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By Dr. Allison Feldt, PT, DPT
I’m so excited to share with you that I just had my first work out where I could really push my core and didn’t feel like I was hurting myself. I finally feel like I am getting back some of the innate stability my joints should have. Meaning that my joints aren’t as hypermobile or “loose” like they were during my pregnancy and during postpartum so far. Initially that hypermobility is from relaxin and even though relaxin leaves within 4 days of delivery, the joints take a lot longer to return to normal. [...]
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By Dr. Allison Feldt, PT, DPT
Tonight I sneezed and did not pee!!!! I am super pumped about this BECAUSE last week I got hit with a bad bout of allergies. I was sneezing and coughing and my pelvic floor could not sustain this and I was peeing myself every time I sneezed or coughed. I had to even change my pants a few times which I was embarrassed about. I’m a pelvic floor physical therapist, so you would think I would have my core together and my pelvic floor would be super strong! For the most part, it is. However, I have a pelvic organ prolapse and what happens to me when I get a flare up is I occasionally leak, aka pee. I want to share this with you because this is where training your pelvic floor and being aware of what things to do to help yourself can really ease symptoms and make you feel good, confident and strong in your body. So here’s where I started I put my pessary back in, which is something I wear to support my bladder. So I committed myself to wearing that throughout my times of being symptomatic. I committed to doing some downtraining of my pelvic floor muscles. Which means making sure I was fully relaxing my pelvic floor as I tend to be fairly tense. With breathing and meditation over the weekend, I had my tone more under control.I did a lot of pelvic elevating to help decrease the descent of my prolapse. So then I got back to doing some strengthening and could even do some weighted pelvic floor contractions with my pelvic floor weights. So what changed from last week to this week?How am I sneezing this week without peeing? I’m not sneezing as frequently as my allergies are more under control, so less overall pressure. So what changed from last week to this week?How am I sneezing this week without peeing? I’m not sneezing as frequently as my allergies are more under control, so less overall pressure. The next thing I was able to manage, was my tone and get back to doing the pelvic floor contractions with weights and retraining my pelvic floor, which let me tell you, the strength of my pelvic floor did not change between last week and this week. What did change was my nerve connection to the muscle. The ability of my nervous system to control my pelvic floor and therefore, I could control what was coming in and out of it. It’s really important that you’re not just doing a million “kegels” but you’re re-training your pelvic floor. A lot of people are so concerned about maintaining the strongest pelvic floor but what really needs to happen is a coordination of several muscles that will help keep your pants dry. Excerpt From First Episode:
Interviewer: So, clients who come to you are often caught in the cycles of dieting and constantly feeling like they're falling off the wagon, how can we change that? Natalie: Most clients who come to me, say "I know what to eat, I just can't seem to do it. I have a problem with my willpower. I'll do a diet, and it works, but then I just can't keep it together. It's something that I just have cravings, and I can't overcome them." That's one of the first things I talk about with clients is breaking down the diet cycle. And it begins with the "problem behaviors." So, for many people, let's say, emotional eating. There's a reason why we engage in our "problem behaviors."And so, for emotional eating, a reward at the end of a really long week or it's a way to connect with our partner at the end of a long day. Or maybe it's a way to get through a really boring project at work. So, there is this reason why it's helping us, but then we have that onslaught of negative internal dialog like, "Oh, what's wrong with me? Why can't I just get my act together? It's not like anyone's putting the food in my mouth. I'm never gonna be able to like fix this." And then that causes, for many people, a lot of shame and guilt or just feelings of frustration.Okay more healthy bladder techniques: You should be able to delay the urge. You should drink a good amount of water to hydrate the bladder lining (and reduce the acidity of the bladder, increased acidity can lead to false cues to void) You should never hover over a toilet seat, most American women can not relax their pelvic floor enough to be able to relax to fully void. Without full relaxation, you can give the bladder mixed signals leading to dysfunction. You should breath and rock back and forth after you pee, to fully empty bladder. If you ever pee, and it isn’t in the toilet aka it’s in your underwear or on the bathroom floor getting in and out of the shower, you should get help. You probably have some dysfunction with your pelvic floor. This dysfunction most likely will not improve on its own and can lead to much much bigger issues. Please seek a professional pelvic expert physical therapist for individual assessment and help. Don't be the mom depending on Depends. Neck pain and upper back pain may be two of the most common ailments people experience. From struggling to move your neck, to worrying about the position you sit in on your favorite sofa, pain in the upper torso is debilitating. Yet, many of those who experience these kinds of issues haven’t suffered a fall, twisted their necks unnaturally, or been on rollercoasters since their pain started. For most people, the cause of neck pain or upper back discomfort can’t be pinpointed: there is no single unique moment in which their backs or necks could have been injured. What then? How did they come to be in so much pain? And if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking the same thing about yourself. Fear not, however, because we’re here to help. In this post, we’ll be investigating the hidden causes that have led to your neck and upper back pain. We’ll also be looking at what to do about it and which steps to take next. [...]
