You would have to listen first to what your doc says - and make sure that you ask if he/she has experience w/ athletes / lifters (as opposed to strippers..).
The first 3-4 weeks they just simply tell u to not raise your arms above your shoulders. Also you really can't anyway. You will probably just want to lay around and die for the first 4-7 days -- the first day or two really suck, but after that its just annoying. In addition to trying to accommodate a whole bunch of new stuff in your chest, there are also some nerves cut, so you get random "sparks" of nerves as they regenerate themselves. That settles down over time as well.
This IS invasive surgery in an area that is integral to your daily mobility, so you have to understand that if you plan to do it, you have to make the appropriate concessions or it simply will not come out how you want it and it won't be the doctor's fault. The implants have to first settle into the pocket the doc creates, then the whole area needs to stretch a bit to get used to them, then they start to heal. Here's where you need to spend some time not moving your upper body around. That's the first 2 weeks.
Then the scar tissue starts to form which is normal in the healing process. But that's what you need to break apart once the healing is complete. Honestly I can't imagine doing a surgery like that and NOT doign some sort of chest training afterwards to really give you back mobility. I never thought about that but I have no problems w/ it at all and didn't have any problems at all after another month or two of training. When you start back training, you are not only moving around a lot which your body has break up the scar tissue for, but you are also putting more stress on those muscles than a non-training or light training person would. So your body learns to accommodate whatever you require of it - but it just takes a little time and just keep working it.
I"m not sure what was up w/ this person you talked to - you bet it hurts when you start up again --- but then so does starting up again after you've been sick for a few weeks or if you don't do stretches for a while. Its not like a nasty pain - its more like just a tightness that you have to patiently work through. And also your body needs to relearn how to use those muscles - both the pectorals themselves and also those muscles in conjunction with other muscles -- like if you do back, your chest will engage a bit regardless of the fact that you are doing a pull motion -- its not completely decoupled.
Here's a chronology of how I started back into training:
Note I dieted down a bit prior to the surgery just so I'd have some room to get fat with just being sendentary during recovery.
Jan 14, 2000 - surgery
-- the first 2 days you pretty much stay drugged up and don't move -- feels like an elephant sitting on your chest. You also wonder why the hell you did that to yourself, and then you fall asleep again. That whole feeling goes away after the 2nd day.
-- the rest of the week you have a hard time getting up & down stairs, going to the bathroom just plain sucks, either someone always gets whatever you need or you move EVERYTHING down to waist / counter level that you might need because you are NOT lifting your arms up for anything. (Note the worst part of this was that I couldn't shave my armpits -- that just plain old grossed me out....) Oh yea, showers -- you can't because the sutures are healing , so get someone nice to wash your hair for you. Also schedule someone to come and give you a chair massage because your lower back will be in so much pain from laying for several days.
-- You work off the pain killers & muscle relaxers in a couple days. You'll experience some water retention for about a week - due to the anesthesia -- you can put a fiber drink in your diet before you go to bed to help reduce that. Also you may experience a bit of depression the following week as the vicodins or whatever pain killers they give you are finally flushed out of your system -- small withdrawal. Not a big deal tho - just helps to be aware that if that happens, its not you, its the drugs.
Week 2 - 3 -- still very tight in the torso area, sleeping only on your back can get hard to do. Be VERY careful driving - that's the worst because you can't easily turn around to look left / right to turn or back up. By week 3 you may want to do some cardio - and I mean something like walk on the treadmill -- again no bouncing and you want to be sooo careful about rotating your torso.
Week 4 --- By now I was out dancing all night, the girls were a bit overperky - but they will do that - still settling. More cardio, leg workouts, probably started upper body again -- here its not like you are going back in to lift like you just took some time off -- you have to slowly ease back into it and find the range of motion that you can start with and go from there. Biceps & triceps probably ok - but here again, the pecs will engage in some part of the lift, if even just in how you sit, stand or bend so you will occassionally feel some tightness and also some spasms as the chest muscles contract when they do engage. Its weird, but its not a bad thing.
Weeks 4-8 -- Ease back into training and cardio as your range of motion allows. Back workouts are ok, but for ex when you are on your last reps of a set, sometimes the primary target muscle gets tired and other muscles step in to start compensating -thats when if your chest muscles engage, you will feel that weird contraction / spasm. Again - it just feels mostly tight. Here you are working on breaking up the scar tissue so you will have that range of motion and can accommodate the contraction for the strength you are getting back to.
- Chest -- here I'd still start just w/ the range of motion and very light weights. Its not that you are weak - its just that your muscles are trying to get rid of the scar tissue and relearn how to work w/ these bags of saline / silicone in the way. You will feel very tight across the chest and its just annoying - but here you have to look at your chest training almost as PT to get your full range back. The strength will come back. I never noticed that my muscles were damaged or anything. The one thing you will notice is when you do any sort of chest contraction is the funky look that is created when the implants get squished in the contraction -- looks like a balloon getting pressed on. That's the only thing.
So to your question of begin training - I'm saying I started training for COMPETITION -- which means 6 days/week, very intense, lifting as much as I can within my ability to stay comfortable on the chest workouts -- I started working into developing the range as soon as it was comfortable - that might be 6 weeks out from your surgery.
This chick you talked to may have thought she could go back into the gym & start lifting again like "before" - but there's that whole "rehab" phase you have to go thru and maybe she just didn't realize that or thought it would always be like that. First give it appropriate time to heal and then slowly start working back into getting the range of motion, break up the scar tissue and it all comes back.
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Anyway, I wanted to find out from someone who actually knows what it is to lift heavy and often. I guess a break never hurt anyone.
