Home Physical activity What are hypopressive exercises and their benefits?

What are hypopressive exercises and their benefits?

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

Many women observe that their bodies undergo significant changes after the pregnancy process, from visible physical changes, such as weight gain, stretch marks in the belly or breasts, or increased abdominal volume. Still, there are also many consequences of pregnancy internally that you can notice. For example, the pelvic floor loses strength, urine leakage, and a feeling of low muscle in the abdomen may be experienced.

Given these postpartum consequences, some techniques and exercises can help you muscle the pelvic and abdominal area and, thus, increase your well-being. One of these techniques is the so-called hypopressive exercises. In this FastlyHealarticle, we will know which are the best hypopressive exercises for postpartum.

What are hypopressive exercises?

Hypopressive exercises are part of physical training based on a specific methodology and technique that works the body through tension and distension of the muscles. Exercises all the layers of the powers of the abdominal area, from the most external to the most internal, which achieves a deep practice working the thoracic diaphragm, the abdominal, the perineum, and the pelvic floor. It is an area that supports the entire load of the weight of the fetus, in addition to our internal organs. This means that you need an active musculature to keep it. During pregnancy, muscle tone loses, and the organs move; repositioning themselves in our abdominal area must be transferred during postpartum.

Hypopressive exercises consist of breathing based on inhaling, then exhaling all the air and remaining with empty lungs in apnea for as long as possible. With these breaths, we manage to relax the diaphragm and raise it naturally, attracting with its force and increasing the whole internal abdominal part to the pelvic area, that is, abdominals, intestines, rectum, urethra, uterus, vagina and bladder, in addition to causing a muscle tension or strength in the abdominal area and in the pelvic floor that muscles the entire area and tones.

Benefits of hypopressive exercises

  • They improve body posture. By muscularizing the abdominal and lumbar areas, they facilitate a lengthening of the spine while allowing a better positioning of the back that stands firmer on a structured and robust base.
  • They reduce back pain. By improving body posture and increasing muscles, back pain decreases; since we position ourselves better, we are more solid, and it does not cost us so much to gain weight because our body gains strength and tone.
  • It muscles the pelvic floor and, consequently reduces urinary incontinence. Musc muscularizing the area and gaining tone allows us to control our urethra, causing less urine loss.
  • Activates intestinal transit. By mobilizing the internal space of ​​our abdomen, it activates the secretion of intestinal fluids and promotes the movement of the intestines, which facilitates digestion and balances intestinal transit.
  • Reposition the internal organs of the abdominal area, placing them in the correct size. After delivery, our organs have been repositioned, adapting to the fetus; once it has given birth, they need to be put back in place. With hypopressive exercises, movement and correct repositioning of these are facilitated.
  • It improves the abdominal diastasis, that is, the wrong positioning of the abdominals, either in the rectum area or in the lateral abdominal area. With these exercises, we get the abdominal area toned in the right place in the body.
  • They increase happiness and decrease depression. Any sport we do generates serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins in our body, the hormones that create a feeling of joy. If you perform hypopressive exercises continuously and constantly, in addition to improving physically, you will notice an emotional improvement and more excellent mental stability.

The best hypopressive exercises for postpartum

You can start postpartum exercises the moment you are discharged and, above all, if you know this type of work. Otherwise, we recommend that the first two weeks after delivery, you start practicing breaths with apnea stretched out in bed and try to hold them for as long as possible, trying to lengthen them more and more.

From the second fortnight, you can start practicing the postpartum hypopressive exercises that we propose here:

Exercise 1: basic hypopressive

  1. Lie on your back, bend your legs apart at the hips, and place your feet on the floor at a comfortable distance from your buttocks, allowing you to have your entire back on the floor.
  2. Place your arms outstretched at the sides of your body.
  3. Exhale once to start the exercise, inhale through the nose for a count of 4, exhale through the mouth until the lungs and belly are empty, and maintain apnea.
  4. Try to open your ribs while in apnea. Naturally, you will feel your entire abdomen tense and rise. Relax and breathe in again when you can’t take the apnea anymore.
  5. Repeat the exercise 3 times, leaving a pause of two normal breaths between each repetition.

Exercise 2

  1. In the same position you are in, raise your hips and, if necessary, help yourself with your hands, bending your arms to hold your hips and placing the weight of your body on the shoulders, arms, and elbows.
  2. Repeat the breaths to perform this hypopressive exercise. Breathe out, breathe in, breathe out again, and stay in apnea. In this position, you will notice the rise of the internal organs stronger.
  3. Relax your body between reps by placing your hips on the floor and repeating the exercise three times.

Exercise 3

  1. Get into a quadruped that is, on your knees and hands. It would help if you opened the knees respecting the hips’ width and placed the toes on the floor and the hands straight with the shoulders.
  2. In this position, we repeat the apnea breath three times.
  3. To rest, lower your hips over your legs in embryo pose.

Exercise 4

  1. From the position of the previous exercise, bring your arms forward as far as possible without losing hip height, lying down in a prayer position.
  2. Do the breathing exercises three times.
  3. Between each repetition, rest by placing your body weight on top of your legs in embryo pose and taking two normal breaths.

With this table of hypopressive exercises for after childbirth that we have presented, you will be able to work your abs and your pelvic floor and enjoy the improvements that we have told you about before. If you want to learn more about this technique, we recommend that you go to a professional to improve and advance in this methodology.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Hypopressive exercises for postpartum, we recommend that you enter our category of Physical Activity.

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