Pelvic Floor Function #3: Support

My in-laws have the most amazing hammock. It hangs between three trees and is built for 4 people (though admittedly we’ve had 6 adults and 2 children on it...). It’s made of a strong woven material, yet has enough give to make it incredibly comfortable. It’s quite supportive.

The deepest layer of your pelvic floor is designed in a strikingly similar fashion to that hammock. It slings between the sitbones, then connects to the tailbone in the back and the pubic bone up front. In a balanced pelvic floor there’s enough give to allow for some bounce during walking/running/jumping/etc, but it’s stiff enough to support all the organs.

Your bladder, rectum, and uterus (if you’ve got one) are all supported from the bottom by this hammock. There’s also support from ligaments that connect the uterus to the sacrum and the pelvis, and the uterus in turn helps support the bladder and bowel. They all hold one another up, with the pelvic floor acting as the most southern level of support.

After pregnancy, all the ligaments get stretched, and won’t return to exactly the same length they were before (they’re not quite as stretchy as muscle!). This may leave some feeling a sense of heaviness in the pelvis, or like things are falling out. This is typically because of prolapse— most commonly the bowel or bladder pressing into the vaginal wall. But DON’T WORRY: your bowel and bladder CAN’T FALL OUT. And it’s much rarer for the uterus to descend. (Another post will cover prolapse more in depth!)

The good news: by strengthening this deep hammock layer, you can reduce those feelings of heaviness (without surgery!) and keep things more in their place inside the pelvis. It’s like tightening the hammock back up after it got stretched out.

You can also give the hammock a break from gravity by going a little upside down. Try one of these postures for five minutes, a couple times every day (especially after exercise), and you should feel a little less heaviness. (If you don’t have a yoga block or bolster, just use pillows!)

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What do the other layers do? Check out the rest of this series on the Functions of the Pelvic Floor: Sexual, Sphincter, and stay tuned for next week’s post on Stability.

3 Weeks to Happy Hips

One of my favorite things about traveling is just walking.

According to my phone’s Health app we walked between 16,000 and 25,000 steps each day during our trip to France. We walked everywhere—to the boulangerie, the market, museums, sight-seeing, the train station. We had one day of bike riding, and took the metro quite a bit in Paris.

But all this walking was bookended by the other extreme: sitting. Door to door each trip took 24 hours. Between a 9-hour overseas flight, connecting flights, trains, taxi’s, and the metro, there was a lot of time on our tushes.

What do walking, biking, and sitting all have in common? They make my hips stiff. They all involve this isolated forward and backward movement (or just a flexed position of the hips, in sitting, of course). Sure, I tried to sit cross-legged as much as I could on the plane (until G got annoyed), but mostly it was just forward, then backward.

Our bodies aren’t meant to only move in one plane. They are meant to rotate and twist and turn and bend and have multiple ranges of movement. They want to move in variable ways.

The first thing I did when I got wherever we were going was just that: give my hips different ways to move. I’m not shy to do yoga or stretch in public. This pic is at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport after the flight back from Paris (and felt oh so juicy—for my swollen feet too!).

How do you take care of your hips? Do you have a sitting job or long commute where they’re stuck in the same position all day? Do you do a lot of running or biking or walking where they’re always moving in the forward plane?

I’ve got a 3-week series coming up called Yoga + Anatomy: Hips Edition at Yoga Wild. With new inspiration from my trip (a mini-travel flow that doesn’t require putting your hands on the nasty airport carpet), I’ll teach about the bones, ligaments, muscles and joints that make up the hip joints. Then we’ll move them, using asana (postures) to open them up and stabilize them too.

The class is designed to give a novice yogi a solid foundation, and experienced instructors some new inspiration and deeper understanding of these important joints. We’ll talk about emotional patterns of holding tension in our pelvis too, which can lead to various discomforts.

By the end, you’ll feel more knowledgeable, open and grounded.

If you’re local to Tacoma, I’d love to have you join. You can register here. (But hurry—there are only 6 spots left!)

If you’re not a local, I’m curious: does this sound interesting to you? And is it something you’d like to see as an online course? Drop me a line and let me know! I’m toying with the idea of online courses and would love to know what you want!

Moon Journal

Let’s talk about the moon.

I’ve always been fascinated by the night sky, whether it’s a full moon or stargazing. Growing up in Montana, I adored nights under the stars. It truly is Big Sky country. I remember my parents stopping the car on the highway and turning off the headlights so we could see the immensity of the sky full of stars. It’s pure magic.

I was introduced to The Moon is My Calendar last year by my Naturopath, and it has changed my life. Each month has a circular calendar that you draw symbols in for each day about energy levels, exercise, meditation, mood, etc. Then there’s a small space for each day to just jot down whatever notes I want to.

If you’re like me and have been tracking your cycle for eons, it’s similar, but is intentionally about so much more than just when you bleed.

I took it on as a science experiment. I’ll do this every day, then after a few months I’ll look back and calculate when I felt what, etc. It didn’t work like that, though. 

I found that by taking a moment at the end of each day to just reflect on my day, the knowledge integrated into my being. I started to notice patterns naturally. I really do have more creative energy when I’m ovulating (and I’m oh so aware of when I am). I gave myself permission to say no to pretty much everything the first couple days of my cycle so I can just be by myself, probably on the couch (in sweats), honoring what my body is asking for.

Even in business—I have wanted to start my own practice for years, but it wasn’t until this spring that the Universe conspired to bring it to be. I am working hard, but in all honesty, it’s all flowing because I’m paddling downstream. I learned that from the Moon, from my cycles, and from listening.

If this intrigues you, I invite you to do the same. Maybe you jot down notes on a sticky pad or in your journal. Maybe you just spend some moments at the end of each day reflecting. Maybe you already have a Moon Journal. If you are interested in The Moon is My Calendar journal, you can order your own calendar journal here. (It’s an affiliate link, so I get paid a small portion of your purchase, fyi).

I’ve heard from many friends that they are intimidated and want to do it right, but the beauty is that there is no right way to do it. It’s a practice just like yoga and journaling and art. You just do it and see what comes out.

I’d love to know what you have learned from the moon and your cycles— Share in the comments!

I'm Moving to Hilltop!

I’m moving! As of September 1, my treatment space will be located inside Fern + Foster Family Wellness at 1402 S 11th St in Hilltop.

It has always been my dream to work within a multi-disciplinary practice to meet the needs of patients in multiple areas, so this move is VERY exciting for me. Other services provided in the space include massage and acupuncture from Hello Pelvis, lactation services, and midwifery. There will also be classes and workshops across a wide range of topics, including a postpartum movement class taught by yours truly! You can check their calendar of events here.

AND there is a small yoga studio, so no more trying to do yoga and exercises squeezed between a massage table and a chair!

If you’re a current patient, mark your calendar and look closely at your appointment reminders to make sure you head to the right place come September! I can’t wait for you to see it!

On "Doing Yoga"

One of the most frequent things I hear from patients is that they just don’t have time for exercise, or yoga, or their home exercise program. Particularly when it comes to yoga, I think there is a perception that to Do Yoga means to carve out 75 minutes to go to a studio in your Lululemon pants and feel amazing afterward. I don’t know about you, but that’s just not the reality of my life most days. I was stuck in this perception for a long time, too. Even when I started my own home practice, I still felt like I didn’t Do Yoga if I didn’t spend at least an hour and go from “start in a comfortable position” and “end in savasana.”

You know what though? I’m over that. Yoga is yoga is yoga. Yoga is 5 minutes of meditation on the bus or on a meditation cushion. Yoga is standing on my back deck moving through a few postures (asana) before bed, or when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I get to a class, but now that I’m teaching it’s more common that I’m in front of a class. I make space for it when I can. And you can too.

