Any weight lifters/body builders on here?

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KWalker

KWalker

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Hey, are there any body builders or weight trainers on here? I have some questions for you if so, but ill wait to see if we have any first.
Thanks!
 
I want to be but I never stick with it long enough...think 8 weeks has been my longest run. After that the meals and the monotony of lifts and laziness over powers me :(
 
I have been training since I can remember and have always found it be a source of motivation and a way for me to stay healthy even with crohn's. Plus if you have nutritional concerns a bodybuilding diet often is very compatible with a low residue diet.

Also if you have any questions I am about to head into my forth year of study in human kinetics and have a background in both training and coaching sports so I might be able to answer your questions.
 
Thanks a lot for the reply. I will send you a pm asap do I can ask you a few questions to keep them off the boards to avoid confrontation. Just have some questions in somethings I could possibly take or do differently to get big, fast.
 
Nice to meet another who regards physical exercise as an antidote. I'm 58, very fit and healthy through cycling, swimming,gym etc all my life. If it were just the classic Crohn's symptoms I could stay on top of it by being fit, getting extra rest, and good diet.

Problem is now I am getting severe neck pain which starts to restrict my sports. I have a disc problem identified by MRI scan, but the problem itself is not apparently severe enough for the pain I am getting, so the obvious suspect is Crohn's, which apparently can frequently have effects outside the intestinal tract and often cause spinal problems through inflammation.

My rheumatologist suggests Prednisone for a short period for the back pain (nerve inflammation) but I am trying to avoid steroids in the treatment. Anybody now if short term Prednisone treatment is reasonably safe? For the Crohn's I get by on Pentasa but I guess someday I am going to have to accept steroids/immunosuppressants.

Are there many others out there with spinal/joint/back or neck pain problems which are thought to be effects of the disease?
 
Sorry to hear that. I am trying to gain weight/mass so I've been weight training and eating a healthier diet but I think its been harder for me because of crohn's and how we don't get all of our nutrients we need. I guess ill just ask my questions here CDN crohns. I take "Mutant Mass" protein shakes, and each drink is approx 1100 calories. I usually do 2-3 a day, and combined with solid foods, I'd say I put down about 4-5000 calories a day. The problem is, with how much we go to the bathroom, how much of that am I really taking in? I'm looking for the fastest way to gain weight, but properly, by working out.

I actually went to the doctors and got a prescription for prednisone because I know its nain side effect is weight gain, however its common to cause weaker bones, so with me weight training, I don't want to do more harm then good. Would a doctor ever prescribe something along the lines of HGH? Given the circumstances of crohns and trying to gain weight. I am currently 5'11-158-160lbs. I'd like to be around 190-200 but muscle, not fat. I had some people try to talk to me about getting on debol, or anabol, and for those of you who know what those are, I don't think that's a good idea. Is there anything a doctor will give me to help out, but safely? Any sort of testostorone or anything?

Paul, Welcome to the forum. I personally would be careful with prednisone. Like I said earlier, its known to cause bone density problems so at your age, it might do more harm then good. I'm only 21 and don't want to be on it again. We'll keep an eye on this thread and we can all kind of help eachother out.

Thanks guys!
 
Alright first of all don't take anabol or any other anabolic steroids because it mess with your hormones and cause more problems than the benefit of putting on muscle (it will do this very well even without working out btw). So I have a few questions before I can really answer you. I apologize if they are personal.

You say you are taking in 4-5000 cals a day, what's your breakdown between fat/protein/carbs approximately??
How often are you running to the washroom?
Have you been able to find a diet which keeps you bms pretty normal?
What is your workout routine like? Specially how often per week are you lifting, doing cardio and playing sports. Also reps/set scheme.
Do you drink?

And just out of curiosity St.Catherine's Ontario? I'm also 21 dude so I feel your pain of wanting to put on mass I'm 5'10 and 155 and always have trouble trying to put on mass but I find it's because once I start eating more than 3500 cals a day most of it isn't absorbed.
 
Thanks for the reply. Ill just answer your questions, then right from there.
1. I'm not too sure what the breakdown would be. I don't eat a lot of junk food, but I eat a lot of chicken, meats, fish, whole wheat sandwiches, I've started eating breakfast, peanut butter,etc. I've been trying to drink 6-8 water bottles a day as well, its just hard with work.
2. I go to the bathroom approx. 5-6 times a day.
3. I'm not really on a specific diet right now, I've just changed my ways using little things like more water instead of pop, eating breakfast now,less candy/chocolate,etc.
4. My workout currently consists of seated bench presses, tricep press, leg extensions, wide and narrow lateral pull downs,tricep push downs. I do this every other day (when not sore) and I was given a routine that I do 3 sets of 10,each work out add a rep. Once I get to 3 sets of 12,go up a weight, and start again at 3 sets of 10. A body builder told me to do this to start bulking.
5. I drink, but very minimal. I rarely ever drink enough to get drunk, or even feel it for the most part, and honestly I think a case of 24 would maybe come close to lasting me a whole year. I was never into the whole party scene, its more or less when I go out for dinner, sometimes ill have a beer with dinner. Rarely though.
I'm not currently playing sports or doing a lot of cardio as I don't want to lose weight. I do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats to warm up for working out.

