How to discover your Primal Pelvic Floor!!!

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In flight to Paleo f(x) in Austin, watching Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 
Did I tell you guys that I met Sam Rockwell last year in the Atlanta airport on my way home from RKC?

Gosh, could that dude be any cooler!

I didn't know he was making this movie, but I wish to God that I had, because I would have pumped him for as much info as I could. 
My hubs and I are big Martin McDonough fans and loved In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths.

Anyways, watching a film in peace is NOT something that happens to me often. 
The turbulence of the plane's got NOTHING on three boys under 8...so my brain was EASILY able to watch the movie and think about my time in Austin. 

I'm sitting there thinking about the Paleo f(x) presentations I want to catch, the new food products I'm going to try, the people I’m looking forward to visiting  and suddenly realizing there needs to be more talk at this conference about the primal pelvic floor. 

In the Paleo world, you hear about primal foods, primal movement, primal cooking, foraging, love-making…but what about the primal pelvic floor? 

Ok, so maybe nobody really cares about that right now, but hopefully by the end of this article, YOU will care and you will want to embark on a hunt to discover yours. 

Why?
Because a healthy pelvis is going to help you move better, experience less pain, have less anxiety about leakage or bathroom habits or even sexual performance. 

It’s going to make you stronger, fitter, and more confident. 

Really, WHO WOULDN’T WANT A PRIMAL PELVIC FLOOR?

So let's do this!

To kick it off, let’s define the word “primal” , because to so many of us it’s synonymous with “cave-man”, “wild”, ‘animal-like” or “paleo”, but the word “primal” ACTUALLY means essential; fundamental.

If something is primal then it’s necessary, of central importance. 

Well if that doesn’t describe the pelvic floor, then I don’t know what does?!

The pelvic floor (PF) is a group of muscles, ligaments and fascia that form this basket of support at the bottom of your trunk/core. It provides structural integrity to the body.

If you think of the body as a canister that contains most of your essential organs with appendages and a head attached, the pelvic floor is the bottom of that canister, the foundation of your body. (What about the feet? Well if you know anything about structural design, and I know VERY little, in this analogy the feet would be the “footers”. Appropriate, right?).

We all know what happens when the foundation of ANYTHING is compromised….it caves, implodes, loses structural integrity, quality, longevity, value, strength and function. 

One of the most fundamental requirements for a strong, optimally functioning body is a healthy base, therefore a healthy pelvic floor is by definition, primal. 

But how do we get one, or maybe the question is really, why don’t we all have one already?

In a word, modernity.

To get an optimally conditioned pelvic floor, we have to fight back against modern (no-) movement culture and sedentary tendencies. 

We have to resist the urge to solely think of the body in terms of “fat” or “lean”, “healthy” or “unhealthy” and adopt a systems-thinking approach that allows us to see the body and all it’s parts as systems that need to be functioning fairly well AND most importantly, as a team. 

Because pelvic floor problems are becoming more of a problem for all people and it’s a problem of systems that don’t coordinate well and these out of sync systems compromise the quality of the larger system, the body. 

We see 74% of moms of all ages experiencing some degree of pelvic floor dysfunction (leakage, pelvic/hip/low back/ pain, pain during intercourse, chronic constipation, and pelvic organ prolapse), BUT we also see non-parous women and men struggling with pelvic floor issues as well. 

And EVEN if they aren’t displaying symptoms of dysfunction YET, all you have to do is sit in an airport for an hour and watch people’s pelvis (like a creep) and you can see that we have a MAJOR problem on our hands. 

Manchester-Bedford Musculoskeletal

People are living their lives postures that is weakening their entire body, including the pelvic floor and THIS is causing them chronic pain and setting so many on the path to surgery. 

Many of these folks with tilted pelvises, flared ribs, compromised shoulder joints, compressed spines, jacked up hips, bad knees and tight hamstrings are trying to or wanting to hit the gym and get healthy, not realizing that building muscle and adding load to these structurally unsafe bodies is akin to trying to add another floor to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

Not. Kablamo. 

And so naturally they quit exercise and movement (if they can ever even start in the first place) and life a life of inactivity.

They start saying things like, “I have a bad back.” “I can’t lift heavy things” and “I need to do more yoga.”

Their lack of movement increases their body’s stress and negatively impacts mood and health.

They gain weight.

Why?

Because their body isn’t working in the way that it should, in the way that it used to before sitting and lack of movement taught their body poor movement patterns.

Because their pelvis is in poor condition. 

Because they don’t have a Primal Pelvic Floor!!!

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Ok so just to summarize what we’ve covered thus far. 

1. A well-positioned pelvis makes for a functioning pelvic floor is, which is essential for a healthy body

2. A chronically tilted pelvis is going to negatively impact movement and quality of life, and will eventually cause injury.

3. Modern sedentary culture has us unfamiliar with movement and therefore in bad alignment that leads muscle imbalances and a life of chronic pain

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So what to do?? How do we discover our primal pelvises and pelvic floors?

