Exercise after breast implant surgery

ChelzFit

I am finally getting a lift and implant surgery done in two weeks. Although I am super excited, I am also very nervous for the recovery time. He is putting my implants under my muscle and I am not going ver big at all. I am someone who gets around 13,000 steps a day and I work out daily. He did say 8 weeks before I could return to normal exercise activity, but walking is encouraged. Any tips/stories on those that have had implants put in and the recovery process??

springlering62

I had a reduction about ten years ago. I imagine the cuts and recovery are fairly similar.

LISTEN to your doctor. I didn’t. I thought I ”knew my body” and went back to some fairly gentle yoga and stretching, and walking (piddling stuff, nothing on the scale of what I do these days, either.)

The skin under your breasts is the consistency of wet Kleenex after surgery and will literally melt if stressed. I added weeks and weeks to my recovery time and have a lot of scarring from my stupidity. I am the Voice of Experience hissing “Don’t be me” into your ears,

goatg

I had implants 10 years ago when I was not very athletic and 25 lbs lighter. I also added a very small implant under the muscle. Given the opportunity I would 1000% not go under the muscle, especially given how much better some implants are now.

Of course this is a highly personal choice and I’m sure you’ve done your research. For me, I have to minimize training my chest. Not a big deal but I dislike being inhibited (I actually pulled my pectoralis major a few years ago and, since then, train chest for injury prevention). Furthermore, any subsequent surgeries will tear everything up again —and, iirc, it’s months before you’re properly training again. It came at a low cost the first time, since I wasn’t athletic, but high cost in the future since recovery inhibits swimming, running, lifting, etc.

I do remember being off pain meds (only Tylenol) within one week and walking well within that time. Immediately after the surgery, if you take Vicodin it’ll kill your appetite and, honestly, you’ll be in so much discomfort you won’t really want to work out. At least that’s how I felt.

Talan79

I had my BA two years ago. I did silicon under the muscle. I was lifting five times a week and running prior to surgery.
You can’t do any cardio for 4 weeks after bc elevation in heart rate can cause hematoma. I was cleared for cardio after a month. And light lower body weights. But because most of my leg workouts required heavy bars, I did mostly machine stuff for legs. I waited a whole 3 months before going back to upper body training. I lost some strength & definition but got it back within 3 weeks. I didn’t train chest before and still don’t.
I took Vicodin for the first 4 days and only needed an occasional half a pill after. During the day, you use your arms and have movement. At night, you subconsciously don’t move. You wake up super stiff. They actually call it morning boob!
So....I would take half a Vicodin in the middle of the night and the stiffness was much less.
Good luck!

AnnPT77

I have not, but as a breast cancer survivor who spent a lot of time on a breast cancer rowing team, I know quite a few active women who have had implant reconstruction of the sort you mentioned, same basic process as augmentation. (It wasn't always at the same time as their other treatment, either: Some waited until fully recovered, one almost 20 years later.)

Since it wasn't me, I can't give you details, but the "8 weeks before vigorous exercise" part seems consistent with what they did. Every woman was able to return to rowing (and there's a fair amount of upper body pull involved in that), and some have done a lot of rowing regularly, since surgery. (No one that I know of reduced rowing or stopped because of reconstruction - it was other life factors.) Those who had done strength training beforehand were able to resume it again later. (I don't know of anyone who started weight training after reconstruction and began doing it regularly, but I doubt the reasons had to do with surgery.)

I empathize. I needed to take time off vigorous exercise after gallbladder surgery, for nearly that long. It happened in the middle of the freakin' on-water season, when I'm usually rowing for an hour or so 4 days a week, and going to spin classes 2 other days; at the time I was also doing some weight training and core work regularly. Unlike you, I'm not a runner (due to knee issues that can be aggravated by impact), but I worked myself up to walking twice a day, about 2 miles or so each time, at a brisk clip. Eventually, when my surgeon said I could start lifting 5 pounds (at all!), I asked if I could lift 5 pounds for reps. She told me to wait a week, then I could. I have to say, that's the first time in my life I've ever done reps to boredom, rather than reps to (almost) failure!

It kind of stinks, I know, but you'll get through it. My friends have ended up very happy with their implants, don't seem to experience problems from it (with some, it would likely come up in conversation if they did - we're close).

Hang in there: Wishing a good result, and a speedy recovery!