On January 8th I had Carpel Tunnel surgery on my left hand. Not a huge surgery by any means but it was on my left hand – my most dominate hand. You really don’t realize how incapacitated you are when your most relied on hand is out of commission. Getting dressed, putting on shoes, tying shoes, etc.. Even though walking on a treadmill or going to a class didn’t have anything to do with my hand, the ability to balance and knowing that my instinct is to catch myself with my left hand if I fell was scary. Especially when even simple movement was painful.
Four weeks post surgery I was ready to get back on the treadmill but it didn’t work out that way. Running after a sneaky baby who was scaling some stairs and a dog that decided to interfere with me sprinting to get said baby, I tripped and I fell on… you guessed it…my left hand. Thank god it was only soft tissue damage, but hurting a hand that wasn’t fully healed from surgery pushed my plans to go back to the gym even further.
Thankfully I’m on the mend now and I am ready to head back to my routine at GoodLife Fitness. However, for anyone coming back from any surgery or an injury these are some helpful tips to make sure your first time back at the gym is successful.
Tips for going to the gym after surgery
Get the OK
Regardless of what happened or how you feel make sure you have talked to your doctor. Because even though you might feel that you could take on the world internally things may need more time…
Start off slow
You may want to jump right back into things but if you have been away for an extended amount of time start off slow. You don’t want to injure yourself. For this, I would find myself taking Focus pills to ensure that I stayed mentally focused on the exercises.
Don’t over do it
There’s that good burn when you’re working out and you want to push it, but at the beginning it’s important to know your boundaries.
Ask
The staff at GoodLife Fitness where I work out are a great resource and have been great with some ideas fo what I could try out while I am working my way into my routine again. That is what staff are there for. Use them as your resource!
Getting back to where I was will take some time, but I now that I will get there! Do you have other tips for easing back into a workout routine after surgery or an injury? Leave a comment below!