unable to do consistent exercise with chronic illness

hey everyone, i'd like some advice here because i'm getting very frustrated with myself and my body. i searched the sub and there were some posts abt chronic illness but none i could find that match my situation.

so. im 24 and i have ibs, hypermobile joints, not super well managed celiacs (i live in a dorm room with a shared kitchen) and maybe some other stuff that leads to my health being, in general, not super great. im fine enough that on the outside people dont really guess theres something wrong with me because i can go to uni and walk around and do sports, but there's usually at least one part of my body acting up. for sports i do ballet once a week, i climb at least once but often twice a week, i walk a lot, and if i can i go running. for an idea of my fitness level, if you ask me lets go walking 15km tomorrow im usually going to be just fine doing that unless im having a bad day illness wise. im not very strong, but im getting stronger from the training i do.

the issue i have is that its really hard for me to train consistently because of my illnesses flaring up. when i climb, i usually am limited by some part of my body being mean to me, whether thats my joints, my stomach, or just generally feeling weak and bad. this makes it really really hard to progress because its difficult to push myself on those days. i had a good day a week ago where all of my body was being nice and i could actually push myself and do things i normally cant and im still riding that high lol. with running its even worse because it often triggers my ibs (i have pain-dominant ibs) which means that unless my ibs is completely dormant (which it usually isnt, its usually slightly active which means running will trigger it and make it much worse) i cant go for a run. i have accepted that ill never be a good runner because its just not possible for me to train often. on average i can go running once a month, if im lucky i have a week of going running three times! i still run because i just really like it and i dont get the same feeling when i bike or swim. any sports that are high intensity in that way fuck up my ibs sadly

so for running ive accepted that i wont progress a lot, and that it will just be occasional stress relief. however, for climbing and ballet, i would really like that to not be that case. these usually dont trigger my ibs unless i do a lot of ab work (so on days my ibs is worse i just avoid the overhangs :)) which means i can do it a lot more, but then im often slightly hindered by my body like i explained. its really, really frustrating to see friends who started way later than me progress so much faster and very quickly progress beyond my level. i know its about my own journey and i shouldnt compare, but thats difficult when ive been doing this for 1,5 year and most people get beyond my level in a couple of months.

also, if my ibs flares up for real i cant do any sports for like a week, and after that only minorly. so then im not doing anything, not even the hindered amount of training i normally do! i also noticed that when me and friends do similar levels of training, it takes me much longer to recover than them.

sorry for the word wall, im just very frustrated. i'd like to know if someone has some tips for how to deal with this and actually make some damn progress, or just how to cope with it better. i really like sports and it helps me appreciate my body even with everything wrong with it but its getting old seeing people progress so much more meanwhile im stuck on the same level. :/

Posted Dec 13, 2025, 10:43 AM UTC

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