Castor oil packs can help clear your skin because they address the root causes of hormonal acne.
Read moreExercise for prolapse
Strength training is ABSOLUTELY the way forward for anyone with prolapse.
We are told to fear movement and avoid it, but as someone that has CONQUERED prolapse and helped hundreds of other women do the same, I can tell you with absolute certainty, you need to strength train to beat this.
The question is HOW?
There are three requirements to using strength training to heal prolapse.
You MUST:
Harness the power of the breath-your breath is your core stability system and if you don't use it properly, your weak core will result in your pushing DOWN on your pelvic organs and OUT on your Diastasis recti.
Make room in the thorax. Without sufficient room in the thorax for expansion in movement and breath, we are left shoving too much pressure into the pelvic cavity, worsening existing prolapse. To get the LIFT you need, you have to make SPACE in the compartment above your pelvis, i.e. your thorax.
Stop trying to shed fat and instead learn how to build your body.
Chasing the same old exercise methods and mindsets is part of what got you into this mess. If you want to overcome prolapse, then you have to ditch the diet and weightless mentalities and focus on BUILDING a stronger, better functioning body.
Yes, that can and will involve leaning out, but in a holistic and health-promoting way. The binging, over-doing it approach to exercise results in women increasing their prolapse symptoms and sitting on the bench. The sitting out on the bench waiting for a miracle or surgery to fix everything doesn’t work either. If you want the confident and competent body of someone that is in shape, then you’ll have to try a new way that honors BETTER movement patterns, MUSCLE growth, REST and RECOVERY.
Using squats
to beat prolapse is just ONE way we strengthen the pelvic floor, quads and glutes!
If you’re ready to try a NEW thing, then it’s time for you to join Hold Up™ and conquer your prolapse!
In this program you will learn how to:
Exercise with and to combat prolapse for physique changes and feeling amazing in your body
Recover and restore after training
Change your mindset around your body, injury and exercise
Detox your liver for balanced hormones-this plays a role in your prolapse!
Improve your gut health-essential for better pelvic tissue, routine pooping and reduced pressure in the abdomen and pelvis
And SO MUCH MORE!
Use the code SQUATS for 15% off when you sign up TODAY!
Monthly payment options available.
Heal your prolapse
Exercise, education and the essentials for overcoming prolapse!
Trusting your body again after prolapse!
Pelvic organ prolapse is a nasty shock and will cause you to question everything you THOUGHT you knew about health and fitness while also encouraging hatred of your body.
If you don’t know me, I'm Sarah Smith, mom of three, physical and spiritual strength coach, pelvic floor specialist and PROLAPSE CONQUEROR!
I'm here to tell you with this short video series that TRUSTING your body again IS the way to conquer prolapse, BUT there's a method to earning that trust and I'm sharing my tried and true, three step process for TRUSTING your body again after prolapse!
This is Part 1 in a three part video series on how to trust your body again after being diagnosed with prolapse.
Start with Video 1 below!
To enroll in Better Than Kegels, and learn how to jumpstart your prolapse recovery training, click here!
You've been misled about prolapse. It's not a pelvic floor problem.
It’s not a pelvic floor problem.
Strengthening your pelvic floor, doing all the kegels and even having surgery isn’t going to fix your prolapse.
Why?
Because there are THREE root causes of prolapse
Three causes that will NOT be corrected by surgery.
And the important thing about these three causes is that addressing them will not only allow you to conquer prolapse, BUT will help you to address the other health issues you have as well.
I have helped thousands of women over-come their pelvic floor problems and I can tell you with certainty, I have never worked with a woman that has prolapse doesn’t ALSO have one or more of the following conditions:
Adrenal fatigue
Anxiety
Bloating and cramping after meals
Constipation
Chronic back, sacral, hip or pelvic pain
Diastasis recti
Digestives distress
Difficulty sleeping
Food intolerances
Frequent yeast or urinary tract infections
Hemorrhoids
Hormonal imbalances
Mouth breathing
Neck and shoulder tension
Poor posture
Routine injury
Short fuse
Sagging middle “mummy tummy”-my clients’ term not mine
Thyroid problems
Are these issues related to prolapse?
ABSOLUTELY.
And the beauty of it is that WHEN you address your prolapse in a holistic manner that targets the root causes behind the sinking of your organs, you will not ONLY conquer your prolapse, but you will make your body and mind stronger, healthier and more resilient than it has ever been before!
I’m here to tell you about the THREE root causes behind your prolapse or as I like to call them, the “Three M’s”.
Master the three M’s and NOT only will you conquer your prolapse, but you’ll be stronger, more balanced, vibrant and resilient too!
