Today I worked out and swam for the first time in two weeks since my hernia surgery. The surgeon cleared me for swimming and for non-vigorous activity that doesn’t require me to bear down on my abs.
I purposely took it slow and easy. One, because I am afraid of overdoing it and ripping out my stitches or messing up the hernia repair. Two, because I have to test to see what causes pain and wants doesn’t. Three, because I’ve only done walking for two weeks. Even if I hand’t had surgery, after a two week layoff, I need to ease back in and slowly build up my tolerance for exercise otherwise I’m guaranteed to injure myself.
While I was working out, I was dejected and discouraged. It was a cloudy, gloomy morning. I cut my intensity by about 50%. Doing assisted pull-ups while standing on a ladder sucks. Doing push-ups on my knees sucks too. I want to be where I was before surgery and cannot get there soon enough.
Swimming was fantastic. Almost no pain whatsoever. It cleared my head and improved my mood significantly.
In hindsight, my workout was pretty good all things considered. I was able to perform at 50-75% of my pre-op intensity. I had almost no pain – except for when I stretched too far on bridges and cobras (and my hernia let me know immediately). My strength is pretty good. My flexibility, mobility and range of motion is less because I am not 100% healed and also because I’ve done no deep movements in two weeks.
I’ll get back to full intensity in a few weeks, I suspect.
I got on the scale today. I purposely avoided this during the past two weeks. I accepted that I would put on a few pints and get flabby. I did. My pants are all too tight and my belly is flabby. I put on ~ 3 lbs since the surgery. Overall, I want to drop 10 lbs and get to 132-134 lbs going into late fall and then maintain that weight.
I have my goal. I know what to do. The hardest part will be slowly easing into things and not overdoing it.
It was great to have a morning packed with physical activity and feel like I am at least back into my routine.