It's Possible to Recover From Inguinal Hernia with No Surgery in Some Cases

Learn How You Can Support Your Body in Healing from an Inguinal Hernia Without Surgery

You're so smart to be researching how to recover from inguinal hernia naturally! A lot of folks make the assumption that all they need to do for a hernia is get a repair and they will be good as new. Others assume that a surgery is the most sure bet when it comes to overcoming an inguinal hernia.

The truth is, surgery doesn't always work on inguinal hernias. Up to 15% of people find themselves in the predicament of having their hernia come back after surgery since they never got to the root of the problem.1 Sometimes the hernia comes back in the same spot, while other times these folks develop hernias in completely different parts of their body.

Things That Can Make You More Susceptable to Developing Inguinal Hernias

Pressure management
Core balance
Core strength
How Muscles Work Above and Below the Hernia
Poor Posture
Daily Habits That Place Pressure on the Area

I can teach you how to mitigate all of these issues so that your body can heal the hernia and get on with your life.

It's Important to Know That, With Inguinal Hernias, Sometimes Surgery is Actually Needed

It's important to check with your doctor and be cleared for exercise before embarking on a corrective exercise routine. If your doctor says that it's not safe to exercise, then exploring surgical options is critical. It also makes sense to meet with a surgeon even if you hope to avoid surgery, just to hear out the surgical options.

I can't guarantee I will help you heal your hernia with corrective exercise, but I can guarantee that you will gain strength and comfort in your body. If you don't, I have no problem refunding the cost of our last month of sessions. Many times, conservative options do work.2

I work with clients every day who are healing from and have healed from inguinal hernias without surgery.

Remember, it's not actually me healing your hernia - it's your own body that does the work. I can help set the conditions that your body needs to allow the hernia to heal on it's own through exercises as well as lifestyle adjustments and strategies that I had to utilize myself with my own hernia.

Having a hernia surgery is like pushing the "reset" button on things. It gets you out of trouble for the moment - but it doesn't address the issues in your body that led the hernia to develop in the first place.

Did you know that hernia exercises can be so effective that 50% of people with hernias who don't even have surgery go back to all activities they love or that they need to do? That's saying a lot!²

I have firsthand experience with hernias - I developed one in my incision after a couple of emergency abdominal surgeries.

As part of my process of healing myself, I signed up for a core strengthening program that was designed to help those with a core injury in some way. After working the program for about six months I was able to reverse my hernia - without surgery! This result was confirmed via CT scan. My hernia wasn't inguinal, but most of the exercises that helped me are the same ones that help inguinal hernias.

The reason the exercises overlap so much is because hernias are a pressure problem! We have too much pressure in our system in certain spots and that is what causes the hernia to push out.

It was confirmed that I had two large hernias in August of 2019.

By February of 2020, six months into doing my hernia exercises, my hernias had been healed.

It's highly unlikely that I will ever develop a hernia in any part of my body again due the exercises I learned and the techniques I picked up for daily tasks. I loved my results so much that I felt compelled to take a course so that I could teach the program to others! The course is called PCES and was created by Dr. Sarah Duvall. In the course, I learned how to faciliate healing of fascia without surgical repair. In hernias, the fascia in the abdomen is disrupted.

Here is an article I wrote for Dr. Sarah Duvall's website Core Exercise Solutions. I was honored that she posted my article on her site. You'll see more of the exercises I used to help my hernia as well as see a video about my personal hernia story. Read the Article Now

Here is a video to check how well your breathing system is functioning. Improving breathing can help facilitate the healing of an inguinal hernia.

Hernias are often a full body issue. Rather than thinking that you just need to fix the one spot where the hernia is, you can think of it that the hernia is usually a symptom of dysfunction in other areas of our body.

The cool thing about working on hernias with exercise is that the rest of your body can greatly benefit, too. The same exercises are often used to manage back pain, help improve posture, heal diastasis recti (separation of the ab muscles along the midline), heal prolapse, and many other issues that can affect us from head to toe. A lot of these issues can be drastically helped with a few simple breathing exercises that are easy to fit into your day or incorporated into your workout time. ³

Many times when we seek Physical Therapy and use insurance, the therapist is forced to focus on one part of the body. When you meet with me, you'll be able to share all of your complaints (and actually, I will ask about them!) so that I can be a one stop shop for you. I also can refer you out to a PT who is knowledgeable about inguinal hernias if the need arises. The other perks that come with working with me is that I can help you with fitness routines as well as with nutrition. It's a tremendous value to utilize my service given all the hats I wear.

With these core exercises I have learned and I now teach, I am proud and grateful that I have gotten myself back to living a pain free life where I can do what I please without fear, whether it be in the gym, doing housework and yardwork, or spending active time with my loved ones.

Curious about what the exercises to help inguinal hernia heal without surgery look like? I have some to show you below.

Here is a pelvis mobilization that is helpful to take stress off the fascia, allowing inguinal hernias to heal.

Do not perform any exercises without first being clearned to do so by your doctor.

The Pelvis Smash shown above helps restore hip internal rotation, an area that is lacking for so many individuals with inguinal hernias. When our hips can't internally rotate well, every time we squat, walk or use stairs we can be straining the fascia in our groin area.

Here is a core exercise I used to help heal my hernia.

Finding TAs is a great exercise to help develop the transverse abdominals, which are a group of ab muscles that serve as our body's own built-in corset. I find that many people with weak TAs develop hernias. It's possible to have part of your abs (such as the six-pack muscles, the rectus abdominus) be really strong, but to still have weak TAs. To work them, we have to focus on them in isolation so that the stronger part of your abs doesn't take over.

Once You've Built a Solid Foundation Through Improved Pelvic Positioning as well as Strong TAs, Your Body will Function as Nature Intended.

