It’s no secret that exercise is beneficial to physical as well as your mental health. Our body is like a complex machine that needs to be maintained in order to work efficiently. Daily physical activity holds numerous benefits like improving your cognitive function which helps you think, learn and problem solve more effectively as well as help you maintain emotional balance and elevate your mood. It significantly reduces the risk of diseases and other ailments by helping you build your immunity. Lastly, the most obvious benefit of exercise is that it helps you strengthen your muscles and bones, but what exercises you should avoid if you suffer from urine blockage or groin pain ?
Even though the health benefits of exercise can’t be disputed, it’s best to research a bit about what exercises work best for you or which of them might put your health at risk.
Dr. Raman Tanwar, MCh Urology, senior Andrologist and secretary general of the Men’s Health Society of India told BFH, “There is an abundance of sources on the internet for people to practise exercises, but many people suffering from urologic conditions are unaware of the exercises that can be harmful for their health. It is always best to research and acquire knowledge about the conditions you may be affected by before committing to a fitness regime.”
3 K’s to avoid
“The three k’s are exercises that a person suffering urinary blockage and groin pain should avoid. These three exercises are Kegel exercise, Abdominal crunches and Kapalabhati.” said Dr. Tanwar.
For those who suffer urinary blockage, pain in groin, epididymitis, bladder neck obstruction, male accessory gland infection or prostatitis, there are a few exercises that can have harmful side effects and can cause a feeling of pain, irritation and stress.
Let’s dive a little deeper into what these exercises are and why you should avoid them.
Kegel exercise Exercises that help you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles are known as kegel exercises. These exercises not only help you prevent your urine from leaking, but can also help prevent involuntary passing of gas or stool and may even help to improve your orgasms. As these exercises strengthen your pelvic muscles and also tightens your outlet resistance it may cause further difficulty in urinating. Therefore patients suffering from varicocele, pain in groin or any uorological condition should avoid kegel exercise.
Abdominal crunches The abdominal crunches are exercise that enables you to strengthen your abdominal muscles which tightens your belly and effectively helps you form abs. Krunches use the person’s own body weight to tone and strengthen abdominal muscles. Even though we all wants abs, it is best for people suffering from epididymitis or experiencing pain in groin to avoid krunches as as it can stretch the cremaster muscles and can interrupt the healing of nerves.
Kapalabhati Kapalabhati is a form of yoga that uses rapid breathing to increase and decrease the intra abdominal pressure. These rapid breathing repetitions can help in getting relief from stress and anxiety, it helps increase your sleep quality and even improve blood circulation. The rapid increase and decrease of pressure can increase the severnes of varicocele or chronic urine reflux. Thus, patients should avoid kapalabhati.
Takeaway
Even though urological diseases might prevent you from practising the three K’s there is no need to despair because there are still a number of exercises that you can safely practise without harming your health and achieve your fitness goals! For people who are affected by urological diseases or experience symptoms of urinary blockage can safely practise low-impact exercises like walking, cycling, swimming and yoga. Low-impact exercise increases your heart rate while minimising the amount of stress or impact you put your joints under.