7 secret exercises for busy women

30th October 20217th October 20221 Comment

New Mum, Grandma or simply a busy life? It’s not always easy to fit formal exercise in. Here’s a list of 7 secret exercises for busy women. Anywhere, anytime gems that don’t look or feel like exercises – but will help maintain YOU!

Try these #7 secret exercises for busy women!

#1 Stand well: when talking

Can we DO posture? Does that really count as exercise? Absolutely.

In Kenya, the Maasai Warrior are taught from an early age to stand for hours at a time, still and upright. To find this amazing posture they are told to focus on their feet.

Try this:

feet a little apart, pointing straight forward
press the inside edges of the heels towards each other (they don’t actually have to touch)

That’s it. But as you make that small adjustment at your feet, notice the cascade of muscle activity through the rest of your legs and bottom muscles? Feel the gluts and legs come ‘alive’, feel the stretch on the front of the thighs as your pelvis draws back into neutral, notice your lower abdominals activate and the spine straighten? By the time you even get to your head and shoulders you will feel that by getting the feet ‘right’ everything else has drawn into place?

Posture requires effort

You may find that today you can only ‘hold’ this posture 5-10 seconds before feeling tired and fatigued by the effort involved, both physical and mental. That’s ok. That feeling is your muscles working in an endurance hold that they are not used to. But if every time you stand to talk to someone, cuddle a baby, answer the phone, stand in a queue, you practice this posture….just 10 seconds at a time… within a week it will feel far more natural and you will be able to stand, still and grounded, for many minutes at a time.

#2. Sit well: watching TV

Notice your ” tail bone” and “sitting bones” underneath you.

Bring your weight forward to get off your tailbone and on to your sitting bones. Can you feel your weight evenly left and right? Stretch up through every bone of your spine, drop your shoulders back and down, let the top of your head lift towards the ceiling.

Let the seat support you – but if you have a large gap around your waist tuck a small rolled up towel or thin jumper into the gap to hold your spine in it’s natural curve if you are settling in for something epic (current fav in our house is Elementary….see you in 5 seasons….)

#3 Core: in the car

Notice the seat belt where it crosses your lap. It lies exactly over your lower abdominals (transversus abdominis). In a class we often facilitate our awareness of our abs by touching with our finger tips – in the car use the pressure of the seat belt as a natural guide.

Let your abdominals sag against the seat belt on purpose. Now, breathe in fully, let the abdomen swell a little, then as you breathe out, gently draw the lower abdominals towards you. Then hold them gently (just less than 50% of what you could do). And Breathe. Finally, release, letting them sag back onto the belt.

Do this cycle again – draw in as you exhale…but now keep breathing naturally and watch one lamp post go by…watch another go by…let a third go by…then let go. Start a “how-many-can-I-hold-for-lamp-post-challenge”?

#4 Walk: everywhere: fast

Walk fast and you burn a LOT of calories. It’s almost as good as jogging. Try to walk so that you could “speak” but not “chat”.

Head up, lower abs in 20%. Aim for you heel to strike the floor first (so that people can here you coming). This activates your gluts (bottom muscles) for a more intense leg work out. No casual strolling about – make even the shortest walk count.

#5 Pelvic Floor: in a queue

Here’s an exercise to ping your pelvic floor muscles awake in less than 35 seconds. Little and often improves muscle memory, reaction times, and encourages quick muscle growth.

TURN YOUR TOES OUT, LIKE A BALLET DANCER, 5 squeezes of the back passage area
THEN TURN YOUR TOES IN, LIKE A PIGEON, 5 ‘lift and squeeze’ of the bladder tube area
TURN YOUR TOES NORMAL, both areas together

#6 Balance practice: cleaning your teeth

Balance is a skill you have to train seperately to being “fit”.

Stand on one leg, pull up out of your waist, feel the bottom muscles working to hold you. Notice the strength and stability in your ankle. Progess by closing your eyes!

