Weightlifting Post Surgery

[BrandonKea 20]

Prior to surgery, I tried to get into weightlifting, but found that I was too heavy to even really do a bodyweight squat, let alone anything with added weight. Now that I'm post-op, I'm looking forward to eventually trying that again, but I'm worried about how my body will do with not having as much fuel to draw from since, you know, tiny stomach and what not. Anyone have any advice in this department?

[jane13 2,256]

@@BrandonKea - make sure you get cleared for lifting.

I went back to work about 10 days post and forgot about weight restrictions on lifting and snatched up an item that weighed about 50lbs and felt it.

good luck!

[BrandonKea 20]

@@BrandonKea - make sure you get cleared for lifting.

I went back to work about 10 days post and forgot about weight restrictions on lifting and snatched up an item that weighed about 50lbs and felt it.

good luck!

Oh definitely. I'm not in a hurry by any means.

[swimbikerun 1,039]

Ditto on the above. Otherwise I've not had any problems.

[SeahawksFan 444]

I started cardio at about one month but waited to start doing lifting at about 8 weeks. Just like anything start out light and work your way up. I do crossfit 3x a week no problems. I ran 11.5 miles on Sunday. You will be fine with lower calories once your body is healed. Take your supplements, drink your Water, and eat your Protein. It works

~LA

[catwoman7 10,881]

I also started lifting about eight weeks out

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I would be less worried about "energy reserves" and more worried about adhesions. My surgeon is conservative (and I had awesome results) but I had an 8 pounds lifting limit for 6 weeks. For me that meant 6 long weeks of no horsin around (because anything involving a horse is heavy!).

I look at it this way..I invested heavily in healing ( for band removal, sleeve and then later plastics) to get the best results possible. Chances are I would have been fine no matter, but why not follow the surgeon's guidelines since I picked em for good results!

[BrandonKea 20]

I would be less worried about "energy reserves" and more worried about adhesions. My surgeon is conservative (and I had awesome results) but I had an 8 pounds lifting limit for 6 weeks. For me that meant 6 long weeks of no horsin around (because anything involving a horse is heavy!).

I look at it this way..I invested heavily in healing ( for band removal, sleeve and then later plastics) to get the best results possible. Chances are I would have been fine no matter, but why not follow the surgeon's guidelines since I picked em for good results!

I'll definitely ask my surgeon what his guidelines are. I don't plan on packing on Schwarzenegger levels of muscle and lifting small cars, but I'd like to do some small level of resistance training.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

@@BrandonKea - don't get me wrong, weight and resistance training is so helpful! I genuinely believe that calorie and carb restriction is how we lose the weight, but exercise and fitness is how we maintain! I love getting strong and toned.

I only meant to not to rush it. I have a friend who had bowel related surgery, pushed it physically (that cowgirl took like a few days off NOT as per surgeon recommendation) and developed adhesions and other complications. She was the one that warned me to not chance it,wasn't worth it.

Keep us posted on your fitness journey, I found it to be amazing.

[NewmaM83 11]

I'm 3 weeks post op and anxious to get back to CrossFit and start lifting again. I know I will have to start over as far as weight, but it can be done slow and steady! Brandon, you should definitely look into a local CrossFit gym in your area. Everything can be modified per person. Just take a Water bottle with you and sip small during the workout. That's what I did before and will continue to do after. I am worried too, about possibly passing out or something or getting dehydrated, but we just have to make sure we get our fluids in! Another tip is to eat something with Protein about an hour before you work out. Even if it's just lunch meat or some type of shredded meat. Then eat again within an hour after the workout.

