Exercising with RA: Help or Hell?

Question for y’all. I love exercising and I know exercise is very important for RA. I also know how unbelievably hard it can be to exercise during a flare. What do y’all do when you feel like exercise is making your life hell but you know logically it is supposed to help? When I workout normally during a rough flare I often can’t sleep at night. I am on biologics and often can manage my symptoms, but I often end up resorting to walking and/or ab workouts when my joints get bad. To make things more confusing my doctors have consistently told me how important exercise is but not to do it if I am in pain and I’m just like ????? When am I not in pain lol.