Yes, St Catharines Ontario. I'm here for school. I'd like to move out of Ontario afterwards but all of my family is in Windsor,Ontario.

My ultimate goal is to not wear a normal sized shirt and feel like my arms are hanging out. I don't want to look/feel like a string bean lol
 
Hey man I know the feeling about the goals and I think they are achieveable but like anything worth doing will be a lot of work.

So from what you've told me it sounds like more or less you are doing okay with your crohn's since you can handle whole wheat and even an occasional beer. I wouldn't drink beer if you paid me.

So my suggestions are 1st you don't need 4000-5000 cals a day because frankly you are a 250lb gorilla. Try for 3500-4000 really clean eating. I would check out bodybuilding.com or tnation.com or simplyshredded.com they all have some great articles on nutrition for bodybuilding. The good thing is most of what they suggest is sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, and lean meats plus protein shakes. In terms of supplements I would suggest a iso whey drink for immediately after workout. Glutamine for breakfast and dinner. And if you can tolerate it casein for before bed. Each are a protein and help build/repair muscle. But with proper nutrition these are not necessarily the only advantage for us is that they are often really easy to digest which unlike some foods means we actually get the nutrition from the food not just bulk to our bms.

As for your workout if you want to get big you need to be doing deadlifts and squats period. From what you have said it seems you don't even work out your legs except for your warm-up. I would look up starting strength by mark ripptoe or 5x5 madcow which are both great starter routines. After 3-6 months of that I would move into a 4 or 5 day split routine which would work the following:

4-day split: chest/back day, heavy leg day, shoulder arm day, light leg day
5-day split: chest day, heavy leg day, back day, shoulder arm day, light leg day

Once you build a strong strength base with starting strength or the 5x5 the splits will help you build muscle (which are in fact 2 different things not 100% but in terms of training they are). So for starting strength you should eat as much as you can and work on raising the weight you lift on all your exercises and then during the split work on lifting a lighter weight (around 70-80% of max) for more reps than you are used to. This is the burn or pump people always talk about in the gym.

And awesome to see a fellow canuck on here. I go to OttawaU and also hope to get out of the city for my masters next year.

Cheers
 
Wow, thanks for that. Although, instead of a 250lb gorilla, I'd call my self a 150lb corn stalk, and when on prednisone, a squirrel lol. I am looking into doing more without my legs, however at the moment, I'm only using a bowflex I have at home, and I'm already maxed out with leg extensions and all I can do is more reps. I will however, once school starts have free access to the school gym, which I plan on using.

I'm on bodybuilding.com actually, but I think there's so much activity that goes on there, I feel like my posts often get skipped, and what "normal" people do to gain weight, and what we can do, are pretty different, so this is more specific.

I've been meaning to look into ripptoe as well actually. The workout that was given to me was from a friends brother who competes in body building competitions so I figured it would be a good routine to follow. Ill make a new routine with the example you used.

You think I should be doing 7 days a week? I thought muscle builds not from working out, but from rest. That's why I've been taking a day off.

As far as the beer/whole wheat comment, like I said I don't really drink enough to consider myself somebody that drinks, and as for the whole wheat and other foods, maybe I just notice them affecting me because that's what "normal" feels like to me. I was diagnosed when I was 2, and now 21, so I've grown up like this and just got accustomed to it.

I wish you lived closer. It would be awesome to have a workout partner dealing with the same thing. Some people just don't understand why I have to do things differently to achieve the same goals.
 
Hey man no worries I completely agree it would be nice to have a gym buddy going through the same.

Sorry I should have clarified a 4 day split is just working out 4 days out of 7, for example doing chest/back on monday, legs on tuesday, rest wednesday, thursday shoulders, friday rest, saturday legs, sunday rest.

And I didn't mean to belittle you at all but I do know how you feel to an extent, I was diagnosed at 11 and am also 21. It's odd from the ppl I know (including my brother) who were diagnosed at a later age they often have crohn's 'worse' but i expect it's because of what you said. we just kind of adjust to things that don't make us feel sick.

Goodluck with the new routine hope it works
 
You didn't belittle me at all man, I'm just the farthest thing from 250lbs lol. What do you do for a workout, and do you keep logs of what you eat?
Any supplements?
 
My workout changes throughout the year based on what my goals are and what season it is (gotta try for that beach bod lol)

But basically I vary between building strength or building muscle. I know many people think these are the same but when you build strength you train more like a power lifter or olympic lifter which means few workouts a week and more sets but fewer reps for each workout. Whereas building muscle is the bodybuilding style which would be working out a specific body part (or a couple parts) during each workout with fewer sets but higher reps.

