Physical Activities You Are Allowed To Do Even If You Have Hernia

Reshmi Sharma
3 min readMay 11, 2020

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A hernia is a very common condition, which if, occurs to someone can hinder their normal lifestyle. It is well known that the only way to treat hernia is to undergo hernia surgery. If you have a hernia, you should go for the same solution too. But, if you haven’t had the surgery yet, you will need to adjust your lifestyle, especially the physical activities. Your everyday physical activities can worsen your hernia if you are not careful. But that doesn’t mean, you can stop doing any physical activities altogether. After all, your health overall is important too.

A hernia occurs due to a tear in the abdominal wall. This is why abdominal exercises are the first one that should be stopped or done carefully depending on the condition of the hernia. If you are still in a position to do abdominal exercise, then you need to take care of your breathing. If you don’t breathe normally while doing your exercises, then it will worsen your hernia. Some people have the habit of holding their breath and putting pressure on the abdomen. This should be avoided at any cost.

Exercises like crunches are a good example of maintaining your breathing. When you lift yourself up, exhale through your mouth and when you go down inhale properly. This way, you won’t be putting any pressure on your abdomen. Regulating your breathing will not only decrease the amount of pressure in your abdomen, but it will also help eliminate exercises that cause you to strain.

Other than that stretching your abdominal wall too much can also worsen your condition. If you do yoga that needs you to backbend or stretch too much, it will put a strain on your abdominal wall. So, try to stay away from abdominal stretches.

Avoiding heavy weightlifting exercises that causes strain decreases the chance that you’ll make your hernia worse. Heavy weightlifting exercises cause an increase in the abdominal pressure which can worsen your hernia.

So, apart from heavy lifting and strength exercises, you can do almost everything. But keep in mind to not overdo it. If you really are in a habit of doing exercises, for the time being, you can switch to walking. Brisk walking for 15–20 minutes will help you as much as light exercises will. Other than that you can also do jogging, swimming, or cycling. But whatever you choose, do it moderately. Lastly, the best way to resume your normal exercise routine will be to have your hernia surgery as soon as possible. Find the best surgeon for hernia surgery in Kolkata and stay fit.

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Reshmi Sharma

The author of this article is Reshmi Sharma, a student of medical science in Kolkata. Reshmi has a keen interest in health topics and likes to share insights.