Often times I have wondered – “Why me?” But the continuous “why” mantra can make for a nice pity party.  Wisdom granted to me by friends, peers and my own personal network of experts has taught me to focus on the “what.”  “What CAN I do to address,  alleviate, or eliminate the problem?”   Typically the “what” I am pondering are simple things such as how to manage my and my  active family’s day.  Other times, the focus is more serious and turned inward.   The “what” may be “what can I do to be physically stronger and healthier?”

Daily practice of “what CAN I do” has forced me to be a more proactive thinker and problem solver and less a reactive and worried individual.  Daily use of proactive problem solving skills allows me to address my own limitations, barriers, and obstacles in a  realistic manner.  Consistent use of “what CAN I do” has ushered personal growth and acceptance that some situations simply will not change.   Recognition and acceptance of static limitations, obstacles, and barriers has allowed my proactive problem solving to become creative and flexible.  Examples of limitations, obstacles and barriers may be fear of the unknown or not having enough  time and energy to properly attend to the problem.  Focusing on “what CAN I do” helps me set priorities and have less angst when developing a plan of attack.   Please see the six steps to “what CAN I do.”

Step One: Identify the problem.

Step Two: Identify resources and experts.

Step Three: Identify barriers and limitations to realistically address the problem.

Step Four: Identify the daily amount of time needed to consistently address the problem.

Step Five: Organize and schedule to put the plan into action.

Step Six: Keep track of your progress and positively reward yourself for meeting your goal.

I recently realized how powerful the Hab-It program can be when put in context with my “what CAN I do” thinking.  Tasha and I  recently spoke to a MOPS group – Mothers of Preschoolers.  It was a wonderful experience.  We jointly presented “The Key Components of a Pelvic Floor and Lumbo-Pelvic Basket Rehabilitation Program.”  We felt at home among these positive and supportive women and the content of our presentation was well received.  We fielded many group and individual questions.  Some questions were content-specific and other questions were focused on “how can I find time to take better care of myself.”  I was  surprised how often I heard myself saying, “focus on what you CAN do.”

After saying our goodbyes, I rushed to complete errands  and pick up my preschooler.  As I allowed my mind to slow down, I thought to myself – “Wow, these women got it!”   The  attendees recognized and accepted their physical limitations but did not accept the status quo.  They connected with informed  resources and many women talking about how to address the barriers of time in achieving a healthier, stronger version of  themselves.

Life is about living.  Life circumstances such as prolapse, incontinence, and pelvic pain create obstacles to being a stronger, healthier, and happier you.  Tackling these obstacles effectively by directly addressing your problem is what living is about.  I urge you to use the Hab-It program and its resources to positively impact your pelvic floor health.  And, if you already are a faithful Hab-It user – thank you and tell your girlfriend and neighbor.

I want to leave you with some practical thoughts and solutions:

1.)  It is okay to ask for help.  If it is difficult to exercise with your baby, toddler or older child around, ask your significant other to  attend to the kiddos.  Swap time with another Mom.  Or, have your children exercise with you.

2.)  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  No question is a stupid question.   Life has taught me that typically if you have a question  there are a few others wondering the same thing.  Inform and educate yourself by asking a local expert or post your question to  “Ask Tasha” on our website.

3.)  Reward yourself positively – enjoy something simple and healthy like maybe a fruit smoothie or a chick flick.

Every day presents you with opportunities to become a healthier, stronger and happier YOU.  Focus on “What You CAN Do” and  live life!

Bringing a baby into this world can  be hard work for some Moms.  Pregnancy  may be filled with aches, pains, nausea and moments of joy mixed with concerned  anticipation.  Motherhood is a wonderful time in a woman’s life and the sacrifices are worth the rewards.  Caring for the baby and others is what we Moms do.  As the focus shifts away from the pregnant mom to the newborn, how is Mom doing?  Remember learning the terms episiotomy or C-section?  If you’re an American Mom these words may be a reality.

Most new Moms heal well from episiotomy and C-section incisions but some mothers do not, and may ignore the problems they are having.  Moms that aren’t healing well or haven’t healed well may not feel quite right.  They may ask themselves, “Why does it hurt when I insert a tampon?  Why can’t I unload the dishwasher without pain or stretching in my belly?”  Intercourse likely isn’t on their radar any time soon and these Moms often continue to ignore their concerns and remain silent.

