Hernia and hanging?

I had double hernia surgery, for a lower intestinal hernia a little over a year ago. I have been waiting for it to fully heal before I do any hanging. Do you guys think I’ve waited long enough, or does it even matter?

They wrap the intestines in this mesh thing that is so freaking strong I feel like I have a super hero lower intestine. However things are tight down there. But a little stretching and everything loosens up nicely.

I thought I’d try starting with very little weight at first and see if there is any pain. Does this seem like a good idea, have any of you hangers went through hernia surgery?

Excellent question, wish I could answer it, but can’t. Surprised this has not come up.

I’ve had a hernia operation and the mesh will protect you from any new damage. That’s great stuff and with it being over a year you shouldn’t have any worries. I think if you gave a call to any surgon he would tell you that your safe for just about any activity.

I agree with you, I would start out light and work up slowly, keeping tabs on your progress by keeping good records. Record once a month and only increase weight when gains have stopped or slowed significantly. Wear an ADS between sessions to avoid losses due to healing and you should be on your way.

Thanks Monty, how long did you wait after you’re surgery before hanging? I didnt wait long at all before doing jelqing and pumping, maybe a month. But I thought I better give it a while before hanging.

It had been many years ago

twat would know if this has been brought up before. And since it hasn’t, I’m glad someone did.

Several years ago, I had double hernia repair without the mesh, yet the pain never went away on the left side. The left side started bulging out a bit again, so a second surgeon re-repaired the left side, put in mesh, and clipped a branch of the ilioinguinal nerve at the same time. He said the ongoing pain was because that nerve had been entrapped in scar tissue. Clipping the nerve and inserting the mesh relieved some of the pain, but left me numb in places guys don’t want to be numb. Moral of the story: if you ever have to see a surgeon again, think twice before letting him “clip a little nerve.”

I don’t do any hanging, but I’ve been stretching for several weeks now. When I do a downward stretch to the right, I can really feel it tugging all the way into my left, lower abdomen. There must still be a good bit of scar tissue there, the same scar tissue that had “entrapped” a nerve. Stretching left me sore at first, but it wasn’t what I would call painful. The abdominal soreness after a session of PE has decreased, so I conclude that it has helped stretch out some of the abdominal scar tissue. Too bad it can’t rebuild the clipped nerve. :(

This is more information than what you asked for, but if anyone else searches for and finds this thread, it could be helpful if they’re wondering about doing PE after a hernia repair. If you yourself had your surgery a year ago, I think you’re beyond any danger of an entrapped nerve, or of damaging the mesh, etc. For others, I can’t say how soon one can safely do hanging or stretching after such a surgery. The surgeon can tell you when it’s OK to resume “normal” activity, but PE is probably not “normal activity” in their book. (Ask him when you can start playing rugby again :) .) You’re smart to follow the general advice: start out slowly and back off if you start feeling any genuine pain. But for anyone else anticipating hernia repair: I wish I had done some gentle PE stretching while I was healing the first time around, and then I may have avoided an entrapped nerve in the first place.

NO this is exactly the kinda information I wanted to get. I want to hear what kinda things people with hernia surgery went though. I bet this thread will slowly grow, only 10% of men get hernias but that number is bigger in weight lifters. And there seems to be a lot of weight lifters on this forum.

I started doing stretches and mild PE almost right away (maybe a month). And always wondered if that was a good idea or not. Now after reading what you wrote I think it was. I have little to no pain in the area, and no numbness either. So thank you very much for the description of you’re experience.

A couple questions, Pud—

Had you done any PE before your hernia and/or the hernia repair? Perhaps it helped the healing process to have the lower abdominal tissues already “limbered up,” as it were. Too bad we can’t get a surgeon’s input on this; I don’t understand all the dynamics of adhesions, scar tissue build up, “entrapped nerves,” etc. But I agree that doing light PE a month after surgery was a good thing.

What brought on your hernia(s) in the first place? More than one doctor told me that exercising abdominal muscles (e.g., sit-ups) cannot prevent hernias. But certain things are definite causes for those people predisposed to hernias. In my case, the initial hernias were caused by heavy lifting. The first repair may have been poorly done, and the mesh procedure would have been preferred. However, one time after the first surgery I strained the wrong muscles during an intense session of edging. It definitely aggravated the entrapped nerve, and may have contributed to a repeat hernia. Aaargh.

Yes I did vacuum pump for years, but had not learned about jelqing or pumping correctly until after the surgery.

I think doing squats on my Bow Flex caused it. Not really sure probably just just a combination of being predisposed and straining to hard. Before the hernia I just pushed myself way to hard. I really worked out with way to much intensity. I strained a muscle in my back so bad it took months for it to completely heal. I just wouldn’t quit, I worked through the pain, I would workout even when I was sick.

Now that I see what kinda damage you can do to yourself im the opposite. I do not push myself to complete failure, I dont strain hard with the max amount of weight I can possibly lift. I take it easy, im trying to improve my health not injure myself. Funny this seems obvious now, but it took me blowing my intestines out to learn it!