Darnah Mercieca: 0:03

Wondering what exercise is best before your explant surgery. Today we'll talk about what exercises you should be doing and what you should be avoiding as you prepare for surgery. This is Empowered Explant the podcast helping women ditch their breast implants with confidence. I'm D Merziker board certified health and wellness coach and explant warrior, and for those who don't know which is likely most of you, because this isn't something that I really talk about much or advertise but I'm also a certified personal trainer and I love talking about fitness, especially when it comes to helping women on their explant journeys, of course, because this is what I talk about most of the time. So today we're going to talk about something super important but not really talked about that much, and that's exercise before explant surgery. It kind of feels like we get so consumed thinking about what we need to do after surgery as we recover, that we don't even think about what exercise should look like before surgery, but it can actually help you recover faster. If you're dealing with breast implant illness, you might be feeling pretty limited in how much you can do physically right now let's face it or it might be uncomfortable. It might feel uncomfortable to exercise carrying the weight of your implants, whether it's fatigue, pain or just a general feeling of weakness. I get it, I was there. It can feel overwhelming to think about working out when your body is already struggling. But here's the thing movement, even gentle movement, can be so helpful preparing your body for surgery, and it doesn't have to be intense or exhausting. In fact, it shouldn't be those things. It should be all about listening to your body and being kind to yourself through this process as you prepare for your surgery. So stick with me to the end because I'm going to break down what role exercise plays in preparing your body for surgery, the best exercise to do and what exercises you should likely avoid before your surgery. A quick disclaimer please know I'm not a medical doctor and this podcast does not constitute medical or mental health advice. I share from my personal experience, research and conversations with other people. If you're experiencing symptoms, pain, post-surgery complications or mental health concerns, please seek care from your medical provider or surgeon and please make any medical decisions in consultation with a qualified and experienced healthcare professional.

Darnah Mercieca: 2:53

First up, let's talk about what preparing your body for surgery really means. It's not about being in top physical shape or pushing yourself to the limit or being at a certain weight. Instead of that, you might be happy to hear that less is more here. So I want you to think about doing strategic exercises that can help with things like blood flow, muscle strength and flexibility. These things actually help reduce recovery time after surgery, which is just a huge bonus.

Darnah Mercieca: 3:26

You want to focus on strengthening key areas like your core, back, legs and glutes. By strengthening these major parts of your body, you'll feel so much more supported and capable after surgery. Because, think about it, right, you don't have your arms to help you. About it, right, you don't have your arms to help you. So, getting up out of bed or core, standing up from the bed or couch or floor and sitting on the toilet, all legs and glutes so you got to make sure that those areas are strong and ready to support you All right, but exercise does a lot more than just strengthen your muscles. It also reduces stress, which is obviously very present before explant surgery, and when you move your body, it releases endorphins which help you feel more calm and less anxious. Exercise also helps your body's natural detox pathways by boosting circulation and lymphatic flow, which is going to help flush out toxins and keep your immune system strong. Now we're not aggressively detoxing before we explant all right, but we do want to encourage that system to be functioning, and that's going to really just help with making sure that your system's not completely overloaded when you go into surgery, that your body is capable of some detox functionality, even though after surgery you'll do a lot more to support that function. Plus, getting your blood flowing to your skin and muscles brings oxygen and nutrients where they're needed, and that's going to help your skin and your muscles get ready to heal and repair after surgery.

Darnah Mercieca: 5:24

So I got to take a breath and a sip of water. I feel like I'm moving quicker today and I think it's because I just had a lovely green tea. I'm feeling energized and my boyfriend's picking me up in 15 minutes. It's date night tonight. It's Saturday night. I'm super excited. So we're going to get through this and it's going to be fun and great. So lots of good reasons why it's important to get your body moving now, before surgery.

Darnah Mercieca: 5:57

All right, now let's move into the best types of exercises to do. There are three main types of exercise you want to include. First is gentle cardio, like walking or cycling. These movements help improve your circulation, which is great for your overall recovery and also is going to help reduce risk levels. You know you think of blood clots and things like that. So you know, the better your circulation is really, the less risk you're going to have after surgery as well. Second is strength training. For this I recommend focusing on light resistance exercises, especially for your core, legs and glutes. These are the areas, like I mentioned earlier, that are going to help support your body through surgery and recovery.

