A Helping Hand

[scoopz]

Hello everyone,

My name is Ryan Cooper, i am a full qualified Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, GP Referall Consultant, and am currently going through training to deal with Crohns in exercise.

I do not personally suffer from Crohns myself, however my house share, and best friend, does suffer terribly to this life altering disease.

Although not personally experienced, i have been experienced in the day to day care, and support.

I am writing this thread with hope that i will be able to shed a little "professional" light on any question regarding exercise with Crohns Disease. Anyone who wishes for peace of mind to challenge my certification, i can provide emails with scanned copies of these qualifications.

Thank you for your time, please feel free to message me or comment on this post for advice.

Best wishes to all,

Ryan Cooper

 

[David]

Hi Ryan,

What sort of exercise do you recommend for someone with Crohn's Disease?

 

[scoopz]

The type of exercises will depend on the case. As i am sure you are aware more than myself, every case of Crohns is different.

A few general points:

- Water, whatever exercise your doing, WATER is the most important part. Having Crohns and the loose bowl movements, are obviously causing the body to loose water, and also salt. It is important to re-hydrate, but to also, if possible get a higher salt intake, before and after exercise, as the body will be more prone to cramping. This cramping can be general or specific to certain areas. It seems common that many people with Crohns get a "serious" experience of cramping, related or non-related to the disease itself.

- Minimilize impact, as this will cause affects to the abdominal region. My suggestions are to work out in environments where you are completely disabling the core. Removing all forms of balance. This can be done by doing exercises that involve sitting. For example, a hand bike, normal upright cycle, a recumbent cycle, and in some cases a rower, dependent of body size and its use to exercise.

- Fixed/free weights, are both great opportunities to cause Hypertrophy and gain muscle mass, or to increase muscular endurance, and shed a few extra pounds. I personally suggest using free weight least. Free weights cause the body to use synergist muscles, (helper muscles) and also include fixators (hold the joint in place). This means that every exercise you do with free weights could be potentially engaging muscles which have no need to be engaged, causing excess stress on the body. Used the fixed machines keeps the body held in position already, stopping the need to call in those extra "unnecessary" muscles.

I hope this has helped to answer your question David, if you have any further questions please feel free to message or comment.

Take Care

Ryan Cooper

 

[David]

Thanks Ryan. We have a diet and fitness forum. I'm sure people would appreciate you doing various writeups and answering questions in there.

 

[scoopz]

Thanks Ryan. We have a diet and fitness forum. I'm sure people would appreciate you doing various writeups and answering questions in there.

Would it be possible for you to move my thread into this section, or shall i proceed in creating a new thread?

Thanks David

-Ryan Cooper

 

[David]

Thread moved

 

[scoopz]

Thanks a bunch, much appreciated.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Hi Ryan, welcome to the forum and thanks for offering the advice. I just read through this and am glad to learn that I'm doing things mostly right. I do suffer from low sodium when my illness is active (it's currently in remission thankfully) and I do get dehydrated very easily, so I tend to drink more water and eat more sodium than the average person. I work out 3x per week, mainly using weight machines. I've tried free weights but didn't really like them and was glad to read that you recommend machines over free weights.

You mentioned not using the core and I wanted to ask about that. I was on steroid treatment for 7 months and I still have a bit of a jiggly tummy from that in spite of the exercises that I've been doing. And, I have been doing some abdominal exercises although I mostly work my arms and legs. Is there a Crohn's-friendly way that you know of for getting rid of a flabby tummy? I can do some exercise on my abdominal region, although obviously I don't want to overdo it and upset things.