5'1, 24, 118lbs, muscle atrophy starting journey! Exercise advice wanted, please!

[daniel4confusion]

TL;DR: would love advice on exercises​

Hi! I hope it's alright to post a semi introductive post (I didn't see anything against it in the rules!), while asking for some advice! I might be giving TMI in here, and I apologize if I am!

I separated into bullet points and sections for, hopefully, easier reading!

I've also got ADHD, so thankfully the dopamine from exercising is motivating enough for me, in of itself.

Background/Stats/Goals​

Background: I have severe muscle atrophy, asthma, hEDS and autoimmune issues (lupus SLE) that caused me to be bedbound most days, since September last year. I had to drop physical therapy, and since then I've gotten maybe 1k steps in during a week? Put together a treadmill a few days ago though, and starting to use it!

Starting Stats:
* 5'1"/151cm, 24 y/o, 118lbs
* Severe muscle atrophy
* waist 26"
* hip 40"
* I have a treadmill
* Tracking nutrition and other stats via LoseIt!
* Storing progress pics on Shapez
* Most days sub 800cal
* Consistent weight on this! I've been bedbound, with bad appetite
* I keep forgetting to eat

Current Body type:
* hourglass 'skinnyfat'
* don't worry, I don't think I'm fat! It's just the term I'm used to describing having a low weight, but a high body fat %

Current Goals:
* Rehabilitate from muscle atrophy!
* Get where I can go back to physical therapy by end of August
* Improve health!
* Correct my diet to healthy macronutrients & etc!
* Avoid eating under 1.2k cal daily!
* Boost my appetite and remember to eat!
* Get where I can take the dogs for daily walks
* (currently a different house member walks them)

Exercise Plans:​

Okay so! As a forewarning; these might come off as odd. However, I'm starting out with rehabilitation from near inability to walk. My treadmill has support bars, and an emergency stop clip in case I fall. I need to build stamina first

Treadmill:
* Focusing on breathing properly and posture during walking!
* Hydration & prep:
* 8oz of milk after!
* 20oz of water 2 hours before
* 8oz water and take inhaler 20 minutes before
* 8oz water every 10-15 minutes (I am not a sweater!)
* A bit of sea salt before, after and in between sessions, to prevent lightheadedness!
* Speed depends on what my body can take depending on the day!
* 3 month exercise plan:
* Twice a day minimum
* Starting: 45 minutes daily, split up in max 20 minute intervals. 10 minutes of rest between minimum, to monitor asthma and prevent pushing too hard.
* Add 15 minutes every 2 weeks, up to 2 hours daily
* Depending on how I feel, see if I can increase 'rep time' to 45 minutes intervals over time
* Aim for minimum 1 mile a day, increase to hopefully 5 by the end, depending on how my body takes it!
* If my legs give out on me, dial things back for a few days and retry increase later
* Additional walking, anytime I'm upset or anxious. Helps keep me preoccupied

Other:
* Daily arm circles, like how we used to do in elementary school gym!
* I'd love for more recommendations of starting exercises, oriented around the core/chest/arms!

Restrictions​

• I can't go to the gym, or swim!
• DOMS makes it harder to notice when I've pushed too far
• I'm not supposed to do stretches!
  • hEDS makes it extremely easy for me to dislocate my limbs with simple stretches.
• Lupus flare-ups come/go, and can prevent regular exercise
• Chronic pain, and a past in ballet (iykyk) makes it harder for me to recognize when something hurts too much!

Would love advice, please!​

Again, especially on things I can do for core, chest and arm strength!

But also, if anyone else has similar health issues and is trying to? Or if anyone else is on a similar journey? Would love to hear how it's been going for you so far

 

[rodneys]

@daniel4confusion With this level of medical needs, I don’t think it’s really safe or appropriate for anyone here to give you advice. This sounds like a plan that needs to be very strictly monitored by a medical team.

