Episode #26 Featuring ”The Vagina Whisperer” Sara Reardon! The Pelvic Floor Episode!! A deep dive into pelvic floor therapy, training the

WEBVTT
1
00:00:17.260 --> 00:00:20.739
Today's episode is sponsored by Apollo Neuro. Apollo Neuro is
2
00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:26.429
the leading doctor recommended wearable technology. Apollo's award-winning smart vibes
3
00:00:26.609 --> 00:00:30.750
AI works effortlessly behind the scenes, automatically integrating into your
4
00:00:30.809 --> 00:00:35.490
life to deliver gentle, personalized vibrations that activate your vagus nerve,
5
00:00:35.609 --> 00:00:39.130
helping you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake
6
00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:42.750
up balanced, focused, and ready each day. Not only that,
7
00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:46.039
but the Apollo Neuro is the first and only wearable
8
00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.140
that improves your HRV. Apollo is effortless. Simply wear it
9
00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.240
throughout the day and night and let it do the
10
00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:55.850
work for you. It's safe for anyone and everyone with
11
00:00:55.990 --> 00:00:58.429
no side effects and is the only wearable that can
12
00:00:58.469 --> 00:01:01.909
be worn anywhere on your body. Optimal health requires both
13
00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:04.530
the mind and body to be in line, and Apollo
14
00:01:04.670 --> 00:01:08.290
is the key to establishing that connection. Check the description
15
00:01:08.349 --> 00:01:11.989
below to save $ 90 with my special discount. Take control
16
00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:14.370
over your health today with Apollo Neuro.
17
00:01:15.030 --> 00:01:18.299
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Gemelli podcast.
18
00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:21.500
So I get to interview, and I'm very blessed for this,
19
00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:24.980
that I get to interview so many amazing people, different backgrounds,
20
00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:29.109
a lot of doctors. But people from all walks of
21
00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:31.530
life is what I try to do. Now, my guest
22
00:01:31.590 --> 00:01:34.930
today is well known and she's absolutely amazing at what
23
00:01:34.969 --> 00:01:36.569
she does. But I will tell you this, when I
24
00:01:36.609 --> 00:01:40.030
first got introduced to her and caught her name, I
25
00:01:40.069 --> 00:01:43.730
was like, okay, let's go. This is different for me.
26
00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:47.329
So first, I mean, she's a pelvic floor physical therapist
27
00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:50.609
and she has done some amazing work out there with
28
00:01:50.769 --> 00:01:52.969
so many different people that I've had the pleasure of
29
00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:55.650
reading about and seeing. She's got a new book coming
30
00:01:55.709 --> 00:01:58.900
out that's called Floored that will be releasing June 10th
31
00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.599
that I will highly recommend. And one of her famous
32
00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:04.400
quotes is that she's on a mission to help people
33
00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:09.750
with vaginas live fuller, happier, and more productive lives. So this,
34
00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:14.050
my friends, is the vagina whisperer, Sarah Reardon.
35
00:02:14.889 --> 00:02:17.150
Thank you for having me, Dylan. And yes, I am
36
00:02:17.189 --> 00:02:19.740
the vagina whisperer on social medias and to all of
37
00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:20.219
my friends.
38
00:02:21.810 --> 00:02:24.090
I swear, right when I got the intro, which I
39
00:02:24.129 --> 00:02:26.550
was very blessed to have to even get with you,
40
00:02:26.569 --> 00:02:30.189
I looked at that and I said, huh, okay. And
41
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:30.789
I told my wife.
42
00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:32.180
This could go many different directions.
43
00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:34.960
No, but I told my wife and I said, listen
44
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:36.620
to this. And I said, how cool this was. And
45
00:02:36.659 --> 00:02:39.280
she said, I bet you she does exactly what you do.
46
00:02:39.379 --> 00:02:40.740
And I was like, well, it must be a women
47
00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:43.439
thing because I had no idea. So I love it.
48
00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.930
Let's start with this because that is a very intriguing name.