If you want to learn the THREE ROOT CAUSES of prolapse, take my FREE webinar now!
Is your prolapse a depletion problem?
We all know that prolapse is associated with “weak” pelvic floors.
Most of you here have tried all the kegels.
Many of you have tried *breathing.
Some of you may have even worked on your **biomechanics/movement patterns in daily life and exercise.
If you HAVEN’T tried the ** strategies above those are HUGE rocks for overcoming prolapse, so file that away, we will come back to that!
But NOT many people know that prolapse is in fact a depletion issues.
When our bodies are lacking in energy, nourishment, emotional support and healing, they sink.
Yep they 100% do.
In fact, the Chinese, who have been treating prolapse since the Jin dynasty (266 AD to 420 AD) so I think they know a thing or two about it, focus PRIMARILY on treating spleen chi depletion in the body when prolapse symptoms arise.
They believe that a lifting of the energy lifts the organs and treats the underlying cause of the sinking of which we feel the musckoskeletal consequences.
And while that may sound a little “woowoo” to you, think about it.
Do your prolapse symptoms increase when you feel down, depressed, anxious, heavy from the world, slouch and sad?
I know mine does!
And so let’s talk a little bit more about the indicators that YOUR prolapse is an energy issue and NOT just a muscular one, i.e. you are struggling with depletion!
#1. You don’t sleep well.
If you’re sleeping less than 8 hours a night OR you sleep 8-9 hours a night but its disrupted, then that sleep deprivation could be contributing to your sinking feelings in your pelvic organs.
When we are well rested we are better able to detox appropriately, digest foods, repair tissues, recover from workouts etc., but we also carry our bodies differently.
We have a lifted spirit and a lifted body!
#2. You feel like you’re going to crash late afternoon OR after a workout.
Feeling SUPER low energy in the afternoon especially after a workout is an indicator that your adrenals are struggling.
Your adrenal glands are located at your kidneys and when they are not happy it can be an indicator of poor kidney health, maybe not the kind that sends you to the doctor with urinary issues, but the kind that causes an increase in prolapse problems, including incontinence.
MANY of us type A ladies grow accustomed to using adrenaline to get things done in our lives.
You know that urge to start a new project, solve someone else’s problems, do a hard workout, add more stress to our lives because when we are busy we are more productive?
Yeah, that’s bad for your prolapse-and can also cause over-tightening of the pelvic floor which is not uncommon in women with prolapse!
Spleen chi deficiency and kidney chi deficiency are two forms of energy depletion arising in the body that will absolutely manifest in prolapse issues.
We push, push, push on our bodies and even though many of us have heard about “adrenal fatigue” we don’t really
#3 You have skin and food intolerance issues.
Yes, this is linked to gut health, but if you’ve read my articles here then you know that gut health and pelvic health are 100% linked, like if you struggle with one, you most likely struggle with the other.
But in this case I would say that your liver is the kingpin for issues.
A congested liver makes it difficult for the body to remove toxins and expired hormones.
The result?
Bad skin. Bad gut. Bad hormones. Bad feelings.
Spleen chi is directly impacted by the liver as well so if your liver in working overtime either because your 1. disrupted sleep interrupts your detox cycles, 2. your stress prevents adequate digestions which creates toxicity in the body OR 3. because your life style leads to intestinal permeability (over-exercising, consuming toxins, under-resting), your prolapse is a depletion issue.
#4 You have a short fuse.
Maybe not all of the time, but if often you find yourself snapping at your kids or hubs, losing it when a glass get’s broken or just feeling so much stress and tension in your body when something goes wrong, that can be a sign you’re emotionally and energetically deplete!
You may feel that perhaps your frustrations with your body are causing you to be ill at ease and that if you could just get your body back, you would be calmer and feel more like yourself, but the truth is that a spleen that is struggling, a liver that is congested and a body that is deplete may actually be the source of your issues!
#5 Your hormones are erratic
I don’t care if it’s strong mood swings, sadness, the need to sleep, painful periods, irregular periods, STRONG emotional responses to things at certain times in your cycle, or just other common indicators of hormone imbalances, your hormones acting wacky is a sign of depletion!
When our livers are congested, they become stagnant and negatively impact the health of the spleen, gut and gall bladder.
The energy imbalance that ensues can cause tight jaws, muscle aches, headaches, sciatica and so many other issues, but the important thing to know is that hormonal imbalances almost ALWAYS indicate a liver health issue and a liver health issues means energy in the body is blocked.
Without that energy flow we sink and our organs sink with us.
What to do about it?
