Please help, how to avoid straining

Most of us have to push a little from time to time. Just be sure to do it as Christine suggests in the book, with weight a little bit forward and lumbar curve in place. We don't know why you have so much trouble relaxing your sphincter. I don't think soft stools would cause anal fissures unless you are still trying to heal fissures that have been there for a long time. Did you try the floor exercise that Christine posted the other day? A nice relaxation technique. - Surviving

Surviving, where would I find this new exercise?

Thank you,

Rosa

Here it is:
https://wholewoman.com/forum/node/6192

Here it is:
http://wholewoman.com/blogpix/CAKonfloor.jpg

i have the same problem as yours
and i am toonot english speaker
do ww helped you with evacuating ?
if yes i would love to know what helped your rectum to open
thanx

It will be great if budahazya replies to your post. But it has been 2-1/2 years since we heard from her on the forum. Keep reading, though! - Surviving

Hi Kalanit,

The more you describe your symptoms, the more it sounds like you might be dealing with intussusception, where the bowel or rectum has telescoped down on itself. Of course we have no way of knowing.

Perhaps you should go have all the bowel function tests that will hopefully determine exactly where the problem is located in the bowel.

If it were me I would tune deeply into my body and ask what might help. Radical problems call for radical solutions. What comes to mind for me is first feeling inside your ano-rectum to gently explore the area. See what the walls feel like and if any area feels differently than another. The problem may be above where you can easily reach. I would then juice freshly grown barley grass and gently place the moist pulp high into the rectal vault. Barley grass has the highest percentage of omega 3 fatty acids of all the grasses, making it a powerful anti-inflammatory. I would also place honey high into the channel on a daily or twice daily basis for its unparalleled healing abilities as well. I would experiment radically with my diet, from strictly raw to brown rice and seaweed.

Kalanit, we really can't help you further with this problem, which sounds serious and in need of far more help than we can possibly give you.

All WW techniques and methods still apply. Do keep us posted on your progress.

Wishing you well,

Christine

Kalanit, in case it wasn't apparent, my thinking is that the pulp would act like a gentle pessary to hold the lining of the bowel in place, while it sent powerful healing forces into and beyond the bowel walls.

Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Institute used to put wheat grass pulp inside her anus. She never described exactly what her problem was (perhaps she didn't know), but only that she was very very sick and the pulp worked as a miraculous healing agent. If she had intussusception, the gentle pessary action of the pulp would likely be very helpful.

However, I would use barley instead of wheat for the reasons I described above. Barley grass is very easy to grow in shallow trays. It must be unhulled barley though, which is not easily available in stores. Simply soak overnight in good water, drain, rinse and plant into a half inch of potting soil. Cover and set in a dark place until the sprouts are a 1/4 inch high, then place under grow lights or in bright, indirect light. Water when needed and in 7 days the grass will be ready to juice.

I was just reminded that you also suspect you have intussusception, which I somehow missed.

I really hope you feel better very soon!

Christine

I have heard of using a cold laser on injuries to speed healing. I am not talking about a surgery. Is cold laser something that might help heal the rectum when used externally? I’m asking becauee I don’t know but have read of people using these to try and heal tissue on various parts of the body.

I asked budahazya because i see she was online two months ago,and i see in her history here she have the same prolapse as mine
I hope she will answer soon
Dr dont sure i have intussuception
They sure my muscle are not work properly and my rectum dont open ,
They say o dont have problems with food or poop
I have problems with empty bm
And prolapse
I try to eat a lot of fibers and fruits but cant avoid Wheat, wheat satisfies me
Where i can buy seaweed?
Its dry?
You mean to put grass and honey in my rectum?
Why?
I explorer my rectum and i feel its not ok i dont know what to do with it
Why youvsay my case is serious ?
Because i ask a lot qeustions?
I dont want to put something in my anus i am very sensetive there and i dont sure that honey and grass will change my The structure was damaged
Thanx

If you "track" Budahazya you will find discussion threads where others have commented more recently, but it was not Budahazya herself. She may come back on, but I am simply explaining to you, that she herself has not commented on any discussion thread for 2-1/2 years. Those members who are currently active, include the moderators and Christine herself, have given you all the help and suggestions that we can. Searching through old discussions is a great way to dig out information. But if you ask us questions and you aren't happy with our answers, there isn't much else we can do. - Surviving

Kalanit, not being able to empty your bowels is extremely serious. It sounds like a physical therapist who has a lot of experience with muscle damage might be your best bet. Edible seaweed is available all over the world and internet. Yes, I was suggesting grass and honey inside the rectum.

could I ask, what type of damage you had from your last birth? (if you feel like sharing - if not feel free to ignore).
I'm just curious because I had an anal sphincter tear (8 months ago now) so I'm always on the lookout for all things to do with rectal issues/damage on this site, especially when it comes to birth injuries.