49
00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.210
And I love how you've worked it and done with it.
50
00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:56.800
And it brings people in, obviously, and it grabs their attention.
51
00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:59.659
So it's very well played. But how did you come
52
00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:00.580
up with that name?
53
00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:03.090
You know, I wish I could take credit for it.
54
00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:05.780
So I am a physical therapist by training. I have
55
00:03:05.819 --> 00:03:08.490
a doctorate degree. And then I specialized in pelvic floor
56
00:03:08.539 --> 00:03:13.610
physical therapy. And when I was after graduate school practicing,
57
00:03:13.710 --> 00:03:15.750
I would get together with my girlfriends and their families
58
00:03:15.810 --> 00:03:19.750
every summer and practice. A few summers after I specialized
59
00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:22.069
in this field, I ended up like sitting in a
60
00:03:22.129 --> 00:03:24.169
hot tub with all of their moms talking about their
61
00:03:24.189 --> 00:03:27.389
bladder problems. And all of my friends said, oh my gosh,
62
00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:30.930
she's like the vagina whisperer. And then when I created
63
00:03:30.990 --> 00:03:34.969
my Instagram account in 2017, I created it for my
64
00:03:34.990 --> 00:03:37.129
group of girlfriends. I was pregnant. We were all going
65
00:03:37.150 --> 00:03:39.949
through pregnancy and postpartum. And I just was sharing tips
66
00:03:40.169 --> 00:03:42.789
on social media for them to find so they could
67
00:03:43.370 --> 00:03:44.270
know how to prepare.
68
00:03:44.289 --> 00:03:44.360
And.
69
00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:47.569
I named it the Vagina Whisperer because that's what they
70
00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:50.830
called me. And so it really has blossomed, you know,
71
00:03:51.469 --> 00:03:55.310
over the years, several hundreds of thousands of folks following along.
72
00:03:55.409 --> 00:03:58.189
And I think that that growth is a real testament. One,
73
00:03:58.270 --> 00:04:01.259
maybe the name is funny, but two, that women really
74
00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:03.740
want this information about their pelvic floors and they're not
75
00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:06.560
getting it from anywhere else. So it's just been an
76
00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:09.800
incredible journey to go from starting an Instagram account to
77
00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.310
now being a published author, talking all about the pelvic
78
00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:13.330
floor and the vagina.
79
00:04:13.939 --> 00:04:16.439
You know, it's a testament to, to your work and
80
00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:19.459
also just your delivery and the way that I can
81
00:04:19.819 --> 00:04:23.199
just conversating with you. I can see the passion in
82
00:04:23.250 --> 00:04:26.370
what you do and the way that it resonates with people.
83
00:04:26.410 --> 00:04:28.209
And that's a big thing because I know a lot
84
00:04:28.250 --> 00:04:31.790
of really, really intelligent doctors and therapists and people, but
85
00:04:31.829 --> 00:04:34.569
they just don't come across like they're easy to talk to,
86
00:04:34.629 --> 00:04:37.019
or maybe that they even care as much. And it
87
00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:41.500
takes some charismatic attributes really to connect to to people
88
00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:44.019
because there's, let's face it, there's so many people that
89
00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:46.399
do so many different things and that people look to
90
00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.439
for guidance and advice. But when somebody like you, it's
91
00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:52.199
a blessing to have. Just first, let me say thank
92
00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.939
you for the way that you come across and the
93
00:04:54.990 --> 00:04:56.829
kind of person that you are. And it just really
94
00:04:56.910 --> 00:04:59.129
resonates with everybody out there. And it's a testament to
95
00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:00.990
the following that you have. Awesome.
96
00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:02.389
Thank you. You know, and I think that that's one
97
00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:04.649
of the thing is I'm a medical professional. I'm a
98
00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:07.610
medical provider. But I think when we start using this
99
00:05:07.769 --> 00:05:10.250
jargon and all of these really medical terms, people get
100
00:05:10.350 --> 00:05:12.870
lost and then they can't understand what we're talking about.