#7 Be Mindful: with friends and family

Mindfulness is quite simply the practice of being in the now. You formally practice it in yoga and pilates classes. Did you know you can also be mindful in any situation, even complex ones, out on a walk, driving, even cooking. Or to mentally “step back” in the middle of a social event.

Let yourself be completely present so that your mind is in a physiological state of rest but not asleep. Allow your thoughts come and go but you are not remembering, not planning, not analysing or deciding. Rather, sensing, noticing, appreciating….

Yes, even with visiting family….

Author: Amanda Savage MCSP, MSt (Cantab), Specialist Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapist

Content Disclaimer:

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of my blogposts, articles and my videos are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of if you are not a face to face client of mine. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. Amanda Savage disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article, blog or video.

How much should you hold your pelvic floor muscles during the day?

30th October 20217th October 2022Leave a comment

How much should you hold your pelvic floor muscles during everyday activitites?

Are you supposed to think about them?

Or should you just let them do their own thing?

First it depends if you are a naturally tense or relaxed person? Then to consider whether they have fully recovered after childbirth? They should work on ‘automatic pilot’ going up and down through a variety of gears. But you might need to re-train that skill.

MIght your pelvic floor muscles be just wafting about?

Do your pelvic floor and tummy abdominal muscles support your internal organs and your back as you go about your day? Or might they have a tendency to droop when you aren’t paying them attention? Might you have a pelvic floor with a tendency to “waft about”??

Its probably the most common thing I point out to mums in clinic. Even if you have been religious about using Squeezy App and doing your daily pelvic floor targeted exercises. You may have one more step to go. Making sure that your pelvic floor joins in more when you do more and knows how to relax when you relax.

Should you hold your pelvic floor muscles up ALL DAY ?!?!

Yes…. and ….No. Just like your abdominals and all the other muscles of your body your pelvic floor is not a one gear, one trick pony.

We have moved on from the concept of “on” or “off”.

We realise now that your brain needs to decide at any given moment how much muscle activity is “enough” for the task you want to do. A well trained and exercised pelvic floor can automatically choose to be completely relaxed, fully sharp and contracted, with plenty of medium level options in between.

What is Your Resting Tone?

This is the amount of activity your muscles have at rest. Where they sit naturally when you are not thinking about them.

Untrained muscles, or muscles after childbirth or an episode of injury, can have terribly low resting tone.

leopard too little pelvic floor muscle activity

To be fair – I think this mama is asleep – but how many of us look like this when sat on the sofa (#GBBO)??

Too Little Tone:

…leaves us “hanging” off our ligaments with a tendency to overstretch joints and muscles into saggy patterns. This has obvious cosmetic fallout. Also you will have difficult stabilising movement (getting weird joint clicks and clunks), or be vulnerable to injury. Untoned muscles are responsible for issues like incontinence, bladder urgency, difficulty emptying bowels and pelvic organ prolapse.

squirrel too much pelvic floor muscle activity

Or do you relate more to this Mum – fired up & alert, all the time ??

Too High Tone:

…has you perched on the edge of your seat, tense glutes, shoulders up, neck muscles tight like guitar strings – leading to neck pain, shoulder aches and pelvic pain. Sometimes also responsibe for incontinence, urgency and difficulty emptying bowels too. I know seems weird! But too MUCH pelvic floor tone can be a problem as well as too little!

Video: grading pelvic floor control in standing, carrying, reaching and JUMPING!

Today’s video was made last year, in collaboration with Tena. This is part of a series teaching pelvic floor from basics to more advanced. A Pelvic Floor Exercises 101!

Find the whole Pelvic Floor 101 sequence here.

In this video, experiment with me and the lovely models as we explore finding our pelvic floors and controlling how much they work – even as we move handweights and try a bit of stretching & leaping too. It takes practice to improve your “automatic pilot” function for every day life.

https://youtu.be/kPdIILv_7fg

So Mama’s. Pelvic Floor Muscles for Real Life. No pelvic floors just wafting about! Practice standing up. Add some hand weights. Stretching.

