Advice on maintaining muscles after surgery

Hmmm, don't know about kidney surgery; but I had brain surgery last year. I had 2 months of recovery in which all I could do was go on short walks (which got longer over time), and do some physical therapy. Other than that I just tried to eat as healthy as possible. I still lost 20 lbs!! Instead of lifting weights you could swim, that is, when you are cleared to exercise at all by your Dr. Keep you protein high. I don't know if there is much else you can do...

that is very kind of you! my mother has 1 kidney and if she ever needs mine I wont hesitate either.
well i had breast surgery in may, cant really do much upper body but I do still focus on arms and back with just less weight and more repetitions. Good luck!:flowerforyou:

Hello All

In about a month I will be having surgery (donating my kidney to my brother) and because of this I will not be able to do any heavy lifting for about 6 months because I can get a hernia. Does anybody have any advice on how I can maintain my muscles- what exercises I can do so that I don't gain fat and lose my muscle. Of course I will continue to eat healthy, record everything and will follow doctor's recommendation on exercise.

But I wanted to know if anybody had advice on this. Thank you so much all!

Best of luck on your surgery. I hope your brother does well, too.

Eeeekk. I think this specific question belongs to your surgeon. To me, the word heavy jumps out. Like can you do lighter than heavy lifting? If that's the case, then maybe pilates, or any sort of body weight exercises might works later on?

I think you're entitled to sit down with your surgeon (or at the least his/her nurse) and learn the specifics here. Don't feel like a burden or a pain. This stuff needs to be explained in detail to a patient heading into this type of surgery.

ps You're an angel for doing this. I've been saving one of mine for a relative, but so far, he hasn't needed it.

Aside from asking your doctors and surgeons, I just want to say that even if you can't do any lifting for six months, and even if you do lose muscle, you're doing such an AMAZING thing for your brother that's way bigger than lean mass or PRs. And you'll bounce right back and benefit from those "returning athlete" gains as soon as you're able.