Some light exercise when it is not going to interfere with healing is a great thing for your health, mental health too, as well as fitness. Somethings need surgery to correct and conservative approaches often pursued only cause flareups that take lengthy intervals to heal. Sometimes for things that can be fixed going under a knife it really is the proper path earlier is my opinion if the rish is not too high. Scar tissue has to be considered and managed, often it can be.
I had a cyst in 2009 that was wrapping around the knuckle and my middle finger on my dominant right hand and was getting painful and reducing range of movement. The hand surgeon I had remove it and hewas supposedly great, one of the better surgeons in Dayton, OH where I was working for 6 months in hell. He left a very noticeable scar and it has been very bothersome since that time and the scar tissue has spread because of the joints in the hand and fingers moving a lot and that irritation seems to either have spread or it cause a lot of inflammation irritation in the palm and finger adjacent where the cyst was centered.
A year later another cyst had popped up in back of right wrist and it was removed by a hand surgeon in Tucson, AZ who was the best in town. You can hardly tell where the cyst was and absolutely no trouble and no scarring in tissues beneath the aras and it was another one that was wrapping itself around the metacarpals and wrist tendons. Why mention this? It pays to do your research and get the best and a younger surgeon in the 2nd experience was better trained and had a far better outcome with zero issues. Do not presume you are going to have similar experience and who does it is not a big deal. It can be...maybe not immediately known but you can develop issues a few years down the road.
Both had PT afterwards and they both did scar mitigation steps. Technique difference and skill levels affected the outcome. Same type of ganglion cyst in both cases. You would think that would be a simple surgery and quick recovery, I was surprised how long it took to be back to normal again after the surgery.