How Long to Wait for Safe Return to Exercise After Prolapse Surgery?

How long do you need to wait before returning to exercise after prolapse surgery?

Is it safe to return to your regular exercise after prolapse surgery?

This Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy information helps you plan your safe return to exercise and live life to the fullest after prolapse repair surgery.

Read on now to learn:

• Problems with returning too soon to exercise after prolapse surgery
• How long to wait before returning to exercise
• Safe exercises after prolapse surgery
• Prolapse exercises to avoid after prolapse surgery
• How to return to exercise safely after prolapse surgery

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International best selling prolapse exercise guide for women with prolapse and after prolapse surgery.

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• Exercise safely after prolapse surgery
• Reduce your risk or repeat prolapse
• Avoid unsafe exercises
• Choose pelvic floor safe exercises
• Reduce your risk of prolapse worsening
• Improve prolapse support
• Increase your strength and fitness
• Strengthen your core
• Lose weight

Problems With Returning too Soon to Exercise After Prolapse Surgery

Returning to exercise too soon after surgery can increase the risk of repeat prolapse problems that affect your quality your quality of life.

There are 2 main prolapse problems caused by returning to exercise before your repair is completely healed:

• Tissue stretch – newly healed tissues can over-stretch causing a ‘loose’ repair which isn’t as firm or sitting as high as it would otherwise.
• Immediate prolapse – when the stitches used for your repair give way causing repeat prolapse.

During your prolapse surgery your surgeon surgically supports your prolapsed pelvic organs (i.e. bladder, bowel or uterus). Prolapse surgery usually involves cutting away loose prolapsed tissues and stitching (sewing) your pelvic tissues to hold your pelvic organs in place.

Prolapse surgery results in an internal wound that’s stitched up that isn’t visible from outside the body, so it can be easy to forget. It’s also not widely understood by many people including some gym instructors or personal trainers.

As your newly repaired tissues heal and form scar tissue, the stitches usually dissolve inside your body. The newly healed tissues then takes on the role of holding up your pelvic organs.

How Long to Wait Before Returning to Exercise

Always wait until you have your surgeon’s approval before returning to general exercise. The best time for you to return to exercise is something you’ll need to discuss with your surgeon during your postoperative visit approximately 6 weeks after your prolapse surgery.

Some women receive approval to return to general exercise 6-8 weeks after prolapse surgery. This varies from patient to patient and there’s definitely no one rule for all women.

Unfortunately some women make the mistake of thinking that after 6 weeks they’re fully healed and they return to their previous exercise routine. During the first 6 weeks your stitches hold together your tissues as they heal. During this time it’s very important to avoid overloading your pelvic floor tissues with unsafe exercises.

Complete tissue healing takes 3 months and sometimes longer. During this time your prolapse repair is still vulnerable to strain and overload, especially with some general exercises (discussed below).

Safe return to general exercise depends on a number of factors including:

• Type of prolapse repair surgery (e.g. cystocele repair, rectocele repair, uterine prolapse)
• Surgical technique used by your surgeon
• Postoperative complications
• How well your pelvic floor muscles are working
• Condition of your pelvic floor tissues (e.g. after menopause your pelvic tissues are more likely to be thin and vulnerable to strain)
• Your body weight (the more abdominal weight you carry, the greater the load on your pelvic floor and repair with exercise)

Safe Exercise After Prolapse Surgery

To avoid long-term complications which could affect quality of life after prolapse surgery, women usually return to modified exercises designed to avoid overloading their pelvic floor tissues.

Modified general exercises include:

• Low impact cardiovascular fitness exercises (e.g. walking, water walking, low impact dancing, low impact aerobics)
• Pelvic floor safe resistance exercises (e.g. seated bicep curls, flood bridging exercises, clam exercise)
• Pelvic floor safe core abdominal exercises

Prolapse Exercises to Avoid After Prolapse Surgery

Some exercises increase the load on the pelvic floor, increasing the risk of straining prolapse repair or causing repeat prolapse.

Prolapse exercises to avoid after prolapse surgery include:

• High impact exercises – e.g. distance running, jumping, high impact aerobics
• Heavy strength training and inappropriate strength exercises – e.g. leg press, deep wide leg squats, kettle bell swings
• Intense core abdominal exercises – e.g. abdominal curl exercises, intense Yoga or Pilates core abdominal exercises

Many women choose to avoid these types of heavy loading and high impact exercises long-term after prolapse repair.

How to Return to Exercise Safely After Prolapse Surgery

1. Most women start walking daily after discharge from hospital
2. Continue your progressive walking program during the first 6 weeks after surgery
3. Seek advice on pelvic floor rehabilitation from a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist
4. Commence pelvic floor rehabilitation during your recovery as advised by your Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist
5. Resume modified general exercises when you have approval to do so from your surgeon.

Key Points for When to Return to Exercise After Prolapse Surgery

• Prolapse surgery involves an internal wound isn’t visible from outside the body
• Overloading the pelvic floor before fully healed can cause a lax repair or repeat prolapse
• Some women receive approval to return to modified exercise from 6-8 weeks after prolapse surgery
• Complete tissue healing takes around 3 months
• Choose low impact exercises, pelvic floor safe resistance exercises and appropriate core abdominal exercises after prolapse surgery
• Avoid high impact exercises, inappropriate heavy resistance training exercises and intense core abdominal exercises to protect your prolapse repair.