Don’t let this be you!  Remember the scar that remains was once a surgical incision that was made to facilitate the delivery and improve the safety for the Mom and baby. Painful scars can occur after an episiotomy and C-section due to the adhering/ interweaving of the skin and muscle tissue during the healing process. The episiotomy was made by making a surgical cut through the skin, subcutuaneous (fat and connective tissue) and muscle layers.  During a C-section the surgical incision further extends into the abdominal cavity and uterus.  The incision may be closed with absorbable or nonabsorbable thread, staples or clips.

What can be done?  Ideally, pain medication and routine use of ice can help as soon as the surgical procedures are complete.  Staples are typically removed prior to discharge and within five to ten days the stitches will have dissolved.  Once the  stitches are absorbed incision or scar massage can begin.  However, incision mobilization or scar massage can be done weeks, months and even years after the incision was made.

Incision or scar mobilization works by simply moving the skin along and against the grain of the incision.  Incision or scar  mobilization may be done one to two times per day until symptoms have resolved or improved and does not cause in redness or bruising.

Below is an outline of how to complete incision/scar mobilization to make it a more effective and pleasant experience:

1. You can warm the affected skin using a towel, wash cloth or soaking in a warm tub.  This may help decrease sensitivity by increasing blood flow and promote relaxation and can help you get used to touching the area.
2. With two fingertips, gently make circles along the incision.  When working on an episiotomy incision it may help to make gentle circles using a wash cloth.  C-section incision may be touched directly.  You may feel some initial discomfort but, if  you do, simply let up on the pressure.  It is normal to feel hesitant.
3. Lastly, when you can perform the gentle circles without pain, you can begin rolling the incision.  C-section incision can be  rolled by gently lifting the incision away from the abdominal wall and gently rolling the incision between the thumb and  forefinger.  Episiotomy incisions are more difficult to roll due to their smaller size and location.  But, the technique is the same.

References:  Simkin, P. et al.  Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn The Complete Guide. 4^th ed. New York. Meadowbrook Press; 2001; 291-293, 324.

The question:  “I read all these posts from women and they just had babies.  I haven’t had a baby in 11 years.  I think it was me  working out my abdominals in the wrong way, building up my upper abs too much through tons of crunches that I was so hard in that upper region that I created my problem, sound logical? I only do the exercises you suggest now for my abs… It’s only been 8 months since discovery and only 7 months since I started doing the two-step Kegels and Hab-It DVD. I’m more determined than ever to keep working my TA and multifidi muscles… One more question, you mentioned I may be doing too much flexion in my routine not too sure what that means or includes can you please give me an example….”

I love this question because it is based on her own observations of how her body is responding to a change in her workout regimen.  Body awareness is ½ the battle!  She has taken notice of the way she is currently working her abs versus how she used to do it – and with that change, she is noting better control of her pelvic floor and entire core stability!  So awesome!!!

But old habits die hard.  We all love to work on muscles that feel strong and exercises that we are good at.  The problem with this is that those dominant muscles begin to jump in before the smaller muscles that act as stabilizers are able to fire.  This is called  firing pattern” and when we lose the correct firing pattern of stability before movement we have dysfunction, pain, and/or instability.

Specifically looking at the firing pattern of our pelvis and low back, which is called on for every lift, reach, push, pull, jump, or run, we should see our three deepest stabilizers firing first.  These three deep stabilizers are our transversus abdominus (TA), multifidi, and pelvic floor muscles.  These three muscles must be strong and must fire a split second before our bigger movement muscles like our rectus abdominus (RA), our hip flexors, our glutes, our back extensors, and more.  Without this correct firing pattern, we will eventually see pelvic floor symptoms, or low back pain, or hip pain.

Often due to pregnancy, injury or chronic poor posture, we can lose the pre-emptive firing of our stability muscles.  Unless we  specifically work to get these stability muscles back, they can easily get lost under the dominant muscles firing over the top.  This is commonly seen with the RA dominating the TA.  When this happens, our RA’s take over and can wreak havoc on our posture, our pelvic floor, and our low back.

Looking specifically at our pelvic floor, it is as simple as noting the muscle action of the RA.  It is to curl your ribs closer to your pelvis, effectively compressing your abdominal cavity, forcing significant pressure down on your pelvic floor.  Furthermore, an over-active RA can lock your ribs down, preventing your ribs from opening up and elevating.  This compounds the pressure on your pelvic floor since every breath you take in needs room and if it can’t get it from an expanding rib cage, it gets its room from pushing down further on the pelvic floor.

