Pelvic Floor

23 Aug

Just in case you missed Part 1, Progressive What? I thought Overload was Harmful. This will be the more concise summary version. If anything here sounds weird, please refer to Part 1. KEY MESSAGES: Pain or injury happens when you load a part of your body more than that part of the body has the capacity to resist that load. This is why we call it an “overload” or “overuse” injury. (Note that persistent or chronic pain is...

11:28 / Core Health / Healthy Back / Knees / Pelvic Floor / Relaxation / Restorative Yoga / Strength / Whole Body Movement / Yoga
23 Aug

I get a lot of questions from clients about how to strengthen the core. The questions I hear often come with deep confusion after clients have read a variety of contradicting junk views out there on the interwebs. AND despite the Myth of Core Stability being debunked as early as 2007, the number of yoga and fitness classes out there these days promising “hard abs” or a “strong core” to “protect the low back” or...

11:10 / Core Health / Healthy Back / Pelvic Floor / Strength / Whole Body Movement / Yoga
19 Oct

I’m not a fan of the “Kegel” as an all-purpose exercise to help strengthen the pelvic floor. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the work of Dr. Kegel, an American gynaecologist who in the 1940s and 50s took an interest in women’s health and demonstrated how pelvic floor exercises could be used to improve symptoms of incontinence for women after childbirth, introducing a non-surgical option for treatment. He was a pioneer and an...

12:15 / Core Health / Healthy Back / Pelvic Floor / Postnatal / Pregnancy / Whole Body Movement
12 Apr

As I mentioned in Part 1, I think there is a critical misunderstanding of the purpose of pregnancy-specific exercise. I’m going to state it up front: The purpose of pregnancy-specific exercise is to help the mind and body specifically adapt to the added load of late-stage pregnancy AND to adapt to what it is going to need to do in several months to birth baby out. If you are training for a marathon there is...

15:56 / Core Health / Pelvic Floor / Postnatal / Pregnancy
12 Apr

I want to set the record straight about something that relates to many questions I get as a Prenatal Movement teacher: the difference between maintaining fitness in pregnancy, and participating in pregnancy-specific exercise. Often I find that women view these as an either/or situation. This usually looks like one of the following scenarios: [caption id="attachment_17476" align="alignleft" width="480"] © via canva.com[/caption] She continues with whatever sport, fitness activity or exercise she LOVES and ENJOYS and has been a...

15:29 / Core Health / Pelvic Floor / Postnatal / Pregnancy
15 Mar

Oh mysterious psoas, Thank you for always keeping me together, I notice you hanging on, holding me up, quietly hoping for a moment of letting go, Oh psoas, how exhausted and tired you’ve become, You seem dry and ropey today, I feel your pain in my low back, Oh psoas, I give you this gift today: constructive rest Ah, the psoas. Read on to find out why this muscle is connected to: stress, fear & emotions ...

23:23 / Core Health / Healthy Back / Pelvic Floor / Psoas
08 Jan

If you’ve been to one of my prenatal or postnatal yoga classes you probably know that I have a particular interest in how movement affects the function of the pelvic floor. This interest developed out of my own experience with pelvic floor issues after the birth of my first son. I’m saving my personal story for a future blog post when I have the courage to write about it. For this post, I’ll skip ahead...

10:58 / Core Health / Healthy Back / Hips / Knees / Pelvic Floor / Pregnancy