Hi, I'm Michelle and welcome to pelvic exercises. Today we're taking a quick walk through the gym to
look at some exercises, particularly some intense core exercises and machines that
it's really wise to avoid if you're living with pelvic floor problems such as prolapse,
or after hysterectomy. So we'll look at some machine based exercises and
we'll also look at some exercises on the mat. So let's get started.
One common type of gym machine to avoid is the abdominal exercise machine. Now,
these types of machines train the strong outer abdominal muscles and the outer abdominal muscles
contract and increase the downward force on your pelvic floor, which you really want to avoid with
prolapse problems if you've had prolapse surgery, or after a hysterectomy. This machine is called
the captain's chair. The abdominal exercises using this machine include the straight leg raises that
you can see here, and also the neela the knee raises that you'll see next. Both of these are
intense core abdominal exercises. Training these muscles promotes a muscle imbalance
between the strong outer abdominal muscles and the supportive pelvic floor muscles.
We know from research that abdominal curl exercises can force the pelvic floor to move
downwards, especially women with pelvic floor problems. So using an incline bench shown here
increases the intensity of the abdominal curl, which could foreseeably increase the pressure
on the pelvic floor during this exercise and here's the same exercise that you can
see using an abdominal weight. And once again, this type of exercise can overload
the pelvic floor forcing it downward so it's the type of exercise that you want to avoid.
Another version of the abdominal curl exercise is this one performed line backwards over an
exercise ball. This is another version of the abdominal curl exercise to avoid if
you want to avoid forcing your pelvic floor downwards. The double leg raise
is a common exercise that you'll see in gyms This is an extreme version,
raising the ball. This particular exercise creates a large load on the low back as well
as the pelvic floor. So there's potential for injury in on the pelvic floor and lower
back doing that exercise. This is another another version of the abdominal curl again,
making it a more intense exercise with both legs raised in the ear, and it's another one to avoid.
And finally, here's a traditional dumbbell curl exercise that we know causes downward pressure
on the pelvic floor. There's many versions of this exercise that you'll see you can almost
visualize the downward pressure on the pelvic floor caused as the head and shoulders raise
off the ground. So there you have it, I put my body on the line to show you some exercises to
avoid if you're living with pelvic floor problems. So we've looked at some machine based exercises,
machine based abdominal crunches and incline setups and we've also looked at exercises on
the ball plus exercises on the mat to avoid if you do have problems such as prolapse or have to
hysterectomy so look, I'd love you to subscribe, you can do that with the button down below here
now for some more exercise information if you're leaving a corporate for problems,
and I look forward to exercising with you again soon. Bye for now.