Legs after a hernia

[Felinecougar]

I have a 40 year old friend who is doing great on his upper body after a hernia operation but his legs are not.

He is unable to do squats and instead is doing walking lunges with dumb bells.

What would you men advise for him to do for his quads?

[SiLvErBaK]

I have a 40 year old friend who is doing great on his upper body after a hernia operation but his legs are not.

He is unable to do squats and instead is doing walking lunges with dumb bells.

What would you men advise for him to do for his quads?

heavy extensions will be good(watch the knees(acl) on this one) get him on the leg press aswell. legs very close together. i think the key is form and weight. use more machines for now, light weight high high reps, but excersises which are not compound movements

[St]

Ya i would go with machines as Silverback said.

[Sean Summers]

Step ups.
SS

[Felinecougar]

Hey thanks, machines and step ups.

Sean Summers would he be holding onto dumb bells?

[Sean Summers]

He could hold them or use a barbell. He'll have to play it by ear. I had a hernia just below my belly button. Operation done on Fri and back in the gym on Mon. Funny because the student who helped with the operation saw me in the gym 3 days later. He was like WTF? No probs. I just worked around the injury. If he's really bad I would do leg extensions. Do 4-5 drop sets with 4 drops each - that will help keep his size.
SS

[Felinecougar]

OH my gawd Sean......you will always be my hero. You were in the gym that soon after the operation.

I'll pass this on to him.

[dainbramaged]

Is it the compression from squatting so that he tightens his abdominals that is bothering him, or trying to stabilize the weight during the ascent/descent? Depending, he could try very wide stance (similar to sumo) squats with light weight, higher reps. That may utilize a bit more hamstrings and gluteals but take some emphasis off the necessary stabilization. He could try some single legged leg press with seat greatly reclined, though that would be iffy. If he can do the dynamic lunges with DB's, then maybe some static ones (maybe use a smith machine to help?). If he's adventurous, he could try some ski squats, or balls squats against the wall with DB's in hand (like a hack squat). Like Sean said, gotta work around it and find out what's painful and what's not.

[bigben]

I think he should see a physiotherapist and discuss the particular type of hernia he had operated on. Hernia is a generic term and doesn't tell us what kind it was. He should make sure he allows it to heal properly or he could be back under the knife. The physio or his surgeon can probably tell him what type of stress caused it (or was it congenital) and how to avoid stressing it again, especially while healing. I'm not saying he has to quit training, but I'm saying he needs to tailor his routine to work around the specific type of injury, and pain may not be a proper guide as many have experienced no pain until the rupture occurs.

[Gettin'r'round]

check out the bottom of this page:
http://www.hernia.org/whatsport.html

the top is rather gross

[Freebsd1977]

He could hold them or use a barbell. He'll have to play it by ear. I had a hernia just below my belly button. Operation done on Fri and back in the gym on Mon. Funny because the student who helped with the operation saw me in the gym 3 days later. He was like WTF? No probs. I just worked around the injury. If he's really bad I would do leg extensions. Do 4-5 drop sets with 4 drops each - that will help keep his size.
SS

Wow SS, that's great news with the fast recovery. Just a question, I don't know much about hernia surgeries but I'm guessing stitches are involved, how did you work around the possibility of ripping those open?

[shithead]

I've had three hernias and one directly from heavy squats. That was my last one and it ripped through an old incision. I didnt get it fixed for two years after the incident. The intestine came out near my groin and found its way to my ballsac. Looked like I had a third nut.

I had to have polypropylene meshing put in to seal it.

[shithead]

I did step ups as my first leg exercise after my break.