Exercise and Pelvic Organ Prolapse- What exercises are safe for you?
If you’re active or have been in the past, a diagnosis of POP can really put a damper on your regular routine. You may be asking what is safe for you to do? Can you lift anymore? What about running or impact? What about picking up your kids or running after them? What will make your prolapse worse? It all may feel a little overwhelming and confusing to navigate, especially with all of the conflicting information you’ll find on Google.
Often the information you’ll find about exercise with POP out there can limit you quite a bit. There are tons of articles that warn against squatting, lifting, running, jumping, and many of the movements we do in daily life. In my experience working with people with POP, this is probably the most frustrating part of the diagnosis- the feeling that your life will have to be permanently altered in ways you never imagined. All of a sudden it can feel like even things you do at home to care for your family are off limits and have a chance of making your symptoms worse.
For so many people, exercise is a huge part of taking care of themselves mentally. Sometimes a yoga class just won’t cut it, a run or a heavy lifting session in the gym is what clears your head- but navigating those things with POP feels taboo, off limits, or forever unattainable. In this article I’ll talk more about how to navigate exercise with POP. We’ll talk about safe and unsafe exercises, and why I actually never define exercise in those terms, and how you can return to exercises you love after a POP diagnosis.
Navigating Exercise with POP
Navigating exercise after a POP diagnosis can feel really scary. In one Google search, you can feel limited and boxed in to low-intensity activity or never squatting or lifting again. But are these recommendations really true?
Not necessarily.
It is entirely possible to return to activities you once did effortlessly with POP. You can go back to bending, lifting, squatting, and running after your kids without needing to spend the rest of the day worrying that you made things worse or in an inversion to get your organs to move back up again.
Here are some suggestions for navigating fitness with POP:
Ease into it. I wouldn’t recommend someone who hasn’t run in a while go bang out a marathon, right? Same applies for navigating exercise with POP. We don’t want to be going from nothing to a full blown spin or Crossfit class. There needs to be some steps in between. Starting with an at home or made for you gym program that focuses on function and building strength is the first step in training.
Start with light weight, more repetitions, and smaller ranges of motion. Again, let’s not go from 0-60. Start with familiar movements, lighter weights, bands, more reps, and smaller ranges of motion in your workouts. Building strength gradually and giving your body time to adjust to the demands you’re placing upon it while watching for symptoms and adjusting if necessary is an important part of ANY successful program, but definitely while navigating return to exercise with POP.
Hone in on your breathing. What does your breathing look like during daily life? Exercise? Movements that cause symptoms? Honing in on how you breathe can be such a game changer not only in exercise but in daily life activities as well. For instance, if you notice an increase in symptoms after lifting your toddler- take a minute to check out how you’re breathing while you’re doing it next time you life. Are you holding your breath? Straining? Grunting? What happens if you take an intentional exhale as you lift. Does it help you feel more supported? These are the things I work with my clients on inside of Foundations of Symptom-Free Fitness and in my 1:1 coaching also.
Don’t be afraid to play with your alignment. The same applies for alignment. Notice what that looks like during daily life and when your symptoms flare. Are you spending most of the day with your butt tucked and glutes squeezed? Or maybe the opposite of that? What does it feel like when you change that? Do you feel more or less supported in different alignments? This goes for both daily life and exercise and is also a HUGE game changer for my clients.
If you notice a flare in symptoms after a workout, know that it is just a sign- not a five alarm fire. Many times when my clients notice an increase in symptoms after an activity or workout, it sets off all kinds of alarm bells. They get so anxious because they think this is what life will be like now, that they ruined their body, or they’ll never be the same again. The first sentence is exactly what I tell them. Using the farmhouse analogy that I learned from Antony Lo, imagine your pain and symptom threshold as the fence around a farmhouse. Maybe we start with the fence close to the house, not much room to play in the field, in order to move the fence away from the house we have to lean on it a bit. If we lean on the fence and get a flare up, we just pull it back slightly, give it more time, adjust the weight, the intensity, the range of motion, or the reps, then revisit later. The flare up is just a sign, often it is not an alarm. See next point for more on this.
Watch your recovery times. Watching recovery time is a very important indicator of how your body is adjusting and adapting to increased or different demands. You may be in a place that even the slightest bit of activity sets off your symptoms for the rest of the day or days at a time, when adding in fitness or adjusting strategies it is important to keep tabs on this. Maybe your symptoms still flare a bit but the flare doesn’t last as long- this is a good sign. A sign that your body is adapting to those demands. Are you noticing an increase or decrease overall in your recovery time? These are some of the things a coach can help you with as well, because sometimes a flare up just feels like a flare up and it feels like you’ll never reach your goals, but a well trained coach can help you look at the big picture and adjust your program as necessary.
Save and Unsafe Exercises
Here’s a question I see often: “What exercises are safe with POP? What type of exercise can I do safely?” And here’s the thing, I wish there were a simple answer to this.
But the answer is it depends.
What may be safe or effective for one person with POP may not work for another. One person may be able to run, spin, and lift without increasing symptoms while another may find the simple task of carrying her baby to be symptom-inducing. This is why the terms “safe” and “unsafe” don’t really cover it well.
Safe is a feeling and I do want you to feel safe moving in your body 100%. So using the tips above and starting slowly and gradually with exercise while adjusting any daily life movements as necessary to feel more confident and ultimately safer in your body is the most important part of navigating movement with POP.
In addition, what may not feel safe right now could definitely change over time and with more focus/effort. So don’t box yourself in to one reality. Your body is adaptable and resilient. You are stronger than you think you are. It may just take some time and encouragement to feel and see yourself that way.
How you can return to what you love after diagnosis
Exercising, or returning to activities you once loved and felt fulfilled by, with POP can often be tricky. It can be hard to figure out what flares symptoms and what doesn’t. Then when symptoms flare, it can feel like you did everything wrong and you made it all worse. Having a coach to guide you during this time can be SUPER helpful. A coach trained to work with pregnant and postpartum women, who are well-versed in POP and working with clients who have it, and understand the unique considerations of this population is an invaluable resource.
If you are in search of a coach in person, you can find a coach near you using Pelvic Guru’s directory here or by searching for a Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism Coach here or a Postnatal Fitness Specialist here.
Many of us work remotely, meaning we take clients from all over the world and can help you navigate your fitness from afar in a variety of ways. I work with clients navigating POP ia 1:1 remote coaching.
If you’re looking for ways to manage symptoms now, I suggest you download this free resource with 3 tips I teach my 1:1 clients to manage their POP symptoms. Sign up to grab it here.
For many, a pelvic organ prolapse diagnosis can feel scary and even devastating to some degree. It can often feel confusing, like you are boxed into a certain reality with movement and exercise. And the information out there on navigating life and exercise with POP can be limiting for many. My goal with this article was to give you some hope and direction in navigating exercise with pelvic organ prolapse. If this was helpful for you, please share it with someone who may benefit from it.