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  • What Activities Can I Do After a Tummy Tuck?
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Hi, I'm Dr. Dan Shapiro. I'm a plastic surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and I've been practicing plastic surgery in the Scottsdale, Paradise Valley area since 1992. I only perform cosmetic surgery or aesthetic surgery.

A lot of patients come in and have body contouring surgery with me. People are busy and very active here in Scottsdale, Arizona, and commonly I need to communicate with people what activity is like after a tummy tuck or an abdominoplasty. I think that's really important, because we don't want to undo anything that we have done. I think that's a time commitment for a patient and also a financial expenditure.

You want everything to go well, and I think that you really need to follow some kind of protocol to make sure that people heal well after a tummy tuck. Within the first week or so, people after a tummy tack have some drains, and I use pain pumps in my tummy tuck that really alleviate any discomfort. Those drains and the pain pump catheters kind of tie you up a little bit so you're really not doing too much the first week.

After the first week to ten days, those tubes come out, the drains come out, and I think that that's really emancipating for people. I think they can start becoming more active. I've had patients start resuming walking and very, very low impact kind of exercise.

The main thing that I really want to look out for after a tummy tuck is allowing the internal sutures to kind of settle and perform what they are supposed to do, and that is continue tightening the abdomen there. We really don't want to do anything that would undo those sutures. For the first six weeks or so, we really don't like anybody doing some heavy exercise that would increase any tension on the core, or the main central muscles of the body.

I think for the first six weeks or so, we tend not to like to have anybody do any sit-ups, not that you'll have to afterwards, or do any heavy lifting that increases central pressure. That would be maybe leg-presses we don't want people doing. We don't want people doing very, very heavy aerobic exercise that would cause tightening in the abdomen. We really want things to settle down and allow thing to heal well. I find that the results really are lasting and the complications are really close to zero if we follow this kind of protocol.

If there are any questions with regards to activity after a tummy tuck, the best thing to do is to go over that with a plastic surgeon. Thank you.

What Activities Can I Do After a Tummy Tuck?

Dr. Daniel Shapiro talks about the physical limitations a patient should observe during their tummy tuck recovery process.