One of my FAVORITE aspects about God’s design for the human body is that there are MANY ways to heal, many roads in to the root cause of pain, discomfort and sub-optimal functioning.
If you’ve made it this far in the article and you’ve said, “Yes, this is me,” to any or all of these indicators, then you need SMART programming.
You need more than just kegels and core-training exercises, you need to learn how to STOP sinking!
I have an entire program designed do help women address this issue called, Hold Up!
Hold Up! is a digital course that will help you change the 5 habits behind your prolapse, address the depletion we talked about in this article and teach you how to USE EXERCISE to heal your body and CONQUER PROLAPSE.
***But before you’re ready for that program, I want you to try two things for me!
1. I want you to start practicing breathing with your diaphragm three times per day for 5-10 breaths minimum!
If you don’t know how to do that, please take my FREE digital course.
I will teach you how to breathe in the most effective way possible to start supporting and lifting your body.
What students are saying about my course:
”I feel like I’ve gotten more oxygen in these past 36 hours than I have in my whole life!” -Archi
”Makes so much sense. I have suffered from burning in the bladder for so many years. Tried so many diets, nothing has worked. Using the breath and focusing on relaxing my pelvic floor is the first time anything has worked to relieve the pain and make me regular in the mornings. Thank you Sarah, I’m so glad I have found you.” -Julie
”Single most powerful things I have done in my life!
Thanks to you and 2020 for calming my nervous system.” -Sam
It works and it will get you some early wins to help LIFT your body and support your liver, gut, hormones and nervous system to help you feel less like you’re drowning.
2. I also want you to take Epsom salt baths 3x a week to help detox the body and calm your nervous system.
BONUS points if you practice your breath IN the bath tub!
STAY tuned for Hold Up! coming soon!
In the meantime, tune into Dirty Strength Radio™ for more support, love and free coaching!
I was afraid and paranoid because I was ignorant
When I look back now to my prolapse diagnosis and weird pelvic floor sensations I had after baby #3, I can see now that IGNORANCE was my biggest problem.
I was afraid of my body and what it would do, because I was ignorant, ill-informed...in the dark...clueless.
Everything was,
"Is this gonna make it worse?"
or
"Am I just going to feel this way forever?"
"Do I have to just avoid putting any pressure on my pelvic floor permanently now?"
"Is it too risky to hold my baby?"
"Am I doomed to gain lots of weight and lose my fitness forever?"
"What happens next??!!"
I thought like this because I didn't know better.
I didn't have the information I needed to understand WHAT had happened to my body, WHY it had happened and HOW I could move past it.
The courage I needed to live life again came from EDUCATION that empowered me and got me MOVING AGAIN.
Education helped demystify what the heck was going on with my body and why it wasn't wholly a bad thing, but a SIGN that I needed to change my habits.
Empowerment came from that education and understanding of how my female physiology functioned and how to accept/nurture it to live my life agin!
Movement helped me see that my body still was capable and competent, that I wasn't broken, that pressure in the vagina and organs falling out of my body didn't have to be my new normal....I had options and strategies.
But I can at any moment quickly transport myself BACK to that place of fear when I forget all that I've learned about the pelvic floor, all that I know now about what it does, how to support and strengthen it, how to honor my body.
When I was ignorant, I feared worsening prolapse, I feared surgery, I feared people finding out I had prolapse (I have to laugh at that one since now thousands of people know about it now.)
When I was ignorant, I didn't even understand really where my pelvic organs were, or how posture to poop, lift or vacuum was impacting my symptoms.....or how my Type A personality and rubbish breathing habits had been causing me trouble LONG before babies even came into the picture.
When I was ignorant, I was afraid of all the unknowns because there were OH SO MANY!
Education is the key to moving forward.
It casts out the fear, because it removes ignorance.
Once you're engaged in your body and get what it's doing, you can work WITH it.
You can trust yourself to move and even EXERCISE again.
You can make INFORMED decisions about future pregnancies, physique goals, lifestyle and habits, interventions when necessary.
Kick ignorance to the curb and come and learn ALL ABOUT your pelvic floor, core and female physiology!!!
Your postpartum body and all the new sensations do NOT have to be scary.
In fact, they won't be, once you understand them and have the tools to deal with them.
Conquering your fear and your actual pelvic floor issues starts with getting WOKE about your health.
Ignorance is the enemy.
Wisdom through education is the way forward!
Enroll in Hold Up! and use the code BODYLOVE for a discount today!
Exercise and education
Conquer your prolapse!
