sprintflyer

Dog,

I feel for ya' bud. I had by-passFebuary 15 about 4 years ago so I have been there also. I didn't draw a bow until about August that year and it was my indoor bow (#44) at that. After about a week of shooting the target set up I set my then new Hoyt down to #60 and shot every chance I got but only a few shots at a time. It will take you a while but it all comes back.

If your bypass was a year ago you should be good to go as far a your chest healing. My cardioligist told me that after about 6 months your sturnum will stand anything it ever did before. I was scared to draw that first few times.

They used vesels from my leg to fix my heart so blood flow isn't what it once was. Get some Artic Shield Boot Blankets because you will need them if you are in the same situation.

Bottom line is get out and enjoy yourself. Let someone know where you are and when your coming back. Call from the woods to get some help dragging and hunt hard!

MASTERDIVER

Not speaking from personal experience but i will say this so take it for what you want. All that have stated are correct but seriously listen to your body. It knows more than you do. You only have 1 heart and on your second chance. Build your body back up slowly and confidently. Do what you love to do but pace yourself. Things we enjoy the most have a healing affect anyway. Enjoy your second life and congrats on that by the way. Best of luck on your rehab. Get well soon and by all means have fun in this life. God bless.

JimPic

You also have to remember that even though you may be able to shoot the bow and go hunting--take into consideration what's going to happen after the shot.When you have a 100+ lb deer on the ground and you have to get it out of the woods.
I had a surgery last year and even though it wasn't bypass,the condition was debilitating enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to get a deer out.I wound up missing the whole season.Talk to your doctor and PT about it and take their advice

BowHunterJim

sounds like a reason to get a new 4 wheeler.

djschuett

Push-ups are great except for Open heart surgery patients. The sternum (breastbone) takes a while to fully heal often more than a year. When you do push-ups, your pecs pull your sternum laterally on both sides (Picture 2 dogs playing tug-of war with a piece of cloth sewn together in the middle) which theoretically could impede the healing of his sternum and potentially re-open it. Also, push-ups while they do to some degree work your stabilizer muscles, they mainly work your pec major and minor. I'm not sayaing that push-ups would re-open your sternum, but it's possible. Theoretically your sternum gets back to near it's full strength in 6-9 months, but I'd feel a lot better if your doc told you personally it was ok.

If you have any appts with the doc who did your surgery coming up, ask him what you're allowed to do as far as exercise. If you don't have an appt, call his office and ask to at least talk to his nurse if he isn't available and ask if you can do push-ups, dumbell flys/bench press, etc.

A heart surgeon does hundreds of open heart surgeries a year and he would know a lot better than those of us who have never even seen one what you can and can't do.


For drawing back your bow, you use mostly your rhomboids (on your back just to the middle from your shoulder blade), deltoids, and your Lats. Lat pull-downs should help (again if your doc says they're cool) as well as laying on your stomach and doing reverse flys are good ways to strengthen your lats and rhomboids as well as posterior deltoids.


These are what I mean by reverse flys:



Also to strengthen your deltoids, take a light weight like a can of soup to start in each hand and standing upright, do sets fo 10 (or however many you can do) of 3 different exercises. First one arm at a time, with your arm straight raise the can up in front of you and bring it slowly and controlled back around as if you were doing the backstroke. Wait until the arm in motion is back down then repeat with the other side, that is 1 rep, do 10 if you can or as many as you can without causing major pain or discomfort. Second, do the same thing except in reverse, i.e. circle back and bring it around, remember to keep the movement controlled as it will give you better results and is safer on your joint. Finally, with the wts at your side, hold your arms straight and at the same time, bring both arms out to the side and make an arc up until the wts touch above your head then slowly and controlled bring it back down, do this 10 times or as many as possible.

I created that workout for myself after partially tearing my rotator cuff wrestling in college 6 years ago and it has kept my shoulder strong enough I have minimal pain and haven't needed surgery. I showed it to my wife who is a Physical Therapist and she now has her shoulder rehab pts use it.


Again, with all of these things the # 1 thing is check with your doc and make sure its cool. Ideally you'd talk to your surgeon, but your Family Practice doc should be able to help you as well.


I also agree with manuman about building up your stamina and strength, especially if you hunt in an area where you have to drag your deer out yourself.

Good luck and congrats on your 2nd chance on life and hunting!

dog1

Thanks to all of you for the information. I'm going to call tomorrow for an appointment with my family Dr., he's the one that found my blockage problems first. He's young but good. I will definitely tell him what y'all have suggested and take his recommendations seriously.

I'm about to go crazy thinking I may miss another bow season.

Thanks To All,
dog1