So, yes, you can over-develop your RA.  Absolutely!  Stopping all crunches is the easy step and the first step to take, but more is  often needed to allow our TA to fire consistently again.  We need to work on strength and stability in our neutral spine position and eliminate all strengthening in a forward flexed position.  Eliminating your RA from the equation will allow your TA to begin to re-emerge.  This is easiest to achieve in hands and knees position as taught on the Hab-It DVD, with a progression to the many plank exercises in the Advanced Program.  These two positions lengthen your RA and limit its firing ability, whereas the many  strengthening exercises on your back or seated with your hips flexed will allow your RA to fire even with a simple lift of your head.

So go for it! Train your upper body in plank position or while holding neutral spine with your tail bone lifted and your TA engaged.  Work your legs through squats, lateral walks, lunges, and single leg balance, all with your chest up and your TA drawn “up and in.”  Work your abs in hands and knees and plank position when you are ready.  I encourage no abdominal work on your  back since your RA can sneak in and fire even when you are trying to isolate your TA.  So get creative in hands and knees and  plank position with arm and leg lifts, Swiss ball work, rotations and more.  Our Advanced Program has all the variety you could want and your pelvic floor will thank you (you will also like the drawn in look it will create)!

Finally, when working cardio exercise, be aware of what activities keep you in an extended position, such as swimming, spinning, cross country skiing, and walking/running with a focus on push off.  You can add to your routine when you feel you have mastered control of your TA, pelvic floor, and multifidi firing as stabilizers before all other movement…but not until you have excellent body  awareness of this firing pattern.

*One last note to end this blog.  Stretching is different than strengthening.  When stretching, it is healthy to include both flexion and extension within your routine to maximize joint mobility and blood flow to all working muscles throughout your body, including your pelvic floor and lumbar spine.  So work to achieve full range of motion of all of your joints through both flexion and extension.

The pelvic basket is an intricate weaving of muscles, tendons, and ligaments that support our pelvic and abdominal organs and  assists in bowel and bladder control.  As discussed in Tasha’s blog post, The Positive Side Effects of Pelvic Floor Muscle Weakness, “the pelvic basket incorporates the front, back, sides, and floor of your pelvis and lower spine that provide the deepest layer of stability to your body.”  Muscle tissue is normally pliable but poor postural habits, trauma to the pelvic basket or chronic tension of the pelvic basket muscles may lead to the development of shortened tissues, scar tissue, and tender points.  Normally the  muscles of the pelvic basket contract and relax resulting in the basket moving up and down.  However tissue changes within the pelvic basket may inhibit normal muscle function resulting is a pelvic basket that is less mobile.

So, what can be done to restore normal pelvic basket muscle function?  One option is manual therapy.  All tissues – including those of the pelvic basket – need hydration or fluid flow.  The goal of manual therapy is to improve fluid flow, stimulate repair, and elongate tissues.  Most tissue restrictions within the pelvic basket are related to poor postural habits or the result of poor tissue repair.  In these types of cases there is a shortening of the muscle and connective tissue resulting in a loss of pliability or movement.  Effective manual therapy techniques for pelvic basket conditions of involve techniques that stimulate fluid flow and provide for gentle stretching.  Once the precise areas of shortened tissue, tender points, or scar tissue of the pelvic basket have been identified gentle manual forces can be used to stimulate healing.

The use of manual therapy is difficult and challenging.  However, the rewards gained are well worth the effort.  Manual therapy can be self-applied or performed by a skilled women’s health physical therapist.  If seeing a women’s health physical therapist is not an option, it is a good idea to ask your family physician, OB/Gyn or midwife to assist you in identifying the precise location(s) of your muscle injury.  Once that has been identified, one manual technique that may be used is a gentle press and manual stretch technique.  The application of gentle pressure to the pelvic basket muscle tissues will stimulate fluid flow and begins the healing process.  Yes, it is normal to be hesitant and feel initial embarrassment.  But remember, these are muscles, muscles that need the gentle application of pressure to start fluid flow and healing.

Specifically, the gentle pressure and manual stretch technique uses a one to two fingertip pressure.  The gentle fingertip pressure may be applied for 90 seconds or until the tissue softens or relaxes.  Once the tissue has softened, maintain gentle pressure and follow that with a manual gentle stretch along the injured muscle.  Manual therapy of the pelvic basket may be minimally to moderately painful but should be stopped if the pain is approaching severe.  If the gentle pressure and stretch technique is applied externally, a water based lubricate can assist with the stretch or sliding on the skin surface.  If you are using the gentle pressure and stretch technique internally to the pelvic basket, it is a good idea to use non-latex gloves.  Repeated application of the gentle pressure and stretch may be applied to one area for up to 10 minutes, 1 to 2 times per week.