One of my physical therapists said I have trigger points and hypertone in my muscles and that when asked to bear down like having a bowel movement that my muscles do the wrong thing. She proclaimed this after doing a vaginal exam. She did some vaginal work in me hoping to release those trigger points and help some of my symptoms resolve. She also addressed my whole body with some stretches and movements that were mostly meant to relieve the sacral pain that I have had chronically since I prolapsed and started all my
Bowel movement problems. Suffice to say that I don’t think the time or circumstances were right for me at the time to continue under her care and perhaps she could have really helped me if I could have or had chose to continue. She felt I had muscles that worked in a disorderly way when trying to have a bm, and she felt I had a lot of hypertone in my pelvic muscles. My takeaway from that experience is that I do my best to keep those muscles relax and in proper alignment. Hence the stretching, foam rolling, walking, baths, massage, and maya fascial release tactics. She had me read a book tonunderstand the science behind pain so that my pelvic pain would not create so much anxiety in my life. She also suggested that I use a plain water enema at night before bed rather than go to bed miserable in my rectum and not be able to sleep. One of the many many diagnoses that she gave me was levator ani syndrome and she agreed with me that my compromised levator ani muscle was the reason my rectum was driving me mad with sensations.

All that to say, I agree with Christine that going to a physical therapist surely could not hurt and might be what you need to help you along a path of understanding and healing. As long as you do your own research and think for yourself it doesn’t seem there is anything to lose.

I won’t kegel and I won’t do traditional core or TA exercises and I am now insistent on whole woman posture. I also am very leery of medical tests that are invasive and surgeries. So it’s hard for me to ever encourage anyone to go a medical route. I also don’t know that I’m as serious as you becauee I don’t have any rectal prolapsing. But having said all that maybe there is a physical therapist that could really help you? And I would enjoy hearing updates as to how you come along.

Edited to remove advice that I gave that I see now was poor advice.

I have had several babies and never had birth trauma per se. Never any extensive tearing or cuts. But after my last I had an immediate and odd feeling in my gluteal muscles that was odd. I had all my typical after delivery stuff with hip problems and such. But I had new issues that time too with a feeling of trauma deep in my gluteal muscle. And also bad low sacral pain that felt uterine in nature. A few weeks out my pelvic insides just gave way and suddenly I felt a bulge, burning in my crotch, terrible pressure, sacral pain, and my bowels were wrong somehow. It was very uncomfortable to sit. I was checked by my heathcare provider and never had any vaginal tearing but I have often wondered if I had internal tearing or even an avulsion. It’s been a slow climb up. I could not sit without pain(especially in a car or other place that was not firm and did not allow me to get my hips above my knees slightly) for nearly two and a half years. I’m sure I have damage to my tailbone area too as thatbhas been pointed out by one physical therapist and also a Mayan massage lady. My chiropractor did release work on my gluteal muscle and really helped me with that and I have had a lady chiropractor work on my external pelvic muscles as they were very full of hypertone. Another internal physical therapist tried to do the same but I did not choose to continue for a variety of reasons.

I like to gather info about all of the different issues that bring people here and their histories (as we all do I suppose) and I thought that something in particular happened during birth that caused you some of your back passage issues... especially tearing.

even though I know it's more complicated than just 'tearing' I still feel it really played into my rectocele at least, especially reading some old threads here Christine has said that some bad tears can create a stubborn rectocele....and now my anal sphincter is compromised.... which is my main reason for not wanting another baby (and that makes me sad) so I'm trying to read all about births and see what kinds of things people are experiencing with their back passage afterwards...

