Before and After Surgery: How to Prepare Your Body and Support Your Recovery

The weeks before and after surgery shape how you heal. Here's how to prepare your body, what to know around surgery day, and how MK Wellness supports recovery, always alongside your surgeon's instructions.

MK Wellness InsightsFounded by Danielle Cordova, Cypress, TX

Surgery is only one part of healing. The condition your body is in going into surgery, and how well it's supported afterward, can make a real difference in how you feel and how quickly you get back to life. Surgeons recognize this too: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs, now used in hospitals worldwide, are built around preparing patients before surgery and supporting them after, with nutrition, movement, and planning.

At MK Wellness, we build on those same foundations with a whole-body approach to the terrain: calming inflammation, supporting circulation and oxygen, protecting sleep, and helping your nervous system stay in rest-and-repair mode.

Your surgeon's instructions always come first. Check with your surgical team before adding any therapy, supplement, or change around your procedure.

Phase 1: Preparing Your Body (The Weeks Before)

Preparing for surgery, sometimes called prehabilitation, is one of the most useful things you can do. Many people start four to six weeks ahead when possible.

At Home

• Build strength and stamina. Walking, light strength work, and breathing exercises, as your surgeon allows. Research on prehabilitation shows that patients who go in stronger often recover function sooner.
• Prioritize protein. Healing tissue needs protein, and many surgical nutrition programs encourage extra protein before surgery. Build meals around protein, vegetables, and fruit. See our nutrition guide.
• Stabilize blood sugar. High blood sugar is linked to slower healing and higher infection risk, one reason surgeons check it before procedures. See Dr. Bikman on insulin resistance.
• Stop smoking and vaping, and limit alcohol. Both slow healing, and surgeons recommend stopping as early as possible.
• Sleep well and manage stress. See what affects sleep most.
• Support your gut, especially if antibiotics are part of your surgery. See how to repair, then rebuild the gut.
• Review every supplement with your surgeon. Some, like fish oil, vitamin E, turmeric, garlic, and ginkgo, can affect bleeding and are often stopped before surgery.
• Plan your recovery: help at home, meals, and a comfortable place to rest.

At MK Wellness

• Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen to support oxygen delivery to tissue
• Full Body Red Light Therapy to support cellular energy and calm inflammation
• PEMF Therapy to support circulation and cellular function
• EWOT to build cardiovascular fitness with extra oxygen
• NeuroVizr Sound Lounge to calm pre-surgery stress and anxiety
• Infrared Sauna for circulation, in the weeks before, as your surgeon allows

We'll build a plan around your surgery date and stop at the point your surgeon recommends.

Phase 2: Around Surgery Day

Follow your surgical team's instructions exactly, including fasting, medications, and supplements. This is a time for rest, not therapies.

• Pack for comfort and have your recovery space ready.
• Move as soon as your team encourages it. Early, gentle movement is a core part of ERAS programs.
• Follow any blood clot prevention plan your surgeon prescribes.

Phase 3: Supporting Your Recovery (After Surgery)

Once your surgeon clears you, these are the therapies we use to support recovery:

• Red Light Therapy: supports cellular energy and the healing process. Photobiomodulation has been studied for tissue repair and wound healing. Your surgeon may want incisions fully closed first.
• PEMF Therapy: supports circulation and comfort. Some PEMF devices are FDA-cleared for postoperative pain and swelling.
• Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen: supports oxygen delivery to healing tissue. Ask your surgeon about timing.
• Lymphatic Roller and Compression Therapy: support lymph flow, swelling, and circulation, especially after body and orthopedic procedures, once cleared. These don't replace any clot-prevention plan your surgeon prescribes.
• NeuroVizr Sound Lounge: supports rest, sleep, and the nervous system.
• Nano Vi, Compression, and Mitolux: support against oxidative stress.

Heat therapies like sauna, and water immersion, usually wait until incisions have fully healed. Your surgeon will tell you when.

At Home After Surgery

• Protein at every meal, plenty of vegetables and fruit, and good hydration
• Gentle movement as your surgical team and physical therapist direct
• Sleep, as much as your body asks for
• Gut support after antibiotics, with fermented foods and probiotics your provider approves
• Keep your follow-up appointments and report any warning signs right away: fever, increasing redness, swelling, or drainage at the incision, chest pain, shortness of breath, or calf pain and swelling

Working With Your Surgeon

We love working alongside surgical teams. With your permission, we're happy to coordinate with your surgeon's office on timing and follow their specific instructions for your procedure. If your surgeon would like to learn more, share our page for surgeons and practitioners.

Our Pre & Post Surgery protocol shows the therapies we use, and many clients use a membership to cover regular sessions before and after surgery.

MK Wellness services are non-medical and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. This guide shares MK Wellness's own approach to supporting the body before and after surgery; it is not medical advice and does not replace your surgical team's instructions. Always get your surgeon's clearance before starting any therapy around your procedure, and contact your surgeon or emergency services right away for any concerning symptoms.

The Pre & Post Surgery Protocol at MK Wellness

We build this goal around modalities that work better together. The core of the protocol:

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