Breast surgery is adapted for many reasons such as enhancing, contour and size of the woman breast. Woman consider breast surgery for or augmentation mammoplasty for different purposes. Some woman desire to change the shape and size of the breast and some woman prefer to regain the original breast asymmetry after pregnancy.

Exercise is necessary after having breast surgery to heal quicker. Every woman’s health and body are diverse, and they take different time to heal. You should periodically talk to your health specialist and fitness expert before beginning any exercise. The exercise after surgery involves moving your arms and shoulder after removing your drain. The exercise helps to strengthen your breast muscles, and you can also add more exercise after your healing increase.

Why you need exercise after breast surgery?

The main purpose of exercising after breast surgery is to bring back your original and normal breast size and shape. While doing exercise, you will initially feel tired, but doing regular exercise will help you. Exercise after breast surgery makes you moving and prevent the scars from getting too tight or stiff.

Here is an important exercise which promotes healing after breast surgery.

Arm Exercises

Make sure to discuss your plans with your doctor before starting an exercise. Your doctor can refer you best physical therapist to guide you proper arm exercise.

You should wait till your surgical drains are out. Avoid putting a strain on your stitches to keeps the drainage tube in their place. If your breast incisions are healing, then you can do gentle exercise to prevent the tearing of your skin.

Warm Up for Arm Exercises

While starting any exercise doing warm-up is helpful to meet the exercise goal. The warm-up can help to reduce pain, swelling, and help to regain the arm motion. It will help to return to your normal activities. Here are important things to keep in mind before you begin.

Wear comfortable and loose clothes while doing exercise. You should wear comfortable while moving for exercise.

You can take a tub soak or warm shower before exercise to make your muscles relax. Taking shower will cut down your pain. You can also take ibuprofen before 30 minutes of starting your exercise.

You can use a hot pack on the shoulder for 20 minutes.

Do exercise gently and slowly stretch and speed the performance. If you feel pain, then it is a signal that you should take rest and be gentle with your body. Keep breathing while exercise to stretch your lungs for better oxygen supply.

It is completely normal to feel tightness in the armpit and chest after having breast surgery because nerves are numb due to the incision. Arm exercise is helpful to relieve the sensation.

What is the best benefit of Arm exercise

Maintaining regular exercise is important to build a schedule. Make a schedule of performing an arm exercise. You can play some soothing and positive music during exercise and repeat the workout for 5 – 7 times.

As you begin to recover, you can add more stretch further.

If you don’t see any change in your arm movement from exercising, ask your doctor to assess your motion range, and consider other alternatives.

Keep patience it takes some time to show the result.

Deep Breathing Exercise

After breast surgery practices deep breathing which helps to relax and heal the discomfort and tightness in the incision area. Breathing deeply also helps to relieve your tension in the whole day time.

To perform deep breathing exercise, sit comfortably on a chair and take a deep slow breath by your nose. Allow your belly and chest to stretch and exhale slowly by your mouth. Practice this exercise for 8 to 10 times.

What is the best benefit of Deep Breathing Exercises?

Deep breathing exercise is the best ways to prevent the body’s response to stress. The stress response also describes as flight or fight reflex which is designed to help the quick threats to your survival. Deep breathing helps heart health to function with speed with rapid beats and muscles work flexible.

Doing deep breathing exercise helps your breast muscles to relax and promote the healing process.

Power Tip:

Take the word to relax as you exhale and turn this work into a reminder. Once the brain receives relax signal, it will trigger the state of relaxation in the entire body.

Avoid holding your breath at the end while inhaling or exhaling. As you do this exercise regularly, it will become easy to increase your breathing power a smooth and constant level.

Perform the deep breathing and relaxing exercise two time every day. As you become perfect, you will realize that you can do deep breathing exercise without closing your eyes.

Shoulder rolls

There is another exercise called Shoulder Rolls you can do it after breast surgery. This exercise involves a gentle stretch of your shoulder and chest muscles.