I used to have to tape my hernia or wear an abdominal binder just to get through the day. I was scared to work my core since the doctors I met with had cautioned that my hernia would only get worse and worse with time. They said a hernia like mine was a one-way street. Now I am so confident in doing anything I want to do that I often forget my hernia was even there!

The corrective exercises I performed to help heal my hernia were simple and easy to incorporate into my day. I can even do some of them while in the car or waiting in line at the grocery store. There are others that are a bit more intensive and those are part of my workout routine. Now I am on a maintenance plan and it's not a big deal at all to keep up with them while I focus most of my time on other types of fitness workouts like I used to do before I had the hernias.

With a few personalized simple core exercises you can really increase your odds of overcoming the hernia without surgery. If you end up needing surgery, the exercises will set your system up to have an easier surgery with a faster recovery! It's worth taking some time to learn about them.

If you're still not sure corrective exercise for inguinal hernias is for you, schedule a Discovery Call below and I'll give you an opinion on how I can help you at no cost.

➡️ Schedule a Free 15-Minute Discovery Call on My Calendar.

➡️ You can also Schedule a 60 Minute Appointment here at my Virtual Rate

I worked this program as a student for a year and a half before enrolling in the core course, which is run by two Doctors of Physical Therapy. Not only did I spent countless hours in the course material and lectures, but I also have had the opportunity for the past four years to practice my skills on real people!
I teach exercises to help your body heal a hernia and also advise on modifications for activities of daily lifting to facilitate healing.
I teach taping techniques when appropriate, and I can advise on returning to regular exercise and sports or physical jobs if those are desired.
I have a full client load now focusing on hernia recovery, fixing diastasis recti, prolapse healing, and postpartum issues.
I also have a team of Physical Therapists I can collaborate with as part of a Professional Group of whom I can ask questions of or refer clients to if their expertise is needed to complement mine.

This is a great skin mobilizationi exercise that I used to recover from my hernias.

Skin rolling is a wonderful technique to help free up the fascia in your system so that no one spot is bearing all the load. You would skin roll around your hernia, not on it. Because of that it's a pretty safe technique.

Picture fascia as like a ball of yarn that has some knots in it. You can't unwind the yarn easily if there are knots, and as you try you can pull on the other parts of the yarn. Skin rolling is like untying the knots so to speak, which means the whole body will then be looser and more fluid. The more "knots" in your fascia, the harder the healing process will be for a hernia since there is so much unbalanced pressure in the system.

The Conditions that Led to Your Hernia Are Sadly Still Going to Exist Afterwards Even If You Have Surgery

Our core is designed to work as a system, and if one part of a system fails, of course the whole thing falls apart. If one part of our core system is stronger than the other or tighter than the other, hernias as the outcome - no two ways about it. No repair job can ensure that you won't have a repeat performance. However, the good news is I know exactly what to teach you to help yourself. Even if you elect for surgery, which is the best decision for many people, meeting with me before and after your procedure will facilitate a faster and better recovery.

Frequently the gentler exercises can be started as soon as one week after surgery. In other cases you'll have to wait a bit longer. I will ensure that you start your recovery exercises at the perfect time for your particular procedure.

Surgeons are notoriously minimalist when it comes to exercise suggestions post repair, and many of them don't believe you need exercise to help heal from the repair and therefore don't prescribe PT. After my emergency surgeries no one offered me PT or any advice at all. I was left to rehab on my own, and it didn't go well. That's what fuels my passion to help other folks.

From what I have seen, not doing targeted exercise after a repair is the worst thing you could do. However, surgeons aren't typically instructed in the value of exercise and they can't speak to what they don't know. When they say exercise won't help, their goal is to prevent you from ruining the repair. However, that is assuming you don't have a core expert guiding you along.

Learning the Reasons Why We Get Hernias Helps Us Understand Why They Are So Common

From surgeries that leave our fascia weaker
From one moment lifting something heavy or awkward
From repetitive stress on our tissues via workouts, our jobs or just daily living
From pregnancy
From bearing down while going to the bathroom, coughing or sneezing
From faulty movement patterns

The good news is that so much can be done about so many of these issues with corrective exercise! I can create a plan for you that fits easily into your life, whether you want to fast-track it and heal sooner, or work more slowly if you don't have as much free time. As long as you can be consistent, you could achieve results in six months or less with 20 minutes spent three times per week in some cases.

Want to know more exercises that help heal an inguinal hernia without surgery? Keep reading!

This Exercise Helps Set Your Pelvis in a Better Position to Take Pressure Off the Hernia

When our proximal hamstrings aren't kicked on (the top part of the back of your thigh) it can cause unwanted tensions, rotations and tilting of the pelvis. This exercise helps teach you to find those proximal hamstrings in an upright position so that they can work for you during your day. The value of working in upright, once you're ready for it, is that you will be able to carry the techniques into your usual daily activities that much better.

Often We Need to Start with Finding Proximal Hamstrings on the Floor First

When the floor is supporting us, it's easier to rewire our patterns. That's why I usually start folks on the floor finding proximal hamstrings and turning on inner thigh before I have them do the standing hip shifts.

I teach targeted corrective exercises to folks with:

Sports Hernias
Incisional Hernias
Umbilical Hernias
Inguinal Hernias
Complex Hernias
Suspected Hernias (I will still ask you to be clearned by a doctor first).

I am trained in being able to help you though a live video call format as well as through in person work. And the great news is, the video method⁴ has been proven to be just as successful as in person options – so no worries if we live far apart! In fact, these days about 80% of my work is done virtually. A specialist like me isn't usually found locally, but the good news is I can replicate the in person results online via Zoom or Facetime sessions.

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