Physical activity and exercises - Physiotherapy
The Physiotherapy team specialise in improving your
activity levels and function during treatment and before surgery.
Studies have shown that improved function can reduce side effects
of treatment, your risk of complications post operatively, the
length of stay in hospital and aid faster recovery.
Below is an image showing the Chief Medical Officer's guideline
on how much activity we should all be doing in a
week. Our aim is to support you to maintain or increase
your current activity levels to move towards these guidelines,
whilst being cautious of the effects that treatment can have on you
and modifying your exercise to accommodate of this. This is done on
an individual basis and your physiotherapist will help you to put
together an exercise plan.
Recovery after surgery
Here is a video to explain how the
physiotherapists will support you to enhance your recovery after
surgery.
One area that we like to focus on is strengthening your pelvic
floor muscles. These muscles keep your pelvic openings (anus,
urethra) closed to prevent incontinence, support the bladder womb
and bowels to help prevent prolapse, assist in stabilising the
joints of your pelvis, work with the abdominal muscles to support
the spine and help with maintaining good posture and help with
sexual function.
During surgery, these muscles can becomes stretched and weak. By
doing regular pelvic floor exercises before surgery you can lower
your risk of developing continence problems after operation
(post-op).
The link below will take you to a video which teaches you the
pelvic floor exercises:-
Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy
(POGP) website video
You can also read this pelvic floor exercise leaflet.
During this project the physiotherapist will record a number of
outcome measures, including a sit to stand test, grip strength and
short walking test. These will be repeated during the project so we
can check on your progress.
We work together with our patients to set achievable and
individualised goals and review these on a regular basis.
After your operation we will work with you through the initial
stages of your recovery. The aim of this is to get you back to your
previous level of function.
Useful information
For help with your pelvic floor exercises please see the
following:
Pelvic floor exercises and continence advice for
women patient information leaflet
Physiotherapy advice and exercises after
gynaecological surgery patient information leaflet
Problems with your bladder or pelvic floor muscles:
Self-referral form for physiotherapy
Download the "Squeezy" app
For useful information about pelvic
health please
click here.
Powerbreathe breathing tool video
Contact Us
For University Hospitals Bristol and Weston patients,
please contact:-
For Royal United Hospitals Bath patients, please
contact:-
