Today marks 6 weeks since my bi-lateral inguinal hernia repair. I've been back in the gym for 3 weeks now ramping it up slowly. Most of my precautionary carefulness has been focused on squats & deadlifts. Surgery was Mar. 15 by Mar 21 I was back to my usual hiking in hilly terrain with my dogs, 8 miles on 3/21.
I can do weighted leg lifts (ab exercise) off the end of a bench with no issue but rollouts with an Ab Wheel hurts at 1 of the 4 incision sites. When I say "hurts" it's soreness that I feel I shouldn't ignore given I was cut there. I've been doing a set or two of partial roll outs taking it to the point where I feel safe every workout. I figure the stress will hasten the healing and break up scar tissue. I just don't feel comfortable rolling out parallel with the floor and tearing something. Perhaps in a couple more weeks I may just have to ignore the pain/soreness I feel to get beyond it. My surgeon said at 6 weeks post-op I'm unrestricted and can start back. Obviously I took a more aggressive approach but limited the stress on my abdomen.
I've been going through the motions with light high rep low bar squats for 2 weeks. I just added deadlifts and being conservative with those too. Last Friday I tried wearing my lifting belt for the first time since the surgery. The belt didn't feel good when I went down in the squat. I felt it at same incision site that bothers me in the roll outs. Other than the ab wheel and the lifting belt I do not feel discomfort or problem with my incisions or repairs.