Pilates and Prolapse

There is not exactly a yes or no answer to your question, as this information dense thread will illustrate:
http://www.wholewoman.com/drupal-6.16/node/3071
Also, you can enter 'pilates' in the search box and you will find lots of info. If you have more specific questions on exercises we might be able to help, too. Do you have the WW book and DVD yet?

Hello I am very new to the site and so pleased to find such a supportive group of people. I have had a prolapse for 35 years after the birth of my very large 3rd child. No real problems until recently when it reached a new stage I also have been doing Pilates for 7 years but wonder if the posture is all wrong ! I have sent for Christines book but as I live in the UK It may take a while. My problem is sitting ! It feels so uncomfortable Any tips until I ]can devour the great book. Dont know what stage I am at as I dont "do " doctors too often and having read the info on the website I wont be going down that road .

Welcome :) Can you describe what is uncomfortable while sitting? Correct posture should not be uncomfortable, though it may take some getting used to as your body rearranges to get used to the proper structure.
I don't think you need a doctor to tell you what stage you are, if you even care to categorize it. You have been living with this for 35 yrs, as you say, so I am willing to bet that you have a pretty good idea of what is what with your own body;)

Hi aza Thanks for reading my comment I have ordered Christines book but it has not arrived as yet so I am in the dark a bit about the posture .In pilates we learned to tip the pelvis back imagining that we were zipping up a tight pair of jeans . Is this wrong? Sitting is like being on a small pebble !

Hi Tink

I learn bellydance from a teacher who has a background in Pilates, (which was designed by men for men originally). She is always on about Zip and Tuck. I have explained to her about Wholewoman posture so she doesn't harass me any more. She understands why I am not Z&Ting. There are two schools of thought in bellydance world. To tuck or not to tuck. If I tuck, I cannot bellydance. I just end up with a big lump in my vulva.

When sitting, just keep your weight forward, off your coccyx. The bottom of your pelvis has you sitting on two rails (like the base of a rocking chair) in a v-shape, meeting at an acute angle the pubic symphysis at the front and terminating at the two sit bones at the back. Keep your weight forward of the sit bones, ie in the middle of the rails so your 'rocking chair' is upright. Plant your feet slightly more than hip width apart, allowing our thighs to part. This forms a stable base. A seat that is horizontal is better if you can arrange it for longterm sitting. If it slopes back like most modern chairs your pelvic organs will slide backwards. The aim is to keep them forwards. Keeping your chest lifted will stop your pelvis from tilting back.

You might not understand the pelvis description because all medical diagrams have the pelvis tilted about 45 degrees too far back. They were all drawn from cadavers lying on a marble slab, centuries ago. Cadavers have no muscle tone, and cannot stand up with a bowl-shaped pelvis. The front of the pelvis, that pubic symphysis, would pop open, or they would overbalance. You will see this illustrated in Christine's book.

I prefer not to use the back of chairs because the seats are usually backward sloping, and I want to train my body to support itself. God gave me a spine and muscles to support it. Why not use them? It is possible to sit almost anywhere, by perching on the edge of the chair for shorter sits. Your thighs should be horizontal too, not sloping upwards towards the knee. You can often tuck your feet back under the chair to get your thighs horizontal if you have to.

As Western people we sit on chairs from toddlerhood, and often our hamstrings are tight. Sitting cross-legged helps to stretch out all sorts of muscles, but I think once we reach adulthood our bodies have adapted too well to chairs, and some people find it very hard to sit cross-legged, and get their hamstrings stretched enough to allow the lumbar curve to be maintained at all times. We should be able to sit comfortably on the floor with our feet stretched out in front, with lumbar curve in place, but it is often very difficult for us Westerners to do for long periods. Practise, practise, practise is the only way to stretch them out.

We should also be able to full squat with lumbar curve in place, but we cannot because we have chairs to keep our bottoms away from mud, scorpions and our own excreta. The facets of the bones in our feet have developed a subtley different structure from those of people who squat from birth. If you google "ullinger metatarsal facets squat" you will get numerous archaeology papers that will illustrate this. There is one Powerpoint presentation by Ullinger from the University of Notre Dame that explains it beautifully. We cannot get our knees, ankles and feet to flex far enough because we have not grown up flexing them enough on a regular basis. We even wear heels on all our shoes which keeps our ankles permanently in extension. I cringe when I see tween girls wearing casual shoes with high heels. They are setting the shape of the bones of their feet and legs until they are 18 or so. They are setting the shape of their feet and legs to predispose themselves to pelvic organ prolapse and other posture related conditions later in life because all the muscles in their legs will be shorter than they need to be, and their foot and leg bones will be the wrong shape to allow the pelvis to tilt forward in adulthood.

Enough from me. Hope your book arrives soon.

Louise

Louise
Thankyou so much for explaining the posture it has made me think really carefully about sitting and how I handle some Pilates exercises which expect you to raise from the floor to a sitting position( I CANNOT DO THIS )
I am becoming more aware of how I stand and walk and have become a whole woman .com bore with my friends and this is before even receiving Christines book !!!
Galadriel

OK now have I got this straight. It I am sitting just in a solid straight back hard seat chair should I be sitting directly on my sit bones along with the other info you just gave or leaned forward not directly on them. Your advice may have been for the rocking chair. Having a little problem with the sit thing again. I am doing better but what a process. LOL As my days are good and bad I do have to say I am finding this extremely interesting. Not saying I am glad I have this but is a bit fascinating! Been trying to go to the bathroom all morning but not must luck. Feeling a bit "low."LOL Louise your comment on sitting has been extremely helpful to me, been struggling but felt stupid asking. It is nothing to fool with, we need to get it right! Right.. ? Thanks for being you Louise!

That's the spirit, Heavenly. You really just need to understand the principles, then listen to how your body responds. Sorry if that is a bit too Zen, but it really isn't black and white. No, I don't think you should lean forward, but have some weight on your thighs.

Now here's a TMI thought. If you pooed your pants while sitting, make sure you are sitting so that the poo would not come forwards. If your chest is up while sitting, and your lumbar curve is present, then you won't be sitting on your coccyx. You will be sitting on the rails and the pubic symphysis, and on your thighs. There is a bit of slack with sitting. You can wriggle around a bit.