We can begin to do so in three easy steps!

***Just a quick disclaimer here that IF you already have pelvic floor dysfunction, you are probably going to need more individualized programming and cues than what is listed here. 

This list is for people that have little to-no pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms, currently.

Step 1. Retrain the breath.  

As you can see in the photo above, the core of the body is a canister with the top being the diaphragm and the bottom the pelvic floor. 

When you inhale, the diaphragm lowers, the rib cage expands and the pelvic floor RELAXES downward.  When you exhale, the diaphragm rises, the rib cages deflates and the pelvic floor contracts (lifts). 

It’s a subtle sensation, but for many of us, we don’t even know that our breath, core and pelvic floor should all coordinate, much less HOW TO DO IT! 

How did we get here? That’s a whole other long story, but lack of regular movement or too much strictly cardio (heavy breathing) and belly sucking (you know, when you suck in your tummy to make it look less squishy) can train us to be shallow chest-breathers that never get a full breath and therefore never active our pelvic floors. 

These habits can cause some people to adopt a reverse pattern where they inhale and tighten their pelvic floor OR the position of the pelvis causes the pelvic floor to remain chronically tight no matter the breath. If you have tailbone, hip pain, trouble eliminating waste, pain during sex, premature ejaculation, or pelvic pain in general, then this might be yoU!

********Your homework!!
Begin to notice your own breathing pattern and start to practice deeper inhales and exhales WITH pelvic floor coordination. 

See if you can feel it? 

Here is a video to guide you!

Practice head on over to read Part 2!!! of this Your Primal Pelvic Floor!

Sarah Smith is a trainer, and postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate based in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She specializes in helping women online and in-person feel strong, confident and capable in their bodies!
Her specialties include kettlebells, gut and pelvic floor health optimization , mobility and movement and making fitness fun! 
She's also a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. 
Check her out on social media here or get on her email list!! for more free content!
 

My take on the "no excuses" movement.

Having an interesting discussion in my DM’s this morning with a company that used one woman’s alleged (I say alleged because it’s an ad and we don’t actually know what this individual’s life or body is really like) fitness and training practice during pregnancy as precedent for “no excuses” NOT to train and track nutrition. 

I confronted the company for this message and they maintain that their intention is only to encourage others to not use pregnancy as an excuse to NOT pursue their personal goals.
We had a respectful discourse. 
 

Where I shared my concerns with the messaging. 

They also mentioned that their “on-staff” MD approved this message. 

Ummmmm. What?

First of all, you don’t encourage others to care for their bodies in the way that THEIR bodies require care by setting one individual as the standard for that that looks like. 

I spent my third pregnancy being affected by every image I saw and idea I had created about how fit and pregnant women needed to be. I believed all the messaging that told me that pregnant women are no different than non-pregnant women, they just have a baby in tow and therefore have to be a little stronger. 

I spent my third postpartum experience believing that birth was a minor thing and I needed to get right back to my fitness regimen, “get my body back, ASAP” to feel normal and regain my identify as a “fit mom”.

Where did I get these ideas? I will FULLY admit that a lot of them came from my own pride and need to look and feel a certain way. I didn’t want to lose my strength or ability. I didn’t want to lose individual self in the sea of babies and motherhood, again. 

But this was also the first pregnancy in which I was working in the fitness world. This was the first time I was bombarded by women working their asses off through pregnancy, looking exactly the same way they did pre-pregnancy, except plus a cute bump. And that was shaping my ideas and expectations about MY OWN physique in pregnancy. 

And you know what? I pushed too hard and hurt myself. I hurt my gut, I hurt my pelvic floor and core, I hurt my mind and mood. 

So when I saw this ad last night I thought, “OH HECK NO.” and I confronted them and when they wrote back justifying their post I confronted them again with more information and my strong experienced opinion. 

Because I have women come into my gym every week that need to be reminded that training when pregnant or postpartum has to look different, HECK training even when you’re not pregnant should really look different than what is often most popular if you’re interested in longevity and sustainable results, I get fired up! I encourage my clients to look at what THEY can do TODAY and not to what someone else MIGHT be doing, ESPECIALLY not Fitspo or fitness advertisements for products! 

Because I have rehabbed my own body that was injured by this messaging and the associated pressure that comes with it. Because I help other women rehab their body because they heard messages that told them, “Be like this,” When what they needed was “Look for these signs that your body isn’t responding well,” or “Be aware of these risks____________.”

Because I HATE the idea that women feel like failures in fitness because they don’t look like a stranger that is being set as one of the many standards of what we should all look like. 

My messages with Trifecta:

Why you don't want to use another person as the standard for what YOU should be

"After all that, I'm just ready to be me." -Lauryn Hill

I'm work fitness. 
I help women stretch beyond their comfort zones and grow. 
I help them find time in their days and space in their lives to care for their bodies with movement and training. 
I help them crush goals, change how they feel in their bodies and even change aspects of their physique. 

