Working Out With a Stoma

Ever since I was young, I have always loved exercising and working out. I definitely played as many different types of sports as I could while growing up, and lifting weights became a part of my daily routine when I was just in highschool. Since then, I have remained committed to making my days better with some form of exercise or working out each day when I wake up in the morning. The thing about working out in the morning is that it is a really good way to wake up your body and your mind, as well as get yourself ready for the day. I go to the gym that is only 10 or so minutes from my house, so I spend most mornings there lifting weights and running on the treadmill before I go to work. What most people don’t know about me is that I actually had an ostomy a few years ago, which means that I have a stoma coming out of my colon. I think that most people are surprised to hear that I have continued to workout with my stoma. Well, all I can say is that you have to continue doing the things that make you happy and bring you satisfaction in life. For me, that has always been working out.

I wanted to write this article to give you a few tips about working out when you have a stoma. For me, it all started kind of slowly after my surgery. I was originally extremely worried about getting a stoma put in and was not sure how I would be able to get back to my normal life that I had without wearing an ostomy bag all the time. However, the doctors assured me that, once I’ve recovered from surgery, I should be able to return to working out like normal with just a few minor adjustments. The biggest thing I wanted to make sure of was that I wasn’t going to cause any complications to my stoma by lifting weights. Running or jogging is one thing, but lifting weights is undeniably harder on your body than most other forms of exercise. Ask any old guy who’s worked out for a lot of years, and he will tell you about some injury that has continually bothered him throughout his life in the gym. 

After I recovered from surgery for a few weeks, I headed back to the gym to try my hand at lifting weights again. I tried out a variety of different ostomy bags to make sure I could find one that was most suitable for working out. I think that the non-reusable ostomy bags work best for working out, because you can just toss them in the garbage once you are done and don’t have to worry about trying to empty it or anything like that. They also fit a bit closer to your body, which is nice when you are working out - the last thing you’d want is to accidentally bang your ostomy bag against a barbell and have all your contents spilling out onto the gym floor. That would be what ostomates refer to as a disaster. I think that, for the most part, my gym routine has remained mostly unchanged even after getting an ostomy. Let me know if you have questions down below.