Three Damaging Pelvic Floor Rehab Myths
With increased awareness around pelvic floor problems, we are seeing more and more information on social media and even in the mainstream media about solutions to pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and other dysfunctions of the pelvis.
For the most part this is a GREAT thing!
The more commonly discussed the topic, the more likely it is that women will feel less shame and embarrassment around the topic, but also that they will find SOLUTIONS!
But, as is often the case, drifting amongst lots of helpful and positive information is some misleading concepts and myths that will work AGAINST YOU as you try to rehab your pelvic floor.
Let’s check out some of the most popular ones in circulation!
Myth #1 Focus On The Floor!
I LOVE me some pelvic floor talk, but I have concerns. In insisting that the pelvic floor be considered, we have to be mindful of the message we are communicating.
We can’t ignore or forget it’s part of the whole, because...
IT’S PART OF THE WHOLE.
And we have to treat it as such.
•
In my personal experience and my experience working with clients I have observed that truly “strong” pelvic floors are the ones that work well and know their place.
They do their job, and ONLY their job.
They are surrounded and supported by strength.
They know how to relax.
They know when to work and how hard.
•
An anxious body, a dysbiotic microbiome, a pressure management system that is out of sync, or an imbalanced nervous system will all wreak havoc on a pelvic floor no matter how many kegels we do.
Let’s remember to #zoomout and acknowledge that pelvic floors have their own unique jobs that we want them to do well. They are supported and operated by our endocrine, neurological and microbiological (gut) systems, they have to work well with others and they can’t work alone.
Gosh, so much we can learn from these pelvic floors, eh??!!
Myth #2 Pilates and Yoga Are the ONLY Safe Forms of Exercise
For whatever reason, Pilates and gentle yoga have earned the reputation as the safe and ideal forms of exercise for postpartum moms and anyone struggling with prolapse or incontinence.
Like “Do your kegels, and then go do your Pilates and all your problems will resolve!”🤔🙄
If Pilates and yoga are your jam and you can find ways to do them that support your unique rehab process, i.e. they help you re-establish reflexive core stability, breath with the diaphragm, coordinate your PF with your diaphragm and recruit your pelvic floor optimally, then YAY!
But don’t kid yourself in thinking that these modalities are guaranteed to solve all of your pelvic health problems, because they ain’t.
And if you’re like me and you don’t want to be limited to those forms of movement and exercise, that is absolutely ok too!
•
You see, I’m all about that iron, particularly the kettlebell! To me it represents functional whole body strength and they are fun as heck to train with.
Besides that, there are countless exercises you can do with the kettlebell to build your body and support your core and pelvic floor.
Kettlebells come in many different weights, so you control volume and intensity of your movement. And with a handle that lends itself to all sorts of cool carries to help you train not just for sport, but for utility, because, hello, we have to carry stuff! Carrying kids, groceries, even just my body used to increase my POP symptoms, until I started TRAINING how to be strong and manage pressure WITH kettlebells!
•
I’m not saying kettlebells are the End All Be All of fixing your pelvic health problems. They are no more of a panacea than #kegels are.
But they are an incredible tool that when applied well, can re-build strength in movement for clients of ALL ages and fitness capabilities.
And this can be said for MANY other forms of training besides yoga and Pilates.
Let’s stop limiting people to what has been deemed “safe” and let’s find things that inspire and address weaknesses!
Myth #3 Tight and Tense= Strong
We put emphasis on the need for pelvic floors (and vaginas) to be “strong” but many women hear “tight” and “forceful” and so they practice squeezing and contracting.
•••
But the reality is that the optimal heath of the pelvic floor is SO MUCH MORE complex and wonderful than that.
Exclusively focusing on what we perceive to be “strength” can be insufficient for optimizing pelvic health and often times causes harm.
The pelvic floor has jobs to do and a range of motion to move through.
•••
If you define “strength” as the ability to do your assigned job well, then sure, let’s make our pelvic floors STRONG.
BUT if you think a “strong” pelvic floor is one that is tight, lifted, contracted, tense and/or rigid, then read this graphic a few times.
Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural.
She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions.
She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move, in a non-creepy way.
Prolapse symptom increase, WHAT TO DO??!!
Increase in prolapse symptoms?
Don’t freak out!!!
Read this.
Hey there!
I know ALL TOO WELL how frustrating and fear-inducing an increase in prolapse symptoms can be.
“Did I make it worse?”
“Are my organs going to fall out”
“What was I doing wrong?”
are ALL questions that have crossed my mind MANY times.
What I’ve learned over the years is that:
Increase in symptoms does NOT necessarily mean a worsening of your prolapse.
An increase in symptoms can teach us something about our bodies.
