How to Be Swole

// posted September 9, 2010 by Lou Schuler

After putting it off for two years, I finally had surgery to repair a hernia. And now I’m swollen in all the wrong places. We all know what bruising looks like, and of all the places where you don’t want to see it … well, I’ll spare you the details.

The strangest part is feeling good over 90 percent of my body, but not being able to do anything because the other 10 percent requires four to six weeks of downtime to heal.

So even though my next book, The New Rules of Lifting for Abs, has an amazing core-training program, I have to wait four to six weeks before I can do any core training. No lifting, no golf, no batting practice, no yard work.

It’s only been 48 hours since surgery, and the sedentary life is already getting on my nerves. I’m trying hard not to be angry at my groin, but there it is.


View Comments (8)

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  • George Haberberger

    Lou,

    Good to see you posting again even if the subject is a bit sensitive. Hope you’re back at it soon.

    If you don’t mind, can you elaborate on the cause of the hernia? I hope it wasn’t a deadlift.

  • http://www.ericjmoss.com Eric Moss

    A speedy recovery to ya.

  • http://malepatternfitness.com Andrew Heffernan

    Hey Lou–this is a bit late, but I hope you’re faring better than when you wrote this.

    Nice MH piece on nutrition BTW…I usually can’t get through such articles so it’s saying something that I got through yours.

    Take care!

    Andrew

  • http://www.louschuler.com Lou Schuler

    Thanks guys!

    The recovery is going better than I expected. I’m two weeks post-surgery, and I can do everything but lift. I went to the gym yesterday to help my wife with her workout (she’s rehabbing a bad hip), and I was able to do body-weight squats and lunges with no discomfort.

    That’s a lot better than I expected. I was so swollen and sore the first few days I thought I wouldn’t be able to even walk normally by this point.

    When I went to the doctor on Friday for my post-op checkup, he said my lower-ab muscles were much thicker than what he normally has to cut through when he repairs a hernia. We joked that my workouts made his job harder.

    I don’t know if that’s making a difference in my speed of recovery. I’m just glad I was in shape before I went through it.

    To answer George’s question: No, it wasn’t any specific thing that caused it. Two of my brothers have had hernias in middle age, and another brother was born with one. (It was repaired when he was an infant.) So chances are good the weakness in that part of the abdominal wall was congenital. Maybe I exacerbated it with all the lifting, or maybe all that lifting delayed the inevitable by strengthening the tissues.

    I’m just glad it’s fixed, and I hope it stays fixed!

  • Gale

    Thank you for your post Lou, though this comment is a little late. I have a hernia the size of a softball “down there”. My doctor told me if it didn’t cause any pain or discomfort, not to have surgery. Was your hernia causing much pain before your operation?

    Eight years ago, when I first started working out and started my goal of losing 40 lbs. of belly fat (my body type is skinny fat, and ALL my fat was belly fat) I noticed a section of “fat” that wasn’t melting away. It took me a while to realize it was a hernia. I have no idea how many years I have had it, but far more than eight. I am 59, fit, and you can see my abs. But that bulge kind of pushes my “parts” to the other side. My wife doesn’t say anything but I know it bothers her. But it has never caused any pain or discomfort, just unsightly, and no body else can see it, so I will live with it.

  • http://www.louschuler.com Lou Schuler

    Gale, if your doctor says it’s not an issue, I’d go with his opinion.

    The decision to have surgery was mine. My hernia was nowhere near the size of a softball, but it was getting bigger over time, and it was starting to bother me.

    I trained around it for a couple of years, but it was getting to the point where it compromised my workouts, and I lost a lot of strength. I’ll be curious to see how much strength I get back when I’m cleared for heavy lifting.

    I know my days of deadlifting 2x my body weight are over (to be honest, I had exactly one day where I did that, and even then, pre-hernia, I knew it was too much weight for my middle-aged body to handle), but I want to see what I can do without a hole in my abdomen.

  • Valerie Daft

    Hi Lou,
    I hope you recover quickly.
    This is the first time I have been to your website. I have used the workouts in The Testosterone Advantage Plan and The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I have been using these workouts for about 2 years and it has changed my body.
    I am so glad I found your books. I have always worked out but I guess I just didn’t know how to do it the right way.
    Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
    Valerie Daft

  • Michael Pedrotti

    Hi Lou,
    I am also a first time visitor to your website. I just completed a full year of lifting using the New Rules. I started with strength, moved on the hypertrophy, and then the brutal fat loss programs. I’m gearing up for year two and am looking forward to more gains even at the age of 49. I’ve been a “lifetime” lifter but have mainly used bodybuilding techniques. I’m so glad to have moved on to some real weight lifting. I’m also an avid cyclist and ride 100-150 miles a week. All of the riding has probably hindered my size but I feel much stronger and believe the lifting is just the right thing to be doing. I was hit by a car while cycling 5 months ago and the down time recovering was a drag. But I’m back in full swing and I contribute that to the weight training. As you’ve found you’ll also be back at it soon because you RULE!!
    Take care,
    Michael Pedrotti

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