Who does manual therapy to the pelvic basket?  Ideally, manual therapy should be performed by a physical therapist trained in women’s health physical therapy since this specialty involves further study in the evaluation and treatment of conditions affecting the pelvic region.  Another option is to do it yourself although depending on the location of the tissue injury, the application of manual therapy to the pelvic basket may be too difficult to complete yourself.  Spouses or significant others may also be able to apply the gentle pressure and manual stretch technique when they are educated on the location of injury and manual therapy techniques.

Reference: Lederman E.  The Science and Practice of Manual Therapy. 2^nd ed. Edinburgh:  Elsevier Churchill

I like to see everyone work through the workout with the purpose of really slowing down and isolating the individual muscles of the pelvic basket.  The first two workouts do this – take your time, because often it can take a couple sessions to get full activation of the muscles and to quiet the ones that like to take over!  Once you feel good about your TA, mulifidi, pelvic floor, adductor, and hip rotator contraction, then you can move on to workouts 3 and 4.  The minimum workout requirement is 3 workouts per week, but if you choose to do one workout per day, that is of great benefit to you.  Beyond that, if you have time to complete more than one workout per day, my recommendation is to keep your 2-step Kegel reps to just 8-10 per day.  This means that if you are going to work through Workouts 1 and 2 on a given day, you would skip the 2-step Kegels on Workout 2.

On your question about the 2-step Kegel being more difficult in standing – Absolutely.  It is much harder in this position due to gravity, but obviously it is the most functional position.  You should see/feel your TA pulling in with your 2-step Kegel so it sounds like you are on the right track.  Perhaps you should perform your first four Kegels lying on your back and then stand for the last four.  This may ensure that you are working the right muscles.

What else do you gain as you work your way through pelvic floor rehabilitation?  You learn about neutral spine posture, both in sitting and standing positions.  Beyond that, you develop an understanding of the attachment sites of muscles and the advantages of holding your muscles at the perfect length and the perfect tension.  Neutral spine posture does this for you. How awesome that you not only have learned how to find and hold neutral spine but also that you feel the difference it makes in supporting your  pelvic basket.  Without even knowing it, this same neutral spine posture is preventing future back problems, neck problems, shoulder problems, and more.  It allows you to take in deeper breaths with greater rib/lung expansion, it allows for maximum blood flow and nerve conduction, and it limits joint compression forces that can increase dramatically throughout our body when we shift from our neutral spine posture.

So thank you pelvic floor weakness!  We all now know more about healthy muscle activation and posture than we ever did before!
Now that’s positive

You can develop this confidence by 1) Reading more of my blog entries, and asking questions to help you better understand;  2) Self exploration of your own anatomy to truly understand the anatomy you are seeing in books and on the internet;  3) Trying different exercises and deciding for yourself which ones you feel the most and which ones have a positive effect on your pelvic floor symptoms; 4) Staying consistent with what works.  If you are consistent, it is easy to identify the variable that may be responsible for a temporary increase in symptoms at any given time.

With this recipe for success you are setting yourself up for a great feeling of control.  It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you understand your body.  I want to close this blog with a couple links that highlight women who have found this understanding.  You can feel the strength and the energy from these women.  Take the time to click on the links below and fast forward to the comments following these blogs as great examples.

http://prolapsehealth.com/forums/topic.php?id=1031

http://hab-it.com/blog/?p=293

http://www.hab-it.com/?topic=great-improvement

To begin, it’s important to have an understanding of all the muscles of your pelvic basket and how to activate those muscles.   Establishing a baseline strength of these deep core muscles through appropriate strengthening exercises is important before beginning any cardio.  When you begin with a solid base strength, you will continue to build on this strength as you introduce cardio, further decreasing your symptoms.  If you skip the base-building step, you will more than likely note increased symptoms with cardio activities.  With this understanding, we can move forward and discuss the positives and negatives of many cardio choices.

Let’s first talk about walking for fitness.  Walking is a fantastic activity.  However, I would like to give a few tips to make your walking better for your body and for your pelvic floor.  The first tip is to focus on your push off.  Feel your toes (your big toe especially) work to push you forward.  This simple change of focus will decrease your heel strike and decrease the force of impact of every step.  It also promotes hip extension and naturally lifts your chest.  You will feel like you are walking taller, which is a good thing!!!