101
00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:15.290
And so I want to meet people where they are.
102
00:05:15.329 --> 00:05:18.680
And the other thing is, I've treated thousands, tens of
103
00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:22.019
thousands of women. And this is a really intimate part
104
00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:24.199
of their body that we're talking about. They're sharing things
105
00:05:24.220 --> 00:05:27.279
with me that they've never told anyone sometimes. And I
106
00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:29.819
want them to feel comfortable doing that and less alone
107
00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:32.300
in the process and that I also understand it as
108
00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.060
a woman. And so I think all of those things
109
00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:37.060
have really just... yeah, been able to help me connect
110
00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:39.500
with so many people over the years and provide them
111
00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.180
help and resources for these really kind of intimate and
112
00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:43.399
often embarrassing issues.
113
00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:47.350
Well, and that's just it. The level, the problem here
114
00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:50.129
is the level of comfort that people will or will
115
00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:53.170
not have and even to talk about things like this
116
00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.970
or get into it. And it's sad because not having
117
00:05:57.009 --> 00:06:00.310
that comfort level could make somebody suffer or let something
118
00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:02.180
drag on and drag on because they don't want to
119
00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.920
talk about it. So that's, it's a wonderful thing. Let's
120
00:06:05.980 --> 00:06:09.480
do this first. Let's kind of start from the beginning.
121
00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.459
What kind of motivated you or drove you to get
122
00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:17.000
into this profession that you've chosen? And what's your background? Like,
123
00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:19.879
what did you study? And how did this all come about?
124
00:06:20.689 --> 00:06:23.529
So I went into college. I went to Washington University
125
00:06:23.550 --> 00:06:25.649
in St. Louis in the Midwest. I was born and
126
00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:27.790
raised in New Orleans. And the first time I ever
127
00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:30.870
flew on a plane, I was 17 and going to college. Like,
128
00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:33.279
I mean, I was kind of a small town girl.
129
00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.930
And so even being from New Orleans, and I went
130
00:06:36.970 --> 00:06:40.290
to WashU knowing that I wanted to be a physical therapist.
131
00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:41.730
I said, I don't want to be a doctor. I
132
00:06:41.769 --> 00:06:43.180
don't want to be in school forever. I don't want
133
00:06:43.189 --> 00:06:45.420
to be a nurse, but I'm active. I run track.
134
00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:47.800
I swim. I don't want to sit behind a desk
135
00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:49.759
all day. And I want to work with people. And
136
00:06:49.860 --> 00:06:52.110
just kind of following those small things I knew about
137
00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:55.290
myself led me into this field. And so I was
138
00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:59.370
at WashU for seven years, undergraduate and graduate school. I
139
00:06:59.410 --> 00:07:02.610
got a degree in psychology. And then I went on
140
00:07:02.629 --> 00:07:05.629
to get a doctorate in physical therapy. And while I
141
00:07:05.670 --> 00:07:08.110
was in physical therapy school, I had a professor who's
142
00:07:08.170 --> 00:07:11.189
still my mentor to this day, 18 years later, who
143
00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:15.420
gave us this two-week lecture on women's health. Now it's
144
00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.949
called pelvic health, but it was just talking about how
145
00:07:19.029 --> 00:07:21.829
a woman's body changes and how muscles influence that, like
146
00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:25.149
everything from giving birth to exercise, but also just sex
147
00:07:25.269 --> 00:07:28.329
and peeing and pooping and periods. And I was like,
148
00:07:28.350 --> 00:07:31.250
I've never heard of muscles controlling those things, but it
149
00:07:31.329 --> 00:07:35.920
made so much sense. And then I... loved understanding my
150
00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:39.240
own body as a woman. Then when I started practicing
151
00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.939
in the field, even as a student, I said, I
152
00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:44.899
really love educating other women about their bodies. I think
153
00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:46.870
for all of them, this light bulb would just go
154
00:07:46.930 --> 00:07:49.149
off of like, oh, this is just muscles. It's not
155
00:07:49.689 --> 00:07:53.810
something super weird or scary or foreign. It's just muscles.
