Every minute in the gym is time well spent, because it will aid your recovery afterwards.  The hardest thing I found before the op is that, despite working out nearly every day, as well as early morning yoga, climbing four flights of stairs regularly at work and not eating chocolate I was still hovering at 12 stone and I was terrified they wouldn’t let me do the op as I was at the BMI limit.  I guess I just had a lot of muscle, plus I am stocky anyway, and I was probably doing the wrong kind of exercise – because I’m now 11 stone and do a lot less work and eat a lot more (maybe it was psychological?)

Anyway, I highly recommend yoga, before, during and after – even though it’s galling that one day you can get your feet behind your head and the next you can barely touch your toes (but do touch your toes in front of the nurses – it really winds them up if you can do it after major surgery and they can’t, and it takes the edge of not being able to stand unaided.)  The breathing exercises are also great for learning to breathe through the pain.  Also muscles are good because your body is desperate for protein after the op and will basically take all of your muscles and use them to rebuild the injured tissue.  The nurses said that they had never seen anyone heal as fast as me – so all that gym time was time well spent.  (Hoorah!)  But be warned, the healing only lasts as long as your resources are stored up, and then it comes down to eating all the right things – which is a real drag when you are too tired to eat.