Breast Cancer

Join

excercising with expanders?

Amyhue
Amyhue Posts: 17 Member
in Social Groups
I have survived breast cancer by having a double mastectomy. I have had another surgery to put in expanders. Just got my first fill. Pretty brutal on the pecs. Has anyone out there excercised with the expanders in? Suggestions welcome.

Replies

  • KLEALEE71
    KLEALEE71 Posts: 33 Member
    I never exercised with my expanders, but that doesn't mean you can't. I would ask your doctor. They should have told you if you had limitations. I am happy to hear you are post surgery....good luck :)
  • itzmeshel
    itzmeshel Posts: 6
    I finished recontruction in April last year, it was a 10 month process for me. I talked a lot about exercise with my Plastic Surgeon and he was fine and even encouraging. When I honed in on chest excercises he stiffened up and told me to focus elsewhere. The muscle over the expanders & later your implants can be flattened by your chest muscles creating a "less" flattering look. While I talked a lot about exercise, I was still not really over my diagnosis and treatments and I didn't begin doing much until recently. I am about 2 1/2 years out from diagnosis. I was 37 with Stage 4 Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer. I feel like I've come up out of the fog that settles on us and it's time to take back control over my weight. I find very little research out there, really only that there isn't about exercise and recontructed breasts. So I'm on my own journey and am doing exercises for my chest and back and I keep the weights really low as I don't want to mess up what was so hard to get. I do however, do everything else with all the gusto any healthy person does. I walk, jog and do 30 Day Shred, with majorly modified push ups. My plan is to get back into the gym and weightlift, although again, I will do only very light weights on my chest and back (they should stay in balance). My advice to you would be to keep things simple while you're in your expander stage and avoid all chest exercises. Let yourself heal, you have been through a lot. Once you are healed you can slowly temper yourself in and before you know it you'll be in a place your comfortable with exercise.

Categories