156
00:07:54.129 --> 00:07:57.110
Then to see them get better with just exercises and
157
00:07:57.170 --> 00:08:01.540
movement and physical therapy changed their lives. And I was like,
158
00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.680
this is exactly what I want to do. And so
159
00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:06.720
I started eight years ago in the field and I've
160
00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:08.819
bounced around to a couple of different cities and states,
161
00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.180
but it's all that I've ever done. And I still
162
00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:13.040
practice in a clinic today, seeing women and men.
163
00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:17.720
Okay. So in terms of what you do at the clinic,
164
00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:21.019
then is it all the same related type of thing,
165
00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:23.579
or do you do different types of things at the clinic.
166
00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:26.420
That you work at? I only do pelvic floor therapy.
167
00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:29.139
So the way that we assess the pelvic floor, and
168
00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.139
I think that this is really the mystical part of it,
169
00:08:31.230 --> 00:08:34.649
is these muscles are kind of deep in your pelvis.
170
00:08:34.690 --> 00:08:37.049
So when you think about the bones that we all have,
171
00:08:37.070 --> 00:08:38.529
like you put your hands on your hips and you're
172
00:08:38.570 --> 00:08:40.309
on your hip bones, but that's really the top part
173
00:08:40.330 --> 00:08:42.509
of your pelvis. You put your hands kind of in
174
00:08:42.529 --> 00:08:44.409
the lower front part, that's your pubic bone, and then
175
00:08:44.429 --> 00:08:47.279
you've got your tailbone in the back. At the bottom
176
00:08:47.340 --> 00:08:51.580
of that bowl of bones is a basket of muscles,
177
00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.539
and that's what we call your pelvic floor muscles. And
178
00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:57.720
those muscles support your pelvic organs. All bodies have them,
179
00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:02.200
men and women and kids, everyone. So those muscles support
180
00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:05.659
your bladder, which hold urine, your balls, which hold stool.
181
00:09:05.889 --> 00:09:07.990
In the male, they hold the prostate. In the female,
182
00:09:08.009 --> 00:09:11.190
they hold the uterus and ovaries. These muscles support growing
183
00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:14.210
babies during pregnancy. They support your spine. They hold in
184
00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:19.110
pee and poop. They help with erections, ejaculation, orgasm, sexual activity,
185
00:09:19.809 --> 00:09:23.690
the passageway for menstruation. So I mean, they're so important,
186
00:09:23.809 --> 00:09:26.490
yet we don't talk about them. And we also don't
187
00:09:26.509 --> 00:09:28.820
even know they exist until we start having a problem
188
00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.700
in this area. And so that's really the story behind
189
00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:34.799
Florida is I wanted people to understand their bodies. I
190
00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:37.340
focused more on women, all on women in the book.
191
00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:40.259
That's who I have more experience treating. And they also
192
00:09:40.299 --> 00:09:42.889
just experience more pelvic floor problems than men because they
193
00:09:42.929 --> 00:09:46.970
have a vagina. So yeah, these muscles kind of influence
194
00:09:47.009 --> 00:09:48.850
all of those things. And that's what we help with
195
00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:49.809
in physical therapy.
196
00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.480
Okay. All right. That's enlightening, too, because I didn't know
197
00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:55.320
this had anything to do with men at all.
198
00:09:55.340 --> 00:09:57.990
Oh, my gosh. Yes. So many men have pelvic floor
199
00:09:58.049 --> 00:10:01.899
issues like, you know, pain. sexual dysfunction. It could be
200
00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:07.750
anything from, I mean, premature ejaculation, difficulty maintaining erections, painful orgasm,
201
00:10:07.909 --> 00:10:11.309
to pooping problems, painful bowel movements, rectal pain, tailbone pain.
202
00:10:11.450 --> 00:10:12.850
I mean, so much.
203
00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:16.149
Okay. Well, we got a lot of angles to go
204
00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:16.669
here then today.
