Who Am I?

I have been traveling the world with my terrific husband for 22 years as a military spouse and together we have three awesome kids. Unfortunately in the process of birthing them, I ended up with pelvic and abdominal injuries that kept me from enjoying the sports I loved and feeling really secure in my body. It is through that experience and learning more about how the core and pelvis work together that I became  so passionate about helping others with similar circumstances. I wanted to become the person I needed but I could not find, at that time.

There is a mental image I come back to time and again that perfectly demonstrates the importance of mobility for me and that is the branch of a tree. When a tree branch is alive, supple and properly nourished it can bend and sway with the wind and it takes quite a lot of force to actually injure or break a tree branch. However, if the branch is not properly nourished it becomes very rigid and brittle. Our bodies are similar in this way.  For many of us, we have spent years being told to hold our tummies in, or our back straight or sit or stand a certain way and we have followed that advice to a T. While there is nothing wrong with any movement for a time, doing the same thing over and over and over for hours at a time does not nourish our muscles, bones and connective tissue they way they need to be nourished. That over-use can create in us an environment similar to an under-nourished tree branch and our tissues can become rigid, somewhat "brittle", and more prone to injury.  The strength of the tree and the strength of our bodies lies in our ability to adapt to force appropriately for the circumstances. Sometimes my neck feels like the rigid old tree branch. Sometimes my hips and back do, but I know that nourishing them with mindful, healthy movement can help restore the suppleness that brings strength and resilience.

If you have worked with me in person, you may or may not have noticed I focus more on mobility than flexibility. Let me explain why.  Flexibility is muscles' ability to lengthen passively, or without engagement. When you perform static (holding still) stretches using body weight, limb support, or props, you are working on muscular flexibility. In many instances we may get to the end range of our muscle flexibility and start relying on and stretching the connective tissue as well.  Mobility, on the other hand, is related to the joints and their ability to move actively through their full range of motion. Think of lifting your leg in the air to a 90-degree angle and bringing it back down again. That is active mobility. If you then grab your knee and pull it up towards your chest with any amount of force, that is flexibility.  While flexibility is a component of mobility, mobility is the key to strength and stability.  Flexibility without the strength to support the muscle length can actually create the potential for injury. 

I like to think of our muscles as the brakes on a car. We are able to use them over and over throughout the day to move safely as we drive and, though our seatbelts are there, we rarely have to rely upon them to keep us safe--but when we need them they do their job. I like to think of the connective tissues, like tendons and ligaments, as our seatbelts. If our brakes (muscles) are working well and moving us through different ranges of motion we will rarely rely on our seatbelts (connective tissue) to keep us within healthy boundaries. However, if our brakes (or muscles) are not able to activate and support us in all of our ranges of motion then we end up relying on our seatbelts (or connective tissue) way too much (both time and force) and set ourselves up for potential injury.  

If you are someone who is extremely flexible, you may find that it is especially important not to push through to the end of your given range of motion because you are not able to support that range actively. That is such good information to have about yourself!  If you are someone who is less flexible you may find that you push and push and push yourself to become more flexible but make very little progress. That very well may be because your mobility simply cannot support that range of motion. The body is amazing!

I like to think of the pelvic floor like a jellyfish or a trampoline that is able to respond to movement and stress. It is, after all, one of the parts of our body designed to anticipate and mitigate impact. It is also designed to participate in some of our most vital, species-sustaining activities such as holding our organs in place, allowing us to pee and poo when we need to (or not) and participate in and enjoy sexual activity. So, a healthy and mobile pelvic floor is crucial to life!

Quite often we (women especially) are told to strengthen those muscles by squeezing them over and over and over and over and over. We may be given a protocol for kegels and told to just do them when we are in the line at the grocery store or at a stop light. Which is kind of humorous because I have never heard a recommendation like this for any other muscle group in the entire body.

It seems to make sense, though, if the muscles are letting urine by or feeling like they are not holding your organs in place they must be weak, right? And flexing them over and over would make them strong, right? Not exactly, on either account. If my bicep was weak, and I curled my arm up over and over and over and over, my bicep might get a bit stronger in the contraction phase of the excursion; but what about the lengthening phase? It would be a tighter, shorter muscle (and as I explained about mobility, tighter is not stronger). It actually would become more "brittle" and more likely to give way under stress because it is not strong in all of the phases of movement--not like a trampoline at all! It is very common that an overly tight or uncoordinated pelvic floor results in leaking and prolapse symptoms. So, shortening and tightening ambiguously can actually contribute to the problem.

The reality is that your pelvic floor does not exist in a vacuum but is an important piece of the body puzzle. The suppleness of your pelvic floor contributes to how your back and hips feel. Likewise, how you breathe and stand all day long effects how your pelvic floor does its job. We have learned SO much about the pelvic floor in recent years. While I am grateful that Dr. Kegel got the conversation started in the 1940's and gave people hope for a noninvasive solution to pelvic concerns, we have many more ways to address these concerns and bring holistic healing to the body. Let';s continue the conversation and exploration!