Hi Folks! Looking for some guidance from the vets. I’m just shy of 2 weeks post op and received clearance to begin exercising. I was wondering where to start. Doc said I could do whatever, but I wondered what you all thought would be a good place to start.

I have an elliptical and some lower free weights, but it’s been years since I’ve seriously exercised so I’m kind of a fish out of water here. At the moment I’m getting in 10-15k steps per day.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

I've been a fan of the "cardio sandwich" you do a some cardio (or fat burning) then you do some weights, then you do more cardio.
Like right now, I'm doing 20-40 mins of cardio (depending on the exercise) then I do strength training, then I go back and do another 20-40 mins of cardio.

I'd focused mainly on the fat burning up front, because we are all still learning our limits and our intake isn't the best. For strength, I'm a fan of Dropsets. You lift a certain weight until you can't, then you lower (or drop) the weight down slightly and keep going until you can't, then you drop weight again and repeat until you physically can't lift anything or you run though the whole set. Like yesterday I did 10 reps at 70lbs of hammer curls and then worked my way down to 10 lbs in 5 lb increments, doing as many as I could for each lower weight. REALLY gets those muscles pumped!

At first, start with fat burn and cardio and LIGHT weights... you don't want to stress your abdomen too much. Hell, at 6 weeks out I was doing lateral pulls and felt one of my incision points "pinch"... since I was stretching the muscle group at the time... I knew it wasn't a pinch... it was a tear.

I found an awesome water aerobics class at the YMCA in a heated therapy pool. Feels so good, I don't have to talk myself into it.

I go to Sky Zone with my bestie and do their exercise class on trampolines....MASSIVE workout...but really fun.

I've been doing all the yard work, which hubby appreciates. I get exercise, **** gets done...win win.

Sometimes I don't want to drive anywhere to work out, so just throw in an old exercise DVD....I've been known to sweat to the oldies with Richard. LOL:)

Circuit training in fun and has lots of diversity.

You want to switch things up as much as you can...don't overuse the same muscles/do the same things too often... or your body will adapt and you'll get less bang for your buck.

1 hour ago, Matt Z said:

I'm a fan of Dropsets. You lift a certain weight until you can't, then you lower (or drop) the weight down slightly and keep going until you can't, then you drop weight again and repeat until you physically can't lift anything or you run though the whole set. Like yesterday I did 10 reps at 70lbs of hammer curls and then worked my way down to 10 lbs in 5 lb increments, doing as many as I could for each lower weight.

I understand your thinking, but dropsets are actually a very bad way to build strength. Yes, you will feel a pump from the muscle being engorged from increased blood flow, but that is not the same as building strength.

Let's use squats as an example. You might be able to do 12 reps on the first set of the bench press but you should stop at 9 or 10. Stopping before muscle and nervous system fatigue will allow you to complete the full set. So lets say that you squatted 100 lbs for 12 reps, then 8, 6, and 4 for a total of 30 reps. That would give you a total volume of 3,000 lbs. However, if you dropped that to 8 reps for the entire set, you would have 32 reps for a total volume of 3,200 lbs. As you get further and further into your strength training, the disparity become even greater.

All that being said, I don't do that many reps in any of my sets. Sure, I could probably do 12 reps at 185 lbs, but 3 sets of 5 reps at 245 lbs provides me with 3,675 lbs of volume work.

As for the OP's question, 2 weeks post op I would focus on just walking. Your stamina is going to be very, very low. The threat of reactive hypoglycemia is very real, as is low blood pressure. Getting dizzy is common and fainting is not unheard of (as me how I know!). There is no time in your life when the weight will come off faster and easier than this point of your recovery. Capitalize on it.

Once you are hitting your fluid and protein goals or more for the week, then start Pilates or resistance training. I actually liked Pilates in the beginning. Once that is no longer kicking your butt, start real weights. Squats and deadlifts are the two must important movements the we as humans need to do properly. If you are picking up small children or heavy bags, moving furniture, etc... you are using the same muscles, so start training them when you are able.

3 minutes ago, BigViffer said:

I understand your thinking, but dropsets are actually a very bad way to build strength.

Can you link any studies on this... I can't find a single proper study saying they are bad, Lots opinion back and forth, but opinion and fact are rarely equal.

I did find this clinical study supporting using Drop Sets posted on The Journal of Sports Science that shows that Drop Sets are actually rather beneficial.

https://www.jssm.org/gecjssm-15-562.xml.xml

But like with anything... who knows what science is going to say this week... Remember when eggs were bad? Then good again, then just the yellow was bad, now we are back to them being good again?

