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A huge issue with pelvic floor dysfunction is that many folks don’t really know what count as signs and symptoms of a pr...
08/29/2024

A huge issue with pelvic floor dysfunction is that many folks don’t really know what count as signs and symptoms of a problem.

Another barrier to getting care for pelvic floor dysfunction is feeling vulnerable, shy, or embarrassed to talk about those issues.

That is why I’m investing a lot of time and attention in this space is to decrease the taboo and/or shame around talking about pelvic health.

But you’re a physical therapist and a personal trainer. What does this have to do with your stuff?

The pelvic floor musculature is a key core stabilizer, for life activities, and for our athletic endeavors, like running, like lifting, or any sport we might be participating in!

And as a group of muscles, that is something as a physical therapist and a personal trainer it’s important that I am bringing awareness to, and thinking about with my clients, whether they were born female or male!

Take a peek at the signs and symptoms in the slides!

I totally love interacting with you, so please drop a comment or like or share if any of this speaks to you!

What do you ideally want to have happen with your pelvic floor during exercise?We want a combination of three things to ...
08/25/2024

What do you ideally want to have happen with your pelvic floor during exercise?

We want a combination of three things to happen:
1. The right amount of stiffness in your connective tissue
2. Coordinated and simultaneous contraction of your pelvic floor and your abdominal muscles
3. An optimal position of your pelvic floor muscles within your pelvis

Tissue stiffness refers to the quality of the connective tissue and the strength of the connective tissue. This combined with the right amount of resting muscle tone creates stiffness.

When it comes to pelvic floor muscle strength, normal is when the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles contract simultaneously a little bit before or during the increase in intra-abdominal pressure!

Lastly, we want the pelvic floor muscles set up for success. Pelvic floors muscles that are in an optimal pelvic position will be able to support the organs.

Muscle tone!Muscle tone has many definitions. Muscle tone is the combination of the passive resistance of structures lik...
06/18/2024

Muscle tone!

Muscle tone has many definitions.

Muscle tone is the combination of the passive resistance of structures like your connected tissues paired with what’s going on with your neurological system.

The neural drive or stimulus level in a muscle also makes up a large part of muscle tone.

If the connective tissues have a lot of passive resistance, and/or there is a lot of neural stimulus then that muscle needs the ability to lengthen and relax. This muscle will struggle to not only relax, but contract fully.

If the connective tissue does not have a lot of resistance or/and has low neural driver stimulus, this muscle will need strengthening and /or neural facilitation.

This rings true in all parts of our body and is a key component to pelvic floor awareness and connection.

The pelvic floor is a major stabilizer of the trunk, helps with intra-abdominal pressure, supports your pelvic organs, and of course is your keeper of the continence.

So, when we talk about the body, this applies to all areas and definitely is a key component of understanding the public floor, just as important as the anatomy, knowing about the organs, and the musculature .

OK! We have talked about the bones of the pelvis, the organs of the pelvis, for both folks assigned female at birth and ...
06/18/2024

OK! We have talked about the bones of the pelvis, the organs of the pelvis, for both folks assigned female at birth and folks assigned mail at birth. Let’s get into these muscles.

I am going to focus on the pelvis that is assigned female at birth (AFAB) because we don’t have as much attention for this research group compared to assign male at birth. In general, for folks who are afab pelvic floor issues are under reported and underserved.

There are three layers to pelvic floor muscles.

Layer one is called the urogenital triangle and it has three muscles.

The bulbocavernosus and the transverses perennial superficialis. We are not really sure exactly what the purpose of these muscles are, but it could be for s*xual function and as well as supporting other pelvic floor muscles.

Let’s move onto two which is called the urogenital diaphragm. This contains the internal urethral and a**l sphincter, which control continence. At rest, they have some tone to maintain continence.

Lastly, layer three is our deep pelvic floor muscles. There are two main muscle groups.

The levator ani group:
1. The puborectalis
2. The pubococcygeus
3. The Iliococcygeus

And the coccygeus… which sounds like the other muscles we just mentioned, but another name it goes by is the ischiococcygeus.

This is why I want to talk about bones before we got into the muscles.

If you think about something named pubococcygeus… you can imagine that it’s going to stretch from your p***c bone to your coccyx, or the tip of your spine that’s at the bottom of the sacrum.

The iliococcygeus is going to stretch from the part of your hip bone called the ilium to the coccyx.

Do I want you to remember any of this? not really.

I want you to just have a visual gist of the net of muscles that support the three main holes on the bottom of the AFAB body, which are the a**s, the va**na and the urethra.

I am covering pelvic health this month!!!All of our glorious insides! I started with the bony configuration of the pelvi...
06/18/2024

I am covering pelvic health this month!!!

All of our glorious insides!

I started with the bony configuration of the pelvis, which is in the back your sacrum and coccyx connected to you on either side making up your hip bones, which are made of your ilium, your ischium, and your p***c bones. These bones are named separately because initially they are not completely ossified or converted from cartilage to bone when we are born. These bones fuse, usually between puberty and 25 years of age, and they also make up the socket part of your hip joint.

The pelvic cavity is filled with organs. They are different depending on your s*x assigned at birth. I am focusing on focus assigned female at birth.

For folks assigned female at birth your pelvic ring is going to contain the internal organs of your bladder, your uterus, your cervix, your va**na, your re**um, your fallopian tubes, and your ovaries. External organs include your p***s, your l***a minora, and Maura, your cl****is, your urethral, opening, and va**nal opening.

OK now we’re getting into the actual pelvic floor musculature. I’m gonna start with function today and talk about anatomy tomorrow.

The pelvic floor has four functions :
1. To support your pelvic organs and all that good stuff in.
2. To constrict around the a**s, va**na and urethra
3. To stabilize the trunk
4. To manage intra-abdominal pressure

Oh my goodness, we are really getting through the basics!

Tomorrow we talk about the three layers of the pelvic floor musculature!

Oh my goodness, we are full of magical organs, all of us!For this particular post, I am including the internal and exter...
06/18/2024

Oh my goodness, we are full of magical organs, all of us!

For this particular post, I am including the internal and external organs of folks assigned female at birth and male at birth.

My focus will be more on the female pelvis because it has historically had less emphasis, less awareness! Especially as folks move through the perimenopause and menopause transition.

So we all have a bladder and re**um, and then we have differences in our g***d goodness!

I am not going to get into the job of every single internal and external organ here but mostly want to give you a visual of what lives in the pelvis, how they are layered, before we get into the muscular components.

It is the muscular system and connective tissue that we speak to when we’re exercising, but it’s good to know the cast of characters that are being supported by our pelvic floor musculature!

In these figures, the first one of each couplet is a saggital picture, as if we’re looking down the middle of the body, cut in half for your perusal.

The second figure for each s*x, is a coronal plane. This is our jumping jack plane of the body as if we’ve been cut in half from the front to back much like the famous Michelangelo man in the three different position pictures.

I have been forgetting to cross post to Facebook! So I will be posting a ton here in the next couple days! We are gettin...
06/12/2024

I have been forgetting to cross post to Facebook! So I will be posting a ton here in the next couple days!

We are getting very pelvis-ee this month!

First stop, basic anatomy!

The pelvis consists of five bones, three of those bones are paired.

The pelvis is a ring-like structure and made of paired hip bones, a fused bone made from p***c bones, the ischial bones and the iliac bones. These are separated by cartilage at birth and fuse during puberty or later and are also called the innominate bones or os coxae.

On the backside of the pelvic ring structure is the sacrum (which is located below the spinal vertebrae ) and the coccyx.

The pelvis is responsible for supporting the upper bodyweight, transferring upper body weight to the lower limbs, and also acts as an attachment point for the lower limbs and trunk muscles.

The pelvis also protects the bladder, uterus, reproductive organs and the colon and re**um.

Our hip bones or innominate bones don’t fully fuse until after puberty and sometimes as late as 25 years old!

OK, that is the first stop in our pelvic health adventure month!

I feel like people might come for me for this post… How do you dare come from my coffee?Well, maybe we don’t need to com...
05/30/2024

I feel like people might come for me for this post… How do you dare come from my coffee?

Well, maybe we don’t need to come for your coffee at all or maybe we need to decrease caffeine intake or however you’re taking caffeine it in… see if any of the below info relates to you!

You may want to check in on your caffeine consumption if :
1. You struggle with sleep
2. You struggle with heartburn
3. You have some pelvic pain or breast pain
4. You struggle with hot flashes
5. You are concerned about health of your bones
6. You struggle with headaches and migraines… this is a maybe so keep on reading!

You may want to keep on trucking if:
1. Caffeine helps relieve constipation and keeps you regular
2. Caffeine helps you with attention and cut through brain fog
3. Caffeine can increase action of some painkillers, acetaminophen might help your headache or migraine instead of worse than them

OK, so you’re caffeine curious!
Things to put on your radar:
1. The current recommendation is to keep caffeine intake to moderate, which would be about 400 mg, for context or 12 ounce Starbucks coffee is about 235 mg.
2. Begin with a little data and observation dance: track and see how you feel with more caffeine or less caffeine get a sense of how it actually affects you
3. Experiment with timing: the half-life of caffeine is about five hours, but some people might take 8 to 10 hours to met
4. And if you experiment with less, make sure you taper off gradually!

I love pleasure, beverages, and yet I love feeling good in my body. So play around with alcohol and caffeine and see if there’s any changes you’d like to make!

Who doesn’t love a pleasure beverage?Alcohol and caffeine can be a sociable and fun liquid jubilation, but they also mig...
05/30/2024

Who doesn’t love a pleasure beverage?

Alcohol and caffeine can be a sociable and fun liquid jubilation, but they also might be problematic for folks cruising through menopause.

Alcohol consumption may :
1. Worsen some menopause symptoms, and concerns
2. Interfere with sleep quality
3. Disrupt fluid balance in the body
4. Affect recovery from exercise
5. Influence s*x hormones
6. Be processed differently by each human based on their genetics, body size, liver health, other medication, age, and s*x.

OK, OK, OK…

What to do?

1. Start by just checking in to see how much alcohol is part of your general hydration and beverage habit. Consider writing down how you feel if you have more alcohol or if you have less alcohol.
2. Consider and explore whether you could shift to moderate consumption or decreasing how much you take in
3. Think about trade-offs neutrally, like if I have one less drink, sleep will come easier
4. Explore options like drinking “better”, like one special drink versus having a lot of less expensive drinks
5. You can go deep on the mock-tail universe!

Some evidence also shows that women in midlife are drinking more than ever, and that was made worse by the ongoing pandemic.

See if you can find patterns on how alcohol affects your life and body and check in with the risks and just see what’s right for you!

The lungs are major players in the cardiovascular system. Research shows that long function can change as we ovarian hav...
05/24/2024

The lungs are major players in the cardiovascular system. Research shows that long function can change as we ovarian havers get older.

We know that a decrease in estrogen increases a lot of our inflammatory processes and pathways, so this may be the link to our increased risk of respiratory infections, higher risk of chronic obstructive, pulmonary disease, and lower lung capacity.

I have included a couple studies for your perusal.

But do not ever fear, there are so many things you can do to optimize your lung function!

Anything that decreases your general inflammation is going to help you manage function through menopause.

I may have said these before, but they’re classics!
1. Improving bedtime routine and overall sleep.
2. Find a few more vegetables and or fruits and less processed foods.
3. Connect with a friend, do breathing exercises, or engage in a flow state to decrease stress.
4. Your body doing some type of cardiovascular exercise whether that’s arm cycling, a walk, a bike ride, or some dancing!

Take a deep breath, you totally got this!

The lungs are major players in the cardiovascular system. Research shows that lung function can change as we ovarian hav...
05/21/2024

The lungs are major players in the cardiovascular system. Research shows that lung function can change as we ovarian havers move through menopause.

We know that a decrease in estrogen can increas our inflammatory signaling pathways , so this may be the link to our increased risk of respiratory infections, higher risk of chronic obstructive, pulmonary disease, and lower lung capacity.

I have included a couple studies for your perusal.

But do not ever fear, there are so many things you can do to optimize your lung function!

Anything that decreases your general inflammation is going to help you manage function through menopause.

I may have said these before, but they’re classics!
1. Improving bedtime routine and overall sleep.
2. Find a few more vegetables and or fruits and less processed foods.
3. Connect with a friend, do breathing exercises, or engage in a flow state to decrease stress.
4. Your body doing some type of cardiovascular exercise whether that’s arm cycling, a walk, a bike ride, or some dancing!

Take a deep breath, you totally got this!

Oh yes, I did I go down the research rabbit hole with blood pressure and salt management! I really wanted to understand ...
05/20/2024

Oh yes, I did I go down the research rabbit hole with blood pressure and salt management! I really wanted to understand the why! So cardiovascular and menopause week is becoming two weeks!🤪😂

😳The neural and hormonal dance that happens and how it changes during menopause is really complex.

😮 Both estrogens and progestogens impact the blood pressures. Both s*x hormones also influence a super complex neural and hormonal system for fluid regulation, which controls thirst, fluid intake, sodium appetite and renal fluid, and sodium regulation.

🫨 Meaning salt management is affected by menopause.

🤩 What do you need to know?

🧂Salt sensitivity increases after menopause, and high salt intake can worsen menopause symptoms. Salt sensitivity is when the body retains salt instead of getting rid of excess in urine. Keep in mind everything is on a spectrum so some o***y havers are going to be more salt sensitive than others!

🧂A study found that 52.5% of normotensive women were salt sensitive after menopause, compared to 22.5% before. Salt sensitivity can double as early as four months after surgical menopause.

OK, down to what is actionable?

1. Get spicy and herbal! Adding flavor through spices and herbs will bring flavor to your food without adding sodium!
2. Get saucy! Try making your favorite sauce at home because you’ll have more control over the amount of salt you put in it.
3. Find a good routine with your hydration. This is a low-cost easy to implement solution that can really help your blood pressure.

Reprod Sci. 2014 May; 21(5): 555–561. doi: 10.1177/1933719113518992
PMCID: PMC3984489PMID: 24492487

Hernandez Schulman I, Raij L. Salt sensitivity and hypertension after menopause: role of nitric oxide and angiotensin II. Am J Nephrol. 2006;26(2):170-80. doi: 10.1159/000092984. Epub 2006 Apr 25. PMID: 16645264.

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I help busy people get sustainably fit and create a meal plan that works for them and their family!

I love partnering with people who like to do hard work, get really curious and interested in the small changes they can make on the daily to create a big long term change, and want that change to be permanent.

This means we change stuff, which requires some honest talk. In the kindest, wisest way we look at what you are doing awesome and what may be limiting your shine.

I am big into working out barefoot or in a zero drop shoe, cause the foot function effects the function of all the parts above it. I am a proponet of teaching self care and rolling it into your workout. I have also a deep interest in the pelvic floor health and how breath, alignment, and movement all contribute to optimal performance of your core.