If You Just Had a Breast Lift, Avoid These Exercises

A breast lift is a common procedure used to overcome the effects of time, breastfeeding, and gravity on the breasts by lifting them back into a more youthful procedure and trimming away any excess sagging skin. A breast lift can be performed on its own or in conjunction with a breast augmentation procedure to restore a firm, youthful, full look.

 

Recovery

 

The recovery process from a breast lift is fairly quick and relatively painless. Although most women can return to work and some activities within a week of the procedure, full recovery takes around six weeks. During this period, surgeons usually advise their patients to avoid vigorous exercise and heavy lifting. According to William A. Ross, expert breast lift surgeon of Naples, FL, the prohibition against heavy lifting extends to lifting and carrying babies and young children.

 

Allowed exercises

Of course, sitting around doing nothing for six weeks is not healthy, but many exercise options won't affect recovery from a breast lift. The goal is to avoid stressing the tissues in the chest area, which means limited use of the arms and any exercises that involve the shoulders or pectoral muscles. It is also important to avoid exercises that make the breasts bounce around, which can damage the healing tissues; even if you are wearing a super supportive sports bra, activities like jumping and horseback riding should be avoided. However, the following exercises are encouraged:
● Walking
● Gentle stationary biking in an upright or recumbent position
● Gentle exercises that work the legs only

It is important to not overdo it during the recovery period. A bit of light stationary biking is fine; trying to win a virtual Tour de France is not. Similarly, gentle leg muscle exercises like smooth slow squats with no weights and calf raises are fine, but trying to see how much weight you can move in a seated leg press is not.

Exercises to avoid

Running and jogging

Although these might seem to be "safe" exercises-they use the legs, not the arms-they tend to be too vigorous for post-surgical recovery. Also, while running or jogging, the breasts tend to bounce, which can seriously impair healing from a breast lift procedure, sometimes to the point of requiring additional surgery to repair the damage. And lastly, most people tend to vigorously pump their arms as they run, which can also distort the chest area and damage the healing tissues.

Jumping

Anything involving jumping should definitely be avoided. Jumping jacks, jumping rope, jumping hurdles, jumping for joy-all cause serious bouncing of the breasts and most involve extensive arm movements. Again, these activities will impair healing and damage the healing tissues.

 

Dancing

Dancing is a popular exercise these days. However, it also needs to be avoided. Even if the style of dancing you pursue doesn't involve vigorous jumping and arm movements (like, say, waltzing), in general dancing is simply too vigorous an exercise to perform during post-surgical recovery.

 

Weight lifting

Any kind of weight-lifting with the arms is strictly forbidden during the recovery period. Even if only light weights are used, these activities generally require too much movement of the arms and upper body to support the healing of post breast lift tissues.

 

Biking in a traditional leaning-forward posture

Although it is okay to perform gentle stationary biking in an upright or recumbent position, biking using the traditional leaning forward racing position should be avoided, even during gentle biking workouts. This position causes gravity to pull on the breasts throughout the entire workout, which can put a lot of strain on the healing tissues and contribute to stretching of the skin, disrupting healing of the breasts into the desired youthful perky position.

Rowing

Rowing is a popular low-impact exercise that is both aerobic and builds muscles throughout the body since it uses the legs, core, and upper body to perform the movement. However, this exercise places considerable strain on the chest and involves extensive arm movement, and thus will seriously disrupt healing after a breast lift.

Swimming

Exposing an unhealed incision to water carries a serious risk of developing an infection. However, even after the incisions have healed, swimming should be avoided. Swimming is an excellent low-impact exercise, but it requires vigorous arm movements in various directions, especially in reaching over the head. It is best to try to avoid lifting your arms over your head and to avoid any kind of extensive arm movements during the healing period.

 

Rock climbing

Rock climbing should be avoided for the same reasons that swimming should be avoided-it requires lifting the arms over the head and too much arm movement. Similarly, for the same reasons, tennis and golf should be avoided.

Yoga

Although yoga might seem to be an exercise regimen perfect for post-surgical recovery, it can cause problems during recovery from a breast lift procedure. For example, many of the positions involve raising the arms above the head, such as in the chair pose and a lot of them involve assuming a position where the breasts dangle down towards the floor, like a downward dog. Besides, many of the poses like the plank and the bridge put extensive pressure on the shoulder and chest muscles. As discussed above, all of these situations need to be avoided during healing from a breast lift.

In conclusion

 

Thus, while you are probably eager to get back to your exercise regimen to improve the rest of your body to match your new perky breasts, it is necessary to avoid most of the popular exercises for six weeks after surgery to obtain the best results. The safest thing to do to maintain fitness is to take walks and wait until healing is complete to work on the rest of your body.