Exercise & Nutrition Q&A - 10/7/2013

Questions about Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, or Cooking? Throw them out here!

I am coming up on 4 weeks post-op.  I have been walking, need something to help with the bat wings (underarms).  I seen your other post, what is a skull crusher or what other exercises do you recommend for this area?

Any exercise that works primarily your biceps and triceps will help. Secondarily you want to work your chest and your back. Given where you are you have at least 2 more weeks before you should start using weights and honestly I would wait until you are 8 weeks post-op before going heavy on anything. Do low intensity cardio (walking/bike) and Hight Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio, about 20 mins worth. Any weighted exercise you do until 8 weeks should be fairly light, this is a good time to work on form. Body weight exercises like lunges,squats, pushup, etc. are good for during this time too.

The bicep and tricep exercise help to fill the space. The chest and back exercises help to pull the skin toward the center of your body. Do not expect miracles. This is the least elastics skin on our bodies and it does not retract very well when you lose weight.

Some exercises that help:

Curls (barbell or dumbbell), hammer curls, whatever curl you do, do not come all the way up,when you near the top of your range of motion stop before reaching the top and keep you bicep contracted, when you go all the way up your bicep will relax. You want to keep the muscle under tension. When you reach the top point hold the contraction for 1 second before returning to the bottom, again here do not go all the way down, keep the muscle contracted through the entire range of motion.

Tricep extensions, tricep pushdowns, dips (bench or dip rack), Skull Crushers, here is a video on how to do a skull crusher (http://youtu.be/d_KZxkY_0cM). A skull crusher is a lying close grip barbell move where you put your arms over your head and basically raise a barbell up from a lower position. Confusing I know but he video will make it all clear.

Chest - pushups, bench press, flys

Back - Lat pulldowns, rows (standing and seated, bent over), reverse flys