Right now my training split is: chest/back on monday. Legs tuesday. shoulders wednesday. plyometrics thursday. arms friday. TRX training saturday.

I also throw in core and cardio training a couple days a week.

As for supplements I listed the ones I would take if I had all the money in the world for training in another post above but just generally for Crohn's I take a multi-vitamin, fish oil, vitamin D and folic acid (on methotrexate).

As for a eating log I did one for almost 2 months this year and didn't find any patterns in what gives me symptoms besides really high fiber foods but I always knew that.but if you meant like what diet I follow. I do the following:

Breakfast (7am): oatmeal wtih either toast or eggs.

Workout 8:30 am

Postworkout 9:30-10am: PB and J sandwhich and Whey Isolate Protein shake with water

Lunch 12pm: Lean Meat (fish or chicken mostly) with rice. Banana for desert

Snack 2pm and Snack 4pm: Around 300-400 cals each of a combination between fruit (without skin if an apple or pear), cereal with almond milk, Cliff bar, or toast with peanut butter.

Dinner 6pm: meat (again lean) with potatoes (white or yam). Small desert (usually homemade cookies or applesauce)

8pm: Casein Protein shake.

I try for 2500-3500 cals a day but that all depends on how busy I am plus how I feel. Most important is to get in enough carbs to keep my energy up so I usually drink juice during the day even though I know it's sugary better to get the calories I need than worry about cavities.

hope that is what you were looking for
 
prednisone and chrones

To anyone,

About a month ago I had my first flare up. I've had a steady lifting routine for about 2 years now and after the flare up I stopped due to the nature of a flare up and other factors. I'm about to go on prednisone to reduce inflammation. Does anyone lift regularly that is prescribed to prednisone? Will it positively or negatively affect my work outs?
 
I thought about doing prednisone while working out, but I know (and I'm not sure how long it takes) but prednisone makes your bones weak and more prone to breaking. I didn't want to risk it with heavy weights.
 
Prednisone is very catabolic to your muscles. So it is never helpful when you are trying to attain a change in your physique.

Also I wouldn't reccommend working out 6 days a week to anyone, let alone people with crohns. We have a hard enough time absorbing calories, the last thing we need is to be burning excess and wasting muscle. So please don't think you have to work up to something like CNS's schedule to accomplish physique change or bennit your health. 3 Days a week is more than enough time in the gym to see physical change with the right diet.
 
Good to see this type of chat on here. I'm 27yr old London guy had crohns 3 years, currently struggling hard with it. Make the gym barely frequently but when I do it's the same routine. With the lack of energy, eating and meds (pred and buden) it's hard.

I'm trying to focus on the diet bit first. Get that and my energy levels right and I should be good to train more frequently.
 
It sucks eh? I'm trying to gain weight right now, and the only way to do so is to eat. I'm never hungry, and have no appetite. Sometimes I can't even taste my food, and it tastes bland. I don't eat because I'm hungry, I have to force myself to eat so I can gain weight. I eat a lot too.

Just out of curiosity, are you from London Ontario, or England?
 
England dude, I feel your pain on the food side. I can't tell the difference between hunger or crohnie pains, so frustrating. And when I eat I know I'll suffer for an hour or so after too.

You CA based?

Paul,
 
K walker,
The best advise I can give is to find out your natural bodyweight and composition by going online & figuring your weight /height ratio. After mathematically figuring your exact calories it takes to maintain your body weight with all the variables you simply incorporate more calories. I can't eplain to you enough how important it is to eat the most bioavailable food when you have an absorption deficiency. Think health nut. Meal timing, training, rest. 100 percent whey with casein is the only workout supplement I would recommend because there are no known side effects & is the most bioavailable protein known to us. I am going to start supplementing with glutamine as well because its your muscles main source of fuel for synthesis & no side effects as well. Do research on bioavailable foods & start transitioning to them. Its the closest thing to the fountain of youth bro.
 
Hi, to all lifters with Crohn's out there, I have been powerlifting beltless and am thinking of starting to train with a belt after my next competition. I have been scared to wear a belt and usually avoid restrictive clothing in general since my diagnosis. I have no idea whether wearing a belt would have any negative effect at all on me and would like to know if anyone else here wears a belt or knows if it should be avoided.
 
Hi KWalker..how are you buddy ? I've Been weight lifting since last year. Initially lost weight, but after few changes I have been able to gain some weight...not much but much better than I was before. The problem with having crohns is that you always have to be on your toes. what i mean is its very easy to lose muscles very fast even if there is a slight change in the routine , like not exercising your muscles for a week or a flare up. walnust has helped me the most, try them if you can tolerate them.
 
Not a weigh lifter, but I have been doing Freeletics for the last 2 months, for the first weeks 5 days a week, now only 2-3 times a week. I can see the effects quite visibly and just from the ease of doing the exercises now I know it worked.
 

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