For many of us, exercise is more than a general walk in the park. In reality, it’s a part of who we are, and our dedication to training programs, fitness, and health, goes above and beyond. From running, to swimming, to CrossFit, and to hiking, we just love to do it. Every day we push ourselves harder – we run faster, swim further, and lift more. Yet while our daily habits may seem outwardly healthy, we may actually be doing ourselves harm in the long run. Why? Well, for some of us the exercise routines we’ve come to love have turned from ‘healthy’ to ‘unbalanced’. In other words, as we’ve pushed ourselves on the court, in the pool, or on the bike, we’ve lost track of our personal limits - we’ve fallen prey to what is generally called Overuse Training Syndrome. Now, if the name intimidates you, don’t fear. In this post, we discuss the causes and effects of OTS and we give you advice on how to get back in the right gear. [...]
 Dr. Allison Feldt (Interviewer): Natalie, thank you so much for joining us today. I am so excited to spread the nutrition word about healthy eating and healthy habits to our community. And you are the inaugural "Edmonds Moms" podcast interviewee, and we can't wait to share all your knowledge. Personally, I've worked with Natalie in the past, and she is a magical practitioner, and just really helped me find a really good balance with food, and she can really help guide you on a healthy life cycle.
Tonight I sneezed and did not pee!!! I am super pumped about this BECAUSE last week I got hit with a bad bout of allergies. I was sneezing and coughing and my pelvic floor could not sustain this and I was peeing myself every time I sneezed or coughed. I had to even change my pants a few times which I was embarrassed about. I’m a pelvic floor physical therapist, so you would think I would have my core together and my pelvic floor would be super strong! For the most part, it is. However, I have a pelvic organ prolapse and what happens to me when I get a flare up is I occasionally leak, aka pee. [...]
Hi. Dr. Allison Feldt here, and I wanted to share a little philosophy that I have. This is simply food for thought and one of many considerations. I help many pregnant women and what really has been the highlight of a lot of conversations lately is talking about going into labor naturally and on your own. Without being induced. One thing that I think is really important to consider when you are planning to have a delivery is your current work schedule and or end date of working For may moms this is your due date. So, like, say you're due May 23rd. That was the due date with my son. And a lot of women will work up until that exact time.
Incontinence, also known as peeing your pants, is a continuous struggle for thousands of women. Although you may have accepted this as a fact of life for you, what if I told you that this meant you have a dysfunction of one of your essential core muscles? Would that make you care? What if those core muscles determined if you were going to be old in diapers or not? Or in a wheelchair or not? Would that help you care? I meet lots of women who don’t mind that they leak urine. It’s a fact. I mean they still run, CrossFit, Pilates, barre, orange theory and yoga. It doesn't matter. They leak, and they don’t care because it's been happening for so long and they want to maintain their exercise routine since that’s what keeps them “healthy”. However, what is very important to know is that incontinence is a sign of pelvic floor dysfunction. What does that mean? You have a hole in your core. Your core is not functioning in the way it is supposed to.
 Healthy Pelvic Floor For A Healthy Life: The Importance Of Healing After Birth. The biggest concern I see with moms and women at my practice stem from not healing and restore their core and body after childbirth. Most women after childbirth get cleared by their MD, midwife or OB at 6 to 8 weeks after delivery. As long as the uterus is done “bleeding” they get cleared to go back to exercise, ease back into the gym, return to intercourse, pretty much they are told to ease back into everything they were doing prior to pregnancy. This is a huge problem. The body is still healing at this point.
This can be scary for most moms. Let's be honest. You grew a human in your belly, aka uterus, which is connected to your cervix which then expands to let the baby out or is cut open to pull the baby out. That may be graphic or hard to hear but birth is real. Both types of deliveries are massive events on a women’s body. Some women have lots of sex during pregnancy, others have very little or none. Whichever category you fall into, thinking about having sex or being intimate after you have just had a human extracted from your body is pretty hard to wrap your head around
Hi. My name is Dr. Allison Feldt, PT, DPT with Body Motion Physical Therapy. I want to go over something that I hear a lot of women talk about. Oftentimes, I'll hear women say they feel like they have a "heaviness in their vagina," "something just feels different down there," "they leak urine or dribble after they're done peeing" and they get up from the toilet seat and they feel like...and they see that they've leaked on the toilet seat or dribbled urine on the toilet seat. Sometimes they'll feel like something is coming out of their body. Women often report queefing, which is like a vaginal noise that comes out of their vagina when they're at, yoga or barre or doing Pilates. One can also experience inability to control urine, which is incontinence. And then, they can also say that they feel like their husband's hitting something when they're having intercourse. These are a couple of the things I hear a lot, and these are all indicative of pelvic organ prolapse. This is when the certain organs start to lose their support inside the body and gently descend.
Hi, my name is Dr. Allison Felt, and I'm a physical therapist and owner of Body Motion Physical Therapy. So, I wanna start by saying going want to talk a little bit about the diastasis recti. And so that's the split abdominal wall and I've touched on this on other videos. But really what I wanna focus on here is that you really don't have to even get one, this is something that can be prevented. Honestly, I think the minute you find out you're pregnant, you should head on over to the physical therapist and they can help you a lot. Identify the muscle that can help prevent you from splitting your abdominals throughout as you grow through pregnancy.
