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Hello,
First post, hoping you can help! I have long been in recovery for anorexia, and running is something I have missed. I have started running once or wtice a week again, ensuring that I adequately replace the calories lost, but am finding my muscles aching and it to be quite tiring. I am wondering if you know of any good strength and muscle building exercises for runners, that will help my running, and make me stronger and healthier generally. Obviously I know that the more muscle I have, the more I will have to eat to replace the calories lost!
Thanks.
x
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Comments
Hi Francesca,
Well done for getting to this point... you must be progressing well. Unfortunately it is hard for MOST people to comment.
Normally, we say that the best way to gain strength for running, is by running! Just starting very slow. Most runners have a danger of getting shin splints if they build up the mileage a bit quickly... and if your anorexia left your bones a little low in density, then you could be vulnerable, so I'm sure you need to be really careful. Probably a bit of time on cycling machines and rowing machines (low impact), could be a good way of building some muscle... but if you do, you have to be doubly careful of bone damage when running - because you'll be feeling quite fit and capable, and end up doing more than your bones are ready for! But I guess that with exercise and careful running, you bone density will increase along with your muscle strength.
I think the bottom line is that you MUST get some professional advice on this - I'm sure you already have had some such opinions. Hopefully you'll find one or two people on here who've been through something similar and you can share experiences.
I just typed the word 'anorexia' into the search function at the top of the page, and came up with 208 results, so if you haven't browsed through some of those old threads yet, then that might be worthwhile... there must be at least one of them that's relevant to you!
Good luck - and as I said.. well done.