I was actually told to stay away from the elliptical until 6 weeks as to not stress out the inner stitches. My surgeon suggested light jogging, walking, and light weights for now.

Thanks everyone! Maybe I will try upping the walking, or try my hand at light jogging before going to elliptical. I guess I become overzealous when I got the clear and wanting to start now now now!

If it makes any difference at all, I am getting in all my fluids and protein in abundance since about day 3 post-op. I am currently averaging:

100-110oz of water (Though more today since its hot)

MINIMUM of 75g of Protein, usually closer to 90g.

It's amazing how different each doctor is, I was told I could use the elliptical as soon as I got home!

16 minutes ago, Matt Z said:

Can you link any studies on this... I can't find a single proper study saying they are bad, Lots opinion back and forth, but opinion and fact are rarely equal.

I did find this clinical study supporting using Drop Sets posted on The Journal of Sports Science that shows that Drop Sets are actually rather beneficial.

https://www.jssm.org/gecjssm-15-562.xml.xml

But like with anything... who knows what science is going to say this week... Remember when eggs were bad? Then good again, then just the yellow was bad, now we are back to them being good again?

yeah, I've read that one. The part of the conclusion that is important is here:

Quote

The DS (dropset) in which resistance exercise is initially performed with a higher load may increase the muscle activity and intramuscular hypoxia during subsequent exercise with 75% of 1RM load among trained individuals

<bold emphasis mine> Trained individuals are already stronger than the untrained individuals in this study.

I think a big part of the problem with dropsets is the confusion people sometimes incur with backoff's. Lets take my Deadlift for example. If I want to increase the volume of my training, there is no way I can do more than 5 reps of my workset. However I can do a dropset or dropsets after I do the work set.

Here is my deadlift routine:

• 135x5
• 135x5
• 165x5
• 195x3
• 225x2
• 260x5

The first sets are my warm-up, the last is my workset. If I felt that I needed more volume on that day, I would drop that workset by 25% (which incidently is the 195) and do another set of 5. But honestly, lifting at my max doesn't often leave me with much in the tank after the workset.

While I think we can both agree that volume is important, how we decide to get there is different. If you are truly interested in strength over pretty muscles, I heartily recommend Starting Strength 3rd edition. There is no finer nor more detailed literature available for strength training.

18 minutes ago, Kay07 said:

MINIMUM of 75g of Protein, usually closer to 90g.

Wow... I just opened my spreadsheet and it was 4 months before I before I got more than 75 grams everyday in a week.

On 05/25/2018 at 15:12, BigViffer said:

Wow... I just opened my spreadsheet and it was 4 months before I before I got more than 75 grams everyday in a week.

SEE this terrifies me! I feel like my sleeve is broken. I have NO issue consuming liquids or food. I mean I eat very small amounts, but liquids slide right through me. Doc says it’s fine and that I’m doing great, but I’m still super nervous.

I make a shake for lunch that has 1/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt, 1 cup fat free fair life milk, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder and drink that for an hour and it’s 40g protein. Now I don’t feel hunger at all, but I don’t consume any more protein until my 4pm 4oz coffee(decaf) with 1/2 a premier protein shake. Between those two small things, I’m hitting 60g protein.

Am I super abnormal? ?

My group pushed us to eat 1000-1200 calories by week 3 after surgery if we could. The advice from different groups/doctors is radically different.

I had no problem meeting my protein goals very early in the game, either.

You're not broken, I promise.

On 05/25/2018 at 15:57, Creekimp13 said:

My group pushed us to eat 1000-1200 calories by week 3 after surgery if we could. The advice from different groups/doctors is radically different.

I had no problem meeting my Protein goals very early in the game, either.

You're not broken, I promise.

Thank you thank you thank you!

18 minutes ago, Kay07 said:

Am I super abnormal? ?

No, you're super fortunate! Yesterday I was at 515 calories. I've only hit 800 a couple of times. Tomorrow, I will be 3 months out.

I’m only on day 2 and liquids are going down slow but fine as well. I got in 34oz of protein day 1 and 54oz protein yesterday. I may get close to 60 today.

If I didn’t see others on this board with this same experience, I’d think mine was not working as well.

My surgeon also said I could do my spin bike now (no jogging or hills, just light pedaling) as well as walking. I have a 20# weight restriction.

He told me to just gradually ramp up and if it hurts, stop.