Today’s post is one of my very favorite basic sequences for facilitating pelvic floor awareness and pelvic mobility. These motions may seem simple, but are often not easy! The cues for connection to the breath with fine tuned pelvic movement combined with pelvic floor dropping (relaxation) and activation often challenge patients. This is as much as a coordination exercise as it is therapeutic mobility and gentle core activation. You can use these exercises for strengthening the transverse abdominus and pelvic floor with extra attention on the exhales or you can use these movements to facilitate more sensory awareness by just noticing and breathing and feeling what the movement feels like in your body.  Enjoy whichever way you choose to approach this exercise and as always… if you’re not sure this is for you check in with your doc or pelvic floor PT.

I spend a lot of time creating home exercise programs for my pelvic floor physical therapy patients. Lately we have been creating custom videos for my patients as I have found it increases their compliance if they have something that’s been made just for them. While certainly not every exercise is appropriate for every body or diagnosis I’ve decided to share some basic instructions on common exercises in a Home Exercise Program Series. Today’s series is a basic foam roller series for a patient who has been experiencing pelvic pain associated with endometriosis and a coccyx injury. As always please consult with your doctor or physical therapist to see if these exercises might be appropriate for you.

Self-care can look a lot of ways and given that it’s a HUGE component of what I preach to my patients, I’m always looking for new ways to practice it.  November was a month of embracing the cold in an effort to heal my heart, improve my health, and go deeper into connection with my intuition... you know... so I can consistently become a better human and physical therapist. A few Saturdays ago I dove (well gracefully stepped into) the cold when a patient asked me to join him for a workshop hosted by Wim Hof, aka the Iceman. The Wim Hof Method uses a combination of breath-work, cold-exposure, and mindset training in an effort to maximize health, happiness, and connection with Presence and Love. My patient asked me to join him because he has had years of chronic pain management in traditional settings and is now starting to embrace that there’s a lot more to feeling well than what we might have been told by western medicine.