Working Out With After an Ostomy

Ever since I was young, I always wanted to be a personal trainer. I absolutely love working out and all the things related to that. I started working out when I was in high school in the weight room and felt super cool about it. Not only was it a nice way to attract the ladies, working out also gave me an opportunity to connect with my friends who also worked out. It is scientifically proven that people who regularly workout or do any type of exercise at least 2 to 3 times a week live longer, happier lives. You can’t argue with science, so don’t even try! I have kept working out as a big part of my life all throughout college and into my adult life. Once you find a local gym that you really like to go to, the rest happens naturally. During COVID I even built my own home gym in my garage in order to keep working out during the lockdown. Since all the gyms were closed, people’s mental health really struggled. That just goes to show you how important working out is.

I recently underwent surgery in an unfortunate turn of events. My life was turned a little bit upside down when I had an ostomy and a stoma put in my body. I felt as though my entire world was changing and that I would never be able to do the things I used to enjoy because of the addition of a stoma. I was especially worried about not being able to workout anymore, which is still a really big part of my life. I knew that, without exercising regularly, my mental and physical health would begin to suffer. I know that working out regularly extends my quality of life and life expectancy and I was very upset when I started to think about all the differences my ostomy would create in my life. I talked to my doctor about these issues and asked him if there was anyway in which I could still exercise with a stoma.

To my delight, my doctor told me that working out with a stoma is totally possible! He said that it is actually recommended that I be doing some exercise after I’ve recovered from my surgery in order to stay in better shape and better health. I was super happy about this and I could feel a wave of relief wash over me. The first step, though, was to go through the whole process of recovering from my surgery and adjusting to life with a stoma. I took several weeks off of work and did not exercise at all during that time because I did not want to risk complicating things with my stoma. During that time, I mostly relaxed at home on the couch and got caught up on shows I’ve wanted to watch.

Now that I have fully recovered from surgery and am trying to adjust to life with a stoma, I have definitely made working out a regular part of my routine again. I can do just about anything I did before, though I don’t do a whole lot of strength training with barbell squats or deadlifts. I prefer to keep things simple after my ostomy and keep my stoma protected.