If you’re like most active individuals, you probably hate too much downtime. Whether you’re climbing 14ers in Colorado, working out, surfing the waves in Santa Monica, or scaling the Appalachian Mountains, physical exertion is your primary objective. Surgical procedures however, can slow down or halt your daily routine. Prospective or current plastic surgery patients need to give themselves time to rest following plastic surgery procedures. This is to ensure that the body has time to heal properly.
Failure to rest can exacerbate post-op conditions and make recovery a long and drawn out process. As tempting as it may be to bend the rules with your recovery time, take it easy and get some relaxation. That way, you can get back to being active sooner rather than later.
As a rule of thumb, quadruple board certified plastic surgeon Dr. David Broadway, suggests that patients hold off for a week before returning to normal activity and two weeks before initiating physical exercise. With tummy tucks, the time frame that must pass before strenuous activity can be started again, might be up to 6 weeks. The downtime recommended after plastic surgery does vary somewhat with each doctor, but here is a great article that addresses the issue.