Lifting Post Hernia Repair

[Aaron Montgomery]

Yeah my sister had some serious objections when I told her I was going to start lifting. The docs display a completely unnecessary amount of caution in their recommendations probably based on the .00001% chance you hurt something coming back too soon - they might get sued. But I researched this a lot and if the repair fails that means that the surgery was not performed correctly - it doesn't have anything to do with post op activity. Once that mesh is in there its done. One thread a guy talked about how his doc said you can actually lift 3 days after if you want - its just a matter of pain tolerance. Once the repair has been done properly there seems to be almost no chance of tearing/re-occurrence. The mesh needs a little time to acclimate itself to your body but that only takes 3 days.

My surgeon had zero concern about his patients weightlifting or doing manual labor after the surgery. He just recommended 1-2 weeks off because of discomfort/pain post surgery. He told me my muscles would fail before his repair ever did :P

[Ryan Arnold]

My surgeon had zero concern about his patients weightlifting or doing manual labor after the surgery. He just recommended 1-2 weeks off because of discomfort/pain post surgery. He told me my muscles would fail before his repair ever did :P

You got a good surgeon.

[MicroBruce]

I had an umbilical hernia repair on Friday, April 14. They told me not to lift any more than 25 lbs for 4 weeks. Seems a bit extreme. The Tuesday after the operation I started lifting with about 50% of my 5RM and am doing LP with bigger jumps (10 on presses, 10-15 on squat and DL) than normal. By the time 4 weeks is up I'll be close to where I left off and won't have to deal with rusty technique or crippling DOMS. I'm 4 workouts in and so far, so good.