Core and Floor PT Journey

Before I list out some of the exercises my PT has me doing, I want to call your attention to phenomenal Olympic skier, Mikaela Shiffrin. Watch her core as she skis--it's a solid unit! So much control.  Mikaela Shiffrin in Time Magazine, 2023 One of the benefits of physical therapy is that the physical therapist is like a personal trainer. (With the increase in co-payment prices, it probably costs about the same!) The PT instructs, guides, and motivates you. Below are the exercises I can remember at this time and instructions. Note that these all have some variations.  Mountain climbers  (This video shows them at a fast and continuous pace. I did mine one at a time, kind of jumping one leg forward, then back. If you've ever practiced popping up for surfing, it's kind of like that, only with one leg at a time. I brought my legs out, too, not under my torso. These really got my heart beating!) Side plank variations--super strong Mikaela again  Inner-thigh leg lifts (do ...

Lots of excuses, no good reasons why I haven't posted in months. This one is about problems with belly breathing and has been in my brain for a while, so I'm happy to get it down now. As I mentioned before, I have been a belly breather pretty much my whole life. This is probably because I sort of overdid or misunderstood using my diaphragm for singing. (I'm still figuring this out.) I've been singing in choirs since I was 10. When you watch me sing, you see a very active belly! That was particularly amusing when I had big pregnant bellies. I thought my belly breathing was a good thing! I don't make weird wheezing sounds or take shallow breaths like I've heard from other people. My lungs recovered well after a life-threatening illness. So learning how belly breathing is problematic for one's core and pelvic floor has been eye-opening. Think of it like this: when breathing with our bellies, we're inflating a balloon that then pushes outward everywhere, inc...

I did my previously assigned exercises 5 out of the 7 days over the past week. The glute one is pretty easy, but I wasn't sure about the ab one. I asked my PT today whether I was doing the ab one correctly, and she said to focus on the lower quadrants. She adjusted the exercise so that I'm not so much pulling back from my hand but using the inner, lower ab muscle (the transverse abdominus  or TA) to tilt my pelvis forward. To do the movement, I lie on my back with knees bent. Then I gently and slowly "tilt" my pelvis forward. The small of my back gets closer to the ground. I put "tilt" in quotation marks because a full-on pelvic tilt uses other muscles, too. The idea here is to activate the lower, inner muscle (the TA).  If you've ever done Pilates, you know how difficult it can be to activate the transverse abdominus! Why is such an important muscle hard to use? I suppose it's due to our modern-day lifestyles with too much sitting. I was having a to...

My second assigned exercise is for the glutes --specifically, the gluteus minimus.  The gluteal muscles are important for core stability. This is also something I just learned!  The movements I'm to do are side leg lifts but with my legs bent. I lay on one side, bend my legs, and lift the top knee slowly up and down. I keep my ankle down but don't completely rest it on my other foot. Repeat a few times, then do the other side. Sometimes, I do another set. But this is key to the exercise: first, I need to roll forward almost as far as I can. It's almost like I'm laying half on my side and half on my belly. By rolling forward, the leg lifts target the glutes. If I don't roll forward and stay on my side, then the leg lift targets the hip flexors (many of the muscles in the front view).  (Same link as within the text above.) https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/physical-medicine-rehabilitation/news/got-glutes-part-1-the-role-of-the-gluteus-maximus-and-health...

My first exercise assignment to strengthen my core involves focusing on four abdominal quadrants. Two sections are above the belly button, two below.  Abdominal quadrants   I hold my hand on a quadrant and then attempt to pull that part of my body down and away from my hand into the floor. I move my hand from quadrant to quadrant and take a few seconds for each pull--slowly down, slowly up. My torso sometimes ends up twisting ever so slightly to push down each part of my belly. I am to do a few rounds of these every day. Remember to keep breathing throughout these sorts of exercises! Many of us have a tendency to hold our breath when activating muscles. 

Sore and shocked . That’s how my first physical therapy appointment left me. I went today for pelvic floor trouble. Since I had my babies, over a dozen years ago now, my cervix has prolapsed. I’m prone to sudden pain if I sit down wrong. Tampons don’t go in the same as pre-pregnancy. Intercourse needs adjusting at times. Fortunately, since the cervix moves up and down during the menstrual cycle, I don’t have to deal with it showing itself down there 100% of the time. Also fortunately, I don’t have to deal with incontinence. But with the increasing discomfort and worry about how much worse things would get, I finally took up my primary care provider’s offer to refer me for pelvic floor therapy. Leading up to the appointment, I had my doubts that anything  could be done. More kegels? More squats? Nothing? So I was shocked when the therapist told me that not only could plenty be done, but that we were starting with my core and glutes. What?! I know I need to mind my posture, but I ge...