Sometimes it’s nothing and it passes with no good explanation.
my tips for dealing with an increase in prolapse symptoms!
Check your pelvic floor tension.
If you have prolapse, chances are good that you have a history of not recruiting your pelvic floor enough, so I know it’s difficult to imagine, but you actually might be OVER-RECRUITING your PF.
Before you are convinced that your prolapse is getting worse, either see your pelvic floor PT and have her check your pelvic floor muscles, MAYBE do some internal release of those muscles, or if you know how, use your thera wand to do it yourself.
Here’s a video on that.
Pay attention to your bowel movements AND if you’re still menstruating, your menstrual cycle.
Even if you’ve been having regular bowel movements, are you sure that everything is coming out?
There have been times when after I use the Thera-wand for some release or some Moxibustion (that I ordered through my acupuncturist), a lot of waste, that apparently was hanging around for too long comes out and I have felt to much better!
Other times, a build up of gas from controversial foods or too much fiber has made everythgin feel swollen and uncomfortable for both me and my clients .
So there’s that too.
When our period is approaching, peristalsis (contractions that move your food waste through your intestines) can slow down which can result in constipation for some women, not to mention that our hormones during ovulation or right before menstruation can ALSO make us more symptomatic.
Check your digestion and check your calendar to see where you are in your cycle.
It absolutely could be that!
What about your stress/breathing and movement lately?
It is NOT uncommon for many of us Type A personalities (Hi!) to process our stress by clenching our bellies, tucking our tailbones or tightening our pelvic floors.
When is the last time you took some time for you and breathed with your diaphragm?
When I start feeling like this-and it happens often, so I’m better at recognizing it, I do some Original Strength resets, PARTICULARLY rocking and rolling because they are such SOOTHING movements.
I also focus on my breath-more on that here.
I may even do some belly massage.
And what about your alignment and movement?
Check those ribs. Are they down?
Is your pelvic position mostly neutral?
Are you focusing on your inhale/relax your PF and intently as you do your exhale/lift?
If you’re like, “What is she talking about?” or “I need help with this!” grab my freebie on the topic: here.
And then there are always a WHOLE host of other things you can explore with respect to diet, liver health, sleep and more!
If you want to learn about THAT, check out my upcoming Gut Health for Pelvic Health course!!!
The bottom line?
Once you have prolapse, you always have prolapse.
It’s a vulnerability in your body and mine.
Your prolapse may become symptom-free, undetectable and you may never notice it.
Perhaps your symptoms come and go randomly, or it may be that it persists, but you learn lots of ways to manage it.
The reality is that there’s a LOT about the body, hormones, inflammation, muscles, ligaments and the nervous system that we are still learning, so while there may not be a perfectly OBVIOUS cause and effect relationship between your symptoms and something else that is taking place in and around your body right now, we may one day soon discover MORE branches of the body and lifestyle that impact prolapse symptoms.
In the meantime, if you experience and increase in symptoms, try my recommendations above, do the things that typically make you feel best and give is a little bit of time.
These things happen sometimes.
Managing prolapse is LARGELY a mental process, but I’m here to HELP you!!
Amiright??!!
Before you freak out that this is your new normal, throw in a pessary-if you have one, to give you an extra lift, make an appointment with your PT to get checked and go do something that makes you HAPPY!
Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry.
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.
From bitters to breathing, here are FIVE things I bet you're not doing to help your gut and pelvic health struggles
The gut (pink area #3) and the pelvis (green, #4) are CLOSELY related neighbors.
When once is in suboptimal condition, often the other suffers!
These two important parts of the body are so tightly linked to one another as well as OTHER systems in the body.
Therefore it’s in our best interest to “zoom out” , stop hyper-focusing on our pelvic floor struggles, begin to look for other problems that we can address in the body to improve the health and function of our pelvic tissues.
Today I’m giving you FIVE action steps you can take to improve gut and pelvic health and restore balance to the body!
Let’s start with adding more bitters to your diet
Photos from Country Living Magazine
What are bitters?
Bitter greens like chicory, dandelion, arugula, radicchio, endive and burdock.
Licorice, gentian root, artichoke leaf, mugwort, black walnut leaf, sarsaparilla and there are manyY more!
What do they do?
We are STILL learning about the many benefits of bitters, but the quickest explanation is that because they have a strong and pungent taste, like a poison, but do not have an poisons properties, the brain signals to the digestive tract to GET TO WORK!
The liver begins to detoxify and digestive juices start flowing to help the body process what’s coming down the pipe.
Bitters are “cooling” so they help to reduce inflammation which can results in anything from a reduction in stress to pain!
