After vaginal childbirth, you may notice some pelvic changes. Things can feel so unfamiliar at first that it may almost feel like you’re living in a stranger’s body. This is a disorienting experience, but this phase doesn’t last forever.
Eventually, the soreness will dissipate and any acute injuries should heal within a few weeks or months. However, sometimes weak pelvic floor symptoms can persist leading to a bigger concern around long-term issues.
The muscles that make up the pelvic floor support the bladder, the uterus, the bowel, and the rectum. When the pelvic floor has become weakened and stretched from pregnancy and childbirth, these internal organs can be prone to prolapse.
One common example of this is rectocele. This is when the rectum bulges into the posterior vaginal wall. If you’re wondering if hypopressives can help rectocele, you’re in the right place.
Understanding Rectocele: Causes and Symptoms
Although rectocele is commonly thought of as a condition that arises after vaginal childbirth, it can develop in other ways. Men or women can have rectoceles, and a few things heighten the risk of it occurring such as chronic straining to pass stools (frequent constipation), obesity, genetic factors, a history of surgery in the pelvic region, and increased age.
Rectocele can range from relatively benign and symptomless to a serious issue that requires surgery. In all cases, it’s important to understand what lifestyle factors can help or harm so it doesn’t worsen with time.
Another important reason to address rectocele is because most people with this condition will experience digestive troubles. It makes it difficult to pass a complete bowel movement and may lead to constipation, pelvic pain, and even sexual dysfunction. This means it can impact your everyday comfort and wellbeing in other areas of life. Thankfully, hypopressives can help rectocele.
Hypopressives: A Low-Pressure Approach to Pelvic Floor Health
Hypopressives are an incredible tool to manage rectocele and general pelvic floor health. This novel pelvic floor exercise approach gently restores strength while simultaneously encouraging prolapsed organs to return to their original positioning through low-pressure suctioning in the abdominal cavity.
Traditional exercise approaches can actually make rectocele and other pelvic floor conditions worse by causing excess pressure in the abdomen and encouraging an action of “bearing down”. This can injure compromised pelvic floor muscles and exacerbate organ prolapse.
How Hypopressives Can Improve Rectocele: Exploring the Benefits
Hypopressives create positive changes to the pelvic floor and abdomen well beyond improving cases of rectocele. They can help tone the small muscles of the pelvic floor, and this can help prevent organ prolapse from happening in the first place.
More specifically, the levator ani muscle helps to hold the rectum in place, so learning to activate, relax, and slowly strengthen this muscle through hypopressive techniques will provide better internal support.
Hypopressives can also strengthen the abdominal girdle to help recover from diastasis recti, improve posture, and provide functional core strength.
Getting Started With Hypopressives
For the Hypopressives classes it is important that you learn the Breathing/Apnea technique properly so that you can get the most out of the classes and the time you invest in yourself. Each week Simone runs Fundamentals sessions on Zoom where she explains the technique and guides you through all the steps.
She will also give you feedback to make sure that you’re doing it correctly. For some, the technique may come more quickly than others. Some of her clients, who are tighter in the ribs and thoracic spine do tend to take a little longer. And here’s the golden rule – for impactful change, Simone recommends at least three 15 to 20-minute workouts per week. Consistency is your best friend on this journey towards wellness.
