16/08/2018
Love this amazing lady and her message!!!
Here’s an overkilled message in the women’s health community, but still not in the mom and fitness community:
✨Peeing your pants when you jump, lift, laugh, sneeze, during pregnancy, postpartum or playing sports is incredibly common, but it’s not “normal.”
✨There’s a lot that can be done to manage symptoms, with the help of a pelvic floor physical therapist and a qualified coach.
✨Your pelvic floor is not invincible, no matter how fit you are. If you don’t make adjustments to your training during pregnancy and postpartum to take your long term function into consideration, you may be ignoring a critical component to your health in a way you actually have control over. Chill with the high impact, heavy load and high volume of stress on this already stressed system, and GRADUALLY reintroduce postpartum. It’s not about IF you can do it, it’s about why you are trying and the long term implications to your FUNCTION and performance.
✨Kegals are not enough, and may even be contributing to your incontinence.
✨It’s not about a “tight and strong” pelvic floor, it’s about a coordinated lengthening and shortening of the musculature to match the demand, whether it’s a sneeze, deadlifting 300lbs or jumping with your 25lb baby.
✨There are many ways to improve function. First, an assessment by a PFPT. Then, awareness of your tendencies- breath, positioning, movement, tension, pressure, etc. Then building capacity and automaticity.
✨ Need help? Advocate for yourself and your p*ers- ask for a referral, talk to your doctor, midwife, friend, coach etc and tell them there’s help and they don’t have to be symptomatic with p*eing, feeling like they need to p*e, f***l incontinence, painful s*x, pressure, feeling like their insides are falling out, etc.
✨Unfortunately, there’s so much shame associated with the female anatomy and function, but there’s even more help and opportunities to have important conversations.
postpartum.athlete