I do know i'd end up here anyway due to years of bad posture, incorrect toiletting, etc. (especially with my cystocele) but I'd still rather not have torn so bad... but I guess, as you have proven here, tearing or not - there are no guarantees when it comes to the rectum...

Just to clarify - episiotomies are also a big contributing factor for rectocele. It's pretty hard, if not impossible, to weigh the pros and cons of risking a tear versus the alternative. - Surviving

I had poor posture with slumping for years. I was unwell during my pregnancy and spent a lot of time sitting and or lying down and I was sitting on my tailbone. I did the same after the birth before I prolapsed. Probably exclusively was in horrible posture leading up to the prolapse after the birth, and had pelvic instability and hip problems during and after most of my pregnancies. I also had s tilted uterus from youth. I have hypermobile joints and lack stamina or hardiness though I have always been very intentional about my health. Somehow I’m not surprised about how things have gone, knowing what I do now, even though I have never had tearing or cutting. I know a lot about health and have always been careful to apply what I know and learn, but I never ever knew anything about posture until I prolapsed and started a crash course in it. I have long legs, a very short torso, and I’m moderately tall. I think I must have spent my school years slumped. I tend to have tight hamstrings and calves and have to work on that to free my tailbone so it can stay lifted when I walk. I was an anxious child and I learned to slump so that I would be less visible and because I was afraid of the world in some ways. I had some particularly hard stressors in my pregnancy and postpartum. All of it together makes sense to me now. I know a lot of mothers though and only a sparse few who identify. I think prolapse is common, but I
Think terribly symptomatic ones don’t seem to be common to the people I know. But it does add up to me now.

You had the same peoblem like mine
I was on pt bat she didnt helped me
I look for one now
Did you had always feeling you had to go to bathroom?
Did you had Lack of coordination when you have to get bm?

Yes I have a problem with feeing like I need to have a bm a lot of the time. And yes my PT said I had poor muscle coordination down in my anal area and that that might be why I don’t empty properly or fully at times.

Kalanit, I DO get symptom relief and have full and relieving stools when my body has not had setbacks. I have seen good days and even good weeks and even good months for me.

I had a flare up of my symptoms while I was seeing the PT but it may have been the extreme stress I was under to even pull it off. It cost me so much, I had to drive far to get to her, I had to arrange child care which was very hard. She wanted me there three times a week but I could only do it twice. I was very nervous because I certainly didn’t want things to get worse. I was very anxious during that time. I went five times to
Her. It was just too much for me to arrange and so I quit. She did some internal work and nothing was painful but I think my own particular response to it was that it made my symptoms a bit worse at first. I do NOT want to discourage you from going, like I said, I had many personal reasons that my stress level was high and anything that raises my stress works against me and makes my symptoms flare.

I have read of some women who have trigger points in their vagina getting help from. Internal techniques. I think the PT basically applies a bit of pressure to the points over and over and tries to make them relax? For me, the whole experience just didn’t help me quick enough and instead made me nervous (again this is a lot to do with me personally) and so the benefit I got was not presenting quick enough for me to keep going. The stretches and movements she gave me were not unlike things I already knew to do and were already doing. But I have done a lot of research. One of the exercises she had me do was performed in a way that I knew was instinctually wrong becauee of the breathing cues. Based on my knowledge of whole woman. So I just did not do that one.

I have however read and heard of women who got pelvic help from PT for tight muscles.

Whole woman helps me. The child’s pose helps me. The pigeon pose helps me. Both are used by Christine. The child’s pose is in first aid for prolapse and the pigeon pose is used in yoga 2. Long walks help me immensely.Rolling my butt muscles on a soft spongy ball or foam roller helps me. Hip and pelvic muscle stretches help me. Basically anything that stretches or massages or relaxa my gluteal muscles helps me. Heat helps. And please learn to do the deep breathing into the pelvic muscles then the drop like I explained earlier. That relaxes those muscles around the anus.

I hope you can find a good PT and have a profitable experience.

