For me I even have to keep it to the level at the moment right now of just doing a couple of walks a day, and maybe a low intensity bike ride. There’s no doubt that movement is really important for physical health (including brain health) but when your adrenals are depleted, in my experience you have to be super slow and careful not to back step by burning yourself out even more.

Hi J, based on the stomach gurgling you’re talking about you might really benefit from supplementing with Betaine HCL.

Check out this article:

https://healthygut.com/hypochlorhydria-3-common-signs-of-low-stomach-acid/

You may not be digesting food well, and that’s preventing you from absorbing nutrients (and calories).

Jordan

@ Odddlycrunchy – MED is really about only doing the minimum necessary to get the result you want. So for instance as you talked about MED is NOT running on a cardio machine to lose weight. It is also not doing 6 sets of an exercise if 2 sets will produce the equivalent results.

There is a fine line between pushing the body pain and injury pain. Athletes are very in tune with this and unfortunately usually only understand it because they’ve crossed into injury pain too many times. What I’m saying is don’t generalize it because you haven’t experienced it. Exercise to build muscle must be a sufficient stimulus which will require some struggle and work. But in no way am I adovcating that everything must be painful or am I advocating for over-exercising. The point of this post is that most people over exercise and that there is a much better way to do things.

Not sure I understand the MED concept.

“If you do it right, it hurts” seems to contradict “it is so freeing, esp. for those who grew up in the [NO PAIN, NO GAIN] school”.

I’ve always said, NO PAIN, NO PAIN. But then, I”m no athlete, so I can hardly convince others that pushing to the point of pain can be counterproductive. The fact is, my family needs me to be functional, so I can’t risk injury or even muscle ache from over-exercising.

@ Samara – No yoga is not going to burn too many calories, don’t worry about that. You could easily walk 30 minutes a day and do 30 minutes of Yoga and not burn that many extra calories (everyone will be different its impossible to put a real number on it but probably less than 4 oz of meat). No they won’t increase muscle mass over time unless you were starting from a bed ridden state. Muscle mass is built in response to a stimulus, you have to over stimulate your muscle fibers to build muscle, normally yoga is not going to do this. So moving to strength training as fast as possible is usually the best option.

@ Reid – CrossFit is a great program but it is pretty demanding, what I mean by that is that it’s very taxing not only on the muscles but also neurological system. They use a lot of complex lifts that take advanced motor skills which is great when your looking to build your athletic base, or a higher level of work capacity. If you have digestive issues and still don’t have your symptoms under control CrossFit in my opinion is too demanding and your going to end up stealing resources from your ability to heal. It would be better to start with walking, yoga, a few months of HIT and then progress into CrossFit. But again its all about your goals. If you want to look good and get strong HIT is probably a better choice than CrossFit. If your an athlete, after getting some of your strength and muscle back CrossFit is most likely better.

@ Matt – All Great points man, thanks for bringing them up. Yoga and daily walking is a great place to start if your having a very hard time getting out of bed or up the stairs. I would agree if your that sick, daily walking is about all you should be doing. But once your getting stronger I think it is important to keep pushing each day until you can handle the MED (minimum effective dose) like you said.

Great points on MED and Rest I will try to address them next! The short answer is resting is not training 🙂

@ Rachel – Thanks for contributing, most people who do lots of cardio always seem to be hurt. Just walk instead! Unless your training for a specific event.

This concept of minimal effective dose is worth talking about, because it is so freeing, especially for those of us who grew up in the “more is better: pain, pain, pain = gain, gain, gain” school.

You mean I can workout for 6 minutes (for example), and get better results than if I spend an hour in the gym? Any day, except for my worst days of flare up, I could muster for 6 minutes. That is encouraging.

3. Resting. Can you define resting for everyone? It’s the most beneficial, and least understood part of training. What does resting look like for those with IBD? How does it change as you heal?

Thanks guys.