Now let’s talk about swimming.  It is one of the best cardio choices for women experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction.  Actually, it is one of the best cardio choices for anyone.  It is an exercise that works both upper and lower body muscles and it promotes extension as you stretch your body out in the water.  As you work to balance your body in the water and work your swimming strokes, it works the many stabilizing muscles, including your transversus abdominus (TA) and multifidi that are so important to pelvic floor recovery.  So swimming gets a big thumbs-up from me.  For those of you who just don’t like to put your face in the water, you are still not off the hook!  You can get in the water holding a kick board with your arms and your head above water, allowing you to still work your lower body in an extended position.

How about biking?  Again, I like this exercise because of the position it puts your body in.  A good bike fitting will require you to reach forward to your handle bars which will roll you forward onto your sitting tripod, which is your right sit bone, your left sit bone, and your pubic bone.  This is a position that frees your tail bone from pressure and automatically activates your TA because of the forward reach of your arms.  Biking is a great form of cardio that will have a positive effect on pelvic floor symptoms
simply because of the positioning alone.

Let’s move on to cross country skiing.  This is an excellent non-impact form of cardio that also promotes extension since it is focused on hip extension and push-off on every stroke.   Again, it is both an upper and lower body workout that will enhance pelvic floor strength if you have already established a solid base strength AND provides exceptional cardiovascular conditioning.

The four exercises I discussed - walking, swimming, biking, and cross country skiing – alll get a thumbs up from me, and you would do well to rotate these exercises into your weekly routine.  Now let’s talk about some of the more controversial or
demanding forms of cardio.

We’ll first talk about running because it is an activity that many of us love and want to continue for years to come.  I will speak from a personal stand point and I encourage any of you to share your stories as well.  I have been running since discovering my prolpase 8 years ago and my pelvic floor is better conditioned today than it has been since discovering my prolapse.  That being said, I think I am a different runner than I used to be.  I don’t run on consecutive days, instead I cross train every other day.  Is this because of my pelvic floor or my knees or my hips…probably for the recovery of all three!  My body responds well to rotating impact and non-impact activities.  Also, I pay attention to my running style, taking care to limit my heel strike and on hill running days, I now walk back down the hill instead of running down, again to limit heavy heel contact and pounding on my body.  What I do get out of running is exceptional cardiovascular conditioning with both endurance runs and high intensity interval training.  My personal story is that my pelvic floor is its strongest right at the peak of my triathalon training.  It is a positive story that lets you know that you don’t have to give up running.  However, there simply is no research at this point to support or dispute this…just personal stories.  So share yours, positive or negative, about running with prolapse, so that other women can read and learn as well.

Finally let me cover a couple of other cardio choices that have come up.  The elliptical machine is one that many women like because it is lower impact.  My concern with the elliptical machine is the focus on flexion.  Your hips flex forward but there is minimal to no hip extension on the elliptical machine.  If you love this machine and choose this as your form of cardio, then be sure to work in at least 2 hip extension exercises following your elliptical workout.

Kickboxing is another workout that many women ask about.  This is a tough one, because although I recognize that it provides an excellent power and cardiovascular conditioning, it is very difficult not to increase your intra-abdominal pressure when you kick or punch.  These power strikes that produce a sudden increase of downward pressure on your pelvic floor are tough on supportive tissues that aren’t 100%.  It is never a problem to try an activity like kickboxing, but if you feel increased pressure on your pelvic floor with every kick or punch, it is probably not your best choice for cardio.

Hope this information is helpful as a guide.  Please feel free to ask questions and share your personal stories as well.

There is a position in the physical therapy world called “neutral spine.”  This is a position where you hold a soft, natural “S curve” of your spine.  It is somewhere in between the extreme gymnasts posture that many women find themselves in, where their lower abdominals offer no support around the front side of their pelvis.  Or the other extreme of the flat back, “buns tucked under posture” where their tail bone is so tucked under that their entire pelvis is actually tipped from its natural position to a more vertical position.

To find your neutral spine, first place your hands on your hips and begin to rock your pelvis.  First rotate your pelvis so that you tuck your buns under as far as you can.  This is one extreme.  Now rotate your pelvis back, sticking your buns out like a gymnast.   This is the other extreme.  Now, from this gymnast position, draw your transversus abdominus (TA) muscle tight by pulling your belly button “up and in.”  You will note how activating this muscle rocks your pelvis back ever so slightly, softening the sharp lumbar curve, and pulling you back to neutral spine position.