Edited to add:

Surely you know how to give yourself a colonic massage? Lay down on your back with your knees bent and fully relax. Or put your legs down. Whatever. Take your hands and start at the lower right side of your abdomen and massage up and then over and then down again all the way down on your left side. It’s like you are making a giant upside down letter U. There are variations On this. One variation as taught by Amy Stein is called the “ I love U” massage. Anyway, that gives you some things to google. Basically you are massaging your intestinal contents in the direction of elimination. You must start in the lower right and end on the lower left. This will assist peristalsis. You can do this after you eat or drink something and feel an urge to go potty and it might help you. Especially couple this with some relaxing breathe and drop sessions as explained earlier. Then sit up and rub your tummy and take
Deep breaths allowing the intestinal contents to be massaged forward by the breath. This type of thing is helpful. You can do it in whatever position is relaxing and helps you to feel a proper urge. Eventually you might start to sense the intestines being massaged and the rectum brought forward, and you will then understand the power of your own breathing. If this doesn’t make sense quite yet then just work on the posture and breathing and relaxing your pelvic muscles and do a simple colonic massage. I can’t see as it will hurt anything. Be gentle when you massage your belly.

For our readers,
Although there can be more extreme cases of muscle tightness or disorder as mentioned in this thread that may need additional therapy, the rest of us that have general prolapse and even those of us who have had years of constipation and inability to fully evacuate can be helped by the Whole Woman work and diet all by itself.
When I came here, everything, including my intestines were just squished into and towards my vagina. I also had years of constipation and a retroverted uterus pressing on my back vaginal wall to throw into the mix.
The posture, exercises, firebreathing, nauli(which also massages our intestines into better positioning), etc. helped lift and pull my internal organs into better positioning.
Better peristalsis is really helped most by a better diet which includes fermented foods and honey. You will find Christine's video on gut health is very helpful with this.
I suffered for years with bowel distress, so I don't take this lightly, and I want people to know that a little effort and study can go a long way, and dedication to this work and yourself can also.

Thank you Aging, for expressing the primary nature of the WW work. It’s not that we’re partial for no reason, but that living and breathing in our intended shape heals a thousand ails like nothing else.

I want to first address the comments made by UnCloudyDay’s PT:

“[She] said I have trigger points and hypertone in my muscles and that when asked to bear down like having a bowel movement that my muscles do the wrong thing.”

This is exactly the kind of information that should be questioned and demanded clarification from medical practitioners. Ask her to describe pelvic anatomy and exactly what is doing “the wrong thing” and why. Remember that the human pelvic wall is thin and sinewy, unlike animals whose powerful pelvic wall wags a tail.

“Hypertone” is a poorly used and inadequately understood term. Someone who is chronically contracting and shortening the wall is holding *tension* in those muscles. Someone who is habitually lifting their tailbone and lengthening the wall is keeping anatomic *tone* in the muscle wall, which is a major factor in the prevention of prolapse and incontinence. PT does not recognize these realities and therefore their diagnoses and descriptions lack clarity. There is no such thing as a “neutral pelvis.”

Now let’s look at your breathing exercise, UnCloudyDay.

“Take several deep relaxing breaths. Now start to notice when you breathe in on the inhale that your pelvic muscles relax out a bit. Almost like when you relax to pee or to have a bm.”

There is an important distinction here between *lengthening* and *distending*. What you are describing is distention, which we really do not want to do as a breathing exercise because it is pushing the organs toward the outlet, even if ever so slightly. The WW frog leg breathing exercise, which is in at least one of my videos, very intentionally allows the midriff to come forward, and the tailbone to lift on the in-breath. Thus we are lengthening the pelvic wall instead of distending it. Tension (“hypertone”) from chronically contracted muscles is released and the pelvic wall is ultimately restored. Distending this muscle group on the in-breath is a very real confusion of anatomical breathing. The wall should be lengthening and closing side-to-side like a pair of elevator doors.

Forcing the muscles to relax on the out-breath is also a reversal of anatomic movement. Those muscles play a very important role after the distention necessary to empty the bowel by immediately contracting, while we are breathing out. Think of pushing stool out and immediately releasing the breath, which we all do. The anal sphincter pinches off any remaining stool and helps clean our bottom even before we pull out the TP. These simple truths are self evident.

From the WW perspective, PT is promoting a distorted breathing and muscle-movement pattern, which is not ultimately restorative.

[Note to self: next project: "Why 'Reverse Kegels' Don't Work"] !!!

