let's talk about excercise

I am curious, what everyone is doing about excercise. I read things about people walking a mile or two a couple of weeks after surgery. I still haven't really begun to think about any regular excercise routine. I am still trying to rebuild my strength from my lap surgery on 3/3/05. I also had a umbilical hernia repaired and my gallbladder removed(not a big deal, I know) but the hernia repair was quite painful. I have osteoarthritis in my knees, which is quite painful and especially now since they took me off the meds I was on before surgery. I have not pushed myself to "excercise". I feel that just getting back into my daily chores has been a workout enough for me right now. I am tired at the end of the day. I'd like to hear about you experiences. Thanks!

Walking is the single best thing you could do. Don't push; start slow and work up (I do about four or five blocks in my town now). Normally, after about 8 weeks (we had our surgery a few days apart), my surgeon says I can start working with weights. BUT, in your case, you had that hernia repair. Call your surgeon and see what you are cleared to do. If you hate walking, and have access to a pool, and your incisions are all healed, that's another really good choice. Biking would be a third. Anything aerobic right now.

I do some walking but I really don't consider that excercise. I can only walk on flat services,hills and stairs kill my knees. My surgeon did say no lifting for 8 weeks but after that I am fine. My point is I am so tired just from doing my normal chores I can't even think about lifting. I don't think I have all my strength back yet. Every day i do something a new muscle aches. Thanks so much for your help and good luck to you!

The other part of that is to make sure you're getting enough protein in. That goes a long way to rebuilding and healing muscles that you are finding sore.

Good point, maybe that is my problem. My doctor doesn't really push protein shakes, so I try to get it from what I eat. How much do you have in a day?

Women need a minimum of 64g of protein per day; men 72.

I walked everyday once I got home until I worked up to a mile. I got bored with that and my Doc cleared me for a stepped up workout, so I went and joined a gym. Luckily, with a swimming pool. I do the swimming on my lunch hour and, once I feel a bit more ready (and my doc clears me) I'm going to start some medium lifting in addition to the cardio. FYI, I was having MAJOR energy issues and it didn't appear to be getting better. I started making myself work out and my energy went up. Just my 2 cents worth.

I am not having energy issues, I do so much more now then I did two weeks ago. It's just seems that the more I do the more I ache. It seems I am still trying to build my strength back from surgery. Plus the more I walk and climb stairs the more my knees ache and that tires me out alone. I know a pool is best and the closes YMCA from me is about 35 minutes but I am considering it. I love to swim and was able to swim in Florida 3 weeks after surgery and it was great. Thanks for your help and best of luck to you!

Jean, I also have osteoarthritis (and am praying that the pain will lessen as I lost weight). Anyway, there's no way I could walk a long distance now. After about 30 seconds, the pain gets too intense. I have an ellipse machine, but even with that low an impact, the pain returns. My exercise physiologist gave me a great solution. I do "chair dancing." Great aerobic exercise. I was exercising 45 minutes a day before surgery and I'm back at 35 now. And, I actually find it fun, something I've never said about exercise. Here is an Amazon link to the video I use. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00062IWNY/qid=1115051586/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-6118274-3775800?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846 Donna

Thanks so much I will check it ou!!