That being said, as somebody who has dealt with a lot of health issues in the past and under eating, it’s likely that your primary focus needs to be eating substantially more calories before you include any kind of exercise. It seems like an extremely dangerous idea to start adding exercise when you already eat a potentially lethal calorie amount. Most likely, you need to work on increasing your calorie intake substantially for a few weeks to months consistently before you start adding exercise.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@rodneys I was hoping that since it's just starting up, it'd be alright for advice. I have spoken to medical professionals in the past, and the end agreement was 'get yourself to a point where you can do physical therapy again'. It's been a 'get yourself moving, and start walking more often', without any other notes unfortunately.

Treadmill has been allowing me to start on the walking part

I've been & am focusing on upping my calorie intake, yeah! The past week I've been managing to hit the minimum 1.2k calories (focused on protein and other nutrients too!) But I can't only do that and wait to start movement, or else it'll only make things worse for me.

 

[rodneys]

@daniel4confusion I’m sorry that doctors haven’t been helpful in the past, but again, it seems very dangerous to get advice from unqualified people on the Internet when you have such serious health needs.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@rodneys I'm a bit puzzled on where to look then, when 'just get moving more' is the advice given. And I'm trying to see if others have light exercises they can recommend

 

[rodneys]

@daniel4confusion I cannot think of a single exercise to recommend for you even if I did feel like that was safe to do. I deal with hypermobility myself, and I’ve never heard of someone not being able to do any stretches. I don’t see how you would possibly do any sort of resistance training with this severe of a restriction.

When my doctor wasn’t being helpful, I found a new doctor. That’s probably your best bet. I think it would be an absolutely horrendous idea to get advice from the Internet on this. I’m really sorry that you’re in such a difficult situation and I wish that I could help, but I just don’t see how you could possibly get any safe advice here regarding specific exercises.

The only other advice I feel comfortable giving you is that your plan includes too much at once, but I suggested you focus on diet first, you shot that down and said that wouldn’t be safe for you. It looks like you were also given the same advice and another comment and shot it down. This highlights why this is not a safe place for you to seek advice— with several complicated and that well understood, medical conditions, any advice that you get here could be detrimental to your health. We’re not doctors.

I’m really sorry that you’re dealing with all of this and I wish you all the best

 

[daniel4confusion]

@rodneys I can technically do stretches. Though I used to be in ballet where I was told unless you're in extreme pain, it's not an actual stretch. Add on my hyper mobility is relatively extreme, I'll dislocate before I'll feel anything from one.

Idk if you have hEDS too rather than just hyper mobility, but it does tend to be this extreme. It gets worse the less muscle you have

I'm curious how focusing on both diet and starting exercise is too much at once, admittedly. I do have regular (about every two weeks) check ins with my primary care physician, so I'm not doing this entirely unmonitored

I guess to explain, I wasn't expecting anyone to be able to tell me what exactly would for sure work right now. I was hoping that I could take the suggested exercises/etc folks gave, do a watered down test of them. Then see about if I could end up adding suggested things into it as time (and ability) improved.

I'm up for taking down the post to prevent frustration of y'all/others, if y'all think that'd be for the best!

Not upset by the way, just really wordy since I struggle with condensing!

Admittedly I likely should've hit up hEDS groups instead, but I couldn't find any public ones open to discussing fitness.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@rodneys Also by the way, I go genuinely appreciate y'all's replies to this! Y'all are so sweet. Thanks for taking the time!

 

[joerogan311]

@daniel4confusion Totally agree about getting professional guidance I also understand frustration of doctors telling you to just “listen to your body” and looking to others for advice.

The one main thing that stuck out to me was that it seems you are doing too much too quickly. Instead of 20 mins walking at one time, I would set the bar super low. Walk for one minute and see how you feel. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you don’t want to push too fast and injury yourself.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@joerogan311 Both doctors and physical therapists, unfortunately. My current physical therapy plan, is just the 'get moving, and get your stamina up so you can actually do physical therapy' thing. Treadmill was their recommendation. I haven't really been frustrated as much as thought they were giving me sound advice on that part

I've already tested out the 15-20 minute timeframe, and the resting breaks. Took them alright, and haven't been in extreme pain the days after/haven't had reduced mobility

I plan on making sure to avoid having my body give out, like it used to during PT. Thanks for the concern, btw! Also trying to split it throughout the day so my body can be used to it, instead of in bursts

 

[mj_1969]

@daniel4confusion Lots of things to unpack here, but I'm definitely of the "seek a professional" camp.

The biggest red flag I'm seeing is that your goal is to lose weight until you boost muscle. That's not how that works. With added muscle mass, you're going to weigh more, full stop, especially when you're already at a low muscle mass to begin with. By making it a priority to chase a lower number on the scale, you'll be backpedaling.

In order to gain muscle back, you need to be eating enough. If I were in your shoes, I'd hire a dietician who can work with you in that regard and then work with a physio.

You gotta fuel the work.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@mj_1969 Oh, I phrased that wrong! I was told I should be 97-110lbs by my general practitioner, so having a side goal of 105lbs since I'm atrophic I thought would be a good idea. I thought I'd be losing weight before I'd be seeing any notable weight gains from getting in shape. I guess I assumed wrong!

I can axe any weight loss from my plans, though I expect to end up with some regardless (even with raising my caloric & nutrient intake) as I get more active. It's not really a priority or something I'm bothered with/worried about

I don't have a dietician, though I am trying the Mediterranean diet with a minimum goal for caloric intake (trying to boost to 1.4k minimum) & macronutrients, based off of my rheumatologist's recommendation.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@mj_1969 Apologies for double reply, but removed the weight part of it now!

 

[applegold]

@daniel4confusion Here to address your core.

Your core keeps you standing, able to walk and bend. Look on YouTube for dead bugs, the exercise. It won’t work out your entire core (core is your front and sides, this will target your front abs) but it is a great start when you’re coming from zero.

Start with ten reps, five on each side and see how you feel. I know I’d be out of breath when I started. Make sure to suck in your stomach / feel your abdomen work, and do the motions slowly. It will work out your thighs and arms too, but the main focus is your middle.

 

[daniel4confusion]

@applegold Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out!

 

[joanfiz]

@daniel4confusion As everyone has said please do your best to work with a professional. Why did you have to drop physical therapy? That is probably a good place for you to be OR if you have written approval from your doctor maybe a personal trainer. With that being said I understand working with a professional may not be something accessible to you but your current lifestyle isn’t healthy either so anything may be better than nothing.

You might explore like a chair exercise class on YouTube and start with no weights. Other workout classes you might find helpful are senior step classes or classes for extremely obese individuals (I know these aren’t your demographic but they don’t make workout classes for your demographic and these will be low impact/low risk)

 

[daniel4confusion]

@joanfiz My physical therapist dropped me because my body kept giving out partway into PT. By give out, I mean full on I couldn't walk/support my legs. And on days I could complete PT, I couldn't walk after for up to 5 days. They told me that until I get my stamina and strength up enough, I couldn't come back because I wasn't benefiting from the PT if I can't get through it. So walk + move around more til then.

I've also checked in with two other PT places since, and they both stood by I need to get my stamina up before I can do anything.

Yeah, was thinking of looking through senior classes! Extreme obese ones might not work for me, since the bodyweight being moved difference. Thanks for the recommendations! I'll look into those and the chair ones

 

[joanfiz]

@daniel4confusion I’m surprised they let you go. Physical therapists regularly help people who have been in comas or bed ridden for years recover. It’s definitely a slow process but movement is possible for virtually EVERYONE. I would connect back with your doctor you may need some sort of inpatient rehab program or a specialized physical therapist referral. Don’t give up you will find the right professional to help you!

 

[daniel4confusion]

@joanfiz I think it's because of the amount of motion I could get through, before my body gave out? Idk. They seemed confident I could get myself to a point where I could come back though.

I'll give it a month or two of seeing if the treadmill helps/if it seems like there's any progress, before looking into anything inpatient. Unless it seems like things are getting worse, then I'll check sooner. Haven't had access to a treadmill til recently

 

[joanfiz]

@daniel4confusion When I was in post concussion physical therapy 75% of my session was simply walking on a treadmill or biking on a stationary bike because they needed to observe that my body could handle the increase in effort over time (basically observe and increase my stamina) the other 25% was balance work or literally “can you think while you do these tasks” none of that is out of their scope of practice. It’s strange they dropped you without a referral to someone else!