long time lurker here and a big fan of your content. Decided to sign up and ask you guys a question.
A couple of weeks ago I felt some mild discomfort around my belly button and turns out I have a small umbilical hernia (around 1cm in size, confirmed via ultrasound by surgeon). The surgeon who looked at me said it’s best to do nothing about the hernia as it’s very small and there is no guarantee it will get any bigger. I am scheduled to meet with a hernia specialist in about 10 days to get a second opinion.
In the meantime I’m training normally and have no real detrimental effects from the hernia. I can deadlift, squat, bench and so on without pain. That being said I can feel that the hernia is there, but it’s not painful.
There is one exercise though which caused me some
pain a couple hours after the workout: Hammer Strength Plate Loaded Pullovers (my fav lat exercise). This machine forces you go into a very deep stretch in your midsection and here comes my question: would you guys recommend to substitute this particular exercise or does exercise selection have no real impact on whether an existing hernia can get worse?
Attached are two photos where you can see my hernia (it’s barely visible when my belly is neutral. You can see it when I pull my skin up a bit)
I can’t comment on your case specifically, but I also have an umbilical hernia that’s doesn’t require repairing at this time. I don’t do anything about it exercise-wise, but would leave that decision open based on how severe someone’s symptoms were. In other words, I don’t think choosing different exercises is always necessary, but they could be in some.
