Umbilical Hernia

Bulldog

Active Member
Well I have learned something the hard way. Apparently leg presses create more abdominal pressure than squats and dead lifts do. I have had a umbilical hernia for about 7+ years and it never seemed to get any worse doing squats and dead lifts. But two and a half months of doing leg presses and it has doubled in size and I'm going to have to have surgery to repair it.

Has anyone here had a umbilical hernia repaired? I'm most likely going to get it done via laparoscopy with a mesh. However I have read a lot of horror stories about post surgery problems with some of the mesh products so I'm curious about anyone else's experiences with this procedure. Please share any experiences, good or bad. Thanks!

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Have PM'ed Bulldog but the gist of what I said was this (it might be useful to someone else):

My had an inguinal hernia. Fairly common type, I think. I did some research into the best solution and decided on a mesh rather than any other kind. I wanted to have the 'velcro' type mesh fitted but it wasn't available through the NHS in the UK (at the time) unless I went on a trial. So I wasn't going to be told whether or not I had the 'velcro' mesh or regular mesh that was stitched in place.


On the day, I opted to be awake during the op. It was open surgery so I figured I might be able to tell what they were doing re stitching or not stitching the mesh in place. There was a barrier stuck in place so that I couldn't actually see what the surgeon was doing but I'm fairly certain that he had to use stitches to secure the mess in place. At the time I thought that was a shame. Now, I don't mind as the resulting repair has worked a treat. I do sometimes get a bit of stinging and a sensation of pulling in the area when I perform certain twisting movements (or situps), and I still have a bit of numbness in the area from nerve damage but it's not a biggie.

I really haven't pushed my deads hard since my hernia but I'm fairly certain the side I've had repaired would be less likely to go than the other side! That's what I want to avoid.

Certainly, for me, having a mesh fitted to repair my inguinal hernia has worked out well and I would recommend getting it done.

One other thing was that the first month after my op was pretty uncomfortable. I got on my exercise bike the day after the op and made myself do lots of walking as I was determined not to let adhesions mess up my mobility. Probably put myself through more pain than I needed to. I also learnt how to stifle a sneeze and to cough with minimal force. :)
 
I'm going in for surgery at 6:15 am tomorrow to get my umbilical hernia fixed. I am not looking forward to it at all but it needs to be fixed. The most discouraging thing is that I just got back into the gym in January after about a year away from lifting and two months in I end up get sick and now surgery will keep me out for at least a couple of weeks before I can do even some light lifting. It sure would be nice to be able to lift consistently for a year straight (other than the normal week off here and there). I'm guessing that will never happen...
 
That sucks for sure but either way, I wish you the best of luck with your surgery tomorrow.
 
Hey man, after healing from the surgery, you'll be stronger than you are now! Plus, you'll be deconditioned and any muscle loss will eventually come back fairly rapidly due to muscle memory.
Heal fast!
 
Didn't see this post until just now, as I rarely chat online anymore, but, yes, I had an umbilical hernia and it became strangulated because of the leg press machine. I developed the hernia about 9 or 10 years ago, after going from a weight of about 200 to 275 in only 6 weeks (went on extreme diet then quit). Carried the hernia around without a problem. Deadlifted super heavy, squatted super heavy, never worked leg press too often. About 3 years ago I laid off squatting and started to focus on the leg press. My hernia became strangulated after a heavy leg press session. I felt like I was a host in that movie 'Aliens' and was pushing an ET out of my gut--intense pain. Had to be rushed to hospital and stayed in ED for a day then had laparoscopic surgery with mesh. Everything was completely healed after 6 weeks, but I didn't lift for 9 weeks after surgery. I lost some strength but quickly regained it within 4 weeks. So probably a total of 13 weeks passed before I got to where I left off. I wish I had the surgery when I first noticed the bulge in the navel to avoid having it become strangulated. That's something I wouldn't wish on anyone. If you have already had the surgery, I encourage you to take your time healing and don't jump back into training until 6-9 weeks. That's not much time out of your life.
 
Hope everything went well with your op, Bulldog. Set-backs are always a nuisance but, like Steve said, it's not much time out of your life to get fixed and be stronger than you were before. All the best.
 
Didn't see this post until just now, as I rarely chat online anymore, but, yes, I had an umbilical hernia and it became strangulated because of the leg press machine. I developed the hernia about 9 or 10 years ago, after going from a weight of about 200 to 275 in only 6 weeks (went on extreme diet then quit). Carried the hernia around without a problem. Deadlifted super heavy, squatted super heavy, never worked leg press too often. About 3 years ago I laid off squatting and started to focus on the leg press. My hernia became strangulated after a heavy leg press session. I felt like I was a host in that movie 'Aliens' and was pushing an ET out of my gut--intense pain. Had to be rushed to hospital and stayed in ED for a day then had laparoscopic surgery with mesh. Everything was completely healed after 6 weeks, but I didn't lift for 9 weeks after surgery. I lost some strength but quickly regained it within 4 weeks. So probably a total of 13 weeks passed before I got to where I left off. I wish I had the surgery when I first noticed the bulge in the navel to avoid having it become strangulated. That's something I wouldn't wish on anyone. If you have already had the surgery, I encourage you to take your time healing and don't jump back into training until 6-9 weeks. That's not much time out of your life.

