What is the pelvic floor?
I define the pelvic floor as more than just the elimination muscles—I see it as anything that touches brief underwear lines. If you think about it, those are in contact with a chair for hours a day (for the average person), so they atrophy over time. Then as we age we’re dumbfounded as to why it can be challenging to do day-to-day tasks like squatting down, lifting things off of the floor, getting up off of the floor or even balancing.
I don’t see stand up desks as a cure all for this. I’ve worked on many people with pelvic floor issues who use standing desks. Chances are you were sitting for years professionally or in school before you started using one. So, those imbalances can already be there.
Why is pelvic health important?
These are your falling-and-I-can’t-get-up muscles! They’re critical for aging well and having solid balance and stability. And, they’re often small muscles, so just because you work out, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re one and strong.
It’s also critical to have good strength here for proper elimination long-term and to head off pelvic organ prolapse and prostate issues.
The pelvic floor also plays a critical role with the breath. Belly breathing is great for relaxation and yogic techniques, but the bandas have to relax and expand for true health in the pelvis. So, I find that a LOT of people need to work on expanding the pelvic floor, yes even moms, because their pelvic floors are tight from improper breathing. For this reason, pelvic floor health and strength isn’t just a postpartum or post-hysterectomy issue, it’s for men and women.
Structure and format of this course
This is not a course on Kegels! I find Kegels to be a constipation view of pelvic floor health and not encouraging dynamic strength that we need there to do things like lifting and balancing.
We’ll start distal (away) from the pelvis and work our way in. We’ll look at common, faulty neuromuscular pathways I’ve seen over the last decade and try to correct those patterns. The modules will have a release then stretch then re-engage format and then I’ll also include some basic as well as intermediate exercise sequences. At that point, you’re free to go about your way in a regular exercise class, hopefully with these areas more engaged.
Why I’m passionate about this content
You can find out more about this in my bio. Long story short, I had an intense and painful bout of piriformis syndrome for about a year and a half after my dad unexpectedly passed away. Thing is, it never got diagnosed as such. I was super active and 28 at the time. MRI came back negative for disc issues and every doctor kept wanting to label it as sciatica, which it wasn’t. After thousands spent on physical therapy/massage/chiropractic/acupuncture, I started studying anatomy and biomechanics and figured out it was the piriformis. I looked up ‘piriformis problems’ and the web said it was common for people who ran a lot and who sat at a desk for a living. That was me to a T!
Thing is, the pain didn’t get better with just the biomechanics. The holistic folks kept saying it was my internalized grief. I was crying all the time, so I didn’t see anything internalized about it. That said, the more I dug into the deeper feelings about how my dad died, the pain started to change. This is why I bring this approach into my work with clients. If something has stuck around for months or years, there’s a good chance you’re holding some deeper stress and emotions around it. I’ll bring in some of the things I’ve researched over the years re:emotions and the pelvis into this course as well.
Another reason why pelvic health is so important to me…my grandmother has had chronic UTIs for 25 years. At this point, she’s pretty much immune to all antibiotics. I can’t help but think if she started doing things like this in her 50s and 60s she wouldn’t have suffered so much and have this risk in her 80s.
Internal pelvic floor physical therapists in Austin
This course is not meant to be a substitute for proper, internal physical therapy. In Texas, you typically need a doctor referral. Here are some of my favorite folks in Austin.