Darnah Mercieca: 6:48

But you don't need to go heavy Body weight exercises, light weights or resistance bands are definitely enough. Obviously, if you're already accustomed to lifting heavier weights or you have a more athletic regime already and that feels good for you, still, hey, I'm not saying you need to dial that back at all, um, but listen to your body and make sure you're adjusting where you need to to prepare for your surgery. So, even if you are super athletic, you're used to lifting heavy weights. You know, sometimes I think we can get stuck in that Like, well, this is just what I do, like if I, if I go lighter, I'm going to get weaker or I'm taking a step backwards, um, but if your body is telling you like, hey, girl, you need some rest, or you know you've got chest pain or you're really struggling with fatigue or achiness. Struggling with fatigue or achiness, or those symptoms are flaring up a lot, it might be best to dial it back just for now. That strength will come back, I promise.

Darnah Mercieca: 8:02

And thirdly is flexibility and mobility work, which I think is forgotten way too often. Just in general. Incorporating stretching or yoga is a gentle way to keep your body flexible and release tension, especially in the areas that will be affected by surgery, like your chest, shoulders and back. Keeping those muscles relaxed and limber can really help you heal more comfortably after surgery. And if you're suffering from back or neck or shoulder pain or joint pain like I totally was when I had my breast implants all heavy on my chest and pulling my shoulders forward, this can really help before surgery too. All right, now let's talk about what to avoid right before surgery.

Darnah Mercieca: 8:57

As a personal trainer, I usually recommend that my clients ease off of chest exercises the week before explant surgery. Now, there's reasons for this. Okay, I think you know I hear surgeons say it doesn't really matter. You can kind of exercise as much as you want leading up to surgery. I hear a lot of different things, but the last thing you want is sore, overworked pectoral muscles going into surgery or recovery. You want your chest muscles to be relaxed and not in a state of repair from exercise, because we want your body focused on repairing from surgery. Gentle exercises that turn on the chest without resistance are still fine Things like planks, certain yoga poses, maybe some incline push-ups like on a wall or a bench but I suggest you avoid adding too much resistance or heavy weight and, like I said, that's especially for that week leading into your surgery.

Darnah Mercieca: 10:04

And you'll also want to avoid high impact activities Anything that puts excessive strain on your body. You do not need more strain on your body right now. This is to avoid sore and fatigued muscles. That can just make recovery more uncomfortable. It'll also help prevent any injuries and any unnecessary stress or tension in the areas that need to heal stress or tension in the areas that need to heal. And finally, don't overexert yourself. This is also coming back to another reason for avoiding that super heavy weight exercise or high impact exercise. Overexertion just isn't where you want to be right now. This isn't the time to push through fatigue or pain. Listen to your body and be gentle. The goal here is to build a strong foundation for healing, not to exhaust yourself.

Darnah Mercieca: 11:05

I want to take a moment to just share a little of my own story here, because I know how hard this can be. Seriously, before my explant surgery I was exhausted, completely fatigued and weak. Oh, I can slow down and breathe now and go a little slower, because my boyfriend just texted. I just saw it pop up in the corner of my screen saying I usually have it on, do not disturb, but, um, because we were getting close to the time he was going to pick me up, I didn't and I just saw a little message pop up saying that he's running late. So it's one of those moments where I'm actually really glad for that, and he's usually a very punctual person. That's why I was like pushing through. Um, but yay, okay. So back to my story.

Darnah Mercieca: 11:54

I had gone from being really active and even teaching group workout classes during the time where everything was shut down, to barely being able to exercise at all. It was really sad. My muscles had atrophied, which basically means shrunk. I was really weak to the point where I was underweight and just didn't have the strength that I used to at all. Um, on top of that, I had major pain in my neck and my shoulders and sharp pain in my breasts, um, in both sides, but my left side was worse.

Darnah Mercieca: 12:37

And forget about running. Oh my goodness, that wasn't even a thing for me for a long time and I used to say I'm just not a runner, but really it was just that I couldn't do it, like I couldn't breathe, it was uncomfortable I it would cause me pain, like I would run and my shoulders would hurt and my neck would hurt, which is just really weird. But now I know it was the scar tissue, the capsule that had grown into my armpits, grown into my ribs, pulling all of this forward the weight, my posture was messed up, my neck had been made crooked. Oh my goodness, just what these things did to my body, to my skeletal system, to my muscles. It just ah, it was tough.

Darnah Mercieca: 13:28

But I knew that movement was still important, even if it had to look different than it used to Right, and I think that that's that's kind of what I was saying earlier. Sometimes what you can do now has to look different than what it used to, at least for now, until you're on the other side of recovery and healing. So I focused on functional exercises, which I'm a big fan of, things that help me feel stronger while also relieving tension in my body. It wasn't about pushing myself hard, but preparing my body for surgery and giving myself the best chance at a smooth recovery. It was just all about a mental reframe, right? It's not that? Oh, I'm weak, I can't do this. I don't feel as strong as I used to. I just reframed those thoughts and I kept telling myself that I would make a full comeback after surgery. And here's the amazing part Nearly three years later, I'm the strongest I've ever been. At 36 years old, I even just did my first ever pull up, and a few years ago I wouldn't have even seen that as a possibility. I thought that was my normal, and oh my goodness, it was not. It was so far from my normal. So I promise you your body can heal and you can come back stronger from this too.