My first YouTube video will be on WW breathing, which is evidenced in our innate anatomy. I’ve been so excited to share my new discovery with you, but have just found out today that others have figured this out before me, which is no surprise given that it is truly natural. However, I have worked out the greater anatomic puzzle that we breathe into ;-)

I hope this is helpful. The reason we promote WW techniques is because they all fit together into a Whole. If a piece doesn’t fit it can be neither anatomic nor good for us.

Christine

That makes perfect sense! I can’t wait to see your first YouTube video!

I am wondering if the WW frog leg exercise to which you are referring is the elevator breaths in yoga 3? Lying on back, legs bent and falling open with feet touching one another. Taking in three breaths, extending the abdomen each time?

When giving advice on this forum, please be cautious that you are not steering too far away from the whole woman work, especially if it comes from a PT. We have had many ladies come to the forum with failed PT experiences that simply set them back.
I really like Christine's last couple of sentences above, and that is what we should all take to heart when pursuing this work. Dabbling outside of it may slow or even stop positive progress.

I am not a simple sycophant, I am a success story. When I first started this work, I was too afraid to even walk around the block, now I just came back from a bikepacking weekend. Whole Woman gave me that confidence.

Keep up the good Whole Woman work ladies; it does pay off!

All that session about pt started with recomened from christine to me to try pt

Thank you for inormatiom
I have bad experiance with pt like you
I would like to know from where al the exercises you mention(wich dvd?) The managers here think that I ask a lot of questions and that it is burdensome, but they do not understand the importance of explaining each disk before purchasing to know which problems will fit. Now you are renewing a lot of information about the method
Thank you

In what program/dvd i can find thoese exercises you and uncloudly mention?
Are they in the first aid prolapse?

I am not sure where the WW frog leg breathing exercise is. Maybe others will know? I am curious too. I’m about to have an Internet holiday as I do at times for so many wonderful reasons...but best wishes, ladies. :)

This forum is for help with the whole woman work. Kalanit was given all the advice we could, even from Christine herself which she flatly ignored. Anything beyond that is beyond the scope of this forum.
So, its time for you to move on Kalanit.

I apologize for giving poor advice on the forum in the form of breathing exercises that don’t meet up to the whole woman principles. I was only trying to explore anything potentially helpful to pass along regards my time in the past with physical therapy, since it looked as if that might be something that was being considered and suggested. I went back and removed my poor advice and was happy to do so. This morning after some reflection on what has truly helped me in regards to breathing exercises that help me relax my tense pelvic muscles, it occurred to me that if I got help from that it was in a position where my midriff area could move forward and my tailbone lift when taking deep relaxing breaths in- like hands and knees or seated in posture or even lying on my side in bed at times it would help. Funny thing, that’s just whole woman breathing dynamics at play. I’m not surprised. Whole woman has been a blessing to me time and again.

That's the beauty of Whole Woman. All the pieces fit together from the breathing, posture, turn out during the exercises, etc, etc, etc. Christine has brought it all together as a whole so we don't have to overthink it, we can just do it.
That is also why I am so protective of this work, because I want other women to experience what I have.

Yes, UnCloudyDay, you are correct that a version of this is in WWY3. Please don’t worry about describing PT methods here, as it gave me a chance to clarify the WW work. I also want to say “You’re welcome!”…and thank you for thanking me.

Kalanit, WW breathing is described in every video and we were simply talking about lying on your back with soles of feet together and breathing into the midriff.

What I find bothersome are the women who come and receive help on the forum, but never say a word of thanks. It doesn’t matter what culture you’re from, human kindness and appreciation are universal. We never really know who we’re dealing with, and must do the best we can to take people at face value. I so appreciate our wonderful moderators!

This is basically unrelated, but something I feel like expressing…Look around your world and see how profoundly unsupportive and unkind women can be through gossip, jealousy, greed, and all the other poisons we are susceptible to. It’s my observation that some cultures, such as African and Hispanic women are far more supportive of their sisters than Whites. I even think one could argue that European women never got over the unspeakable trauma of the “burning times” and still carry those dynamics within our DNA.

My ultimate hope is that the WW work will help bring peace within women themselves, and therefore peace to the world.

I apologize if the work isn’t organized well enough to satisfy everyone. Some women seem to run with it, while others just don’t. However, like Aging, I’m tired of dealing with criticism and negativity.

Upward and onward,

Christine