Why are the beneficial?
Consuming bitters stimulates the release of gastrin, a digestive hormone that signals to the body to secrete saliva, hydrochloric acid, pepsin (a digestive enzyme that breaks down food), and intrinsic factor (responsible for vitamin B12 absorption).
The liver and the gallbladder produce and secrete bile in response to bitters, ALSO helping with the digestive process.
If you’ve read my other blogs on the gut/pelvic floor connection, then you KNOW that digestion is DIRECTLY related to the health of the pelvic floor.
Tissue health confers structural stability and responsiveness to neural signaling and requires adequate nutrient absorption and nourishment.
The better we digest and absorb nutrition from our diet, the better our tissues and muscle health.
When we are malnourished, we see muscle wasting and a lack of regeneration of tissue.
Additionally, sluggish, inefficient digestion causes constipation or a viscous cycle of diarrhea and constipation.
Straining in the bathroom applies lots of pressure to the pelvic floor.
Anyone struggling with rectocele OR an over-recruited pelvic floor, knows how important, easy, routine elimination is for their pelvic health and comfort.
Bitters stimulate the liver and therefore help it to better do its job!
Because bitters are a “cooling” chemical, which means they can fight inflammation that is causing your pelvic or abdominal pain. (reference)
For more reading about the benefits of bitters click here and here.
How to incorporate bitters?
First! Always ask your healthcare provider/functional medicine doctor before starting any supplements.
1.Drink dandelion root tea daily. This is a SUPER mild and low dose of bitters that you can easily incorporate into your diet. There is such things as too much of a good thing, so read the box to see how many cups per day are recommended and START slow!
2. Eat more bitter greens! Arugula, radicchio, chicory, and artichoke leaf can all be easily added to a salad and grown in your own yard or container garden on a balcony!
Moving on to training the parasympathetic nervous system…
Market Watch .com
I can not stress enough how important it is to train your body to spend LESS time being stressed.
I have ALL of my clients train activating the parasympathetic nervous systems throughout their days and in their workouts!
Many of us, especially those with Type A personalities like me!, are living our lives in a chronically stressed state.
We have shallow breathing patterns.
We tense our bellies.
We clench our jaws.
We go, go, go until we crash.
You and I, we need to train ourselves to spend MORe time in the parasympathetic mode of our nervous system, rest and digest, vs. FIGHT OR FLIGHT!
Why is this important?
When we are in the sympathetic mode of the nervous system (fight or flight) our body chemistry changes. We create more acid, cortisol, and adrenaline.
This makes our muscles tense and twitchy. We are over-stimulated and often times have difficulty being present or mindful of our decision.
Blood flow is diverted away from the intestines to the heart, muscles and brain so that we can ReSPOND quickly, but health of the gut, digestion and nutrient absorption suffers.
When we chronically produce adrenaline and cortisol, over time the body becomes LESS sensitive to them and we then have to resort to stimulants like caffeine, sugar, lots of exercise and taking on more and more projects to feel good and energized.
Why does this impact pelvic health?
Well it impacts your pelvic health in any number of ways.
Digestion and elimination is compromised which again causes lack of nourishment to the tissues and elimination struggles like constipation.
The health of the gut microbiome suffers too because the loss of blood flow and constant stress kills your good bugs. Your good gut bugs reduce stress and inflammation in your pelvic tissues and hormone regulation. Without them you can experience and increase in pelvic pain or symptoms of prolapse.
Fight or flight mode means shallow, short breaths and the diaphragm is NOT moving through its full range of motion. This impedes adequate relaxation and recruitment of the pelvic floor, pelvic position and core stability (check out my handout here) which will increase or worsen you symptoms, stall your rehab!
What can you do?
In extreme cases, some individuals (and this is becoming more and more common) need vagal nerve therapy. The vagus nerve is what tells the body whether it should be in the parasympathetic or sympathetic state of the nervous system.
When it comes disregulated from trauma, surgery or chronic stress, sometimes it needs to be “reset” so that the body can re-learn how to move smoothly in between the two modes of the autonomic nervous system.
But let’s say you don’t have signs of vagus nerve dysfunction, here are THREE more things you can do YOURSELF to stimulate the parasympathetic mode of the nervous system.
3. Stomach massage
Massaging your own belly and manually moving around abdominal contents can help to relieve stress, and tension and relax the body.
Massage in a counter-clockwise direction and don’t every push on anything painful.
Working with a bodywork specialist and having them demonstrate how you can self-massage is a GREAT idea!
Click here for more info!
Bonus, if you’ve been struggling with digestion or constipation this should help!
