Indicators on Exercises You Should Know

Ladies, if you've had a hysterectomy or maybe you will be getting one in the future, it can be a little nerve racking when you're thinking of getting back into activity, what exercises that you should do, and what is best for your body to really enhance your healing and recovery and feel like yourself. Again, we'll keep watching this video if you want to learn the five best exercises to do in that post op phase after a hysterectomy safe to do once you've been cleared by your doctor for activity. Now having a hysterectomy, it may be a partial or total hysterectomy, and scar tissue is going to be very important before addressing any movement. So you want to go back to my video all about the best ways to be able to heal your scar tissue and what you can do for scar tissue mobility after an abdominal surgery. So go search that video. But when we're talking about activity and getting back into exercise, again, it can be a little nerve racking. And if you want to be able to enhance your pelvic floor muscles, your core and get everything feeling great again, then it's going to be important to work those muscles from the inside out. And when I talk about that I'm talking about the core, really your diaphragm being at the top of your core, that's the breathing muscles, your abdominals, the deep layer ones, not your six pack muscles, but the deeper ones, and then your pelvic floor muscles at the bottom and the ones that support your bladder. And if you've had a partial or total hysterectomy, it's very important to address those pelvic floor muscles because they are still supporting your bladder and they're a big part of your healing and making sure that when you're doing weight bearing activity, that things are going to be less painful. And you're going to really enhance your healing. If you take care of those muscles, then your back muscles that attach to your spine, your multifidus muscles, those are the back part of your core. So with that whole system, the five things that I teach my clients to start off with number one is going to be some breathing exercises. Now breathing is very underrated and breathing is going to help you connect to the lower abdominals and also the pelvic floor muscles again. So it's very important to also help any swelling from the area and just help be able to engage those muscles starting off with a good foundation first. So to do that, you are going to go on your back with your knees bent. I'm going to place my hands right along the ribcage here. And I'm going to think of breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. And when I do this, I'm going to think of my ribcage expanding side to side like an umbrella opening and closing and trying that for about 10 breaths nice and easy. The goal is to get more of the air down into your belly and your ribcage rather than all the air when you're breathing up from your chest. Now you it helps you connect to this area helps enhance the healing and helps any swelling or puffiness that you have around your abdominal area. Then next, you're going to take your hands right over your lower abdominals. And you're going to do some breathing again, in through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and easy. So you can see feel the belly rise and fall. Now, this is the most important part of breathing both of those steps because it's going to enhance your activation of your pelvic floor and your core whenever you're doing any kind of household activity or when you want to get back into exercise. So this can be safe to do even after two weeks or when you've been cleared by your doctor. It's safe to do this movement just to connect to those muscles again. Next, we're going to connect to those muscles with a little tightening and engagement of that transverse abdominus those deeper abdominal muscles that protect and add like a corset around your spine and protect the pelvic area that is healing during this time. So when you take an inhale, you're going to stay relaxed, but as you exhale, you're going to tense and tighten the muscles that are just right below your fingertips right below your belly button. So if you feel your hip bones here, and then you just go like an inch inward toward your navel, you're going to place your fingertips there and you want to feel them tense and tighten enough that you could still carry on a conversation when they're tightening, or you can still breathe. So those muscles are going to contract under your fingertips. And I do this on an exhale. So you want to sync your breathing with your abdominal contraction. Don't move your back and don't tuck your hips at the same time. You just want to inhale, relax, and then exhale, engage and feel that little hug around your lower belly and around the pelvic area. So that is number two, connecting to your transverse abdominus, or your deeper abdominal muscles. Number three exercise that we're going to try is a bridge. And this time, we're getting those glute muscles, those important hip muscles to engage in fire. And that protects your whole pelvic area too. So you can put it all together, I take an inhale first. And as I exhale, I tense those muscles like you did in the second exercise, and then we're going to lift our hips up to a little bridge, squeezing your glutes. Now you don't want to overextend but just go up, lifting your bottom up and keeping your ribs pulled in a little bit. And then inhale on the way down. And then exhale, engage those abdominal muscles and lift your hips up, again. So you can do a round of 10 of those as long as you're not having pain, discomfort, you've been cleared by your doctor, that bridge exercise is excellent for really working on the muscles all around your pelvis and through your abdominals, too. So that's number three, the bridge. The next one that we are going to do is a modified side plank. This is going to be a little more strenuous, but still safe, because you're not bearing and putting a lot of pressure through your abdominals, you're going to be on your side, I love side planks in a modified position with your knees bent. And this is a longer lever when you lift up. So it's going to be more challenging to start with your knees bent. This is much better to than a regular forward plank, because you're not putting a lot of pressure on your abdominal area yet. So I'm going to lift my hips up, I keep my shoulder right over my elbow, and I'm going into a side plank here. And I'm going to hold with some breathing. So making sure you don't hold your breath. Very important. And I'm going to hold to fatigue level it may be 10 seconds, it may be 20 seconds, 30 seconds, whatever you can do to maintain your breathing and your position there. So with any of these exercises, you don't want to overdo it. But you also want to start getting your hips and your abdominals a little bit stronger and supporting through your shoulders to is going to help those back muscles. It's all connected with your midsection. So you can try that on each side a modified side plank. And this is more of a basic version of a side plank. I have more advanced exercises in some other videos on our channel. But right now I'm teaching you what to do in that first six to eight weeks after a hysterectomy. Once you've been cleared by your doctor for exercise, then the last one I'm going to show you today is on all fours. So we call this exercise a bird dog exercise you're on all fours. I have my shoulders right over my hands and my hips are right over my knees. I'm going to think about balancing a cup of water on my back. So it's going to stay in the neutral position. Very stable, you're not arching or you're not dropping your belly button, you're going to stay flat like a tabletop. I'm going to engage those muscles that we did before where you tense and tight and right under your navel, just those lower belly muscles. And I'm going to keep those tight but in a way that I can still breathe. I'm going to extend my right leg and my left arm comes up toward my ear. I'm holding for a second or two and then bring it back in. And then make sure you're breathing. You're going to alternate back and forth. Now you can repeat this about 10 times each side no right or wrong. But this is to work on those stabilizing muscles along your spine, the multifidus muscles and also teaches you control of your core muscles. So whenever you're doing this exercise, this site you want to make sure that you're not rocking your pelvis. You want to keep your hip bones facing the floor and keep your back real flat. Now, those are the five initial exercises that I might give someone when they really want to start connecting their brain to their muscles again, as that whole connection gets disrupted, undergoing any kind of surgery or dealing with any trauma to the area around your pelvic floor and your abdominals. So it's very important to start restorative exercises before you really get into a lot of heavy walking, yoga, anything that's going to be a little more strenuous. It's building the foundation from the inside out. That is so important. Now, if you liked any of these exercises, and you have not tried them before, but you are going to start integrating one of them. Let me know which one was your favorite and if you have any questions or comments, leave them below. We'd love to hear from you and we hope you enjoy this channel. If you want more videos related to women's health hysterectomies, healing, and other exercises that you can do on your own, then follow us at level four women's health and hit subscribe. Thanks for watching, and we hope you enjoy this video.