Steve! I was wondering where you went. Good to hear from you. I'm glad that I did not end up with a strangulation. That must have really sucked and I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that.

Today is one month (4 weeks and two days) since my surgery. At my two week checkup my surgeon gave me clearance to resume normal activities, including lifting weights. He said to just start out easy and listen to my body and if I feel any discomfort to back it down. Well, I got back in the gym two weeks ago and just lifted really light for 15-20 reps and everything felt pretty good other than pull-downs which really stretched my abdomen. This week I started lifting a little heavier and today I did pull-ups for the first time...that was a mistake and I should have known better after the experience with the pull-downs last week. The extreme stretching was quite painful. I should probably go back to either really light weights with no abdominal stretching for high reps or just take some more time off. The last thing I want to do is to have to go back in for another surgery.

I'm assuming that you have had no problems since your surgery? When did you have yours done? How did it feel when you first went back to working out with exercises that stretched your abdominal muscles like pull-ups? I hope I didn't already cause a problem from doing pull-ups too soon.
 
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Hope everything went well with your op, Bulldog. Set-backs are always a nuisance but, like Steve said, it's not much time out of your life to get fixed and be stronger than you were before. All the best.

Thanks, Lol.

Oh...and I have pictures if anyone is interested what it looks like inside my abdomen with the mesh attached. I was hoping the surgeon would film the surgery but he could only take pictures at the facility where my surgery was performed. Just let me know and I'll post the picture.
 
Let's see....I had my surgery done in June 2010. I started walking on treadmill and doing light cardio about 3 weeks after surgery. My surgeon told me that I could start lifting again 4 weeks after surgery, but she couldn't condone power movements that were taxing on abdominal region until 6 weeks, and said that if I gave it 9 weeks that the mesh would be deeply set into surrounding tissue by then and I would have no problems. When I started lifting again (9 weeks after op), I never experienced even a twinge of pain. I still do heavy leg presses and do all my lifting without a belt. There is never a concern over anything. If I hadn't put my body through the torture of losing fat and then gaining it back so quickly I never would have had to deal with that horrible mess.

Don't rush your recovery man. You won't regret it. You'll be as good as new soon enough.
 
Sounds like everything is going well which is great to hear.

I had a few painful experiences following my hernia op. One time I merely sneezed and got a horrid shooting pain in my groin plus it felt like I burst some stitches. I rang the hernia team and they said to keep an eye on things. Well, nothing bad came of it. I also learnt how to control a need to sneeze!

I suspect you stretched everything out a bit which would feel much worse than it actually was. Stay off the pulldowns but keep doing light work for the area and it will heal well.

I'd be very interested to see the pics. Was the mesh the Velcro type or was it stitched in place?
 
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Sounds like everything is going well which is great to hear.

I had a few painful experiences following my hernia op. One time I merely sneezed and got a horrid shooting pain in my groin plus it felt like I burst some stitches. I rang the hernia team and they said to keep an eye on things. Well, nothing bad came of it. I also learnt how to control a need to sneeze!

I suspect you stretched everything out a bit which would feel much worse than it actually was. Stay off the pulldowns but keep doing light work for the area and it will heal well.

I'd be very interested to see the pics. Was the mesh the Velcro type or was it stitched in place?

What is velcro mesh? I have never heard of that. The mesh was initially attached with 4 sutures through my abdominal wall (Image 3), then fastened with titanium pigtail anchors. Here's the pics (warning...kind of gross).

Unbilical Hernia Surgery Pictures_01.jpg
 
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Let's see....I had my surgery done in June 2010. I started walking on treadmill and doing light cardio about 3 weeks after surgery. My surgeon told me that I could start lifting again 4 weeks after surgery, but she couldn't condone power movements that were taxing on abdominal region until 6 weeks, and said that if I gave it 9 weeks that the mesh would be deeply set into surrounding tissue by then and I would have no problems. When I started lifting again (9 weeks after op), I never experienced even a twinge of pain. I still do heavy leg presses and do all my lifting without a belt. There is never a concern over anything. If I hadn't put my body through the torture of losing fat and then gaining it back so quickly I never would have had to deal with that horrible mess.

Don't rush your recovery man. You won't regret it. You'll be as good as new soon enough.

Thanks for the follow up, Steve. I'm going to back off the training and just do some really light stuff for a few more weeks.
 
I see today that overhead dumbbell presses also cause some pain when extending the press over head. And thinking about it now it was doing this the past two weeks also I just didn't think much about it because it isn't as painful as hanging from a pull-up bar. I might have to back off on those as well.
 
Very interesting pics. Looks like a neat job. :)

Velcro mesh is the kind that has lots of microscopic hooks that cling tenaciously to your fascia/tissue thus not requiring stitches to hold it in place. It's certainly used for inguinal hernia mesh repair. Not sure if it's used in the repair of umbilical hernias.
 
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