A challenge for weightlifting

[Gravis]

Hi everyone, very knowledgeable group here.

I have a few issues that make lifting/weight gain difficult. When I was a kid I had a pretty hardcore surgery that left me, well, lacking on some insides which make weight gain difficult. In addition, I have asthma (probably from this surgery, lucky me.)

So I'll never be built well like the other guys in the gym because really pounding full body exercises like deadlifts can trigger my asthma and end my workout. In addition, not only is it tough to gain weight, I just can't eat 6-8 times a day like the people recommend. Try and try I have but I just can't get the appetite and just have to eat alot in a few single servings.

Can anyone recommend a source of information for the extreme hardgainer as well as something for weight lifting with asthma? Im not looking for miracles here, I get that this is overwhelming to make any magic from. Im just looking for suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Karky]

Do you warm up before you exercise? People with exercise induced asthma are usually recommended to have a longer warm up than normal, like 10-15 min.

You don't need to eat often to gain weight. Something like 4 meals a day is fine.

If you want to get bigger you need to find a way to do some strength training, otherwise it will all be fat. So try and see what you can do without inducing an asthma attack.

Also, have you checked with your doctors if there are things you shouldn't do in the weight room? You didn't say what kind of surgery it was, but it sounded serious.

 

[Eric L]

Have you tried those small asthma pumps?

Get your lungs in better shape first, do cardio for a month or two. Your lungs will become better at processing more oxygen with less effort. The longer warm-up will also work - I know this from experience, I have asthma myself. I used to get my asthma triggered by physical activities but over time it went away as I progressed with fitness. A warm-up, regardless of duration, will help you. Warming up prepares the body for physical stress. Your capillaries become more dispersed, blood flows more easily - even your lungs become prepared for increased air volumes, the list of things a warm-up does for you is too long, point is, a warm-up is 100% guaranteed to help you at least a little bit with your asthma.

Do you know your asthma triggers? One of them is physical labor...do you have any others? Like dust etc...if so, keep away from them - if you expose yourself to them it will only aggravate your asthma. By doing this, your asthma should settle down some bit at least.

If you've undergone such a surgery that limits growth, then any advice we give you regarding growth is potentially dangerous to you. If the surgery resulted in a smaller stomach or gastric bypass then following an extreme gainers regime would be extremely bad. Hard gainers = eat lots of food.



Deadlift are extremely hard on you. It's important that you build up cardio-pulmonary energy systems before you do this exercise with any sort of intensity - I remember my first time, I actually DLed 135#x20 but my O2, glucose and atp systems could not possibly keep up and I nearly fainted.

Now I can do it without a problem because all my energy systems have adapted enough to keep up.

Point is, your lungs are part of only one of the energy systems you need for this exercise. If you are lacking just a little bit in the others, then, your reaction could be normal.

By the time you would have adapted, you will need much less oxygen which means you will not have to breathe as much - asthma attacks are basically a shortness of breath. Problem solved.

Also, not saying your are not, but having proper breathing techniques help ALOT.

Hope this helped.

I know how asthma feels and once you train your lungs to counter it, it feels like heaven.

Best of luck

 

[Gravis]

You guys have inspired me to do more warming up. Im going to try that. In all honesty I kind of shied away from too much because I feared it may exhaust me before I began. However, maybe I was a little counterintuitive there. Any recommendations? Is a little treadmill jogging ok?

Yeah, deadlifts and squats are terrible for me. A few months ago I had a really bad attack afterward and had to go the hospital to get IV steroids for my asthma. I didn't have any of these problems 5 years. Ahhh, the 30s.

The surgery I had was for repair of a diaphragmatic hernia, an unusual but very treatable childhood hernia. Problem is that there is always some stuff that needs removed and in my case it was some guts.

And also, thank you for the mention on the 4 meals-so many insist on 6-8 smaller (yeah right smaller) meals, its just too much for my reflux. As a follow-up...what meal replacements/proteins would you say are easy on digestion? I have tried certain whey proteins and creatine, but without sounding gross, they go right through me. Soy is the only protein I can take without issues.

Thanks again.