Don't be put off by the technical sounding name of Hypopressive which isn’t actually technical, but Spanish, as it evolved in Spain (hence the name) Hypo meaning 'low' and Pressive meaning 'pressure’ which came from its founder Spanish Prof. Doctor Marcel Caufriez.
His technique evolved as an alternative to traditional sit ups which can actually aggravate pelvic floor dysfunction. This approach is designed to strengthen your core, improve your breathing and tone your muscles, helping with all kinds of challenges especially post natally and at menopause, as the body changes.
His method balances the pressure in the abdominal cavity with a specific breathing technique that produces a suction effect releasing stress on the organs and activating the pelvic floor muscles. It's really clever! And easy to practice once you've learnt how to do it. The breath work is not dissimilar to Uddiyana bandha breath in yoga.
I've seen really great results with Hypopressive especially in combination with other pelvic floor work. When I work with individuals, I design personalised programmes which often integrate one or more such techniques.
Many women have a slight prolapse after having a baby and, by doing the wrong sort of exercises too early, can weaken their pelvic floor even more, leading to a potential Grade 3 or 4 prolapse, and/or incontinence issues. By doing the wrong kind of exercises many women can also make their diastasis recti worse and prevent the natural closure after having a baby, yet this powerful technique can help correct these issues and restore and create strength gently.
If you would like to strengthen your core, improve your breathing, speed up your metabolism, reduce your waist size and improve your posture by standing taller - quite literally - I would really recommend this practice.
