Training after recovering from tummy tuck?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi, I’m not sure where to post this so if it needs to be moved to the appropriate subforum, I’d appreciate it.

I’m scheduled for an abdominoplasty tomorrow (cutting off stubborn flab from losing a lot of weight a 2 years ago), and the doctor told me a few things to watch out for during post operation recovery:

  • I’ll have to have my stomach and stitches tended to at least once a week for a month, until the stitches can finally be taken off at the last visit.
  • Complete healing will take up to 1 year.
  • No vigorous activity for up to 6 months.
  • After a couple of weeks, you can continue to train arms/legs but nothing involving your core. Unfortunately, I love my barbell exercises and every single one of them utilizes the core to some extent.
  • I showed him a squat motion, and he said it may be fine to do those in a couple of months, but I would need to lower the weight. Nothing heavy or strenuous for 6 months.

My plan is to wait about a month after the surgery or however long it takes until I feel comfortable, then start trying out my old lifts with an empty barbell to get a feel for things. If everything seems to be fine, I’ll slowly build weight up on subsequent workouts until I can comfortably hit RPE 6, but go no higher than that during my 6 months of recovery. I’ll also be trying to get isometric abdominal exercises in, as much as I can tolerate without putting too much stress.

Does this sounds like I might be overdoing it and possibly hampering my surgery recovery?

2

I don’t think the proposed activity level is likely to change the course of your recovery, but you should be able to participate in exercise in some form shortly after the procedure.

The vigorous activity recommendation is completely made up, as well as the “core” movement restriction, given that every exercise uses your core to some extent.

I can’t tell you specifically what to do without further information and follow-up, but I think doing the exercises you can tolerate to train the major muscle groups of the body each week using a large ROM at an intensity that makes you work pretty hard should be the goal. Add you conditioning on top of that and you should be g2g. I don’t think you need to do additional abdominal training either.

-Jordan

3

Got it, thanks! I thought something was weird when the doctor said I couldn’t do any “vigorous” exercises for up to 6 months, when the typical google search result says 6 weeks. Might’ve been a miscommunication, I’ll ask him again when I see him tomorrow for a post-operation check up.

4

Definitely ask him what he means by “vigorous” and if he has any scientific literature on the topic you can read up on.