Staying in shape during recovery. Can an athlete who needs to maintain fitness level even get a rhinoplasty?

Your motivation to immediately resume training will be disrupted by your physiological response to surgery and anesthesia, likely for several days. Fatigue, apathy, discomfort, and mouth breathing.  Head elevation recommended to control swelling.As your swelling resolves and healing progresses, usually by one week after for athletes, your strength and drive will return, and, under guidance by your surgeon, you'll be able to selectively and gradually resume training.  My advice is to avoid trauma to the nose, i.e. contact or collision opportunities that may damage your result.

Dear luvluv,you should avoid activities for at least two weeks after the surgery, After that you should start slowly. For more information I would suggest you to consult with your plastic surgeon.Daniel Barrett, MD, MHA, MSCertified, American Board of Plastic Surgery Member, Am. Society of Plastic Surgery

I generally recommend 3 to 4 weeks rest from strenuous exercise after rhinoplasty.  Athletes can often start non impact maintenance exercise at 2 weeks. Examples would be elliptical trainer, walking to light jogging on a treadmill.

You will need only one week off from exercise, and after that you can go back to your physical activity if not at 100% manybe at 80%...and work your way up from there.  Andre Aboolian, MD, Plastic Surgereon, Beverly Hills, andreaboolian.com

After rhinoplasty, raising blood pressure can lead to bleeding.  In other surgeries, like abdominoplasty or breast augmentation, you can damage repairs.  For rhinoplasty, most surgeons would advise avoiding vigorous exercise for 1-2 weeks and for larger operations up to 4-6 weeks.  Exercise physiologists will tell you that you do not start losing fitness until about 3 weeks.  Therefore, if you want an operation, just plan the recovery time as part of your training cycle down time.  

As far as I know, the professional athletes on whom I have done a rhinoplasty take the requisite two weeks off and then start working back into shape. That means starting a little slow and working back up to a full speed over the period of the third week. None of them have lost any ground doing this as far as their skill level or conditioning. They know what it takes and they are willing to do the right thing because they want their nose to look better. I will allow them to do light stretching and slow motion reps of their athletic endeavor. Nothing strenuous for two weeks. It is difficult to get back into it after a two week break I know, but you have to decide for yourself if it is worth the aggravation of getting back to your baseline.

As long as you can take roughly a month of no contact sports you should be fine. Bleeding risks diminish over the first 2 weeks and bone healing takes months, but is usually stable within a month or so. Be sure to consult with a board certified plastic surgeon specializing in rhinoplasty. Best of luck.

We have no idea in that was have NO IDEA what it is you're doing.  Weights, running, training for American Ninja Warrior????  You can get back to vigorous exercise usually after 2-3 weeks but it also depends on what type of rhinoplasty you're having and what type of exercise and skills you're developing.  Give us some more details but most of all, go talk to a few Facial Plastic Surgeons.Chase Lay MD

After a rhinoplasty procedure, it's very important not to be exercising which could raise your heart rate and blood pressure, and lead to a nosebleed. If a nosebleed becomes severe, painful packing will be required to stop it for several days. In our practice, we asked patients not to do any exercise for two weeks after a rhinoplasty procedure.

I think your question is a great one! I am a strong proponent of exercise, and believe it is important to think through these issues in advance of your rhinoplasty. The good news is that it needn't derail your program to any significant degree. While it does depend somewhat on the nature of your own case, in general we recommend immediate activity the day of surgery (walking, normal activities of daily living). Then after one week one can begin a gradual return to aerobic exercise (spinning for example), with a goal towards full return to all workout activities at four weeks. This means even an elite competitive athlete can get a rhinoplasty, but obviously must time the procedure in between seasons. I hope this helps and good luck!