Five weeks after surgery and I’ve started to increase the exercising that I’m doing. I have started going on planned walks where I’m walking at a more brisk pace and I’ve started swimming.
Walking
I’ve been walking as much as possible since leaving hospital and in the first few weeks I would still get some discomfort if walking briskly so would ensure that I would slow myself down. As time progressed I would worry less and less about slowing down and at five weeks I started going on planned walks where I would walk further and at a fast pace.
I’ve completed a couple of walks this week of 3 and 4.5 miles with the 3 mile walk completed in a more brisk 15:30 /mi pace. The walks both felt good and I didn’t feel any discomfort in the abdomen. As the new Ken Butt is still healing, that was rubbing a little but that’s just a minor inconvenience.
Swimming
At four weeks I first visited the pool and as I was still having a little discomfort in the abdomen I restrained from swimming and simply walked/jogged back and forth in the pool. This was still good exercise and it felt good being back working out.
This week the abdomen was feeling better so I decided to start swimming and didn’t feel any discomfort. I restricted myself to 2 or 4 lengths at a time and completed around 36 lengths in total. I visited a second time and managed to complete 30 lengths doing 10 lengths at a time. Again, things felt good.
What’s Next?
It’s still too early to contemplate running so I’m not going to risk my recovery by even attempting to do any. Not only do I need to give adequate time to allow my abdomen to heal, I also need to allow my Ken Butt to fully heal. I’m going to continue swimming and walking to build up my fitness again and now that I’ve restarted my gym membership again I’ll go along to work on the exercises that have been provided to help prevent hernias. Hopefully by week 7 or 8 I’ll be in a position to start some short runs.