If you have undergone breast surgery with or without restoration by using a tissue stretch or predicted latissimus-flap, then you can practice shoulder rolls after the first day of your surgery, but you should take your doctor advice and management. Avoid doing this exercise, if your surgeon tells you that it is not safe for you.

How to do should rolls?

Sit comfortably in a relaxing state and keep your arm sides.

By bringing your shoulders up, back and downward in a circular motion perform the shoulder roll.

Try to create a circle as big as possible for you and move your shoulder at the same time. Practice shoulder rolls ten times.

If there are pain and tightness around your chest or incision, then make a smaller circle but increase the circle’s motions in a larger way as your tightness reduce.

Now shift the direction and repeat the shoulder rolls ten times in a forward direction and bring back you should backward, forward, up and down.

While doing backward move you may feel some pain in your chest but doing regular shoulder rolls helps to perform better.

Shoulder wings

You can practice shoulder wings exercise to promote healing after breast surgery with or without reconstruction which involves the use of tissue expander or Pedicled-Latissimus-flap. Take your surgeon advice and do it after the surgery day in a safe way.

If you have undergone in the reconstruction type of breast surgery, then do shoulder wings exercise only after your doctor’s recommendation.

What is the best benefit shoulder wings exercises?

Doing the shoulder wings exercise helps to restore the outward motion of your shoulder. You can perform shoulder wings exercise while standing or sitting.

How to do shoulder wings?

Put your hand on your collarbone or chest.
Lift your elbows out to your side by restraining your motion range according to your healthcare expert.
Slowly take down your elbows.
Repeat this exercise ten times and gently lower your hand back side downward.
If you feel discomfort than avoid lifting your elbows higher.

Arm circles

The arm circle exercise focuses on complete shoulder band and creates an exceptional warm-up before weight or resistance training by engaging shoulders.

Arm circles are a simple exercise which you can perform anywhere indoor or outdoor. This arm circles need more time to show the benefits after doing it regularly. It can be performed without any equipment. You can also do this exercise bare feet, sneakers or high heels with little focus. Therefore, you can listen to music or watch TV while doing this workout.

Arm circle exercise is an excellent way to promote healing of breast surgery done with or without reconstruction of the chest tissue expander. But again, take the advice of your surgeon for safety.

If you had both sides of breast surgery, then do the arm exercise using both arms, each at a time. Skip doing this workout with both arms at once to prevent putting much pressure on your chest.

How to do Arm circles?

Stand straight on your feet by balancing slightly apart.
Lift your affected arm out to the sides as much as possible for you.
Slowly make a backward circle with your arm in the arm and make sure to move your arm from the shoulder and not from your elbow and keep your elbow straight.
As you feel comfortable, increase the circle size to large one. Follow the healthcare expert instructions to limit your motion range.
If you feel the pain in your arm, then take a break and then continue after feeling better.
Gently takes down your arms to the side and let your arm relax for a moment.
Next, lift your affected arm outward to your sides as much high as possible and begin to make slow forward circles.
When you feel comfortable, increase the size of your circle. Perform ten arm circles and drop your arm slowly to your side.

W exercise

W exercise is the best way to heal your breast surgery. You can do W exercise after having reconstruction breast surgery performed with a tissue expander. If you are recovering faster, then check with your doctor and do it after the first day of surgery. Your surgeon will tell if it safe for you or not.

You can perform W exercise in a standing or sitting position or laying on back. Doing W exercise with back can help you to position properly.

How to do W exercise?

Make a shape of W by your arm which should be out to the sides, and your palms should face forward.
Take your hands upward to face you.
Stay in the limit of your motion range as advised by your healthcare expert. Lift your arm as high as you feel the comfort.
Press your both shoulder blades together down in a way like you are pressing a pencil between your shoulder edges.
If you feel pain and discomfort in your incision area, then stop W exercise and continue with deep breathing workout. After that, if you feel comfortable, then bring back your arm little distant.
If you still feel the discomfort, then try squeezing your shoulder for five seconds.
Gently take back your arm to original pose and do this exercise ten times for better healing after breast surgery.

