What Exercises Are Safe 3 Weeks After Breast Implants?

I advise my patients to not do anything that works up a sweat for 3 weeks.  After that, aerobic exercise is ok in moderation, but everything should be a gradual transition back to full activity.  If something feels weird or you are worried, then start slower.  I would be more careful regarding anything with your upper body.  I advise my patients that there is no lifting, pushing, pulling, straining, etc for 6 full weeks after this surgery.  Even isolated arm work can engage the pec muscles, so I do not recommend ay upper body work at all for 6 weeks.  

Every patient undergoing a breast augmentation wants to know when they can get back to their normal activity. In my practice I tell my patients that it is safe to do lightweight upper body activity, such as putting an infant back into their crib or bringing in a light bag of groceries, after the first week. Patients are instructed not to do any activity which causes a significant increase in their heart rate for the first three weeks. This means avoiding cardio exercise such as running on a treadmill. At one month after surgery I lift all restrictions for my patients and encourage them to resume their normal activity. At that time it's okay to do whatever they feel comfortable doing. Of course they are told to use common sense and start slowly but weightlifting and intense exercises okay. Since the risk of bleeding after surgery is possible it is important to do whatever we can to avoid that, which means following a restricted activity program for the first month after surgery. I hope this helps.

I tell my patients to start light cardio after two weeks with gradual increase of activity until six weeks when they can do competitive sports or weight lifting. I think it helps to avoid pectoralis muscle work outs for many months after as they tend to push the implants laterally and strain easily.Although patients feel good, it pays to allow time to recover.

Congratulations on your surgery!  In situations like this, it is best to follow your surgeon's advice.  Every surgeon has a specific postoperative protocol that they find works well for their patients.  In general, most surgeons will ask patients to limit their upper body exercise for the first 3-6 weeks.  The best advice with any protocol is to listen to your body and don't push yourself too hard.  Good luck!

Most plastic surgeons will recommend that you
wait at least eight weeks before resuming any intense physical activity or
heavy lifting, especially if it involves use of the pectoral muscle.

Its a good question Ainsley, and one that several women getting breast implants and reading these posts will benefit from as many are avid exercisers.    

As a Crossfit fanatic myself I can greatly sympathize with yours and others  need to get back to the gym for all of its mental and physical benefits as soon as possible after surgery.

That being said you also want to allow sufficient time for your tissues to heal around your implants preventing future complications. 

A large part of the discrepancy in time allowed before exercise may come from the fact that everyones "definition" of exercising is slightly different.  Because of these differences many plastic surgeons often air on the side of caution.

As soon as possible post operatively most surgeons would probably encourage some form of light activity such as walking as this can help prevent surgical complications such as the formation of blood clots, partial lung deflations etc.

At 6 weeks your tissues are approximately 80% healed- allowing near unrestricted activity.

Everywhere in between is surgeon and patient guided.

Should you have had no complications with your surgery and are healing well I think your ab work at 3 weeks is fine.  I would continue to limit chest, shoulder and overhead triceps work specifically for a few more weeks until the implant position is more secure.

Cardio can now start to be increased, although I would recommend a supportive bra and limit extensive use of devices such as rowers and elipticals again for another few weeks.

This could also be a good time to catch up on any missed leg days :)

Congratulations on your surgery.

Dr Quinton Chivers

 

 

 

Each surgeon has a protocol for return to activities. You have obviously trusted your surgeon to perform you breast augmentation based on results. Those results are in patients who presumably followed the return to activity protocol given. Best practice for you is to check with your surgeon for this advice. 

Regards. 

Dear Ainsley. 

Thank you for your question. There are no fixed rules to this. Timeframes for increasing your exercise capacity depends on how your healing process is going, your confidence levels and comfort. My approach is quite conservative to ensure good healing with no complication (such as bleed or implant displacement) from overactivity.

For my patients post op, I see them at 1,2, 4 and 8 weeks postop and graduate their activity levels based on the factors above.

Generally, the first week is taking it easy. The second week incorporates non-impact exercise like walking. After two weeks, swimming and light impact exercise like jogging is fine. This is graduated up to full exercise capacity by 4 weeks.

My only exception is for ladies who have implant placements subfascial or submuscular and who do strenuous upper body workouts (e.g. body builders, cross fit trainers, certain athletes) to hold off those exercises only that target the pectoralis and serratus muscle groups for 6 weeks. 

I hope that helps,

Dr Kevin Ho

For my breast augmentation patients, I have them back to full exercise within three weeks after surgery. If you feel comfortable doing chest exercises then you should begin back slowly at this point. Any exercises are safe as long as they do not cause you significant pain.

I typically don't release patients to start upper body work outs or anything that effects your pectoral muscles for 4 weeks.  You can, like you are, do light cardio (walking on treadmill) and gradually work up to more and more.  I typically recommend waiting to run for 6-8 weeks because you can get a good cardio work out by walking until then.  Make sure you wear a supportive bra when you start running.  Listen to your body.  Don't rush it.  You will be working out like you used to in no time but if you don't feel quite ready yet, then wait another week or so.  You can do isolated arms with light weights, that won't effect your pectoral muscles.  Make sure that your surgeon is ok with light weights.  ac