Pain in the butt!

August 14, 2007 7:19 PM

How can my dad get his butt back in shape?

My 68 year old father was diagnosed with colon cancer. He endured an arduous 10 hour surgery to resection his colon. He is now cancer free and ambulatory, but he has lost a great deal of muscle tone. In particular his gleuts have virtually wasted away, and his buttocks are very flaccid. This makes it painful for him to sit in any given position for more than a few minutes. Since he can't use a Stairmaster for obvious reasons, how can he exercise his gleuts to build them back up? Could something else be causing this pain in his butt? He contends that the discomfort is exactly like one would feel after sitting in one position for a long time.

posted by Crotalus to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I would get him a pedometer. It will show how many steps he is taking each day. Have him start off with his normal routine and record the steps on paper or any app (if he uses a computer). Then each day have him strive to increase the number of steps by 50 or a 100 each day. Optimally he should try to get up to 10K steps per day. It is a slow start but based on his current condition it will help to get him going in the right direction without a drastic change in his routine.

This was suggested to my mother-in-law by her doc. She started off with only 400 steps per day but now that she is aware of number of steps she is taking she is working to increase it daily.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:49 PM on August 14, 2007

I think bkeene12 is right on. Google it. Here is one result.

http://exercise.about.com/od/butthipsthighs/tp/butt.htm
posted by JayRwv at 7:51 PM on August 14, 2007

I think Kegel exercises would also help here... it certainly feels like they should.
posted by daviss at 8:28 PM on August 14, 2007

My dad had surgery for colon cancer at 63.

He had to have chemotherapy for months after. One of the effects of the chemo was that new tissue growth was retarded - so the skin on his soles, for example, grew quite thin, and he suffered from painful feet. If your dad is on chemo, I would bring this up as a possible side effect. There may be nothing to be done for it.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:40 PM on August 14, 2007

"bring this up" = "bring this up with his oncologist".
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:41 PM on August 14, 2007

Slow consistent use of an elliptical trainer?
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:16 AM on August 15, 2007

A kneeling leg lift might work (it certainly works for me in bikini season), if he can be on all fours comfortably. You get into table position, keep a leg bent at 90 degrees, and lift it up behind you. Here's an illustration, along with some other exercises that might help.

http://health.yahoo.com/topic/fitness/getstarted/article/prevention/24589
posted by rmless at 9:45 AM on August 15, 2007