And if you want to get back to running or that trampoline you gotta practice JUMPING too!!

Author: Amanda Savage, MCSP MSt (Cantab). Specialist Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapist

Content Disclaimer:

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of my blogposts, articles and my videos are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents if you are not a face to face client of mine. Professional advice should be obtained before taking, or refraining from taking, any action as a result of the contents of this article. Amanda Savage disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article or video.

How to improve pelvic floor control by simply breathing

14th May 202114th October 20221 Comment

Do you wonder what BREATHING has to do with bladder control, prolapse support or vaginal or anal pain?

Physios are not going woo-woo

It’s rather because clinical research & our understanding of the body has deepened, so pelvic floor exercises exercises are evolving. It’s no longer one size fits all.

There’s a good place for the traditional squeezes, lifts and holds, but some mums need to focus their attention more on the “let go”, relaxing and releasing of their muscles.

Pelvic floor relaxation is a thing

Previously exercises were very linear. Squeeze ON, release/turn off. Our focus was on what our muscles needed to be able to DO in an emergency situation – when we cough, sneeze, pick up something heavy. This is not wrong. If you struggle with stress incontinence (leaks when there is high pressure on the bladder) then the best thing you can learn is The Knack of getting the pelvic floor to co-ordinate with perfect timing.

However, we now know how our muscles should be doing when we are not thinking about them. The resting pattern of your muscles has an impact on common problems like urgency, bladder frequency, vaginal heaviness and pelvic pain.

#1 New thing we know

Firstly, our breathing pattern and our pelvic floor muscle movement pattern are similar and interconnected. Breathing is easier to understand, feel and control than the hidden away pelvic floor. So if you want to better connect to your pelvic floor – start by noticing how you breathe.

#2 Weird thing to notice

However, most of the day we don’t think about our breathing AT ALL. You wouldn’t have been thinking about yours a few minutes ago until I brought the topic up. Your brain operates your breathing system all day, all night, 24/7 without any conscious input from you. A gentle in and out, muscles contracting and releasing, a continuum of movement like a swinging pendulum, you are only completely full of air or completely released for a moment in time.

#3 Amazing thing we can do

Yet, you can also have incredible control over this system. For example, you could take a deep breath right now to blow out an imaginary candle; you could whistle a little tune; you could shout (or yodel) or pant like a dog. With training, you could develop sophisticated breath control as well – as a singer, long distance runner, athlete, deep sea diver, bird impressionist. Did you know that you need enormous breath control to accurately shoot a pistol or throw a dart?

And then, when you stop panting or wolf-whistling or humming a ditty, your brain just automatically puts you back into gentle breathing mode, no questions asked. A-MAZ-ING.

a panther demo's pelvic floor relaxation

#4 Pelvic floor muscles should be super-skilled too

We want our pelvic floor muscles to have similar super powers. When we are NOT thinking about them we want them to gently (gently!) contract and relax, very low key, very little. Just enough to keep blood flowing through them, to nourish their feeder nerves. We want movement to keep the tissues stretchy and flexible. We want to be on standby for whatever we decide to do next.

Then, when you decide to pick up your toddler or dash up the stairs, we need them to move up a gear or two to help carry that load from below, preventing pelvic organ descent or a sudden urge to wee.

Similarly, if you want to push shut a heavy door, or hit a tennis serve, or do one of your room shattering sneezes, we want them to go into full tension mode to prevent leaks. And most important of all, if you want to empty your bladder or bowel, or get sexy with your partner you want them to relax and release to allow things out or in.

#5 Best thing to work on

In contrast, if your muscles are always tense they become “crampy” with painful sensations associated with a build up of lactic acid or the soreness to be touched or if stretched. Then if your muscles are always “in gear” you can’t choose to have “more” or “less” for the activity you are doing.

