A New Exercise

Body: 

After watching the video, reading a lot of forum posts and doing a lot of experimenting, I came up with an exercise that has been helping me a lot. It really pulls things up for me. When I start to feel low at the end of the day, I do this exercise a few times and I feel a lot better for a while. Its kind of a variation of one that arunnergirl suggested a while back.

I lay on my back on the floor with my knees bent and feet tucked under the bottom of the couch. I arch my back as much as I can and push my tail bone as hard as I can onto the floor. So, Im pushing down on my tailbone and pulling up on my feet which are tucked under the couch. I hold it for a count of 10 to 15 and then relax and do that about 10-15 times. Its made a big difference for me. I'd be interested in hearing if it works for anyone else. I have a cystocele and it seems to help with that. I've checked myself while I did it and it really pulls things up, especially when I push harder. I've done some research, but haven't been able to determine what muscles its actually working. It seems like its the lower abs.

I'd like to hear any thoughts about this, does anyone know what muscles I'm actually working and if an exercise like this could help improve things?

sounds good to me. I will have a try in the next week or so and get back to you...

I'm not sure if I'm doing it exactly the same way as you but I do basically the same exercise. I'm pretty sure it works the lower abs and I do it whenever I feel draggy and it definitely pulls things up. I've been doing it for a month or so and definitely feel some improvement but I don't know if it's from the exercise or just from normal postpartum healing. In any case it makes me feel like I'm being proactive so even if it's not actually making things better, it makes me feel like I'm doing something to make myself better which in turn makes me feel better, if that makes sense. :) I like to do it in bed right before I go to sleep to try to get things pulled up as far as possible so that all my organs are in the right positions for a good 8 or so hours. I feel like it makes it easier for my body to try to repair itself if things are where they're supposed to be. I have no real medical evidence that I'm doing anything useful but I feel good about it and I don't see how it could hurt things so I keep doing it. :)

ARG

Hi 4kidmom:
I tried this exercise and REALLY like it. Sorry I can't answer your question about what muscles that it's working. I've been doing it without getting on the floor. I lie on my bed or on the couch.

Do you have a favorite exercise that you use for when you're sititng in a chair for a long time? I'd be very interested in any suggestions, since I sit all day at work. Thanks!

Goldfinch

I'm glad this is working for other people. I'm still having good success with it. It definitely keeps the cystocele manageable. I do the exercise combined with trying to improve my posture and it seems to be helping a lot. I haven't had to use my pessary for a week now, the exercise makes it bearable.

I think this exercise is a lot more effective than kegals. From my experience, it seems like kegals only work on the floor the cystocele is sitting on, whereas this exercise actually pulls things up from the top which, to me, makes more sense.