Return to lifting after laparoscopic surgery

gradchica27

Any other lifters have laparoscopic abdominal surgery? What was your recovery and return to lifting like? Any observations on things that aggravated it/things it’s better to start with or delay?

I had my gallbladder out 3 weeks ago. Yes, I’ve had my post surgery visit, healing fine, have my surgeon’s okay to return to exercise (he okayed exercise last week, asked me to stick to low impact cardio and machines last week and delay lifting till this week, which I’ve done). Husband is a GI, so he checks on my incision and is always warning me about going too fast to avoid a hernia, so I’m not trying to disregard medical advice and go crazy here, I’d just appreciate a general idea about how long it took to feel 100% so I can pace myself and not be expecting to be back to normal at an unreasonably early time.

sgt1372

I had a double hearnia surgery and only started to lifting heavy again after 6 months.

claireychn074

I had open surgery rather than keyhole, but I would say that the advice you get on returning to “normal life and exercise” is not really aimed at heavy weights. I started exercising too early (I had been given the all clear to do so) and caused damage to my ql (the only muscle in that area not cut) and I’ve got a recurrent weakness there now. Start slowly, really listen to your body and don’t overdo it. An injury early on is not fun.

gradchica27

Thanks. I got the feeling my surgeon wasn’t quite understanding what I meant by “lifting weights” (maybe he thought a class type thing with lighter weights?) and I haven’t been able to find much info about heavier exercise, other than don’t do it for at least two weeks...not a lot of guidance after that point (except for a few things about running and cycling, neither of which I do).

What little I’ve found gives general guidelines for lifting everyday stuff (nothing more than 8lbs in first two weeks, then up to 20 for a few weeks), so I guess I’ll just go with that and keep things very light for a few weeks and stop if I’m feeling discomfort in my abdomen.