Should one wear the compression vest during exercising?

[decimal]

Hi,

I am about 8 weeks post op. Although I am completely healed up on the surface, I do experience some discomfort when I press in the nipular region. I have atleast a cm of loose skin around both my nipples which is why my doctor recommended that I should wear a compression vest for uptil 6 months.

As the topic states, my question is whether or not one should wear the compression vest during exercising at this stage of the recovery process?

I can understand that the vest would be very helpful during cardio (jogging, running) and prevent in bouncing around of the chest area, thus promoting the internal healing and contraction of the skin.

However, I am confused about weight training. With exercises like lat-pulldown and bench press, I feel that my vest would be too inhibiting when it comes to stretching my arms. My most pressing concern is that the excessive friction between the vest and skin (because of the underlying muscles extending and contracting during the exercises) might actually harm my skin.

I might be causing undue stress to the already loose skin by compressing it so tight and then stretching it forcefully.

Doctors, please advice what to do, and if I m just being scared for nothing.

PS: I do wear my compression vest 24*7. My only doubt pertains to whether I should wear it during weight training.

Thanks

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

There will come a time when you have to face the music and dance without the compression garment.  If you are 8 weeks or more after surgery, and assuming the healing has gone well, then you should be able to ditch the compression garment while you exercise.  But be prepared for there to be swelling when you get home -- that's when you put the garment on again -- at least for a few hours.

Try it and see how it goes!

Dr Jacobs

[DrBermant]

Hi,

I am about 8 weeks post op. Although I am completely healed up on the surface, I do experience some discomfort when I press in the nipular region. I have atleast a cm of loose skin around both my nipples which is why my doctor recommended that I should wear a compression vest for uptil 6 months.

As the topic states, my question is whether or not one should wear the compression vest during exercising at this stage of the recovery process?

I can understand that the vest would be very helpful during cardio (jogging, running) and prevent in bouncing around of the chest area, thus promoting the internal healing and contraction of the skin.

However, I am confused about weight training. With exercises like lat-pulldown and bench press, I feel that my vest would be too inhibiting when it comes to stretching my arms. My most pressing concern is that the excessive friction between the vest and skin (because of the underlying muscles extending and contracting during the exercises) might actually harm my skin.

I might be causing undue stress to the already loose skin by compressing it so tight and then stretching it forcefully.

Doctors, please advice what to do, and if I m just being scared for nothing.

PS: I do wear my compression vest 24*7. My only doubt pertains to whether I should wear it during weight training.

Thanks

I have many patients who use their garments during exercising. Bodyshaping Garments just as Stage 2 Compression Garments both can stabilize tissues during work outs. Not all garments are the same. Each of my patients are fitted for their garments before surgery.  Friction against healing tissues can be an issue, especially in a poor fitting garment.

There are 2 stages for wearing compression after gynecomastia surgery. Stage 1 is for protection and permits me to avoid the use of drains for almost all of my patients and is a major factor in their Bruising and Comfort after gynecomastia surgery.  Stage 2 is for the scars. Scars that evolve under pressure do better than scars without pressure. Longer use of the garments can really influence the evolution of the scars.

If activity results in swelling or discomfort, a patient is still in stage 1: garment use for protection. Swelling is the body's reaction to damage. For my patients, peak swelling at the time of surgery means a quicker recovery. New swelling can mean new trauma. Do you take a sprain and push it until it swells or is sore? Not if you want to recover faster. Now there are exceptions such as hand surgery. Lack of motion with hand injury can result in tendons healing to surrounding tissues. We therefore use hand therapists to optimize early motion with minimizing swelling, which for a patient alone can be a difficult tightrope to navigate. With elective gynecomastia surgery, is it worth it to push the injured tissues to the point that that have new swelling?

These are questions best directed towards your own doctor who is familiar with the problem, what was done and other factors.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Gynecomastia and Male Breast Reduction

[decimal]

Dr Bermant, by scars are you referring to surface scars on the skin or internal scar tissue?

[DrBermant]

Dr Bermant, by scars are you referring to surface scars on the skin or internal scar tissue?

Both surface and deep scars is what I was referring to.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Gynecomastia Surgery

[Dr. Cruise]

Normal healing will have the skin and soft tissues heal down to the underlying muscles by 6 weeks. This is the most important reason to wear a garment (at least in my opinion). After 6 weeks compression garments are useful to minimize swelling caused by exercise but are not a requirement. By 8 weeks there is not a significant advantage to wearing the garment but may be considered if you are experiencing pain during the workout. Certainly by 12 weeks there is no reason at all to wear the garment.

[decimal]

Thanks for the replies doctors.

So I finally weight trained for the first time since surgery. I am 10 weeks post op now.

I decided to play it safe and wear the compression vest while lifting weights.

Not only was my range of motion severely limited by the vest, but I could also feel my skin being pulled due to the excessive friction of the vest. While doing lat pulldowns and bench press, my incision sites started hurting and turned red. This is despite the incisions having healed up completely.

I think the vest is the problem. Hence I will try the same workout tomorrow without the vest. Hopefully that should work.

I am just scared that doing exercises right now that lead to stretching of the skin on the chest might prevent the incision scars from  fading away or make them worse? Is there any truth to this fear?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

I am just scared that doing exercises right now that lead to stretching of the skin on the chest might prevent the incision scars from  fading away or make them worse? Is there any truth to this fear?

At this time after surgery, exercise will not affect the scars nor will it stretch out the skin.  The scars will continue to fade and mature on their own -- and this may take many months (or even a year).

Enjoy your workout!

Dr Jacobs

[decimal]

Thank you, doctor