Umbilical Hernia Recovery Without Surgery: I Did It, and I Can Teach You How to Do It, Too!

If you have an umbilical hernia and want to know how you can achieve recovery without surgery, you're in the right place.

Good for you for being thorough about all of your options when presented with a diagnosis of an umbilical hernia. It's possible for some people to recover from an umbilical hernia without surgery, and I hope you fall into that category like I did! The first step is always to check with your doctor and be sure that you are cleared to exercise. Normally a doctor will perform an exam and let you know if you need to have emergency surgery or not. 

Gina Paulhus healed from her own umbilical hernias without surgery, and she teaches others every day how they can do the same.

If the surgery isn't to be on an emergency basis, then oftentimes the doctor will say that you can perform exercise as long as it doesn't exacerbate symptoms. He or she may provide more specific guidelines to your particular situation. However, once you're given the go-ahead to exercise, you will know that you may be a good candidate to recover from an umbilical hernia without surgery, just like I did.

By the way, you're so smart to be researching how to heal hernias naturally! A lot of folks make the misguided assumption that all they need to do for a hernia is get a repair and it's as easy at that. Unfortunately, many people find themselves in the predicament of developing additional hernias in the future since they never got to the root of the problem. 

And what is the root, you ask? It's their movement patterns and how their bodies manage pressure. The last thing you want to do is develop additional hernias down the line. Sometimes they can come back in the same spot, and other times they will return in areas around the repair. There are other times when somebody has surgery and they never get another hernia again. It's hard to say what will happen, but I know for sure that you can improve your odds when you perform a corrective exercise routine for your core just like I did.

Watch My Personal Umbilical Hernia Recovery Story Here

I got an up close and personal lesson in healing hernias without surgery - I developed a couple of hernias in my incision after some emergency abdominal surgeries.

When I wanted to get started healing myself, I did exactly what you are doing now - I searched online. After watching some of Dr. Sarah Duvall's free videos on Youtube, I decided that she was the one I wanted to pay to help me out. Her content stood out to me because what she was teaching made so much sense to my personal trainer mind. She took the time to explain the "why" behind the exercises, and I really appreciated that.

I signed up for her Core Exercise Solutions All Access program that was designed to help those with a core or pelvic floor injury (unfortunately the program is no longer available, but that's because professionals like me are trained by Dr. Sarah to help others just like she helped us). After working in the program for about six months I was able to reverse my hernias - without surgery! This result was confirmed via CT scan. 

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.

After going through a core strengthening and balancing program like one I never encountered before (even as a high level competitive gymnast) I now have confidence that I won't ever develop a hernia again. I learned so much about what my daily routines have to do with my developing a hernia, too. There are certain techniques that can be used to make everyday things such as carrying groceries or even standing in line safer and healthier for our bodies.  I loved my results so much that I felt compelled to take Dr. Sarah Duvall's PCES course so that I could teach the program to others! The course covered strategies that could be used to faciliate healing of hernias with or without repair as well as to prevent hernias from developing. It is technically a Postpartum Course, however the teachings can certainly be applied to people who have never had kids.

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

Let's check to see if you could improve the way your breathing system functions, which will help your hernia heal naturally.

Our breathing system is the foundation of our core. The reason is, the way our lungs and our diaphragm move sets the stage for the function of the rest of our abs. Plus, we breathe a 22,000 times per day! 😂 Of course this is worth paying attention to!

In the PCES course I learned that hernias are often a full body issue - with the hernia being the symptom. Along the way I built upon the expertise I already had as a personal trainer in assisting clients with back pain, helping improve resting posture, healing diastasis recti (separation of the ab muscles along the midline), healing 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.² For those who want to dive deeper, I can take you there, too. I love meeting clients where they are at and assigning them a personalized program that is suited to their lifestyle.

With these exercises I have learned and practiced and now teach, I am proud and grateful that I have achieving living a pain free life once again which includes overcoming back pain that limited my ability to walk for years. I also suffered from extreme piriformis pain that is now a long distant memory. And of course, like I said I healed the two large hernias as well as a diastasis recti. Addressing my core in very specific ways was helpful for so many of my issues. Even as a personal trainer and gymnast I didn't know any of this stuff until I took the PCES course! 

Let's learn one of the first core exercises I started with when I set out to help my body heal my hernia. 

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

In this exercise, I am training my TA (or transverse abdominus) muscles. These are the portion of our abs that serve as a "corset" that holds everything in. Since the TAs are weaker on many people compared to the other ab muscles, such as the rectus adominus or "six pack" muscles, it's more effective to work them in isolation with "easier" moves in order to build them up. You see, when we try harder things like planks or sit-ups when our TAs are weaker, the other ab muscles will jump in and overtake the TAs.

The cool thing is, as you get stronger with your TAs you can bring back your old favorite ab moves once again and your TAs will have learned to show up for you naturally. By performing a rotation with my leg as you can see in the video, I am teaching my body to deal with real life scenarios versus everything perfectly centered and done in a straight forward direction.

In the next video, I am still targeting TAs but in this one I'm also working on the length of my hip flexors. Hip flexors that are short and tight tilt the pelvis which, in turn, places a lot of pressure out on a hernia. Elongating them goes a long way.

Skin rolling is a self care exercise that I used to recover from my hernias. It works to influence our fascia, which is a part of our body that is injured when we have a hernia.

Skin rolling helps free up our fascial system throughout our body. A hernia happens when there is an area of weakness in the fascia and intestine or fatty tissue ends up poking through. Why does this happen? Well, when there is tightness in our fascia, it ends up putting undo pressure on specific areas. The second our system becomes overloaded, whether it be improper pressure management or an injury, the specific area that bared more pressure can fail and a hernia can result.

In skin rolling, we are working on the areas around the hernia to help free up the amount of pressure reaching the hernia itself. This is generally a very safe practice, but always proceed with caution especially when something is new to your body.

I teach corrective exercises to folks with:

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

I am trained in helping you though a live video call format as well as through in person work. And the great news is, the video method³ has been proven to be just as successful as in person options – so no worries if we live far apart! These days, I perform over 75% of my sessions remotely and the success rate of my clients healing is the same over video as in person. Gotta love technology!