Page 6 - HFA Dateline 2017 Q1 Spring

Staying Fit Through Weightlifting –

A Q&A with Eric Burgeson

By Meredith Clark

y now, we all know that leading a healthy lifestyle can help Q What kind of precautions do you take in regard to
Breduce the frequency and severity of bleeds. However, your bleeding disorder when you are working out?
staying fit and eating right is almost always easier said than Are there activities that are better for you? Ones that you
done. We sat down with Eric Burgeson, a young adult with a avoid?
bleeding disorder, to learn how he successfully puts this theory Eric: Well, I always make absolutely sure to have in-
into practice, and what keeps him motivated to stick with it. fused on the day of, or the day prior to, weightlifting. If it’s my

Q Eric, you stay fit by doing a variety of activities. scheduled third day of prophylaxis, I’ll infuse before working
Tell us a little bit about your weekly fitness routine out. And of course, maintaining proper form during all exer-
and what drew you to these activities in particular. cises is paramount, not just for hemophiliacs, but for everyone.
For a long time, I avoided doing a lot of lower body weightlift-
Eric: I’m a huge fan of weightlifting. I work on a cycle ing, like squats and deadlifts, because I thought it was more
of anaerobic hypertrophy training, lifting weights 5-6 days a dangerous to my joints (or maybe I’m just a “lifting bro” who
week, working on different muscle groups on different days. didn’t want to do legs!). However, after I finally bit the bullet
This all started as an effort to repair damage done to my and started doing heavy lower body lifts, and doing them safe-
ankle when I was a child as a result of multiple bleeds, and ly, I found it only positively impacted my joints. I was sold!
it grew into a passion from there. I started doing yoga about
six months ago. I picked yoga because, while weightlifting has Q As a person with hemophilia, what are the biggest
been an excellent addition to my life, it doesn’t really round out challenges that you face when exercising?
my fitness needs. Being strong doesn’t mean much if I’m not Eric: The biggest struggle for me was getting started
flexible and able to keep my body pliable. in the first place. When you’re already behind the eight-ball
Q What keeps you motivated to exercise with joints that hurt, it’s hard to get off the metaphorical and
and eat right? literal couch. Once I got into a rhythm of setting aside time to
exercise, however, it’s only gotten easier to stay on that routine.
Eric: What started as an effort to repair joint damage
quickly grew into a path of gradually strengthening and im- Q What is a common myth or misconception about
proving my overall health. I started weightlifting at the age of people with bleeding disorders in regard to exercise?
16; before that I would have regular spontaneous joint bleeds, Eric: Ah, the touchy question. I’m aware that I’m a
several a year. Since my weightlifting progressed past simple privileged hemophiliac. I had parents who cared exceptionally
calf raises and weightless squats, I’ve only had one or two sig- well for me, and I was lucky to not have too many spontaneous
nificant bleeds in the intervening eight years. That’s pretty bleeds as a child. I’m impossibly fortunate. Many people within
great motivation!

6 Dateline Federation | Spring 2017