So take moments through the day to tune in to your breathing and from there to your pelvic floor muscles. Find time to reset your background, automatic, movement pattern to line yourself up for a day with super-powers.

Video: How to improve pelvic floor control by simply breathing

https://youtu.be/k8V5NTkAEmM

Firstly, tune into your breathing pattern. Feel your rib cage lift and raise as you breathe in, drop and shrink as you breathe out. Play with it. Breathe deep, blow out an imaginary candle. Do this a couple of times. Then stop. Can you feel your body revert to your base breathing pattern?

Then, notice how your BELLY breathes. Yes it does!! Drop your hands to abdomen. Channel your inner frog. Notice that your belly mimics your breath. As you breathe in your belly lifts as you breathe out it falls.

Finally, lower your consciousness to your pelvic floor. It is the lowest moving set of muscles. Can you feel how these move to, in time with your breathing, ever so gently contracting & letting go. Or gathering & releasing, or lifting & lowering – whichever words work best for you.

Have you improved your pelvic floor skills by practicing breathing? Please let me know if this video and explanation was helpful and how you are getting on?

Bladder leaks when running? 6 discreet ways to keep dry and avoid a VPL

27th August 201928th January 20231 Comment

What do you do if you worry about bladder leaks when running? Or at the gym, your exercise class, or playing with your children ?? Mums I meet in clinic tell me that they are avoiding events that require them to look “sporty”. They worry about a VPL if they wear normal figure hugging gym kit. They don’t want to stand out in a baggy tracksuit trying to hide a pair of substantive knickers with a pad. Heaven forbid a party or wedding?

Tips to manage bladder leaks when running or active:

this article contains some affiliate links marked*.

#1. Use a pad designed for bladder leakage not menstruation

Sanitary pads and incontinence pads are not made of the same thing.

The products designed to be used for menstruation are great for that purpose but do not to cope well with liquid. As they are predominantly cottonwool based, if they get wet, they just go soggy and mis-shapen. If you are moving about they can get scrunched up, rub and leave your skin in contact with urine causing chafing and soreness.

The right pads for the task are worth the little bit of extra cost. With the advent of new technology you will be amazed how slim a proper bladder leakage pad can be to hold a large amount of liquid. They also use fabrics that can wick fluid away from the surface. This keeps damp away from your skin and reduces your worries about odour.

Some of the main UK brands are Tena, Always, Poise and Boots Staydry range. All will send you free samples from their websites.

Smaller brands Natracare and Cottons aim to use environmentally friendly materials and avoid the use of parabens and bleaching processes.

The products are usually in the same ‘feminine hygiene’ aisle (or website section of an online store) but separated into one column of shelves for products for periods and one for bladder leakage.

The most common indicator is a row of variously filled ‘drip’ or circle symbols to indicate the level of leakage you wish to contain.

Tip: In general, pads for ‘lighter’ bladder leakage look and feel like pantyliners and come in boxes to keep them flat and compact. This makes a good starting point if you are looking for something to keep you confident and safe against a small leak.

but if you need more than a light pad

If you suffer with more severe leakage and could potentially empty half your bladder, or would risk getting wet clothes, then look at the pads in bags which will be more absorbent or disposable pants (see #3).

#2 Disposable Pants

No one really believes that these look like “normal” knickers. However, their big advantage is the all-around cover, front, back and sideways. For an activity involving lots of changes of direction and position (aerobics, yoga, kids tumbling) they will give the most protection against bigger leaks.

Put your biggest PE pants over the top to hide them at your waist line.

However, if you are getting this wet when you play sport your priority should be to solve the bladder problem further. Talk to your physio about what they recommend for you.

#3 Knickers with inbuilt protection

We are so lucky to be in the era of textile research and design and I am delighted to see this being applied to underwear.

Good for the environment. Great if you are usually fine but like to know you have back up. Possibly more discreet if you need a thicker pad than a liner.

