When can you start exercising after hernia surgery? (2023)

How long after hernia repair can I workout?

A Safe Return to Sports and Exercise

Wait to practice your favorite core exercise after hernia repair with mesh (or without) for four to six weeks, unless recommended otherwise. Avoid strenuous activities, especially heavy lifting, for four to six weeks or as advised by your surgeon.

When Can I Get Start Working Out After My Hernia Repair? After two weeks, you can start to add some light exercise to your routine, focusing on exercises geared toward strengthening your core abdominal muscles.

Open hernia surgery, in which a surgeon utilizes a long incision to push the bulging organ back into place, generally requires a minimum of three weeks to recover. If a laparoscopic hernia repair is performed, recovery is closer to one to two weeks.

Low-impact and low-strain exercises can help your body to heal properly over time. However, more strenuous activities like running and weight lifting should not be attempted until several weeks following your hernia repair.

Pelvic tilts: Lie on your back with your knees bent (feet on the bed) and hands under the lower back. Tighten your abdominal muscles and tilt your bottom forwards to flatten your spine down on your hands. Hold for a few seconds and return to the starting position.

After surgery, most patients will be asked to avoid lifting anything heavier than 15 pounds for the first two weeks, though more complicated patients may have differing limitations. Different patients will have individual restrictions, but in general, you should be as active as your provider permits.

Do NOT lift anything heavier than 15 pounds for a minimum of two weeks (or as instructed by your surgeon). Do NOT engage in strenuous activity or heavy lifting for at least four to six weeks (or advised by your surgeon). Lifting too soon after hernia surgery can cause a hernia reoccurrence and other complications.

Thus, one advice that I always give to my patients is, “You do not need absolute bed rest”. Of course, they should not be doing any strenuous exercise, but all patients after a hernia operation, be it laparoscopic hernia surgery or open, should be encouraged to get out of bed as much as possible and move around.

How long it takes for hernia mesh to heal depends on the type of surgery and the extent of the hernia repair. Most people can expect a full recovery about four to six weeks after the procedure.

Can sneezing damage hernia repair?

Cough and Sneeze Carefully

It turns out that if you have an abdominal incision, you can do some serious harm to your incision if you cough or sneeze the wrong way. A new incision isn't very strong and a violent sneeze can actually cause a surgical incision to open.

Gentle exercise, such as walking, can help the healing process, but you should avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activities for about 4 to 6 weeks. You may find sex painful or uncomfortable at first, but it's usually fine to have sex when you feel like it.

Walking. One to two weeks after your hernia surgery, try walking at a gentle pace for 15 minutes once a day. Try to avoid stairs or hills as you exercise. Once you reach the two-week or more mark from your surgery, walk for up to 30 minutes each day at a reasonable pace.

It takes about two years for the strength of your abdominal wall to return to the strength you had before the operation.

Not only will it decrease the chance of a hernia recurrence, but will improve your core strength, stop post-pregnancy bulging due to abdominal wall laxity, and create a flatter, more functional muscular abdomen.

Will coughing damage my hernia repair? Coughing can put a strain on incisions and may be painful after surgery. The hernia repair should be able to tolerate coughing without damage.

Signs and symptoms include: A bulge at or near the site of the original hernia. Pain — which can range from a dull ache to severe pain — especially when coughing, sneezing or lifting heavy objects. Bloating or constipation.

How do I know if my hernia mesh has moved?

Non-absorbable mesh will remain in the body indefinitely and is considered a permanent implant. It is used to provide permanent reinforcement to the repaired hernia. Absorbable mesh will degrade and lose strength over time. It is not intended to provide long-term reinforcement to the repair site.

It's not easy for umbilical hernia patients to sleep on their side after surgery, and we generally don't recommend it.

There could be a chance of causing problems or undoing the repair if patients resume activity too soon. Feel free to walk at an easy pace as much as you like. Don't lift anything that weighs more than 25 pounds. Avoid repetitive movements including bending, squatting, running, twisting, biking, etc.

Since normal swelling after hernia surgery is part of the healing process, the body can take three to six months to get rid of the swelling. In patients with very large inguinal hernia that extend down to the scrotum, sometimes the swelling may be there for longer than six months.

Patients are counseled that they will likely lose 10–15 pounds during the first 4–6 weeks after surgery before the nadir of weight loss (2).

