Getting back in the saddle after colon surgery and the loss of Piper

This Tuesday January 13th will mark four weeks since my colon surgery.

I’ve noted that I am surprised at the speed of my recovery, because I can tell you, when I woke up, I felt like hell, lol.

Anyhow, I’ve been itching to get back into my garage to start training again.

As part of the recovery process from this type of surgery, I was told to avoid lifting heavy things for a while.  The issue is that I have six incisions in my abdomen, so it is necessary to avoid exercises that engage the core.

Given that a big part of my fitness training involves lifting heavy barbells, I’ve had to adjust my training.

And you’d be surprised at how many exercises engage the core muscles at least a little bit.

Anyhow, my first session back in the garage was on January 2nd.  This was ahead of my planned schedule, but I absolutely needed to get started.

This was because we had just euthanized our golden retriever, Piper, on New Year’s Eve.  Yes, that is her at the top of the page.  Wasn’t she beautiful?

The house just felt empty and depressing without her presence, and I needed to do something to occupy my mind.

First, I did a few exercises that were focused on rehabbing my left shoulder.

I’ve been dealing with an issue with that shoulder since May of last year, and it prevented me from doing much pressing for most of the second half of 2025.

The rehab exercises involved one dumbbell exercise and then a few exercises with resistance bands.

I then moved onto a set of push-ups from the knees to avoid engaging the core muscles.  I did one set of 20 reps nice and slow.

Next I did two sets of seated dumbbell presses… 15 pounds x 12 reps, then 20 pounds x 12 reps.

I found that doing this exercise with the back support of the bench in a nearly vertical position helped take some pressure off the left shoulder issue.

I then did a couple sets of dumbbell concentration curls for the biceps while seated, and then a set of dumbbell skull crushers for the triceps.

I noted some minor discomfort near one of the incisions while lying flat on my back for the skull crushers.

Lastly, I did a couple sets of the horse stance to work on my legs.

Ultimately, it felt good to just get back out there to exercise a bit.

The next session didn’t occur until January 7th.  Admittedly, I was having trouble getting motivated because of the loss of Piper, and it was pretty damn cold for a few days.

The garage is detached from the house and has no insulation.  While I do have a few space heaters in there, if it is really cold outside, they only provide a little relief.

With that said, I added a little more training to the workout to include lat pulldowns.

I have to be careful with lat pulldowns because the core will get engaged a little bit.  In fact, years ago, I gave myself a hernia with this exercise when training with too much weight and bad form.

So, for this exercise, I used a very light weight and did very slow reps to keep the core as disengaged as possible.

I also added a very light set of barbell curls to see if I could do those without engaging the core much.

I finished this workout with one set of Bulgarian split squats with no weight and a horse stance.

The next day I did a little bit of cardio with a routine on my recumbent bike.  It sucked to say the least.

I didn’t last long as this routine has a bit of intensity and I started out too quickly.

On Friday the 9th, I got back out there and attempted the bench press for the first time (after going through my shoulder rehab exercises).

The shoulder felt ok, but lying flat on the bench was somewhat uncomfortable, particularly as I increased the weight on the bar.

When done properly, the bench press DOES involve the core muscles.

I knew I was not going to attempt anything real heavy, but I was hoping to at least get in three sets of five reps at the top weight of the session.

The top weight target was 135, and I worked my way up to that.

The barbell went up fine for the five reps, but I was feeling a pinch in my lower left abdomen, so I thought it best to end the bench press session there.

When I get back to it tomorrow, I will do incline bench press instead.

I followed up the bench press with some flies and then regular push-ups (off the knees) to see how the abdomen would feel.  I did the reps nice and slow, and it was fine.

I then upped the weight from the last session for the lat pulldowns and they went well.

This was followed by the seated dumbbell presses and I got a little ambitious with the weight here.

The problem with seated dumbbell presses is getting the dumbbells into position when you start lifting heavier weight and you’ve got an issue with a shoulder.

This issue is compounded by the need to avoid engaging the core muscles too much when hoisting the dumbbells into position.

I managed to work up to a set of 30 x 6 reps and the hard part was getting the dumbbells into position for the lift.  I’ll likely be focusing on lighter weights for a bit.

I finished the session with some curls and dumbbell skull crushers, adding weight or reps to the previous session.

This was a good bit of work, so I decided to train the legs the next day.

First I did a 30 minute Zone 2 ride on the bike.  This will be a priority going forward to get my conditioning back in order.

I then followed that ride with split squats, leg extensions and a wall squat.

Final Thoughts

I’m pretty happy with where things stand with my recovery.  I meet with the surgeon on the 22nd to evaluate where things stand and to get his opinion on when I can start back with the squats and deadlifts.

Given how I feel right now, I still think I am a month away from doing the major compound movements.

Therefore, I’ve decided my attention will be more on conditioning with higher reps and sets along with a good bit of cardio.

It is possible that I lose a bit of weight with that type of training, but I am ok with that for now.

Improved conditioning will provide a foundation for handling more work down the road when I am able to get back to the compound lifts.

By the way, if you are looking for equipment for your home gym, here are what I view as the necessities.