[dlappjr 467]

I got the all clear 4 weeks post op. I started with some easy lifting. I found this article and it helped me make a routine that was both physically challenging, yet safe in a way that allowed me to gain strength and stability without much risk for injury. The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine After reading through a lot of this, I realized that there were a few things I needed to do to ensure I wouldn't over exert myself. I landed on doing two different workouts and alternating them. Workout A on Monday, Workout B on Wednesday, Workout A again on Friday. B the next Monday and so on. Each workout was what could be considered full body, as I didm;t focus specifically on legs or arms or shoulders, etc. I downloaded a cool little app on my iPhone called Fitlist. It allowed me to make routines and add the number of reps and weight for each rep so I could pick up where I left off from the previous workout, and allowed me to bump up the weight and/or number of reps once that became easier to do. Within a couple weeks I upped the weight a little and a couple weeks after that I upped the reps from 8 to 10. I now do most exercises at 3 sets of 10 reps. I figured out how much weight to do by doing a set of 8 and making sure the weight was just right so that I could only do those 8 reps. Meaning I didm;t have any additional strength to do another rep, but I wasn't failing at 7 reps either. The only thing I did to my diet was make sure I was taking in enough Protein. I was already up to 1000 calories per day and went from 80g Protein to about 100g protein. I take in about 200 cal and 20g protein before my workout in the AM and another 150-200cal and 15-20g protein within a half hour after working out. Then Breakfast which is usually eggs around 1 1/2 hr after my workout. I also started doing the elliptical at the same time as the weights. I went from 8 minutes to 10 minutes in a couple weeks and now do over 2 miles in 20 minutes before my sets of weights. I also have started trying yoga. Its amazing how out of shape my core is. Just a simple plank for 30 seconds makes me want to throw up sometimes. I found a cool app for that too called Swork It. It has stretching, exercises and yoga instructional videos. Now that I have longer endurance and am down some significant weight, my next endeavor is going to be 9round. I think that will help me burn a lot of fat. Best of luck @@BrandonKea, it is a huge game changer once you start working out. I stalled for 3 weeks but still dropped size. I went from 5xl to now shopping for 2, sometimes 3xl. Take it easy and only do what you can. Your body will adjust quickly and soon you will be amazed at what you can do. My gym has an assisted pull up/dip machine. I have never done pull ups before. I can do 5 pull ups on that machine because it helps offset your weight. Huge confidence booster and big time motivator!

[BrandonKea 20]

@@dlappjr Thanks for that information. (It's also nice to read the stuff under your name and see we've got similar starting points and goals.) I have a feeling I won't get the clear for a little bit just because I had some minor complications and I'm still rocking some pretty healthy abdominal pain from some deep stitches they put in, but as soon as I'm able, I'm ready to get in there and start accelerating my weight loss.

[dlappjr 467]

@@dlappjr Thanks for that information. (It's also nice to read the stuff under your name and see we've got similar starting points and goals.) I have a feeling I won't get the clear for a little bit just because I had some minor complications and I'm still rocking some pretty healthy abdominal pain from some deep stitches they put in, but as soon as I'm able, I'm ready to get in there and start accelerating my weight loss.

Best of luck on the recovery. I hope you get healed up quickly. We started in a very similar place. Hopefully you will have a fairly easy go of it through the different food phases. It helps a lot once you can start eating scrambled eggs and stuff. You may already be there, if not, you are probably looking forward to it.

Edited December 8, 2015 by dlappjr

[BrandonKea 20]

@@dlappjr Thanks for that information. (It's also nice to read the stuff under your name and see we've got similar starting points and goals.) I have a feeling I won't get the clear for a little bit just because I had some minor complications and I'm still rocking some pretty healthy abdominal pain from some deep stitches they put in, but as soon as I'm able, I'm ready to get in there and start accelerating my weight loss.

Best of luck on the recovery. I hope you get healed up quickly. We started in a very similar place. Hopefully you will have a fairly easy go of it through the different food phases. It helps a lot once you can start eating scrambled eggs and stuff. You may already be there, if not, you are probably looking forward to it.

Thursday I (hopefully) get cleared to pureed foods. I've been on liquids since November 10th. I might enjoy that first bite of "food" a little too much haha.

[OKCPirate 5,323]

Energy has not really been a problem with weight lifting and exercise. Remember you have a bunch of it stored in the fat. The first month post surgery I just walked. Then I added in more cardio machines and light weights for another month. But I felt I had laid down a good foundation by the start of month three and went to heavier weights. My rule is you increase the weight by 10% per week until you hit muscle failure and stay there until you are comfortable going up 10% more.

Oh yeah, add in an extra Protein shake when you start building more muscle.

Edited December 9, 2015 by OKCPirate