought this was normal and attributed it to the popular "feel the burn" exercise trope until I found a thread about it on another forum where it was a common complaint.

Is it most likely due to poor circulation? Acid accumulation? Inflamed muscle tissue?
 

helperofearth123

Senior Member
Messages
202
I think that unfortunately that is common in CFS. I mean the word myalgia in ME - myalgic encephalomyelitis means pain in a group of muscles.

Sorry to hear you are having to deal with this.
 

AdamS

Senior Member
Messages
339
Yes, sadly this seems to be part of the disease. I'm not entirely sure what the cause is, but the below information might help, my guess is that the impairment to energy metabolism we see in ME also causes impairments to the things below:

From http://www.mitoaction.org/guide/fatigue-and-exercise-intolerance
The ability to exercise depends on a number of factors (Flaherty, 2001):

  1. Adequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscle
  2. The ability of the muscle to utilize oxygen
  3. The ability of the muscle to utilize and metabolize nutrients
  4. The ability of the muscle to generate adequate energy
 

Dmitri

Senior Member
Messages
219
Location
NYC
Yes, sadly this seems to be part of the disease. I'm not entirely sure what the cause is, but the below information might help, my guess is that the impairment to energy metabolism we see in ME also causes impairments to the things below:

From http://www.mitoaction.org/guide/fatigue-and-exercise-intolerance

High incidence of autonomic dysfunction would suggest inadequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscle too, probably a matter of both.

Has anyone had success in treating this? Maybe that might provide a closer look.
 

PatJ

Forum Support Assistant
Messages
5,288
Location
Canada
I had rapid muscle fatigue as you described but it has improved over the past year (though I'm still nowhere near normal). The improvement might be related to taking lipisomal glutathione, and also from increasing my protein intake using protein powder that contains BCAAs.