205
00:10:16.690 --> 00:10:18.049
We got a lot of work on. I know.
206
00:10:18.070 --> 00:10:20.679
Yeah, we got... So you just flipped the script on
207
00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:26.120
me now. That's okay. Luckily, I'm good on the quick here. So, okay,
208
00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:29.899
first though, let me ask you this. And I wonder
209
00:10:29.980 --> 00:10:33.620
how this relates. First of all, when do we start
210
00:10:33.659 --> 00:10:36.830
to see this muscle problems or is there some kind
211
00:10:36.850 --> 00:10:39.029
of degrading that goes down on there? And is it
212
00:10:39.090 --> 00:10:42.490
something physical that caused it? Is it diet related? Is
213
00:10:42.549 --> 00:10:45.429
it stress related? Like the way that you sleep? I mean,
214
00:10:45.529 --> 00:10:46.889
break this down for me a little bit so I
215
00:10:46.929 --> 00:10:47.710
can understand this.
216
00:10:48.549 --> 00:10:51.090
Absolutely. So these are muscles like any other muscles in
217
00:10:51.129 --> 00:10:53.490
your body. They can get tight and tense like we
218
00:10:53.509 --> 00:10:55.549
maybe get in our neck and shoulders, right? And that
219
00:10:55.570 --> 00:10:58.429
could be from posture. That could be from stress. It
220
00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:01.399
could be from weightlifting. Whatever it is, the muscles respond
221
00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:03.519
in a way that causes tension and maybe we get
222
00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:06.340
neck pain and headaches. The same thing can happen in
223
00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:09.100
your pelvic floor. It could be sitting with your legs crossed.
224
00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:11.139
It could be clenching your butt because you're stressed out
225
00:11:11.179 --> 00:11:13.909
and nervous. It could be holding in pee and poop
226
00:11:13.950 --> 00:11:17.009
for too long. It could be trauma. For women specifically,
227
00:11:17.049 --> 00:11:20.460
there are three times in a woman's life that directly
228
00:11:20.529 --> 00:11:22.659
influence their pelvic floor and make them at a higher
229
00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:26.740
risk for pelvic floor issues. And it's pregnancy, it's childbirth,
230
00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:31.639
and it's perimenopause and menopause. During pregnancy, the muscles, these
231
00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:34.350
pelvic floor muscles support a growing baby and they get
232
00:11:34.570 --> 00:11:39.009
stretched out and weaker during pregnancy. During birth, they can
233
00:11:39.049 --> 00:11:42.460
have a tear into the muscles. They're stretched out from pushing.
234
00:11:42.509 --> 00:11:45.120
You can have a C-section, which creates abdominal tension and
235
00:11:45.779 --> 00:11:49.259
scar restriction. So all of those things influence the pelvic floor.
236
00:11:49.539 --> 00:11:53.360
And then perimenopause and menopause, your hormones are changing. You
237
00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:56.919
have lower estrogen, lower testosterone, decreased collagen. So those muscles
238
00:11:56.940 --> 00:12:00.080
get weaker and thinner over time. And this is why
239
00:12:00.179 --> 00:12:02.899
women have more issues than men, typically when it pertains
240
00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:05.519
to weakness or pain, because they go through these life
241
00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:06.730
stages that men don't.
242
00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:12.090
Got it. Okay, cool. I'm taking notes, by the way. Okay, sweet.
243
00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:16.940
So how do you diagnose something like this? If somebody
244
00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:19.899
comes into you with, I don't know, what kind of,
245
00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:22.159
let's do this. What kind of problems do people generally
246
00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:23.860
come to you with? And then how do you diagnose
247
00:12:23.940 --> 00:12:27.299
and kind of figure this out that it's something muscle
248
00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:31.210
related and not necessarily something else that's going on internally,
249
00:12:31.289 --> 00:12:33.190
whether it be a blood work? Like, do you run
250
00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:36.309
blood panels to check to coincide? How does this process
251
00:12:36.389 --> 00:12:37.190
go down and work?