Foods to eat after hernia surgery include any that are high fiber or have a high water content—just avoid anything you know will make you gassy. Options include: Watermelon. Apples.

You must not eat breads, crackers, biscuits, chunky meats such as steaks and dry meals such as cold cuts. You can now start eating soft food such as well cooked pasta, minced meat, flaked fish, well cooked rice, pulses and vegetables with plenty of sauce.

You will need to stay on a liquid/soft diet for approximately three weeks after surgery. During that time, you can try or experiment with eating soft, mushy foods like tuna, mashed potatoes, eggs, cottage cheese, and thick soups. The reason for liquids is that there will be some swelling where your hernia was repaired.

Meshes used to repair large hernias need to withstand at least 180 mmHg before bursting. All synthetic meshes are sufficiently strong. 26, 30 Most commonly used mesh prosthetics have a tensile strength of at least 32 N/cm.

Can you feel hernia mesh inside you?

If you have the advanced open preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair, you will not feel the mesh because it is on the inside of your abdominal wall, under many muscle layers. Because the mesh is on the inside, you will not be able to feel any mesh on the outside of your abdominal wall.

The latest hernia repair techniques usually allow you to return to normal activities within 2 weeks. Gentle exercise, such as walking, can help the healing process. Heavy lifting and strenuous activities should be avoided for about 4 to 6 weeks.

Avoid lifting more than 10 pounds for four weeks and excessive bending or twisting for one to two weeks following surgery. This is to allow healing of the incisions, specifically the fascia (the strongest layer of the abdomen wall) and to decrease the risk of your hernia coming back.

Your Recovery

After surgery to repair your hernia, you are likely to have pain for a few days. You may also feel tired and have less energy than normal. This is common. You should feel better after a few days and will probably feel much better in 7 days.

It's possible for the mesh to detach after surgery and migrate through the abdomen. This can lead to serious issues like fistulas, adhesions, abscesses, bowel obstruction, perforation, and/or hernia recurrence.

You may begin eating and drinking as soon as you get home from surgery. Start with a bland liquid diet such as Gatorade, tea, coffee, water, soup and crackers, or jell-o. You can increase your diet slowly to a regular diet as tolerated.

In most cases, postsurgical weight gain is temporary and subsides as your body recovers. However, prolonged recovery time, physical inactivity, stress, and changes in your eating behavior can lead to weight gain over time.

VOIDING / URINATING

Occasionally, after surgery, your bladder may become too full with urine, and urinary retention can develop. This may manifest as either: 1) inability to void, 2) frequent voiding, or 3) frequent voiding of small amounts of urine. If any of these conditions develop, please contact the office.

You should avoid exercise for a week after surgery.

How much weight can I lift after hernia surgery?

Postoperative Restrictions

After surgery, most patients will be asked to avoid lifting anything heavier than 15 pounds for the first two weeks, though more complicated patients may have differing limitations.

The mesh needs to remain in place until tissue integration is complete. Complete integration usually happens around 2-3 weeks after surgery [10]. In addition to tissue integration, chronic pain after the surgery is also important to consider and a larger problem compared to hernia reoccurrence [11].

Walking. One to two weeks after your hernia surgery, try walking at a gentle pace for 15 minutes once a day. Try to avoid stairs or hills as you exercise. Once you reach the two-week or more mark from your surgery, walk for up to 30 minutes each day at a reasonable pace.

Try to avoid vigorous coughing if your repair was done with the open method. Coughing may strain your incision. For a couple of weeks, when you need to cough or sneeze, splint your incision. This means putting pressure over your incision with your hands, a rolled up blanket, or a pillow.

Do NOT engage in strenuous activity or heavy lifting for at least four to six weeks (or advised by your surgeon). Lifting too soon after hernia surgery can cause a hernia reoccurrence and other complications.

Hernia mesh surgery is usually safe and effective.

As the body heals, your own tissue will grow over and around the mesh. Hernia mesh (sometimes called a patch) has been used in 99% of hernia repairs performed in the United States over the past 30 years, and is considered both safe and effective.

During hernia surgery, the hernia mesh is placed across the damaged area in the upper stomach, abdomen or groin and attached with sutures. The pores in the mesh allow tissue to grow into the device.