Hi Dr. Feigenbaum - The day after Christmas I had an appendectomy in which during my CAT scan the surgeon found a 1cm umbilical hernia that I was totally unaware that I had. I was of course worried immediately but have never had any real pain at the site other than one instance after I did a lot of sit ups (Crossfit Annie) after not having done any high rep abdominal movements in almost 6 months (did not know I had a hernia at that point). I got 2 opinions from surgeons, one who said that if I continue to weight lift it will get worse therefore I will indefinitely need the surgery, and another who said that because it is very small and has not bothered me, that I do not need the surgery. I am interested in your take as I noticed someone else had posted a similar question a while back. To put this into context I am a 30 y/o avid female olympic weightlifter and have been training in solely weightlifting for almost 2 years after switching from Crossfit. I also noticed that you mentioned in your response to the client that you also had an umbilical hernia for almost 8-10 years and were doing just fine while continuing to make gains in your lifts. Do you have any feedback related to things I should be focusing on more in my training or anything I should be avoiding as to not make it worse? I have been cleared from my appendectomy to now lift again and began earlier this week but am still slightly concerned about this hernia issue since most primary care physicians do not seem to know much about weightlifting. Thank you SO much!
Lots of our fellow coaches have had small, reducible hernias that they’ve trained with for a long time. From your history I can’t tell whether you can even feel it, as it seems to have been incidentally detected on a CT scan … in which case, I wouldn’t worry about it.
If, at some point down the line it becomes a more significant problem needing treatment, just get it dealt with at that point, because I doubt you’re someone who is going to stop training over this. There isn’t anything specific that you should be doing in your training.
Heya, I’m the one who posted about my umbilical hernia a few months back. I was scared to lift heavy at first too, especially since the surgeon I saw said lifting could make it worse. But if it’s any consolation, I’ve been training heavy and pushing my strength for the last 6 months now, with no modifications to my training, and I’ve had no symptoms of pain or discomfort, and the hernia has not grown in size at all.
This is very helpful - thank you both!