Exercise & Pelvic floor dysfunction
I was asked this question recently:
“I haven't exercised for years because of my prolapse-honestly can't believe the difference I am feeling already with regards to my posture and tightness. I was wondering if there is any exercise you would recommend to do alongside the hypopressives. I love dancing but think that might be too ambitious. I feel like I need to do something gentle but strengthening as I am menopausal”
A lot of us when we are diagnosed with issues with our pelvic floor are so worried that the organs might ‘fall out’ that we actually stop moving. this is bad news on lots of fronts- let’s unpack this.
Pelvic organ prolapse doesn’t happen because of one thing, there will be more than one event or issue that created the perfect storm. For many that is the onset on perimenopause and the reduction in oestrogen. This leads to the fascia that is mainly collagen and elastin fibres losing some of its tensile strength and elasticity. Ligaments that were perhaps being supported by- connective tissue- that had been previously damaged (maybe in child birth), start to react to your let’s say poor posture choices. And the muscles that are no longer sharing load effectively because we haven’t been using them as well as we could during walking, sitting, breathing - get tired. Or one set get over worked whilst the other under worked, until there is enough of an imbalance that they just give up.
And It feels like suddenly we have a prolapse or suddenly we start to leak.
However, it hasn’t been sudden at all. It has been creeping up on us. But we haven’t recognised it because the poor posture has become habit and we fail to see that this combined with the loss in oestrogen and perhaps a really bad cough or extra stress create a perfect storm for us to experience pelvic floor dysfunction in.
Enter Hypopressives - at the point where we can feel or see a bulge, experience leaking or any of the myriad of symptoms that come with pelvic floor dysfunction, we need an exercise that we can trust will do no harm.
Hypopressives are perfect - they are an unravelling of past poor choices. Reminding us in our 10 minutes a day practice where our bodies should hang out. Retraining our proprioception tendons to feel great holding our body in a balanced way so that the muscles can start to work as a team again. once that starts to happen, we start to improve resting tone. when this starts to happen our muscles support our ligaments better. This means our ligaments have space to remodel. And slowly we start to lift our pelvic organs little by little supported on the way by fascia that is being moved and moistened. Muscles that are working well and becoming toned and breath patterns that support the gentle load our pelvis fascia needs to be functional.
So, back to the question…
Once you have done all of this - what is it you used to do?
Dancing? start as if you were doing the couch to 5K - put some music you love to dance to on whatever system you use- dance for one song. How did you feel? Don’t pogo stick dance to start - use your hips, keep your feet down & build slowly. Once you can do a few songs - go out to a live gig and dance to a few and chat for a few and build slow - but more importantly have fun! Laughter is one of the best ways to engage your pelvic floor.
Hypopressives can give you an amazing foundation for springing (gently) back to all the other things you used to do.
As we age weight bearing become very important - let’s address this next time…