Back climb

Back climb exercise also helps to heal your breast surgery which performed through reconstruction of tissues expander. It is the best constant exercise for rowing motion or lowering your motion down. These types of motion focus on the back muscles such as Latissimus, middle or lower trapezius and rhomboids. It helps to keep your spine upright and shoulder back. You should perform back climbing only in a limited manner as directed by your surgeon.

You can perform back climb in a standing or sitting position. Make use of stopwatch or timer while doing this exercise to perform better.

How to do back climb?

Keep your hands behind your back and grip your hand on the affected side with your other hand. If you had both breast surgery, then use the hand which is most easy to grip the other. You can do one stretch at one time only. Avoid doing stretch by both arms at the same time.
Gently slides your hand upward the center of your back as far as possible for you and hold this high position for one minute.
If you feel stretching around your incision, then stop your exercise and take deep breathing exercise.
After feeling comfortable, try to lift your hand by sliding little further.
You will require to hold this position for one minute which makes you feel a mild stretch in your shoulders.
After one minute, take down your hands.
For both breast surgery, do the back climb one by one to each hand.

Hands back neck

Do hand behind neck exercise to help fast healing after breast surgery. This activity promotes breast surgery healing done with or without restoration and takes the help of your doctor for safety.

You can perform this activity in a standing or sitting posture with help of stopwatch or timer.

How to perform the hand-behind-neck exercise?

Sit or stand conveniently with your feet on the floor. Grip your hand collectively on your lap.
Smoothly lift your hands to your head and place your elbow collectively facing you and this position should not stay out to your sides. Keep your head straight and don’t bend your neck.
Slid your hand on your top till you stretch back part of your neck.
After reaching to this point try to sperate your elbows out to your side.
Stay in this position for one minute.
If you are unable to keep this position, pull and move up to your elbows backward as good as you feel.
Keep breathing while stretching.
If you sense tightness nearby your chest or incision, take a pause and perform deep breathing exercise.
Gently come back to starting point from stretching by taking your elbows back in front side of you. Then, gently take down your arms on your lap.

Forward wall crawls

You can do forward wall crawls after breast surgery to promote healing. This exercise requires two pieces of tape for forwarding wall crawl activity.

How to do Forward wall crawls?

Stand straight in front of a wall.
There should be 6 inches distance between you and wall.
Reach as much high as possible with your unaffected arm and make a point on that place with tape. It helps to make a goal for your affect arm.
If you had both breast surgery, then make a point with the easiest moving arm.
After placing both hands against the wall in a comfortable way, try to crawl your fingers upward on the wall as far as possible and keep both hands at one level.
Avoid looking upward to your hand and arch your spine.
After reaching your aim point and stretch good, take a pause and breath.
Then, get back to starting point by crawling back with fingers on the wall.
Do this exercise ten times and every time lift your hand and try to crawl as much as possible.
There should be 6 inches distance between you and wall.
Reach as much high as possible with your unaffected arm and make a point on that place with tape. It helps to make a goal for your affect arm.
If you had both breast surgery, then make a point with the easiest moving arm.
After placing both hands against the wall in a comfortable way, try to crawl your fingers upward on the wall as far as possible and keep both hands at one level.
Avoid looking upward to your hand and arch your spine.
After reaching your aim point and stretch good, take a pause and breath.
Then, get back to starting point by crawling back with fingers on the wall.
Do this exercise ten times and every time lift your hand and try to crawl as much as possible.

Side Bends

After your breast surgery, you can perform this advanced exercise for healing faster.

How to do side bends?

Sit on a chair and hold your hands together on your lap.
Gently lift your arms above your head.
Bend your waist and move your body to your right side.
Pull your left arm gently some more toward the right.
At the same time, be sited firmly on the chair.
Stay in this position for 5 seconds and gently get back to starting point.
Do this exercise for five to ten times for each side.

Before doing any exercise make sure to ask your surgeon for safety. You can also do light work of household things after six weeks of surgery. Always discuss your pain and discomfort to avoid complications.

With above exercises have a well-balanced diet to promote your healing.

Exercise Promotes Healing After Breast Surgery