Supporting my 16 year old son

[Pixiegirl03]

Hi there people,
I've been supporting my 16 year old since the summer before he began senior school and his IBD journey began full force. He has just completed his GCSE s and has some self improvement plans for his well deserved summer holiday. He has been doing some weights but every time he does he finds that his arms are virtually crippled for days afterwards. He has been using a lift to fail regime but this clearly doesn't work too well. Any top tips for someone staring out on weights? I want to keep him motivated and seeing improvement. His growing has been effected by his IBD and he could do with the confidence boost that some guns might give him not to mention some respectable pecks. He has just started on growth hormone. Could that be causing the extreme muscle pain? He stills takes Pred but only 10mg every other day.

 

[Beach]

My mom was similar in that for me she suggested and bought me a gym membership to gain some mass. Over the years I had lost a great deal of weight due to my stomach condition.

What I did to gain weight and muscle mass is similar to what your son is doing. I would lift weights till muscle failure. Typically I would attend the gym twice a week for an hour at a time. I put on around 40lbs over 2 years doing that.

To put on that weight I feel eating lots of quality foods was necessary also. I also made it a point to get some sensible sun exposure a few times a week. Basically I would avoid sun burns. (Depending on medications taken, getting some sun exposure might not be advisable.)

The pain and fatigue from lifting is a funny thing I found. Sometimes after lifting I would be terrible sore and worn out for a couple days. On the second day in particular it could be a real struggle to wake up, move around and get things done.

Other times though, the weight lifting wouldn't bother me much. I would have sore muscles but my energy levels were good.

Back then, I never did figure out why sometimes lifting would wipe out my energy and sometimes it didn't. It is only recently that I feel I have an answer. I've been following a diet that has improved my IBD condition nicely. As a result I've noticed exercise and lifting hasn't been wearing me out. My energy is pretty good most of the time lately.

Good luck to your son. We're all different to some degree with these conditions, so hope he figures out what works best for him with weight lifting and health.

 

[Tesscorm]

I can't speak specifically to the weights/muscle soreness but, as far as weight gain, perhaps he can try adding supplemental nutritional shakes to his diet.

If you have a look through the Parents' forum, you'll find there are lots of kids who use nutritional shakes as a supplement to their diet (called elemental nutrition (EN)). Exclusive EN (a diet of shakes only) is sometimes used to induce remission but supplemental EN is often used to ensure absorption of nutrients and provide extra calories. My son was diagnosed at 16, he did EEN for six weeks (3000 cal/day) and then supplemental EN for two years (1500 cal/day from formula in addition to his regular diet). For the last 3+ years, he just drinks one or two Boost shakes most days to supplemental his diet. This made a huge difference for him. He'd gone from approx. 145 lbs pre-diagnosis, to less than 125 lbs at diagnosis. I think, within a year of diagnosis, he'd gone to 175 lbs (which was a healthy weight for his height). He also gained 1.5 inches during this time.

As I said, many of the parents here have added supplemental EN to their children's diet, especially during growth/developmental stages.

Good luck!