How does one feel after Surgery as far as exercise is concerned

Hi All,

I'm scheduled for RNY surgery on the 27th of this month. I was hoping that you could share with me how you felt as far as it relates to exercise after your surgery date. Did you feel like working out a month after surgery, a week after surgery or were you all exercise junkies before surgery? I used to be active, but it's been many years of inactivity for me so I'm also wondering what's going to happen to my energy level if anything. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me.

Regards,
Lawrence

Hey Lawrence,

   Congrats on your surgery! I think if we were excercise junkies prior to surgery, we probably wouldn't need surgery. I started walking the day of surgery and never looked back. Went to the gym for the first time 4 weeks  post-op and walked on the treadmill. I increased speed and distance over time and fell in love with it. I can now run a lot further than I ever have in my life and consider excercise part of my day-to-day lifestyle...

 Set goals, try to have some accountability and keep yourself inspired.  This board is a great place to help with all three, as you'll see there are lots of folks who have done this - they keep me inspired regularly.  I know for me I am goal oriented - so it went from setting a goal of walking a mile, to two miles, to running a 5k to running a half marathon.  Now I set a goal of a full.  To me it makes it so much easier to stay working out consistently when I know I am training towards something.  I think most of us, regardless of surgery type all were addicted to food before surgery, so  if we're going to transfer addictions, proactively transferring to an exercise addiction seems brilliant to me! 

You make quite a lot of sense what your talking about. I mean here I am addicted to food and in less than a month, I'm going to have the stomach size of an infant! I'm just hoping that the motivating factor that is provided by the weight loss will translate into me actually getting into a gym and doing "whatever" would be worth everything. I have 2 sons and they keep begging me to join a gym. After this surgery I don't think I'll be able to (or want to) put it off for long. I was also curious... When your finally operated on, do you get psyched up for being in even better shape as a result of the surgery? I'm hoping that for one, I'll at least be more energetic post surgery than I have been. I mean right now it's too easy to make excuses not to eeven go out for a walk, But I expect that will change......
Lawrence

Hi,

I just had surgery 5 weeks ago today.  And I just finished my first couch to 5k workout.  I felt ready to exercise, full of energy at about 4 weeks.  In terms of energy, it takes a while to get it back.  The first few weeks are the most difficult.  All I wanted to do was sleep !  But after that, you start to get your energy back.  Good luck and congratulations on your surgery !

I started working out 2 weeks after my surgery and started running at 1 month and doing core work at 2 months.

Limited physical activity is expected. At first your advise to walk and stand up. You should not be driving with post surgical medications coz it makes you drowsy. Depends on what kind of bariatric procedures patients are advice to return to work 1-6 weeks.

Okay, maybe I am lame about exercise, but for the longest time post op, I only walked.  From the time I was discharged from the hospital, I was told to take little walks to prevent blood clots and to improve circulation.  I increased speed and distance, but walking was it for me for a very long time.  I eventually started going to the gym and working out on the elliptical and some weights.  Then I added golf (walking the course, hitting hundreds of balls at the range), ballroom dancing, belly dancing, skiing and tennis.  It was not until I started having shoulder issues last year that I decided to focus on an endurance event.  I miss all the sports I cannot do right now because of the shoulder, but have learned that it is possible to find other things to do.  When I started on this post op journey 7 years ago, I thought I was too old, tired and/or unfit to ever do some of the things I have done.  That all changed (except the being older part)

What I am trying to say is your energy level will increase!   Do what you can as you can.  Focus on just moving and listen to your body and your physician.  Find things you like to do.  You will be amazed. 

I understand what your saying. Basecd on what everyone has been telling me my energy level is probably going to increase somewhere between minor to significant which is good news indeed! I think that I will start by walking and then go from there. I'm back in college at my young age so we will have to see how much available time I have for exercise but I really have to make the time for it almost every day since it will be key to my recovery. I think the hardest part is getting over that initial hump; you know when it's raining out, the weather is nasty, you had a long day at work and you just don't feel like doing it. I know that once I can get passed that point, I'll be in good shape. That to me (whatever I decide to do for exercise) will be the important part; making it a routine, Thank you for your input.
Lawrence

I started out walking right away because I didn't want to get a blood clot. But the first day I could only walk 2.5 blocks!

By week 2, I was dying to get back to the gym (I started going to the gym to prepare for surgery about a month before) and by 1 month out I got the bug to start running -- something I'd never been able to do before.

For me, the surgery changed my brain somehow and now I feel like I have to keep moving all the time when before I felt like I had to conserve energy.