MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) - Bill Martin contracted polio at age 5, but eventually regained use of all his limbs, built a roofing company and raised six children.

Then the disease returned.

``Oh, I was 150 pounds of rompin', stompin' hell, I'll tell you. I'd wrestle with my kids, I'd do 100 push-ups a day. Now, I can't even play with my grandkids. My arms are so weak, I'm afraid to pick them up,'' he said. Martin, 66, of Spring Valley, N.Y., is among thousands of sufferers of post-polio syndrome, a weakening of muscles that were originally afflicted by the poliomyelitis virus. It hits about 75 percent of the people who were stricken as children in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, before a polio vaccine was developed in 1955.

Martin gathered with 65 other sufferers and their relatives Saturday at a Post-Polio Symposium sponsored by the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation in Pomona and the Atlantic County Post-Polio Support Group.

There is no known cure for post-polio syndrome. Patients are treated with strength and mobility conditioning, electrical stimulation and occupational therapy, said Sharon Grunow, director of occupational therapy at Bacharach.

One of the difficulties facing former polio victims is that polio's near-eradication - there were only 6,000 cases worldwide in 1998 - has reduced the medical community's awareness of treatment options, said Dr. Homyar Karanjia, a podiatrist at the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia.

``People who've had polio know more about the disease than the students graduating from medical school these days,'' Karanjia said.

Unlike the use-it-or-lose-it philosophy used for other ailments, post-polio sufferers are taught to ``conserve it to preserve it.'' ``If you overexercise, it'll make you weaker,'' Karanjia told the group. ``Fatigue is the enemy. Like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race.''

John Rodgers used a wheelchair and braces after being stricken with polio at age 7. But he resumed walking by age 12 and went on to serve four years in the Navy and work 20 years as a letter carrier. Nine years ago, he began suffering again. Eventually, he had to return to a leg brace and was reassigned from letter carrier to another Postal Service job.

``It's frustrating to realize you're not normal anymore,'' said Rodgers, 58, of Mays Landing. ``It's like getting really old really quickly.''

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.