Healing Inguinal Hernia With Exercise

Is It Possible?

If you don’t already follow me, you probably came across this page because you were doing an internet search to see if it is possible to heal an inguinal hernia with exercise. You have probably been seeing about a million other web pages that say that it is not possible, and that the only way to fix a hernia is through surgery.

Well, I’m here to tell you that that is 100% bullshit! If you read through this blog you can see my whole story about trying to heal my inguinal hernia naturally without surgery. Why I started, what I had to work through, everything. But I’ll make a long story short here.

I’ve had an inguinal hernia for over 4 years. It was about the size of 2 golf balls next to each other in the inguinal canal when it poked out, which was all the time from the moment I got out of bed in the morning. It was never painful, but it was super annoying especially because I’m an extremely active guy.

Absolutely It Is Possible

I worked to figure out the best way to go about healing my inguinal hernia naturally with absolutely no results until about six months ago. That’s when everything I was doing just started clicking. Through trial and error I figured it out! Literally within three weeks my inguinal hernia was half the size. Then 3 months later it was the size of an M&M. Now I am at a point where the hernia does not poke out ever. I never feel pressure at all except a tiny bit when I am in a forward sitting position.

What Do I Have To Do?

You have to commit to putting in the work. Your inguinal hernia is not just going to get better by itself. There is a weakness in the muscles and fascia that hold the intestine in place which is why you have a hernia in the first place. Strengthen those muscles, and you are one step closer to getting to the point where your hernia will be gone.

If you are not willing to put in the work, then you might as well just go get surgery because healing will never happen.

If you are willing to put in the work, then I think you will find that these exercises hit the spot perfectly. They are designed to target the muscles around the inguinal canal in order to hold the abdominal contents in place, and they do exactly that.

Now I’m not saying that these exercise alone are going to be able to cure every inguinal hernia out there, because there is a lot more that goes into it than just this, but they will get you moving in the right direction.

If your interested in seeing what else I’ve had to do in order to get my inguinal hernia where it is now (there are a few key things), feel free to check out some of my other posts and my youtube channel.

Here Are The Exercises

Healing An Inguinal Hernia With Exercise

Regardless of what the medical establishment will tell you, you can heal an inguinal hernia with exercise. These are the most effective exercises I have found to get it done:

Exercise #1 Leg Pulls
Exercise #2 Sleeping Bag (or pillow) Squeeze
Exercise #3 Leg L’s
Exercise #4 Reverse Swim
Exercise #5 V-Ups
Exercise #6 Knee Circle Leg Extensions
Exercise #7 V-Downs
Exercise #8 Around The World
Exercise #9 Straight Leg Sit-Ups
Exercise #10 Straight Leg Side Ups

I also do a couple yoga breathing exercises that you can see here.

How Often Should I Do It?

From my experience about 2-3 times a week is the max. When I first tried it I was doing it more than that, but I quickly realized that the muscles would get really fatigued and the hernia would want to poke out more often. So I cut it back to 2 times a week, and it was perfect. Start slow and don’t go crazy. For some people it’s hard to start slow (me included), but believe me, it will be much better if you do.

How Long Will I Have To Do This?

Probably forever at some level. Every time you do the workout you go up 1 rep for each exercise. By the time I got to 30 reps I felt like I didn’t need to wear the hernia belt anymore to keep my hernia from poking out. But the last thing you want to do is get to that point, then just stop the workout. I plan on doing these for the rest of my life in order to keep the area strong and reduce the risk of the hernia popping out again.

Recently, I got to a point where I was doing 50 reps of each exercise. The workout was taking me so long that I decided to strap some 5lbs weights to my ankles and start back over at 10 reps. I’ll keep you guys posted on how it goes!

Remember, without commitment you have nothing. If you don’t want surgery, then don’t get it! Commit yourself to healing and you will heal. The body is a healing machine.

Five Best Ways To Treat Inguinal Hernia Without Surgery

Are you looking for ways to treat inguinal hernia without surgery? Well, you’re not the only one. Since I have been writing this blog and making videos for my youtube channel, I have been asked by a lot of people how I manage my hernia on a day-to-day basis without having to get surgery. So I figured I would write a post about it and let you know the five most important things I do to manage inguinal hernia without surgery. I will summarize them quickly below, then elaborate in the following paragraphs.

Remember, this is not medical advice, but only the things that I do in order to manage my hernia day to day without having to get surgery.

How to Treat Inguinal Hernia Without Surgery

Wear a hernia belt
Hold it with your hand when coughing, sneezing, or straining
Walk lightly on your feet
Stay away from foods that inflame the intestines
Do exercises to strengthen the inner and outer obliques and transverse abdominals

Wear a Hernia Belt

Wearing a hernia belt is probably the most important way to treat inguinal hernia without surgery. You may know that I have developed a hernia belt that I use every day. For me, I wasn’t able to find one that I could wear comfortably during all the activities that I like to do, and still have the confidence to go all out without holding back. So I had to design one for myself. It might be for sale by the time you read this. I’m not saying that you have to buy the one that I designed, but you have to find one that fits your lifestyle. One that you can wear every day, all day, without having to worry about the hernia popping out on you.

