I'm sure you've all heard it a million times: exercise cures chronic pain! While this is an oversimplification of the truth. Stretching represents just a fraction of what should go into your healing program, but it's still an essential aspect that should be approached in a personalized way.
Like many others, I purchased a yoga ball and a mat years ago then promptly placed them in the corner of my living room where they would haunt me daily. I felt that owning them was a step in the right direction, but what do I actually do with them? I would sit on the ball and bounce around while watching TV to stop it from taunting me. That is supposed to fix your posture, right? Teach you to sit up straight and tighten those core muscles needed to cure lower back pain? The worst incident was the time I decided to attempt the exercises inscribed on the side of the ball...and ended up flipping over into the TV. It didn't break. That's about the only positive outcome I can tell from that story.
The important thing to remember about coming up with an exercise plan is that it completely depends on what your ailments are, especially if you are rehabilitating from surgery. The worse off you are at the start, the slower you should progress to more difficult intensities in your exercises. As with any lifestyle changes, gradual is best because you want to be gentle with your body so you don't completely turn yourself off from it altogether. For me, as a child and teen, stretching always equalled pain, which equalled me noping out. It wasn't until I discovered Heal Pelvic Pain by Amy Stein that I learned the actual process of beginning with a few stretches for a matter of months, and once the pain subsides, building up to a more strenuous set or more complex versions of the same stretches. This same concept is applied to running or lifting as well. First, you simply walk around the block, then you walk further, next you jog a short distance, and eventually you are running miles again, it just may take years to reach that point. You must always practice grace and patience with yourself as your body adjusts to new movement.
If you are suffering from Vaginismus and haven't considered going to physical therapy yet, I strongly recommend it, as stretching before dilating is a must. A professionally certified pelvic floor therapist can assess your individual needs after evaluating you and then create a personalized stretching plan for you to follow. Furthermore, she can teach you how to Kegel correctly, as most women do it wrong, not understanding the correct muscles to squeeze or how to release them. I'll have another blog in the future with more details on what a physical therapist can do for your pelvic floor, but for now, here are 3 of my daily stretches that I swear by given to me by the therapist I went to from 2018-19, who happens to be my ex's sister, haha.
The first one is stretching your adductors, which should be done daily, holding for 3 mins:
Setup
Begin lying on your back with your legs flat against a wall and your feet pointing toward the ceiling.
Movement
Keep your legs straight and slowly let your legs fall out to the sides until, you feel a stretch in your inner thighs. Hold this position with rotation at the hips.Â
Tip
Make sure to keep your lower back flat on the ground during the exercise.
The second one is the supine hamstring stretch in the doorway, which should also be done daily and held for 1 min:
Setup
Begin lying on your back in a doorway with your hips next to the doorframe.
Movement
Keeping your leg straight, raise your heel up onto the door frame until you feel a gentle stretch in the back of your leg. Hold this position.
Tip
Make sure to keep breathing evenly and do not lock your knee during the stretch.
The third one is the hip flexor stretch at the edge of your bed, done daily in a set of 3 and held for 30 secs:
Setup
Begin lying diagonally at the edge of table or bed, with the leg furthest from the edge bent.
Movement
Leg your straight leg hang off the edge of the bed, then pull your bent leg toward your chest and hold. You should feel a stretch in front of the hip of your hanging leg.
Tip
Make sure to keep your upper body relaxed and do not to let your low back arch during the stretch.