252
00:12:37.730 --> 00:12:40.690
So typically, the way that the medical system works here
253
00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:43.090
in the US is that they go see a doctor.
254
00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:45.450
The doctor says, let me run all these tests and
255
00:12:45.470 --> 00:12:47.529
see if something's wrong. And then if they don't find anything,
256
00:12:47.570 --> 00:12:49.250
they send them to another doctor and send them to
257
00:12:49.269 --> 00:12:52.529
another doctor. By the time people reach pelvic floor therapy,
258
00:12:52.570 --> 00:12:56.440
sometimes they've gone through seven to eight physicians. And they're like,
259
00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:58.860
all the tests are normal. The blood works normal. But
260
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.559
we can't figure out why you are peeing all the
261
00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:04.200
time or you have pain with urination or whatever the
262
00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:04.779
case may be.
263
00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:05.460
Got it.
264
00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:08.220
So my goal is that people can get to pelvic
265
00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:11.759
floor therapy sooner. When we see someone in pelvic floor therapy,
266
00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:14.200
some of the common things that we see, I'll focus
267
00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:18.019
on the female population, is urinary leakage. So they leak
268
00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:21.649
with coughing, sneezing, running, jumping, laughing. No amount of leakage
269
00:13:21.690 --> 00:13:23.830
is normal, but any type of leakage, there's a pelvic
270
00:13:23.850 --> 00:13:27.269
floor component. What's called pelvic organ prolapse, when the pelvic
271
00:13:27.370 --> 00:13:29.850
organs aren't as supported by that hammock of muscles. So
272
00:13:30.409 --> 00:13:32.509
they start to push into the vagina and it can
273
00:13:32.549 --> 00:13:35.470
feel like a bulge in the vagina, like something's falling out.
274
00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.159
It sounds pretty scary, but it's really just kind of
275
00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:41.279
a muscle weakness or tension issue. Pain with sex is
276
00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:44.179
another one. These muscles can be tight or tense, or
277
00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.870
you can have vaginal dryness that leads to pain with
278
00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:50.129
initial insertion, deeper insertion, or both. It can also cause
279
00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:55.929
hip pain, back pain, abdominal pain, constipation, painful periods. So
280
00:13:56.090 --> 00:13:58.730
kind of anything in this pelvic arena, the muscles can
281
00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:01.250
be affected. They may not be the initial cause, but
282
00:14:01.509 --> 00:14:04.679
they're often a component that needs to be addressed. And
283
00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:07.799
then when somebody comes into our clinics, it's a private session.
284
00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:09.500
It's not in like a big gym like it would
285
00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:13.879
be another PT session. It's one-on-one with a therapist. And
286
00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:17.350
we ask you questions about all of your pelvic floor stuff.
287
00:14:17.370 --> 00:14:20.470
You may be there for, you know, painful sex, but
288
00:14:20.509 --> 00:14:23.529
I'm asking you about pooping and menstruation and childbirth. And
289
00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:26.169
then we do an internal pelvic exam. So this is
290
00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:29.129
how we assess the muscles is inserting a glove lubricated
291
00:14:29.190 --> 00:14:32.590
finger into the vagina and assessing the pelvic floor muscle
292
00:14:32.629 --> 00:14:34.909
through the vagina. In male bodies, we do this through
293
00:14:34.929 --> 00:14:37.559
the anal opening. So that's how we access the muscles
294
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.519
to see if the pelvic floor itself is affected.
295
00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:45.840
See, this is what I love about this. So when
296
00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:50.980
I do things, I'm programmed in the way that you are, where...