I can’t stress to you enough how important I think this is. If the hernia is allowed to keep pushing through the hole in the inguinal canal, it will continue to get worse and worse until eventually it will push down into your scrotum and become irreducible. Once that happens I don’t believe that there will be anything you can do but get hernia surgery. Find one that you can wear from the time you get out of bed to the time you go to sleep. Only take it off when you are in the shower.

Hold It With Your Hand When Coughing or Straining

Personally, even though I wear the hernia belt all day every day, I still like to hold the hernia with my hand any time I cough, sneeze, poop, and sometimes when I laugh really hard. The most important would probably be when pooping. Not only do I hold the side that my hernia’s on, but I hold the other side too. I’ve talked to too many guys who got their hernia from straining while on the toilet. It’s better to be safe than sorry. I would hate to protect the side that already has the hernia, and end up having one pop out on the other side.

Walk Lightly on Your Feet

This might sound weird, but it really is very important. Especially if you’re on your feet a lot. Think about the constant pounding that happens every time you slam your heels down on the ground when walking. It’s like you are hammering your intestine down into the hole where the hernia is. Anything you can do to mitigate the pounding will help. I walk barefoot 95% of the time for this reason. You will walk much softer barefoot than with shoes on. If I do need to wear shoes I wear Vans or something with flat soles. Any shoe that doesn’t have a lot of padding. I also try to walk in a way that is not heal-toe. I sort of put my whole foot on the ground at the same time (almost toe-heal) which makes for a much softer step.

Stay Away From Foods That Inflame The Intestine

This is another very important way to treat inguinal hernia without surgery. I do not eat gluten because it is very inflammatory for the intestine. I feel bloated and tired when I eat it. If it is inflammatory to the intestine, it is causing inter-abdominal pressure. This is not good if your intestine is already trying to push through the weakness in the inguinal canal. I also stay away from sugar since it is inflammatory as well. Sometimes, I eat a small amount of chicken, but I’m almost vegetarian. I noticed that when I eat meat I feel more pressure on the hernia.

When trying to treat inguinal hernia without surgery, diet plays a huge role. The problem is that reactions to certain foods are vastly different from person to person. What works for me, might be different than what works for you. The key is to experiment to see which foods are working for you or against you. You can do this by eliminating a certain food that you might think is causing gas, bloating, or constipation for 30 days. Then, after 30 days, consume the food again to see if it causes an adverse effect. If it does, then it would probably be a good idea to eliminate that food item from your diet.

Do Exercises to Strengthen the Inner and Outer Obliques and Transverse Abdominals

I have an exercise regimen that I’ve been doing to treat inguinal hernia without surgery that you can see by going to my youtube channel. I found these exercises in a medical journal from way back in 1915. The osteopathic doctor who wrote it used this exercise regimen with his patients to heal inguinal hernias. It does a really good job of tightening up the muscles that are used to hold the hernia in place. I also do a few easy yoga breathing exercises that I think make a world of difference. They work to tighten up the transverse abs. Those are the muscles that are directly around the hole in the inguinal canal where the hernia comes out. My thinking is that if I can tighten these muscles up, they will work to hold the intestine in place, and not let it slip through the canal.

Since I have been doing these exercises I have noticed a huge change in how much the hernia pokes out, and how often I feel pressure in the area.

More Thoughts on How To Treat Inguinal Hernia Without Surgery

I think that one of the most important things to mention is that if you follow these five things, and still feel like you can’t manage the hernia without surgery, KEEP TRYING. These things have worked for me over the past few years, but everyone is different. There might be a few small tweaks you have to make to be able to have a high quality of life without getting the surgery. If your mind is absolutely set that you do not want to get surgery, just keep at it. Eventually, you will figure out exactly what you have to do to manage it. It took me a few years to get to the point where I am now, but hopefully, by posting this, I can help you get there a lot sooner. Good Luck!

Update 9/2022 –

Since originally writing this post I was able to get my hernia to be 100% asymptomatic. There is no pressure, no lump, and I do not need to wear a hernia belt any longer. The way I did this was to keep the hernia pushed in at all times when I was awake by using the hernia belt that I designed. Also I was able to reverse what I found to be the root causes of an inguinal hernia.

I put a plan in place to:

Fix my pelvic posture
Increase mobility in the hips
Strengthen the muscles around the inguinal canal
Consume a diet which does not cause excess gas, bloating, or constipation
Learned to deal with tension caused by unconscious repressed emotions such as anger.

Once I was able to do this, I was able to become symptom free. I hope this helps on your journey to treat inguinal hernia without surgery!