press ups

Hi Cararosesmum

Christine's ballet workout in the book is pretty good for arms. I do bellydance, which also has a lot of arm work. Exercises that keep your arms up, or use lots of arms up positions are good for POP because they stretch the lattimus dorsi, a big sheet of tendon and muscle joined to the tops of the arms and the sacrum at the bottom. Stretching your arms up reinforces your lumbar curve. Try it! Again, things you do in a standing up position are better in general, because gravity is acting in the right direction.

L

I lift free weights while sitting on my kneeling chair. No affect on my prolapse so far.
Liv

That sounds right, Liv. The prolapses are likely to only be put under pressure when your butt is tucked, which straightens your lumbar curve. If you can do a particular task or activity with your butt not tucked, it will probably not aggravate your POPs. But the sensations you experience are really going to tell you what is happening in your pelvic region. It might just be a matter of going a bit slower or changing the 'angle of the dangle' to make it OK.

You can laugh in the face of POP, as long as you have a good, wide lumbar curve!

L

I regularly do an hour of mostly upper body weight training at the gym 2 - 3 times a week, a mixture of dumbells and machines. When I first discovered my bulges I feared I might have to give up the weights, but in the end all I have given up is crunches. I do more exercises sitting than before and I take care not to go much over my hour, because I do think there is more danger of failing to keep in perfect posture if one is tired. For me, preparing mindfully for each set, getting into the correct position and tensing what should be tensed, relaxing what should be relaxed before starting to lift, has always been a vital part of weight training. Nowadays, I just have a bit more to be mindful of.

I do 3 x 15 half pressups (knees on the floor) most sessions. (Nothing wrong with full pressups, just wish I could do them.) There are lots of exercises that target the triceps (back of the upper arm). I suggest getting hold of a copy of "Weight Training for Dummies" which was written by 2 women. I find it a mine of helpful info. I agree with Louise, as long as you can maintain the curve in your back I see no reason why any triceps exercise should harm your POP.

The big mistake I made, which led to discovering my POP and may have helped cause it, was while doing a chest press. It is usual weight training advice to maintain the curve in one's back when lying on a bench and lifting. However, I have lower back problems and thought I would be safer lying with my feet up on the bench so that I could keep my back flat to the bench, for more support. One day, and subsequent days, I began to notice a sort of pouting feeling when doing this lift in this way. Now I do the self same lift, lying on the bench but with my feet on the floor, which brings my back into a nice curve. In addition, of course, I am extremely careful in setting my position, bracing, and monitoring for the slightest untoward reaction down below. So far, no pouting.

To date, I really have not been able to discern any bad effect on my bulges from weight training. I would encourage any woman (except post partum) to train with weights, but with careful attention to proper technique. Exactly he same caveat applies to men. POP is not the only health problem in the world, nor anywhere near the worst,though it sometimes feels like it. If we let it stop us exercising, we set ourselves up for many more disasters than flabby arms.

Hi Cararosesmum,

Do you mean one of those big inflatable exercise balls. I think a medicine ball would be too low, or am I misunderstanding how you want to use the medicine ball? A pessary perhaps? ;-)

If you feel any of those POPpy sensations, like any pressure in the vulva, ease up, or stop and find another way to build the strength, if necessary. A change of angle or position may be all it needs, or hold the weights closer to you to change the position of your centre of gravity, (or reduce the weights and do more sets, or more reps, or more often) to decrease each incident of intraabdominal pressure.

How you load your body is just as important as the weight you load it with. *Exercise nuts, do you agree with this statement or am I wrong?*

Listen to your body. Trust your sensations and trust your body.

Louise

Hi Cararosesmum

That could be exactly what is happening, and I think that is why some women get freaked when they are doing all the WW things and it seems to go pear-shaped. we call it nature's pessary, with all three organs stopping each other from going down the same plughole! All that is happening is that the organs are reconfiguring their relationships with each other. It sometimes seems like playing with one of those cheap puzzles which is a little,flat box with a fence around it and three holes and three ballbearings. You have to try and get a ballbearing in each hole by jiggling the box, and without dislodging the ones you have already got into their holes. Aarrgghh! Very frustrating.

That's where nauli and firebreathing and jiggling come in, where you suck all three balls up into the top of the pelvic space and put them down again gently. Eventually, they will find their optimum spots more easily and tend to stay there, but you have to maintain the posture that enables them to fall well enough forward and in the correct configuration. It just takes time. Trust your body to find its best way of being.

L

About doing lifts sat on a ball (sometimes used to be called Swiss balls, no idea why). The idea of the ball is to create instability, so that you can save time and increase effort by working eg your triceps with dumbells and at the same time your core as you try not to roll off the ball. It was a fashion, aimed perhaps at selling us yet another piece of kit. Serious weight trainers nowadays tend to think it's better to concentrate on lifting in a stable position, as you can't lift as much weight while wobbling around.

I suggest for the moment separating triceps and core and doing the triceps exercises while sat on a solid chair or stool. One has enough to concentrate on, just maintaining correct posture and listening for the slightest protest from down below. Then one can do some dedicated core exercises eg planks. More advanced students (not me)even do planks with one end of themselves up on the ball, so that needn't be wasted.

Louise, I agree with what you say, if I understand you correctly, that in weight training the how is t least as important as the how much. Neglecting the correct how can lead to all sorts of poor outcomes, like strengthening the wrong muscle, creating muscle imbalances, incurring injuries. Weight training is like sex - it's not just wham bang, thank-you Mam and there is far more to it than one thinks when first starting. Best to buy a really good book on the subject AND READ IT.

I never really thought about it, just a few seconds I guess. It is a little bit like shaking your hair out, or shaking a frying pan around to spread your onions out. It is just giving your organs a little shakeup so they get 'unstuck' and can get themselves organised again.

:-)