Q - I’ve got a long time student who had his prostate removed in November. He is trying to recover from the incontinence that is a side effect of the surgery. Do you have any recommendations that might help. He has not been back to class since his surgery. His wife, who does come to class, has said that he has been doing Kegel exercises, but she was wondering if there were any yoga poses that might be good. Thanks for any suggestions. Love, J
Prostate surgery is a challenging one to recover from. It made a huge dent in my father’s energy level and self-confidence to have this surgery. In general one should do all the variations of mula bandha. Mula is contractions of entire region including lower abdominals, gluteals, and adductors in the inner thigh. I do them on exhalations and try to make contractions be progressively stronger near the end of exhalation. also progressive relaxation of the area during inhalations. Later on it can be confined to the pubo-coccygeal muscles that run from the front pubic bone to the posterior coccyx bone. Overtime it is refined to smaller regions gradually constricting the tone into the tiny perineal area between the scrotum and the anus. Aswini (Horse) Mudra is contractions focused on the rectal region both done relaxing and contracting inwardly. Vajroli Mudra is tone focused on the urethral region. One practice is to stop the stream of urine several times. All these variations should be done about 2 minutes each three times a day.
More general tone to the area comes with asanas. I would recommend locust - Salabhasana; bridge - Setubandhasana; and cobra - Bhujangasana. All to be done dynamically inhaling into pose exhaling out. Do with legs together firmly to tone adductors and also legs hips width to tone mid thigh regions. I find bridge is the best as variations such as rolling bridge described in my book can help gain much control over the pelvic floor.
namaste mukunda
Very old thread, very old problem.
We have to understand first the cause of the problem. Secondly, what is a cure
which really works ?
In my personal experience I can say that this really works: