Integrated pelvic floor and core training beyond the immediate post partum period must account for the many physical and hormonal shifts that a woman goes through! Let's consider a scenario:
Cindy, age 47 and mom to 3 (16, 13, 9): She is well beyond the toddler years and now is juggling the roles of chef, cleaner, chauffeur, counselor and working 24 hours per week outside the home. Cindy leaks when her bladder gets too full and has a bowel movement every 3 days. She bloats after most meals and rarely feels hungry but constantly experiences cravings.
Cindy's doctor told her that a bowel movement every 3 days must be her norm and many women leak with a full bladder after having children. She was given 3 different pads to try. The bloating and cravings were never addressed. Not a single mention of pelvic health physical therapy.
Other symptoms Cindy was experiencing:
Low back pain
Exhaustion
Increased body odor
Low sex drive
Weight gain
Inability to sleep at night
Frustration with no time to exercise like she could 9 years ago! (YES, for 9 years she has been trying to recreate her Crossfit days)
Generally sedentary but high PERCEIVED stress-filled lifestyle.
NOW, to be completely fair, these symptoms are generally not taught to be much more than NORMAL processes of aging and when women bring them up in the presnce of normal lab markers they are QUICKLY dismissed. Conventionally trained doctors are not able to bill for, educate on or even provide proper solutions to women experiencing these COMMON symptoms.
Perhaps the most important question that Cindy's doctor could have asked:
"Have you ever been to pelvic health physical therapy?" Unfortunately, that was never asked or offered!
The reason that this question COULD have creaeted a shift for Cindy is because it could have helped Cindy RE-FRAME her vision for her exercise/fitness. Cindy does not need to go backward with her fitness to where she WAS! She also does NOT need to live in restorative exercise land until her symptoms resolve.
Cindy had NO idea that her constipation, bloating, low back pain and HIGH perceived stress levels all correlate back to her pelvic floor dysfunction. She did not know that the low sex drive, increased body odor, weight gain, inability to sleep at night and exhaustion are rooted in a low fitness level, mineral deficiencies and poor ability to eliminate toxins from the body. (We will talk more about Cindy's HTMA next time!)
Cindy worked with my this past fall ALONGSIDE a local pelvic health physical therapist. Her training with me complemented the work that her pelvic health PT was doing to help relieve the tightness in her pelvic floor, properly lengthen the glutes and get her pelvis moving.
As her trainer, I had specific movement programming goals for Cindy:
Increase amount of movment throughout the day using a step goal of 8500 steps. --her current step total was 5000 and that all came from the morning hustle of getting the kids out the door and the evening rush. The entire middle of her day was sedentary.
Include a strategic hip mobility workout each evening before sleep, stacking it with her nightly skin care and brushing her teeth. The mobility work was 10 minutes in total with the aim of preparing her body to rest deeply.
Integrated Pelvicore Pro drills with her strength sessions. The Pelvicore Pro helps add resistance and functionally reeducate the pelvic floor neuromuscular system by loading both interal and external rotation.
Improve whole body endurance and stability using ViPR Pro and a strategic program to help Cindy reconnect to her passion for exercise AND reduce body pain!
Next post we will dive into Cindy's minerals and nutrition and discuss the interconnection with tissue health and deficiencies!
I have a gift for you today!
TWO workouts for you to save and use with your training program!
FIRST is a hip mobility dril fantastic for those of us who have a lower abdominal scar. These drills I also used with Cindy as she delivered two babies via c-section and had never had any support for her c-section scar.
SECOND a total body ViPR Pro and Db workout with cueing to support integrated core training. In the video I am using an 8Kg ViPR Pro for the drills.
THIRD is a Pelvicore Pro 20 minute Cardio Core workout that Cindy used before her early morning walks 3 days per week. Cindy had specific cueing for her body needs! If you don't already have a Pelvicore Pro, you can use my code, ASCOACH to purchase yours at Pelvic Solutions.
Now if we bring this conversation back to the fundamentals that are needed for pelvic floor health and an integrated approach to training the pelvic floor -- it is important to keep the main thing the main thing BEFORE branching out and trying to connect all of the dots!
Cindy NEEDED to first seek help from a pelvic health PT. Next we needed to reframe her approach to exercise and build off of succss. Cindy's lens changed and her approach to movement completely shifted her ability to train consistently!
These 3 sessions are just a small snapshot of the MANY ways that we can train the pelvic floor and core, so if you are feeling stuck and lumped into a system that has normalized symptoms that are NOT normal for you...DON'T quit looking for a better strategy.
I hope you enjoy these drills in your next training session!
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