Any Gym Junkies?

[freedom]

ok im 16 and i am in very very bad shape, in fact worst shape i have been in all my life. this is very embarrassing to tell.

i have man boobs(not big, but noticeable)
leg fat
arm fat
chin fat
STOMACH FAT(worst on me)
love handles
i use to play alot of sport which kept me fit and in good shape, now that im sick i rarely get out the house, the weight keeps building and building on, so i have decided to start working out at home with two dumb bells and a gym ball.

do any of you people who work out have trouble with doing any exercises?
in particular stomach exercises, it is too sore to keep moving my stomach around doing sit ups and crunches, it makes my stomach very sore and starts making me feel sick. as for the rest, i can hardly last long doing my exercises before i start feeling really really really tired, then when i stop my arms are very weak and start twitching in a shivering kind of sense(shaking), but are not cold.

any help would be great!
also any alternate Crohns friendly workouts? cheers -freedom
id love to just lose this weight and actually be a size im happy with

 

[Nancy Lee]

Boy, I know how you feel about working out and feeling ill afterwards. I have found that a little goes a long way when you have Crohn's.

What I use is a walking aerobics tape which gets the heart rate up there and the whole body moving. The tape has a 1 mile, 2 mile, and 3 mile fast walk while doing arm stretches and such and you can use the dumb bells while walking as well.

When I started I went right in to the 2 mile quick walk and felt really sore later.

But in time got used to it and it sure feels good to be getting some kind of exercise. This particular walking one is great as you don't have to walk or run outside and the bathrooms are quite handy.

Of course I know you guys want to get into the heavy duty curls and such, but, I would work very slowly at it if you go that route.

 

[Colt]

Losing fat in a specific area has nothing to do with exercising that specific area. You might cause muscles to build in a specific area but the fat will be unaffected compared to the rest of your body. In other words, if you just want to get rid of your tummy fat you can exercise other things like your arms and legs. It's all about calorie burning when it comes to fat so short-term you want to get aerobic exercise and get your heart rate up and not worry much about lifting weights.

In the long run, though, muscles consume a good amount of calories on a daily basis even if they're not used that day. Once you lose the fat you should be concentrating on gaining muscle. If you build up arm and leg muscles it will raise the number of calories you can consume so you won't have to stay at your diet intake level permanently.

Ideally though back muscles are the most important to strengthen as they are the weakest and the most prone to injury. Unfortunately there's not many ways of exercising your back without irritating your intestines.

 

[dizzyd]

Hi, good for you for wanting to start working out. I currently workout 3 days/week with weights. I started 4 years ago after my surgery. There are a lot of exercises you can do with db's, but I am not sure what you mean by gym ball?
(is it that inflatable exercise ball you can sit on...if so there good exercises for that too.) I would stick to basic exercises like lunges, squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, rows, and chest press, pushups. You will need different weight db's so you can progress. Weight lifting is a great way to lose weight as you burn calories long after a workout. (compared to aerobic you burn calories while doing it only) Not to say aerobic training is not important or effective. The thing to remember is listen to your body. You will have to adjust you reps/sets according to how you are feeling. Instead of crunches maybe start with bridges. (looks like a pushup but you are on your forarms. hold for as long as you can and try to increase time each workout. It's a good exercise to strengthen the core.) Ultimately to lose weight it comes down to diet. You have to expend more than you consume. Good Luck.

 

[BWS1982]

Well, what Colt and Dizzy said is correct about the fat burning in specific spots not being possible and the muscles being beneficial, but to put my two cents in, I've known/seen/read it to be most optimal to do both weights and cardio when trying to lose fat, as you burn more calories that way and keep muscle. If you attempt to just lose "weight" with cardio and a hypocaloric, as a guy especially, your body will canabalize some muscle, as it's more "expensive" to keep around (like Colt said it burns more cals just sitting there). When you have a negative calorie intake (hypocaloric) your body (which is smart remember) will go for the muscle as well as the fat, because it's costly to keep around muscle, burning around 30-40 cals a day per pound, where as fat burns just a couple cals per pound. Your body will sense the deficit in cals and adjust it's structure accordingly, digesting the muscle for extra cals as it thinks going to be wasteful to keep around unused muscle while you're not consuming enough energy to support it. The way to combat this is to lift weights, sending a signal to keep the muscle because you use it/need it. You may not make any gains (perhaps newbie gains) while consuming fewer cals and doing both weights/cardio, but that's not your goal at first by the sound of it. Also beneficial is the fact that muscles being worked greatly ignites the metabolism, and I mean being worked with heavy weights in the 5-12 range for reps (depending on bodypart/movement).

As far as arms & legs though, those are actually good to start, but the biggest muscles are the ones on your torso, the chest/back/shoulders, and glutes. They're much larger and have more growth potential, in addition to the fact that if you work your chest/back/shoulders good, you've by default usually given your arms a good workout too.

Just work out what exercises are comfortable (well, lifting heavy isnt' supposed to be comfy but I'm talking about intestinally comfy). Crunches are useless to be honest, except for building shape to abs that already are showing (meaning you have a six pack). They burn almost no calories and already cause you Crohns pain.

Also, cardio does burn some cals afterwards (the so called "afterburn"), but it's nothing like a good weight lifting session will do, which stokes the metabolism for hours or even days later.

High protein/moderate carbs (healthy ones where you can), and try to consume only healthy fats limiting the sat/trans variety....will yield you a more slimming figure.

As far as exercises, search around for dumbell ones and see if you can find pics to go with them, that way it's not only more clear how to do it, but you can gauge whether or not you should try it.

 

[Jeff D.]

They have all given great suggestions.

Take a walk to the end of the block if that's all you can do. If you have stairs walk up the stairs until you get tired and then stop and take a break and right down how many times you walked up those steps. Pretty soon you will be able to do it for longer periods of time until walking up the stairs doesn't tire you out. Actually, I think stairs are one of the best things for someone just starting to work out. You can do some stairt pushups by just putting your arms out at a comfortable postion and do 20 pushups. Pretty soon you will build your way up to doing regular pushups and then harder version of them.

I wouldn't worry much about working your abs at this time because you don't want to hurt yourself. Just let that be and remember that doing crunches/situps/whatever will not get the fat off of your stomache. It's a common misconception but if you work on your abs without doing some type of AEROBIC exercise then you will be building the muscles and little fat will have gone away so now you will look worse off then you would have if you just didn't exercise, I got this from my college sports science teacher.

Dumbell exercises are also very good but make sure you have good form because you can hurt yourself. If you look in good health clubs you will see that there is a wall of mirrors for people who are lifting weight. These are there not so you can check how big your bicep is getting but to watch yourself doing the exercise to get perfect form. Look up youtube videos of world class lifters and make sure you do the same. I would go into the bathroom for this or where ever you can see your whole body. If you can't then I would suggest buying a cheap full length mirror to watch yourself.

I see your 16 so please don't push yourself too much. If you do then you can injure yourself years down the line from things you have done today.

Let me know what you can currently do and how your endurance is. Also, if you are eating a lot of sugar or drinking a lot of coke then limit yourself to only a few treats a week. A lifestyle, not a diet, will only work if you can reward yourself once or twice a week with somethins you want. Also, try to get a good nights sleep and drink lots of water. Water will keep you full feeling if you get hungry a lot and it's just good for you. Are you overweight from prednisone because if you are then still drink lots of water and get a good nights sleep just remember that you will probably not lose all the weight until your off of the pred because it makes your body retain water.

Best of luck and sorry if I gave too much information