Laser eye surgery is the most preferred eye refractive error surgery in the medical industry. The primary cause to prefer this surgery is faster recovery and less invasive process. Faster recovery indicates less time needed to resume the day to day activities and so exercises and sports.
Resuming Exercises
When can a laser eye surgery patient resume day to day exercises and workouts after the surgery? Recovery time varies from one person to one person, as every patient has unique refractive error and eye prescription. And hence, there is no single answer for this question. Another reason for varied answers is because exercises and workouts range from lower impact to higher impact and wider range of the same.
Factors Influencing Recovery
There are multiple factors that influence the total recovery period after the surgery and so the waiting period before resuming the exercises.
- The first factor is the kind of laser eye surgery the patient has gone through. For instance, if the patient has gone through the Lasik surgery, the overall recovery time before resuming the exercises is only two to four weeks. On the other hand, if the surgery is PRK, then the recovery time is more compared to Lasik surgery. Hence, the patient has to wait for more than a month, as a minimum waiting period. Other surgeries like SMILE, LASEK have comparatively lesser recovery time and so lesser waiting period.
- Another important factor is from the patient side. Every eye condition is unique and so every patient’s eye prescription. Based on this prescription, the refractive error correction surgery varies and eventually, the recovery time of the same.
Resuming Exercises
Today, people have been becoming more health consciousness and so yoga has become part of their morning routine. Yoga can be resumed after one week of the laser eye surgery. Slight jogging can also be resumed after this period. Remember that hard workouts and intensive yoga exercises must be avoided, at the time of resuming and it is fine to do the same after a month’s period.
Based on the surgery the patient has gone through, one can return to gym after two to four weeks of duration. Here also, lower impact exercises are fine and going forward, higher impact exercises can be resumed. Higher impact sports need much longer time, it is even good to wait for at least six months of duration.
No matter what kind of exercises you have resumed, make sure that the sweat does not fall into your eyes as it may cause certain complications and risks. So, make sure that the sweat is wiped off very carefully, without even touching eyes or even slight pressure on the eyelids.