Discomfort after running, 38 male

[Joejoesmith]

Back ground, I was a pretty healthy male up until I reached 28-30. I didn't exercise but my job in construction kept me fit. I went into management and gained a lot of weight. I'm 6ft 1 and went from 200-289 over the years. I'm now 38. After visiting the doctor and being hypertension stage two I started dieting and joined planet fitness and in 5 months I was able to get from 289 to 241. I often run about 1-2 miles a day on the tread mill but I find myself with anal pain and scrotom pain that disappears if I stop running for a week or so and just walk. Has anyone ever experienced this? I've also hit a wall at 241 and seem to not lose weight no matter how little I eat and how vigorous the work outs

[ZonnyC]

Kudos on the weight loss and lowering your blood pressure.  

How long have you been in this holding pattern?  It's time to shake things up a bit to get the rest off.

I say look closely at your diet and maybe rethink your exercise routine.  What exactly are you eating and what is your daily calorie intake?  You may just not be eating enough and/or macro percentages may not be correct for your body type.  

Your body probably just isn't conditioned enough to be running on the treadmill.  Running on a treadmill is jarring.  Stay with brisk walking on the treadmill.  To be honest there is no need to run on a treadmill.  Plus, brisk walking is easier on your joints.  

Maybe add:

Resistance Training
Strength Training
Elliptical Machine
Cycling

Whatever you add I recommend something low impact until your weight comes down a bit more.

[Joejoesmith]

My intake consisted of 1200-1500 cal a day burning roughly 400 cal on the treadmill running /walking every day. 4-5 days a week I also lift weights switching between arms and chest and legs. This got me from a 40 waist to a 34 waist but I kind of flat lined. Recently I've noticed my body seemed exhausted so I've cut back on days at the gym to 4 a week and I've upped my intake to 2400 cal. Someone suggested my body could have entered "starvation mode" and cut off my matabolism because my intake was pretty low. I've been eating more and resting more between work outs and I've not gained anything in three weeks but I've not lost anything either

[Joejoesmith]

I've also added in the elliptical and stairs over the past few weeks. I went from walking/running 400-750 cal to 250 running, 150 elipticle and 100 on the stairs

[Paxiled]

Too many things going on here for us to be of much help.  When you increase exercise, you have to eat more, not less.  Weight isn't a function of calories as much as it is how your digestive system processes food -- how quickly it metabolizes into sugar and how efficiently you digest it (constipation suggests a problem here).  And you're always going to plateau -- nobody keeps losing weight forever or they'd die.  Eventually you reach stasis, and the only way to change that is to change what you're doing.  You might be eating so little for what you're doing you're getting insufficient nutrients, especially antioxidants.  Also, weight lifting can also cause the rectal pain -- a lot of it you're on your duff while doing heavy work, right?  Doing those stairs won't help that, either -- your glutes are going to be working hard.  Because you've given so many reasons for why you might have this pain, it's hard to say which part of your life caused it.  Maybe just do the RICE thing for a short time -- you know, rest, ice, elevate.  Pain is a rough thing, I have a lot of it as I age from all those things I did when I was young plus what I'm still doing.  Gyms are great for the heart and the liver and the kidneys and the brain and the muscle tone but not so great for the joints and the comfort of your muscles, unfortunately.  

[Paxiled]

I've never experienced scrotum pain, but I have had pain around the buttocks.  There are muscles there and they can be tight and can be weak.  Tight muscles or inflammation in the area can pinch on nerves that run through that area as well.  The periformis muscle can cause the rectal issues, as a form of sciatica, though that would usually run down the outside of the affected buttock and down the leg.  Hip problems can be felt in the groin area.  But I'm guessing from your description, given you're not running very far, that there are really two possibilities:  the setting of the treadmill isn't working for your body.  The best way to run is probably on dirt trails outside, but treadmills have incline settings and you could be overworking the muscles in the buttocks and glutes if you're doing inclines.  You don't say what else you're doing, but maybe you're just a really stiff guy with little mobility -- not flexibility, but mobility -- in your joints.  You can work on that.  But when you mention the scrotum, unless you mean the groin, there's no muscles there and that would suggest, and I don't mean to be silly here, that whatever you're wearing to exercise in is too tight.  Or whatever you're working in.  This also could be caused by too much sitting -- you're used to being active and sitting puts pressure on that general area, especially if your posture is poor and you're leaning.  I'd also ask, do you warm up before you run?  Do you do any other form of exercise in that gym -- repetitive exercise on the same body parts can lead to injury.  

[Paxiled]

I guess that's three things, eh?

[Joejoesmith]

Thanks for the answer and guidance, I'm not very flexible this is for sure. I do walk max incline (15) at 3.8 mph if I'm getting anal pain and it seems to help. If I run it's never an incline. I also do heavy lifting, bench press, etc. I've had so many lifestyle changes it's difficult for me to pin point why I'm having this

[Joejoesmith]

Now that I think back it seems I can recall the anal discomfort came after a few days of constipation and not to be to informative but resulted in impacted stools. I've never had hemeriods that I know of so I'm wondering if this is a common thing for hemriods

[ZonnyC]

Use the treadmill only for warming up; 5-10 mins.  Drop the aerobic to 3x/week (elliptical and stairs) and increase the strength training 2x/week.  Two days down.  Take the calories down a notch, maybe 2200-2400 range.  2200=days down and 2400=days on.  What's your macros like?  Your fat, protein and carbs procentages?  No processed stuff, alcohol or refined carbs.

[Joejoesmith]

Good news is my blood pressure went from 193/92 to 112/73 and my resting heart rate from 99-104 to 72-75