If you are experiencing an increase in prolapse symptoms or over-recruitment, this can help to relax the tension in the belly and pelvic floor and take pressure off of your pelvic organs too!
4. Diaphragmatic breathing practice.
Breathing with the diaphragm (tongue on the roof of your mouth, inhaling through the nose) is a sure way to calm the body and get into Rest and Digest mode!
If you are prone to stress, it’s a good idea to do some diaphragmatic breathing right when you wake up, before you go to sleep, before your workouts, and periodically throughout your day. Set an alert on your phone!!
When I feel symptoms of pelvic floor tightness or prolapse OR feel like my digestion is suffering, breathing has ALWAYS helped to decrease the symptoms and calm more mind and body.
If you’re never practiced it, start here and here.
5. Start ROCKING daily!
Rocking on all fours creates space in the pelvic and abdominal cavities. It calms and soothes the body and it’s how you learned posture and alignment in the first place as a baby!
Rocking can be a TOTAL game changer, if you do it consistently.
It will calm you AND set you up for future diaphragmatic breathing success, because of how well it aligns your body and facilitates the movement of the diaphragm.
Get started with it here!
If you’re ready to get serious about your pelvic floor problems.
If you’re trying to avoid surgery but are tired of this subpar existence that has you sitting on the sidelines and struggling to feel POWERFUL in your body.
Then you have to check out Hold Up! The strategies I teach in this course address the root causes behind your prolapse and will help you find HEALING while conquering your prolapse!
Come and learn more!
Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry.
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.
The first steps to healing after prolapse?
For months after my pelvic organ prolapse diagnosis I was distraught, frustrated, depressed and angry.
I was afraid to move, lift, sneeze, squat, bend over, pick up my kids….
I felt lost with absolutely NO direction for how I should go about my days.
Sure my physical therapy had provided me with exercises, but how do I MOVE? How do I LIVE??
There were months of wrestling with all this, up late at night searching on Google, reading forums and articles on prolapse in which all of the information was so doom and gloom….providing no hope whatsoever…
One evening, I was on my computer in middle of night searching furiously for answers or a glimmer of something positive and stumbled upon a forum in which a Crossfitter was posting about prolapse.
She was explaining how she too had prolapse, but had figured out strategies that allowed her to continue training.
I stopped dead in my online tracks.
Someone with prolapse was STILL TRAINING?
Not only that, but they were doing CROSSFIT?
But I had been told not to lift anything, not to walk downhill???
What the heck?!
I immediately felt hopeful, relieved even.
This sparked a desire to become innovative, so that I could get back to lifting!
I started to consider that prolapse, although not really a solvable problem, it was something I could tackle and work with, around or through.
I went to bed that night with feelings of peace and determination, knowing that tomorrow, I was going to start doing things differently.
And so I did.
I stopped researching prolapse and got to work researching the pelvic floor, it’s function in life and fitness.
I realized that if I could better understand how it was supposed to work, then I could try to solve my prolapse problem and at least decrease my symptoms and get back to what I loved, which was lifting.
That lightbulb/hopeful moment for me was in 2016 and it sparked a cascade of mental and physical events.
Five months later I earned my Russian Kettlebell Certification.
Six months after that, I found boldness around this issue and a passion to help other women feel less alone and started speaking out about pelvic organ prolapse and pelvic health struggles publicly online and in my business.
And in another 6 months I earned my Level 2 Russian Kettlebell Certification, an incredibly challenging and physically demanding two kettlebell certification
There was a lot of physical work, healing, rehab, re-learning of movement that went into rehabbing my pelvic organ prolapse and earning my kettlebell certifications, but the single most IMPORTANT change I made in my life was changing how I thought about my prolapse and my body.
Even now, when I have bad days, symptom flare-ups, regrets and frustrations about what COULD HAVE BEEN, it is the MENTAL work that makes ALL of the difference in my life.
And so I’m sharing the FIRST TWO steps from my FREE seminar, Kettlebells Over Kegels: mindset shifts for conquering pelvic organ prolapse.
This seminar is about how I shifted my movement and mental strategies from a place of FEAR and FOCUS on prolapse to a place of PERSISTENCE, DETERMINATION STRENGTH and a SYSTEMATIC understanding of my prolapse in the context of my whole body!
This is the system that worked for me.
Step 1: Stop looking back.
Anyone with prolapse can tell you that anxiety about prolapse intensifies symptoms.
Our fear and feelings of regret ABSOLUTELY fuel these anxious feelings and not only limit or stall our rehab process, but can even make things feel WORSE!!!
You don’t ACTUALLY know what caused your prolapse.