I try to start my mornings consistently: wake up early, meditate for a few minutes, then move through this seated asana. It moves my spine through all the planes of motion: flexion/extension, sidebending, and rotation. It feels SO good. And only takes a minute.

I posted a video on Instagram and IGTV of my morning routine. Click on the link to follow along—no matter what you’re wearing and where you are. Take a minute to move with me!

Thanks for moving with me today. Thanks for Doing Yoga. Namaste.

What do you find to be the biggest barriers to doing yoga or whatever your movement practice is? How do you make time for it? Share below!

Namaste

Namaste

If you’ve been to a yoga class or two, you’ve likely heard the word “Namaste” spoken at the end of class. When I first started practicing yoga in college, I didn’t know what it meant, and honestly, it kind of freaked me out. Was it an incantation for some foreign deity? Was I invoking a spirit? Nope. It’s neither. It is a Sanskrit word that translates roughly to “The divine in me honors the divine in you.” Some use the word “light” or “teacher” in place of divine, and I think they all make sense. The phrase is simply an acknowledgement that there is a piece of divinity (call it God, Spirit, or what you will) in each and every one of us.

When I became a PT I thought I would go out and change people’s lives. I like to believe I do that, but I didn’t expect my patients to change me the way they have. I have learned SO MUCH from all the individuals I have touched and taught over the past decade. They have helped mold my view of the healthcare system, the human body, “evidence-based medicine” and alternative (or “woo”) approaches to healing. They have given me tips on marriage, on family, transformed my view on what it means to be a mother and a woman, and given me confidence in my vocation.

Considering all that, I’m not quite sure why I was surprised to find the same thing when I started teaching yoga. Teaching a room full of students has in turn taught me how to be a better teacher. Perhaps it is each individual over the years that has taught me so much, or perhaps it is that spark of light, of divinity, that common thread that is in each of us, that is teaching us all the time. We just have to look for it. It’s there. And it’s quite easy to find if you are aware.

I now end my classes as I’ll end this post: “The teacher in me honors and sees the teacher in each of you. Namaste.” 

Yoga for Menstrual Cramps

I don’t know about you, but my periods have never been fun. I remember as a teenager being late to school because I was throwing up, my cramps were so bad. Once I was at camp and didn’t bring ibuprofen; the camp nurse would only give me one Tylenol every 6 hours. Needless to say, that did not cut it. I remember spending 3 miserable days with my head on the table in the Craft Shack, just wishing time would move faster.

It’s become more manageable over time, with the help of naturopaths and acupuncture and becoming more embodied. At times I have practiced gratitude for my bleeding, for the incredible way my body cleans itself out each month, and it actually made it pleasant (thanks to Tami Lynn Kent’s Wild Feminine for that inspiration). Then as I entered the world of TTC (trying to conceive) and subfertility, that became a little harder to do. It’s like insult to injury to be bleeding AND have cramps, when I am working so hard to just be pregnant.

But I digress! This post is NOT just a complaint against Aunt Flow. I do think she’s lovely, even when she feels like an unwanted guest. I want to share something that has helped me over the years to manage the discomfort during my moon-time: malasana.

I can’t tell you the exact mechanism of relief, but I can tell you it’s an excellent posture for relaxation of the pelvic floor, especially if you focus on releasing tension. Imagine your sitbones moving apart. Or your tailbone moving backward, even “wagging.” This is the first thing I recommend for my patients with pelvic or tailbone pain, too. And of course, it’s an excellent position for laboring (though not so hot for actual delivery since it’s correlated with an increased risk of tearing!).

The basic movement is simply a squat: heels down, butt down. I use my elbows with hands in prayer to push my knees apart and give more stability. Other options include having a block or bolster under your bum, having something under your heels if you have short calves, leaning against a wall, or leaning back while holding on to something stable like a doorway or sturdy table leg. Then just hang out. The more supported you are, the more you can relax your pelvic floor. Then, ahhh.

What tricks have you found to manage menstrual cramps? I’m always looking for more tips!