Listen to you doctor and your body. In my experience, most docs aren't used to patients who are serious about their workouts and in good physical condition. I had abdominal surgery 2 years ago and was hoisting myself around with my arms in recovery, much to the nurses' amazement. I started VERY light upperbody workouts on stable surfaces at about 3 1/2 weeks, and was walking and doing the elliptical within 2. BUT, my doctor mistakenly told me to "listen to my body and do what I felt that I could do". My body says
go lift heavy metal. He was appalled to find out that I'd been doing squats and deadlifts by 4-5 weeks. I was lucky and didn't have any complications. In retrospect, I should have taken longer to rest.
If you start too early, you will delay healing. Your body needs to direct it's energy towards repairing what has been surgically damaged- it doesn't need extra repair work from heavy workout! Don't use this as an excuse to lay off exercise for months (it sure doesn't sound like you want to do that, tho
), but give your body a chance to heal
Mel