I recognize that this is not easy.  We all have a tendency to get lazy and allow our bodies to be supported by locked joints.   This may be easiest, but the human body is dynamic and not meant to be in a locked position.  With this in mind, unlock your knees, unlock your pelvis, and open your hands up by rotating the palms of your hands to face forward.  All of these subtle postural changes engage muscles, open neural pathways, and increase blood and oxygen flow throughout our bodies.  This requires effort and constant awareness of your body.  Initially it will have to be a conscious effort to get in front of a mirror and find your own neutral spine.  Then, with consistent effort, neutral spine positioning will become your norm.

Now, let’s go through neutral spine in a sitting position.  To achieve this, you want to be in a position where your knees are slightly lower than your hips if viewed from the side.  This may require you to slide to the front edge of your chair so that your knees drop slightly.  You can also use this measurement in choosing the correct size swiss ball for exercise or for sitting at your work station.   By sitting so that your knees are slightly lower than your hips, you make it easy to roll forward onto your “sitting tripod” made up of your two sit bones and your pubic bone.  Note that your sitting tripod does not include your tail bone!  Your tail bone should be free from all pressure when sitting in neutral spine.  This makes the car and the couch the two toughest places to sit with good posture.  Optimal sitting posture is just that easy…find your tripod!  Once you feel pressure on your pubic bone, you are automatically in neutral spine.  This is simply positioning, not any muscle action at all.

So, now let’s talk about what neutral spine posture does specifically for our pelvic floor function.  We talked about neutral spine posture being a dynamic position, so it requires both our multifidi muscles within our low back as well as our transversus abdominus muscles, which wrap around the front of our pelvis, to be engaged in order to hold this position.  Our pelvic floor naturally co-contracts with these two muscles as our bodies’ deepest core stabilizers.  Also, our pelvic floor is now set at a perfect length, with just the right amount of tension to allow for the strongest contraction it can give.  If we stand with our tail bone tucked under, our pelvic floor is hanging way too loose and relaxed to respond with sufficient support when needed.  Also, if we are standing in a gymnast posture, then our pelvic floor is stretched beyond its functional limits and it, again, cannot provide sufficient support when needed.  However, when we are in neutral spine, with our tail bone in slight extension, then our pelvic floor muscles, stretching from our tail bone to our pubic bone, are at the perfect length/tension to give optimal support.

I hope this is useful information for all of you.  I can’t stress the importance of posture enough.  For many it may be the last missing piece of the puzzle that will lead you to greater improvement of your pelvic floor symptoms!

Let me give you an example to clarify this point.  Your multifidi are small muscles that lie deep under your back extensors and attach to individual segments of your spine.  The Prone Multifidi Extension exercise that I coach you through in the 1^st workout on the Hab It: DVD, requires very subtle movements designed to recruit and isolate these small multifidi muscles.  This small rotation of your pelvis achieves  segmental extension of your lumbar spine and, more importantly, your sacrum.  The minute these extensions become too big, creating movement beyond your pelvis, you automatically recruit your big back extensors and glutes which like to take over.  This allows a good percentage of your multifidi muscles to take a break, which results in us losing our muscle isolation and our segmental extension goal.

It is with this in mind that we need to slow down, isolate, control our deepest stabilizers, and get these pelvic basket muscles firing efficiently.   Remember, I have talked in depth about the “root of our core,” the deepest three stabilizers of our body in previous blogs.   http://hab-it.com/blog/?p=257    It is important that we regain control of these stabilizers before working bigger movements that will allow us to return to our normal recreational activities.  So I caution any of you rushing through your pelvic floor/pelvic basket strengthening.  You will continue to have symptoms UNLESS you learn to recruit your deep stabilizers first.  This is why it is important to allow your body 4-6 weeks of training with the Hab It DVD, which will help you find and engage all the muscles of your pelvic basket, before rushing back to running, hiking or any other recreational activity.

Once you have developed good control of your pelvic basket, your work is not yet over.  It is now your job to maintain this strength and stability for years to come.  Just think, this means you will have better posture when you are 80 years old, you will prevent future back or hip problems, and you will prevent a re-occurrence of your pelvic floor dysfunction.  Take note that continuing pelvic floor exercises for life doesn’t mean that you have to lie in front of the DVD for 20 minutes 3x/week, but that you are conscious of working pelvic floor exercises into your daily routine.  This could be in the shower, before you get out of bed, or whenever it works for you.  If you fail to remain consistent with exercise and posture,  your pelvic floor symptoms will remind you just like a good coach!