No Need for Crunches After Tummy Tuck?

Sorry but to look your best and maintain the best result you should do crunches after your tummy tuck when you are all healed.  Your abdominal muscles are brought in a more compact form but to have strong tummy muscles which are part of your core musculature you will need to do strenghtening exercises to maintain and increase their strength. If you are conscientious enough maybe even see a "six-pack"

Thank you for your question regarding whether you need to do crunches after a tummy tuck. While a tummy tuck tightens the abdominal area by removing excess skin and often includes muscle plication (repairing separated muscles), it doesn’t replace the need for ongoing core strengthening exercises like crunches.

After a tummy tuck, your abdominal muscles are brought back together and tightened, which can give you a flatter and more toned appearance. However, this doesn’t mean your muscles are necessarily strong just because they’re tight. There’s a difference between having tight abdominal muscles and having strong abdominal muscles. Crunches and other core exercises are still valuable for building overall core strength, which can improve posture, prevent back pain, and support your spine.

Once you’ve fully healed from the surgery, your surgeon will likely recommend incorporating core exercises back into your routine to keep your muscles strong and healthy. In the long term, having a strong core will help maintain your tummy tuck results and keep your body in good alignment.

So, while a tummy tuck gives you a head start in terms of tightening the area, crunches and other exercises will still be beneficial in maintaining core strength and overall fitness.

Sincerely,
Dr. Katzen

After a tummy tuck it's important to still maintain your weight through diet and exercise. Sit-ups or crunches can be done several months after you have fully healed from the surgery. The purposed of these exercises will be to further strenghten and tone your abdominal muscles. The surgery itself will relocate your muscles back into the proper location or position. The sit-ups will help ensure that they remain strong and help contribute to a flat appearing abdomen.
Best wishes,
Dr. Bruno

The tummy tuck procedure, like all plastic surgery, is for the parts that you can't accomplish with diet and exercise. The muscle tightening with a tummy tuck is really just bringing the muscles back to their original alignment, not making them stronger. Think of the abdominal muscles as a pair of straps that go from the rib cage to the pubic bone; when the abdomen expands with pregnancy or weight gain, the muscles are pushed apart. But since they contract vertically, they can't pull themselves back together side by side no matter how many crunches you do. Same thing with skin tone; if the abdominal skin is loose, it will not snap back tight with exercise. What the tummt tuck will do is help you to see the results of exercise better.

I don't want my patients to use crutches or walkers during recovery from tt as it may actually cause a fall.  The fascia tightens the muscles and brings the center of gravity in, reducing torque on the spine, which may help with back pain.  Only by exercising the muscle will the muscle get strong.

During a tummy tuck, the central muscles in the abdomen (rectus muscles) are repositioned back to the midline. Pregnancy, especially multiple pregnancies, tend to push these muscles out to the side where they can lose efficiency in the sitting up movement. We usually ask our patients to refrain from stomach specific exercises for two months after a tummy tuck. After then, it is very important to "rehab" the stomach muscles to restore abdominal wall tone and contour. In conclusion, a tummy tuck does not alter in any way the need to maintain good abdominal wall tone/strength after surgery.

Surgery is not a substitute for muscle toning exercises. To get full and stable benefit of your surgery, you should maintain an exercise and toning routine and activity level.

You can go back to full activities after tummy tuck. I ask my patient to take it easy for the first six weeks , but there is no restriction after that.