Healing too slowly

I miss the gym.

I'm working really hard to do what is best for me and give myself another two weeks before going back to the gym.  I'm four weeks out from (my first) surgery, and it is a four to six week recovery.  My surgeon has specifically put me on a 'no lifting' precaution until mid-November.  Nothing more than 10 lbs.  I spent last night 'googling' recommendations for recovery from an abdominoplasty, and that's pretty typical.  I even saw longer, depending on the severity of the surgery.  As well as shorter for just a 'mini-abdominoplasty', which I know I didn't have.

But I was still considering it.  I was thinking of things I could do to support my core and still do something. Its deceptive:  when I'm wearing my compression garment I actually feel pretty good.  But when I don't, I start to feel sore.  And when I cough.  I can also feel where the stitches are inside, and the muscle there is still sore.  When I raise my hands up over my head and stretch my muscle out, it feels tight and sore, particularly at the top where the stitches start.  It hurts to roll over or do any real 'twisting' motion.  The incision site itself is also tender.

So I know I'm not ready.  I just miss going.  Its very centering for me and very meditative.  And I miss feeling like I've worked my muscles.  But I know if I went I wouldn't be able to do the workout I would want to do, and I'd just risk hurting myself.  So I'm doing the smart thing (for once) and waiting.

I'm not a cardio-bunny.  I work out when the gym opens at 5:30 and I go to the weight room.  There are perhaps one or two other (men) people there.  I lift the 'big' weights.  I bench.  I squat.  I row.  I used to deadlift until I hurt my back years ago and now I'm too wary to do so....and I didn't have enough real core strength to do it well with the hernia and diastasis.  I've been doing it for about six years now.  I do hit the cardio a few times a week, but most of my time is spent in the weight room.   I've gone through phases of doing more/less cardio, but the weights are always constant.  This isn't a fitness blog so I won't go into the physiological reasons why I've sent it up this way, but I will say for those out there who aren't up on fitness:  if you have limited time (which I do!) your time is better spent in the weight room than on a cardio machine.  Too many people do it the other way around.

Two more weeks.  Then I can go back, albiet slowly.  I need to be very careful because I don't want to burst my stitches while jumping back into squatting.  As I said to my coworker:  its one thing to start lifting 10 lbs...its another thing to throw a bunch of weight on your back and squat ass to grass or work up to benching your body weight.

Two more weeks.