Disadvantage – once they are wet you need to change the whole knicker. However, ideal for things like the gym – if you get bladder leaks when running on the treadmill or other higher impact classes. Strip off in the changing room and no worry to dispose of a pad.

Note: a couple of clients who have tried this option swear they will never wear pads again, certain that the pad itself was irritating their vulva and making their incontinence worse.

Sainsbury's Love Luna for bladder leaks — Sainsbury’s Love Luna

Giggle Knickers for bladder leakage — Sainsbury’s Love Luna

Wearever washable incontinence pants knickers — Wearever

Jude incontinence underwear range — Wearever

#4 A subtle cover-up with skorts and skirts

It started with school uniform but now we can all wear skorts! Perfect for just hiding a good pair of pants with a pad and getting on with whatever you wanted to do. No one will even notice if you are wearing a pad or have a bladder leak when you’re running.

£20-£80. Offered by sports brands Decathalon, Salomon, Reebok and fashion brands too:

Skort from Sherpa Adventure Gear — Sherpa Adventure Gear

Gym + Coffee smart black skort — Sherpa Adventure Gear

#5 Add extra support to your core from the outside

Maybe not so much worried about leaks? More that your entire lower half moves about too much? Or that exercise is straining and fatiguing your pelvic floor and core muscles. Have a look at EVB Sports Shorts* if you feel just generally ‘unsupported’ at the moment. Specially designed to add effective uplift to both the pelvic floor and abdomen. Full detail in the blog post: Are EVB Sports Shorts an active Mum’s best friend?

these shorts support your abdomen and pelvic floor for running — Engineered by an Irish Mum/runner

EVB Sports shorts help bladder leaks when running — Engineered by an Irish Mum/runner

# 6 Add extra support to your bladder from the inside

The options have recently expanded for devices that aim to give support to your bladder from inside the vagina. Can be an ideal strategy to stop bladder leaks when running. Often called pessaries. The devices/brands you may see advertised include Contrelle, Efemia, Contiform (all available on prescription) and Uresta. The devices increase in price, partly reflecting the number of times that they can be re-used. From single day use only, to monthly, to reuseable for a year.

picture of Contrelle Activgard - back on the market - great single use to stop bladder leaks when running — Contrelle

efemia bladder support device is soft and effective at stopping bladder leaks when running — Contrelle

picture of Contiform to remove bladder leaks when running — Contiform

picture of uresta to reduce bladder leaks when running — Contiform

These work particularly well where you or your physiotherapist feel that the bladder has dropped only a little bit (prolapse of the anterior wall/cystocele). Yet everything else inside (particularly the uterus) is still well supported. You both feel you have created a good layer of muscles through exercise. But could you do with a bit more support when you are trying to be more active?

More detail about their similarities and differences in the post: Bladder Support Pessaires for Stress Urinary Incontinence: how do they work?

Before you go…a promise?

……that you will not use these ideas to make you complacent about a leakage problem. Nor as an excuse to avoid the issue of your bladder for another 3 months!

Incontinence might be “common” (45% of women report bladder leakage at 3 months after birth, even 10% of those after Caesarean) … but it is never “normal”.
Incontinence is also a sign of lack of pelvic floor support. You may need to consider how pelvic floor friendly your sport is (ummm….trampolining….)?? Or you may need to modify activities to protect yourself from risk of pelvic organ prolapse.

DO use these stop-gap options to get comfy, happier and more active NOW. But please, please commit to doing something about your pelvic floor muscles. Book an appointment with you GP to get a referral to a Specialist Physiotherapist for full assessment, support and advice. You can be much better than you are right now.

What are your tried and tested tips to reduce bladder leaks when running? Please share your experiences with other mums in our comments section below. Your story will inspire others.

#beyouroptiMUM #pantsnotpads #NoMoreMiserableMums

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Category: Wellbeing in Menopause