When you have endometriosis or any kind of chronic pain, doctors often recommend that you do some kind of exercise because movement can help improve pain levels. Exercise is important when you live with endometriosis because sometimes the disease affects your bladder and bowel function, and it is more difficult to go to the bathroom; exercise can make it a little easier. I live with pain because of endometriosis and am still able to exercise, but it is not easy because the pain often affects my workout routine, and I am not able to exercise at the capacity I could before pain. Exercise is important for people who live with pain, but it’s not as simple as telling someone to go to the gym because something that is supposed to be a good thing can trigger pain in people with endometriosis, and is the last thing you want to do. Exercise is possible with pain, but it can be harder to motivate yourself when you always have the fear of triggering pain during exercise. In this post, I am going to share a few things that people don’t tell you about exercising with endometriosis.
Low-impact exercise can trigger pain- When you live with pain, a lot of the time, people will tell you to do something low-impact, like walking, to avoid pain flares. I would agree that if you live with severe pain and want to exercise, you should try and stick to low-impact forms of movement because it will be gentler on your body. Exercise can be tricky with endometriosis, and avoiding pain is not as simple as doing low-impact exercises because even the lowest intensity routine can sometimes cause pain. Walking for me is not as low-impact as it would be for most people because I have a physical disability, and it requires more effort but is still pretty low-impact. My main form of exercise is walking, and I do short walks a couple of times a day to improve my cardiovascular health, but still sometimes trigger pain because any exercise can be triggering, even if it’s low impact. I listen to my body and sometimes have to take more rest days than most people because it’s almost impossible to find an exercise routine that never triggers pain. We do our best to find an exercise that supports our pain, but the reality is that sometimes it can be difficult to move with endometriosis, and any exercise can be triggering.
Sometimes you won’t have the energy to exercise– Exercise can be difficult for people with endometriosis because if you aren’t struggling with pain, you are struggling with fatigue that massively affects your workout performance. When I exercise, most days I get so frustrated with myself because I feel like I have a decent amount of energy and will crush my workout, but when I do the actual workout, I do not perform as well as I thought I would due to pain. I know what I was capable of before I lived with chronic pain, and it can be so frustrating when I see that I can’t do that anymore because I know in the back of my mind I can do better, but pain prevents me from doing so. People with endometriosis often struggle with sleep because of the pain, which means we have less energy to exercise, and there is nothing you can do about that. On days I am frustrated with my exercise performance, I try to remind myself that my pain is preventing me from pushing harder and not from lack of effort. People don’t tell you how frustrating exercise is with endometriosis, and it is so important that we celebrate being able to do some movement even if it wasn’t our best performance.
You may have to give up your favorite exercise– Before I lived with pain, my favorite form of exercise was Pilates, but since I started experiencing pelvic pain from endometriosis, I am not able to do that without triggering more pain. I have stopped doing Pilates or any form of core workout because it triggers more pain and does not bring me any joy like it used to. I wish I could go back to Pilates but as long as I have pelvic pain, I don’t think I will be able to because the risks far outweigh the benefits. When you live with endometriosis, sometimes you have to give up exercises that you used to love and try something else because pain makes it unenjoyable. People do not tell you how much pain affects your workout routine, and that you will probably have to exercise in a different way to prevent more pain. I have stopped doing Pilates and do mostly strength training, which makes more sense for me because it doesn’t target my lower abdominal area and isn’t triggering. People often do not realize how much you have to give up when you live with pain to have less pain. I miss exercising in the way I did before pain, but giving those things up was the best thing I did for my health.
Exercise is important for endometriosis, and I encourage anyone who is able to exercise to make it part of your routine, but it’s not easy to exercise with endometriosis. It is more difficult to exercise when you live with pain, but I do try to do it regularly because I get constipated more easily since living with pain, and movement helps make going to the bathroom a little less painful. If you have endometriosis and get frustrated when you exercise, try to not be so hard on yourself because any form of movement can be something to celebrate when you live with pain. You aren’t being lazy when you exercise less because you live with pain that most people do not have to consider. If you live with severe pain, stop trying to exercise in the same way you did before pain because you are only hurting yourself by doing that. Engage in forms of movement that support your pain rather than force yourself to do things that you know will probably trigger it because it burns more calories. What do you wish people know about exercising with endometriosis? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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