I do NOT tell them that they have to be like me. 
I do NOT encourage them to look to Pinterest boards and fitness models as inspiration for whom they should become. 

I have an online presence that features me working out, sharing my accomplishments, challenging others to do more in their lives. 
I follow other women that are crushing online. 
I look to them and their accomplishments with admiration. 
I use them to challenge me. 

I work HARD to make sure that I refrain from EMULATING them or believing that I have to do exactly what they are doing to be successful, to be happy. 
 

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You see, I am 100% in opposition of is the idea that we should EVER make another individual human being the standard for what WE SHOULD BE. 

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I spent from age 13 to 19 suffering chronic whiplash from always looking around at what EVERYONE else was doing and using that as a measure of what I needed to be. 

Consequently I had NO direction. 
I felt like a failure and a fraud. 
I pretty much hated my life. 


At 19 years old I had two amazing faculty members at the University of New Hampshire, that changed my life. 
They saw me. 
They saw my talents and my potential for the successful achievement of goals. 
They believed in me. 
They weren't confused about who I was. 
They weren't comparing me to anyone else. 
They weren't telling me to become something else. 
They simply let me know that I was capable and that I could cultivate a life for myself beyond what I was doing now. 
I could do better. 

And never in a "you don't measure up" sort of manner, but in a, "I see you. You got this," sort of way. 

And suddenly I wanted to change EVERYTHING. 
I wanted to invest in myself. 
I wanted to expand my comfort zone and pursue all the things that I wanted out of life. 

I saw fellow students buckling down and succeeding in school and I went after MY OWN version of that. 

I saw my friends enjoying their hobbies and academic pursuits and I wanted to figure out how to do that for myself too!

I took a hard look at the habits, relationships and activities in my life that WERE NOT working and I changed them. 

I took another job. 
I moved. 
I studied like I had NEVER studied before. 
I set goals. 
I wrote them down. 
I changed who I spent time with. 
I found new tasks and activities that actually nourished me. 

My life suddenly looked like no one else's around me and you know what. 
It was good. 

 

“And so now, you know, I understand that it was because I was measuring myself or trying to compare myself to a standard that wasn’t reality. It wasn’t the standard at all, you know. There’s a scripture in the Bible that we, what does it say, it says ‘We compare ourselves amongst ourselves’ you know. That’s not the standard. You already are the standard. What are you trying to fit into a standard for? We were each created to be individual standards, you know. And we’re trying to fit into a standard? It doesn’t make any sense, you know....After all that, I’m just ready to be me.”

— Lauryn Hill, Unplugged

Click the image to listen to and read these lyrics about why we shouldn't compare ourselves to others!!

Of course this took place over a couple of years and while I learned this incredibly important lesson early in life, I have had to re-learn it and grow it and build upon it time and time again. 
BUT the foundation that nineteen year old Sarah Smith laid has FOREVER impacted my life and helped me to stop chasing everyone else and invest in my own life. 


And this is why I feel so passionately about speaking out against the MANY messages in fitness, social media and popular culture that tell you, 
"Be this_______[insert snapshot of popular, fit, successful person]."

Especially for pre and postnatal women, women struggling with their body image, confidence, self respect and a sense of place in this world. 
Because when we are in theses states we are vulnerable. 
We can be more susceptible to harmful messaging. 
We can do ourselves harm chasing standards set for us by the culture EVEN when we don't know that we are doing it. 


That nineteen year old young woman that was affected by what everyone else around her was doing, she came out again during my third pregnancy and postpartum period. 


I found myself being affected by what fitness culture was telling me pregnant and early postpartum women should be doing, looking like, be capable of. 

I didn't even know that I was doing it!

I was working my ass off. 
Training, lifting, chasing kiddos, not always eating enough, exhausted, a little fried...

Why?
Because I thought that's what you did. 

And then I injured my body. 


The good thing about my injury is that it taught me that I could no longer copy what anyone else was doing. 

NO one readily accessible to me rehabbing pelvic floor dysfunction, diastasis recti, pelvic organ prolapse AND training with kettlebells. 

I had to look to my own body. 
I had to pay attention to my own life. 
I had to work around my own restrictions and capitalize on my own strength.  
Once again I had to stop using what others were doing as my meter stick for success and fitness. 

And it was good!
I now am SUPER outspoken about the fact that pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse and other injuries shouldn't stop you from living your life and crushing your goals. 

But I the way that I train and the messages that I share are always based on the idea that we need to learn what works for us as individuals. 
We need to challenge ourselves to grow. 
But trying to keep up with other people and do exactly what they are doing is both an empty, dangerous and unsatisfying pursuit. 

At the end of the day, we are 100% responsible for shifting our focus and our mindset from looking to other people to learn "What we should be."

But I also know how impactful it was to have two very successful intelligent people in my life say, "I see you. You can do more. Dig in and grow. "

And so that's what I do with my coaching and my online community. 

I see you. 
You can do it!
It doesn't have to look like what anyone else is doing to be good, valuable...to be a success.