exercise

Body: 

I've heard some people here express modes of exercise that made their prolapse worse. I'm thinking of joining a women's gym that uses a 30 minute workout. Not sure about what's involved yet; I'll have to go see. But, what should I avoid? I mean, how is running on a treadmill?

Also, I occassionaly bounce on an exercise ball with my son (10 mos. 24 lbs.) to get him to sleep. Any problems with that? I used to hold him in my sling in the middle of my body; now that I'm more aware of the pressure on the internal organs, I'm trying to keep him more on my hip.

thanks

Hi Marie,

Just some general guidelines to think about:

• The treadmill is fine – keep the posture!

• The ball is great – make sure you hold your torso over your pubic bone and keep the upper body posture.

• If you’re going to do machines and classes, be mindful of exercises that place your body in angles wider than 90 degrees or anything that you sense places added pressure on your pelvic diaphragm. I’m way out of touch with what sort of aerobic exercise is popular now. I can’t stand a lot of the classic marching and stepping of aerobic classes – just because there’s so little mindfulness of spinal form and function. With your own awareness, though, you can do about anything.

• Pay special attention to stretching and strengthening the hip flexors (psoas and quadriceps), stretching the hamstrings, and strengthening the gluteals. We can’t really point to one or two muscles responsible for prolapse, but if we HAD to choose, it would be contracted hip flexors. By spending so much time in couches and chairs, the muscles that flex our hips, or fold the body together like a clamshell, have become short and weak. This means we’re always contracted in the middle to some degree, while our tailbone is pulled down and with it the pelvic outlet (of which the purpose of the pelvic diaphragm is to cover.)

Hope this helps!

Christine

p.s. I think the sling is fine, although he may be getting a bit big for it. One glance at an almost-due woman will show you how much weight the female pubic bone is designed to carry.