Sure tearing during birth, long labors, gut health and elimination struggles, interventions like forceps and and vacuum suction, high BMI, diabetes and insulin resistance, poor tissue health and hormone struggles are risk factors for prolapse, but what caused those things to happen to us?
Movement mechanics before and during pregnancy?
And inability to relax the pelvic floor before and during labor?
Antibiotics, pathogens, stress or nutrition habits that recked our gut microbiome?
Lack of support during our birthing process??
We could drive ourselves MAD trying to tease out the ACTUAL cause and the reality is that there was most likely a cascade of events and risk factors that got us where we are now.
And we can’t go back.
We can’t reverse time or prolapse.
BUT we CAN absolutely move PAST it and work WITH it!
Looking back and fixating on what was or what should have been, prevents us from moving forward.
It limits our growth because our goal, the direction we are trying to move in, it’s in the past.
It’s an impossible destination.
I think you’re getting that now.
It was when I STOPPED obsessing over mistakes, anger about ALL the things no one ever told me and ALL the things I shouldn’t have done or could have done, that I began to make progress.
I started to funnel all that energy into creating and working towards are new goal: getting back into to movement with prolapse and reducing my symptoms as much as is possible, taking it one day at a time.
I decided that I could blaze a NEW trail, not just for myself but for ALL WOMEN struggling with prolapse!
Because at the end of the day we know two things:
There is NOT enough research on prolapse, the causes and or what ultimately happens to women with the right support,training and therapy.
We, the women of 2019 that have pelvic organ prolapse, we are writing history. We are defining the future of prolapse for ourselves and for others.
We HAVE to believe that.
We HAVE to live that as best we can.
We have to surround ourselves with others that share this belief, so that when we feel like we are floundering, they can ground us.
Step 2. Zoom out, Stop hyper focusing on the pelvic floor and begin to understand the system in which it operates.
For me, laying on a table, kegeling with a machine attached to my body, hyper-focusing on forcing my pelvic floor, all by itself to return to its previous state was NOT working.
In fact, it was making things WORSE.
In the days after my PT, I would experience more symptoms and feel more depressed about my progress, than ever.
This is NOT because PT was bad, but because what I did in physical therapy wasn’t making up for how I was living my life outside of the PT office.
The pelvic floor, just like EVERY OTHER PART OF THE BODY, does NOT work in isolation from itself.
And if you’re like me, even before prolapse, it wasn’t working so great, by itself or with the other parts of my body.
This is why I named this seminar “Kettlebells over Kegels” because to me kettlebells are symbols of:
Functionality
Whole body communication and recruitment
Strong and mindful movement
And THAT’s the approach that informed MY HEALING!
Understanding and working towards improving the functionality of my pelvic floor required that I understand it in the context of my whole body and that I become mindful about how it responded to and supported my daily movements, both in and out of the gym!
Kegels aren’t bad, they’re just like isometrics in exercise.
They have a place and a benefit for teaching your body where you want it to go, but they are only one strategy and they should only be used to teach a particular part of the body what you want it to do in the context of the whole entire system.
They are only one part of the story and for some people, they have no business being in the story at all.
Kegels are ONLY helpful for women that have difficult recruiting their pelvic floor, but not every women with prolapse has that exact problem.
Some women have been kegeling their whole life and still have prolapse.
Some women have SUPER active parts of their pelvic floors while others are weaker and non-responsive and a Kegel alone is not going to help that. It can even make things worse.
Zooming out was an empowering (although a little overwhelming) experience because it helped me to see all of the OPTIONS I had for restoring health and function to my pelvic floor.
If you’ve been spending all of the time since your diagnosis zoomed in on the pelvic floor, trying to force it to comply with your desired for healing and reduction in symptoms, try taking a step back and thinking about ALL the other pieces of health that connect to your pelvic floor.
Diet, nutrition practices, digestion and elimination (pooping)
Stress, anxiety, depression
Breathing habits
Hormone struggles
Daily movement practices
Alignment habits
All of these pieces of your health impact your prolapse and vice versa!
If you’ve hit a wall with your prolapse therapy, try looking at these issues either on your own or with a professional to see if there’s some work that you can do to improve the overall function of your WHOLE SYSTEM.
Everything is connected!
To continue learning about mindset shifts for conquering your pelvic organ prolapse, pre-register for my online seminar here.
Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry.
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.
My pelvic organ prolapse story
About one year into building my fitness business, I was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse and told by my PT, “No more exercise.”
I was DEVASTATED. On a personal level, WHAT THE HECK WOULD I DO WITHOUT EXERCISE?
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