Keith L....question for you.
Be careful with arm exercises like I am about do describe because you will need to keep your core tight when you do these and the reason you are not supposed to life is your doctor does not want you to stress your abdominal (i.e. core) muscles by lifting since they are required. After about 8 weeks you should have full use of your abdominals again.
Windmills, basically just like you see little kids do, you are going rotate your arms at the shoulders in big circles close to your body keeping your arm straight. Do this for 30 seconds.
Arm rotations point your arms out at a 45 degree angle (like you are making the Y in the YMCA dance), keep your arms straight. Now make circles keeping your arm muscles tight. Do this for 3 seconds.
Repeat these two exercises for 5 to 10 minutes with 30 seconds of rest between each set. Repeat as often as you feel you can.
Modified Bicep curls - Using some sort of light weight (can of soup up to a half gallon of milk), sit down on the edge of a chair or your bed or something with your legs apart. Bend forward and rest your elbow on the inside of your knee and extend your arm down toward the ground. Now pull the weight up to you chest in a bicep curl motion, engaging only your bicep. This posture will allow you to focus all of your pull on your arm and not engage your core muscles.
Modified Dips. Get a kitchen or other hard chair that does not have wheels. Sit on the edge and put your hands behind you on each side of the chair so that you are holding the edge. Now scoot your but off the edge keeping your knees bent and your hips bent too, keeping your back muscles but not your core muscles tight. Dip your butt down toward the ground and then back up. Go as low as you can comfortably, start with 10 repetitions. Do 4 sets of these or build up to 4. You should feel the pull in your tricep (this is the best muscle to tone and build to fill out the space that use to be fat, the second muscle is bicep which we worked in the previous exercise).
