Pelvic Floor Safe Exercise
What is it, and why are we talking about it?
I first came across this when doing some professional development in my 20's. To that point in my career, I had never heard of it. Core strength and the six-pack are promoted as the pinnacle of fitness. However, the pelvic floor is the group of muscles that underpins all of that.
Best explained as a sling that sits at the bottom of the pelvis. You can imagine the pressure put through there at the full depth of your squat or when box jumping or skipping. The reason it's not spoken about is that it's awkward! Who wants to talk about needing to go to the toilet 16 times a day or the labels like LBL; Light Bladder leakage. We've normalised a weakness and made people think 'that's the way it has to be'.
We want to challenge this normalisation and have achieved outstanding results with our clients collaborating with local physiotherapists and creating 'a new normal'. In addition, we have partnered with the continence foundation and put all of our trainers through a course specifically designed for fitness professionals.
There is no need for you to be experiencing any form of leakage, it's not normal, and you don't have to accept it. Some exercises you may have to put away for the time being while you strengthen the muscles. In the studio, for our ladies, we avoid jumping, things like box jumps, burpees and skipping. Don't rule them out all forever, just not while experiencing any leakage. It's just not normal, and truthfully to achieve the goals our ladies are after, you don't have to do those exercises.
Here is a workshop Amy conducted (excuse the cameo appearance) in the Virtual studio: https://www.facebook.com/groups/595946991011541/posts/663829644223275
Some other handy links:
https://apps.apple.com/.../kegel-trainer-pfm.../id578148339
https://suecroftphysiotherapistblog.com/about/
https://junctionroadphysio.com.au/womens-health/
Yours in health
Sean & Amy.