Darnah Mercieca: 15:15

All right, so how do you make this work for you? How do you kind of come up with a plan for this work for you? How do you kind of come up with a plan for this? I've got some tips for you, okay. So start by scheduling regular gentle workouts. Keep a mix of cardio, strength and flexibility, and make sure it feels doable where you're at right now. Don't schedule workouts for future you yet. Okay, just start small.

Darnah Mercieca: 15:41

The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week. Now that's just a guideline to follow to make sure you're getting the minimum amount of exercise your body needs. You can break those 150 minutes up into smaller chunks of time, like 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for example. It might be more than that. Maybe you do an hour a day of activity, maybe it's 45 minutes a day, maybe some days it's 20 minutes a day and others it's an hour. Figure it out according to your schedule, but I do recommend getting activity in each day instead of just, you know, breaking it into two big workouts two days a week or three days a week, and you should also include muscle strengthening activities at least two days a week. If you can, I recommend that you consult with a professional, like a physiotherapist or a personal trainer, who can help create an exercise program specifically for you so they can take into account your BII symptoms where you have pain, your limitations, your restrictions, your energy levels, all of that and this can be a great way to make sure you're doing exercises that support your health and won't aggravate any symptoms that you're experiencing. If you need help with that, feel free to reach out to me.

Darnah Mercieca: 17:10

And lastly, find small ways to stay active throughout your day. Take short walks, stretch when you can, and find little moments to move your body. Even small, consistent movement can make a big difference in how you feel and it really it's like a compound effect. You know it's all of those little movements that you do throughout the day really add up and so, yeah, I just, you know, build, build a little stretching into your morning routine. Try and get a little stretch in before you go to bed, even if it's just a little something to ease your neck and shoulders. You know, it really is just so helpful to start being more mindful of how you're moving your body throughout the day.

Darnah Mercieca: 18:00

I've linked to a couple of videos I added to YouTube before my explant surgery showing you some pre-surgery exercises and stretches that might feel good for you, so you can check those out. It's actually kind of funny for me looking back on those videos, because I had my breast implants and I can kind of like remember how it felt and just I look at where I'm at now and how my body feels now and I look at me then and I just remember being so lethargic and doing those stretches, feeling like it was such a big effort. And now I don't know, I just feel like a new woman, I feel like I've been blessed with a new body. It's like the same but new, and it's really a big, big difference. So, like I said, um, meet yourself where you're at right now and as you're going through these exercises and stretches and as you're feeling things in your body, I just really recommend that you kind of take note of that.

Darnah Mercieca: 19:09

I love journaling. I think it's really helpful here. You can also use the symptoms tracker that I've got the free symptoms tracker that I've got, and you can take a note of where you're feeling tightness, where you might get breast pain, when you feel out of breath, which muscles are feeling really fatigued or weak, and by taking note of that and just being mindful of it it's not about shaming yourself or putting yourself down or getting depressed over it, it's just about being mindful and aware of it so that then, when you explant and you've healed and you do those same movements and exercises, you can really notice the shift in your body. And in that moment, in those moments after surgery it'll be enough to bring tears to your eyes. I promise you it did for me, because it was like, oh my gosh, I can do this without pain. Now I can do this with energy. I can run for more than like 30 seconds, 20 seconds, without being out of breath and in pain. The transformation is real and so, yeah, just kind of treat now as a bit of an experiment and a way to really connect with your body and find compassion for your body and excitement for what's to come.

Darnah Mercieca: 20:43

If you're feeling overwhelmed or unsure about exercise before your explant surgery, just remember it's about being kind to your body and finding movement that works for you now. It's not about setting any crazy fitness goals, just getting to your explant day. Feeling surgery strong. That is totally a hashtag so you can recover as quickly as possible. As you're preparing for your surgery, don't forget to download my 33-step explant planning checklist at checklistempoweredexplantcom. It's packed with tips to help you feel more prepared and confident going into your surgery. And hey, you know, if you found this episode helpful, my ask is that you share it with another breasty preparing for explant surgery and maybe even become accountability buddies as you get surgery strong. More women need to really get on board with giving themselves the love and self-care they need, their body needs, before they go into surgery. And you know, this recovery journey, this healing journey, begins now. I'll see you here next week Breasties.