Not many people have told me that I should run harder and train more with my stoma. It is a crazy thing to think about but the truth is that knowing that I have a medical condition that most people don’t make me work harder and train more. I know that in some cases and during certain times that is an unwise move, but the fact is that I am training more and hitting the gym more than I ever have. I have also spent more time enjoying the physical aspect of life on vacation and doing some amazing hikes all thanks to the work that I have put in, in the gym. It is a funny thing, but a lot of what I do is because I want to let people know that you can do anything with a stoma and to help encourage others and myself to not sit still in life.
Now learning how to run and workout with a stoma was not the most simple of things. But I knew it was something that I could accomplish because I saw so many others doing it and succeeding in ways that I know I could never. I saw professional athletes doing amazing things with a stoma and the more I looked into what they used and the ostomy gear they worked with the more I knew that I could do it too. I saw these incredible people using pretty regular ostomy gear and heading out to do wild feet of human strength and endurance. For me, all I wanted was to be able to jog and enjoy hiking trails. That is the staple of things that I love to do outside and I figured that if people could run marathons, swim miles in the ocean, and bike 100 miles all in one day then I could go hiking with my stoma and ostomy bag too.
This is when I decided to break into research on how to run better with my own stoma. I usually wore regular shoes, but I personally found that my own running gate needed to probably change a bit to accommodate my ostomy bag. I know it is a small thing, but I could feel my movement a bit too much and my more heal forward gate was going to not cut it for me. So I learned about running on the balls of my feet and gave that a try. I found it hard to do but it lowered my body’s impact absorption by running more like the American Indians did back in teh day with moccasins. So I decided to get into minimalist running.
This meant using those finger shoes or toe shoes that have almost zero paddings and allow you to run similar to being barefoot. This was a very hard change for me because it meant my calves were going to have to grow and be able to take more impacts. But after a few weeks, I was able to get my body in better shape and my stoma loved the change. I felt more confident in this style and it also helped my body and my knees with all the impact. Being able to run harder and go further is really nice. So give it a try!
Stoma Health Blog 