Protect your back for life! So often we get going on the laundry or picking something up from the ground that we don’t think is heavy and we hunch over and pick it up. Even if that shirt is light weight it is essential to still use appropriate body mechanics. Here are some ways to pick up objects with good form. Remember whatever it is you are picking up. Keep that object close to your body.
Squat to pick up: keep your feet TWO FIST WIDTH apart or wider, keep your BELLY FIRM, stick your butt backward Golfers pick up: Standing on 1 leg, keep BELLY FIRM (engaging your transverse abdominis) Squat Pick Up: Spread your feet apart, at least "two fist widths", bend your knees and stick your buttocks out behind you. Keep your stomach pulled in tight (engaging your transverse abdominis). Lunge to pick up: Step forward with 1 leg, Keep your weight evenly distributed on the front leg, lower yourself down, keep BELLY FIRM (engaging your transverse abdominis) and pick up object. I sat in a seminar this weekend and I was deeply moved when I heard Dr. Anil Gupta speak. He simply stated “happiness is fulfillment” This simple statement can get super complicated but one thing I can really get from that is that if we are fulfilled emotionally, internally fulfilled we then have the opportunity to identify as happy.
“I am 20 weeks pregnant and the pain in my right leg and piriformis is preventing me from working.” Said Heidi, a worried 34 year old who can’t recall a specific event where she hurt herself but she is now experiencing unbearable pain during her pregnancy. She is worried because she only gets 12 weeks off from work and wants to work up until the end of her pregnancy so her entire leave can be spent with her new baby. She’d been suffering from the deep achy pain in her buttock which shoots down her leg when she sits at work. She tosses and turns at night as she just can’t get comfortable no matter how many pillows she uses.
Running is a major time commitment. When you are pretty committed to running, especially if training for some distance, most of your time training is spent hitting the pavement, trails or track. So the goal with these four post is to give you some ideas on how to keep your motor running injury free and how to enhance the motor performance come race day.
Do you think peeing your pants while you exercise, sneeze, or run to the toilet is normal? I have some great news. This is not normal! Its super common but NOT NORMAL! And there is even something you can do about it!
Happy Hour with Dr. Allison and Dr. Natalie: Exploring Preconception, Fertility and Pregnancy7/20/2018 Natalie: I think we're live. Okay. I am Natalie Marshall with Vitalize Physical Therapy and I am going to be... I'm trying to get Allison from Body Motion PT on here. And I'm the least tech savvy person in the world, so I'm sure all Facebook Lives are like this, right? So, let's see. Okay, cool. People are watching, and this is gonna be super fun, so grab a glass of water, or a cocktail, or a glass of wine, or whatever your favorite beverage is, because we're gonna do a happy hour talking about all things fun and pelvic PT. And I'm just waiting for Allison to join me. Let me see. And then, I think I click on her photo. Hi, Cassie. I miss you. Okay. So, this is just happy hour with Natalie right now. Oh, she says she's on. Let's see. Does anyone know how to invite your friends? Let's see my viewers. Oh, there you are, girl. I found you. This is like...adding Allison. Here we go. It's about to get crazy.
Hi. All right I'm gonna give you a pelvic floor exercise to do today. So you are simply gonna start by laying on your back, you're gonna engage your lower abdominal muscles, and then you're gonna raise your legs up. This is also good for hamstring flexibility. You are gonna squeeze your toes, you're gonna do that 5 to 10 seconds, let it go. Repeat, squeeze your toes 5 to 10 seconds. You're internally rotating your hips, and this is a nice overflow into the pelvic floor. And if you don't know how to do a Kegel or a pelvic floor muscle contraction, this is an excellent way to get activation. You could also do a heel squeeze, so squeezing, let it go, heel squeeze, let it go. And again holding 5 to 10 seconds. And this is great for some pelvic floor activation, amazing for developing core stability, and just a really great exercise. Good luck. Hi. The welcome to the pregnant body workshop kicks off on Monday night and I am excited to see you guys there. This is gonna be some information that truly every pregnant woman deserves to know, and these tips can be applied throughout any point during your pregnancy. And they are guaranteed to help improve your outcomes after you deliver the baby. So, I'm so excited to share all this fun information with you and I know it's hard to decide what's gonna be best when making decisions regarding your health during this time. So, you have made a good decision here and you are gonna get all the information you need. I'll be around for questions and I'm just gonna be a resource throughout your journey that you can consult with. So, I'm so excited to see you guys there and there'll be some opportunities to work with me in the future if you desire. So, I'm looking forward to meeting you guys there and seeing all of your bumps. Bye.
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Author: Allison Feldt"We Help Women Through Pregnancy And Beyond So They Can Live Active, Confident And Healthy Lives To Prevent Surgery And The Need For Medications." Archives
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