How did you rehab after your mesh op?

[Ganondorf]

How did you rehab after your mesh implant? I suppose the seriousness of the hernia is proportional to the time before you can go full intensity again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Once the mesh is in, it incorporates into the abdominal floor within a few days and the hernia itself is gone. Rehab from the operation is essentially rehab from the surgery itself, and it took me 11 days to get back to pulling (no squats as I had a knee that was getting fixed a couple of weeks later), and I deadlifted 225 x 1 x 50 reps @30 seconds apart that day, no pain. Back to essentially normal training in 2 weeks.

[Ganondorf]

Uh, 1x225x50?! Wow. I guess with a ~600 lb. pull (I am guessing) that is light.

Anyway, thank you.

[Mark Rippetoe]

No, 50 singles with 225, one every 30 seconds, and I do not currently have a 600 lb. pull.

[Ganondorf]

You used to do though or at least close right (600 lb. squat)?

Anyway, one the mesh is in place and healed, is the chance of getting a hernia again decreased by the mesh?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have done 633 at two meets. And once the mesh is incorporated, the chance of another inguinal hernia is essentially zero, as I understand it.

[Ganondorf]

That sounds pretty good. I hope the surgeon doesn't decide that the hernia isn't "bad enough" to warrant mesh. As you know, hernias don't heal on their own, so his refusal to go ahead and do something with it would be annoying. I could imagine him saying something like "Oh, just don't do any heavy lifting and it shouldn't get any worse."

I actually talked to him about a week ago and asked him if I should stop by the ER because I was feeling got-hit-in-the-nuts-nauseous and he said "oh, don't worry about it unless you feel a lot of pain and a bulge. Hernias really aren't that big of a deal, some people have them for a year before getting them looked at." If people wait a year to get that looked at, they must be some lazy people who fail to ever do anymore than power walking.

If actually hasn't been that bothersome, but then again I haven't been doing any heavy lifting since I suspected it. Better safe than in the ER.
So your PR is 633 eh? Me pulling that at my weight would be an international record I presume (135 lbs.)

[Mark Rippetoe]

You at 135 should be embarrassing, unless you're 4' 11". And if you have a hernia and the surgeon says he won't do a bilateral mesh job, you need another surgeon.

[Ganondorf]

I am 5' 3.5" and 20 years old, thus I don't get any taller. Yeah, problem with the surgeon is there is only one general surgeon place around. There are 4 surgeons in a partnership. I guess I would have to drive an hour away to get it done.

I wonder if the rehab period afterward is shorter is the hernia is smaller.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Read my first reply again.