An outpatient laser treatment sends you home the same day, and that is where the planning starts. The home task that matters most is what you do, and do not do, in the days that follow.
The one rule with a published number
Henry Ford Health advises: "Avoid excessive physical activity for two weeks after your procedure or at least until the skin has healed." That is a time frame you can put on a calendar before the appointment. In St. Augustine, that means checking the workouts, the weekend plans and the work shifts you would have to move.
What stays with the clinic
The wording says "until the skin has healed," and you are not the best judge of that. Ask the clinician on treatment day how they decide the skin has healed and what a normal recovery looks like. The settings, the technique and the call on healing belong with the person holding the laser. For clinical detail, Laser Resurfacing Pearls on PMC is open to read.
When you are unsure
Take the cautious reading. If two weeks have passed but the skin has not healed, or the skin looks healed before two weeks are up, hold off on strenuous activity and ask the clinic. A longer technical read is the narrative review of sequential fractional CO2 and 1540/1570 nm lasers on PMC.