297
00:14:51.250 --> 00:14:53.529
Cause I deal with a lot of hormone optimization and
298
00:14:53.570 --> 00:14:54.929
I get a lot of people that'll come in and
299
00:14:54.970 --> 00:14:57.330
go to me because they come to me when they
300
00:14:57.370 --> 00:15:00.399
can't get fixed by somebody else. Like, you know, because
301
00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:04.659
a lot of even professional endocrinologists don't take the one-on-one time,
302
00:15:04.740 --> 00:15:07.100
you know, and they need specialists like yourself and, and
303
00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:09.539
you know what I'm talking about and they'll come to
304
00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:11.860
me and I'm tired or all this. I need T
305
00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:14.990
I need testosterone, you know, I need TRT. And it's like, well,
306
00:15:15.690 --> 00:15:17.750
let's dig in here and find these root causes of
307
00:15:17.769 --> 00:15:21.740
the problem and actually make sure that I'm not mistreating you,
308
00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:25.779
potentially causing a problem or exacerbating one that may already
309
00:15:25.820 --> 00:15:31.000
be there. And so it's nice to know because you
310
00:15:31.019 --> 00:15:33.990
brought up like pain when urinating, for example. So if
311
00:15:34.210 --> 00:15:36.250
you were a person that had no idea and you
312
00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:39.250
went online and looked up pain when urinating or frequent urination,
313
00:15:39.269 --> 00:15:41.190
you're going to get this long list of things that
314
00:15:41.210 --> 00:15:43.470
are going to scare the crap out of you that
315
00:15:43.549 --> 00:15:46.269
may not even have anything to do with it. And see,
316
00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:48.580
I didn't have any idea as much as I think
317
00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:50.899
I know. Clearly, I don't know that much that this
318
00:15:50.990 --> 00:15:54.549
was even a thing and that this could be actually
319
00:15:54.690 --> 00:15:57.570
the direct effect or correlated with the problem that's going on.
320
00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:00.250
I want to ask you then on the men's side
321
00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:02.350
of things, because this is very intriguing to me and
322
00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:04.330
it's something now that I will have to think about
323
00:16:04.370 --> 00:16:06.490
when somebody comes to me with like a prostate problem
324
00:16:06.529 --> 00:16:10.730
or frequent urination problem. If you were to take a
325
00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:13.029
ratio or a percentage, and I know this is a
326
00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:16.450
difficult maybe to assess, but what percentage of like men
327
00:16:16.509 --> 00:16:20.899
would have this problem in... comparison to women? I'm just curious.
328
00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:25.379
I would say 70-30, just a guess. I would say
329
00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:28.980
over the course of my career, sometimes I have men
330
00:16:29.220 --> 00:16:32.139
as 50% of my caseload, sometimes less. But I would
331
00:16:32.179 --> 00:16:36.580
say it's typical for me to have majority female bodies
332
00:16:36.740 --> 00:16:38.919
and then a handful of male bodies. But I'll tell
333
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:43.740
you this. I think that a lot of men experience
334
00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:48.190
pelvic floor issues that are underreported. I think females for
335
00:16:48.269 --> 00:16:51.769
sure have underreported symptoms, but we go to see a gynecologist.
336
00:16:51.789 --> 00:16:53.870
We talk to our girlfriends, we go online, we kind
337
00:16:53.909 --> 00:16:56.370
of do the health investigation. I think that there's as
338
00:16:56.409 --> 00:16:58.970
much shame and embarrassment as women have around these issues.
339
00:16:58.990 --> 00:17:01.490
I think men also have it. And that's a barrier
340
00:17:01.549 --> 00:17:04.289
for them to get treatment. And oftentimes I'll be seeing
341
00:17:04.309 --> 00:17:07.109
a woman, the wife, and then she's like, I think
342
00:17:07.150 --> 00:17:09.150
my husband might need to come in, you know? And
343
00:17:09.190 --> 00:17:12.230
so it's, it just to, to kind of be, you know,
344
00:17:13.009 --> 00:17:15.829
make a generalization. I feel like men can have urinary issues,
345
00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:19.109
rectal pain, abdominal pain, all these things, but it's when
346
00:17:19.150 --> 00:17:22.250
it affects their sexual function is when they start being like, okay,
347
00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:24.799
I need to get help. And yet then it's gone
348
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.140
on for a really long time. And we're like, okay,
349
00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:29.380
now we're peeling layers of the onion for a bit
350
00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:32.259
before we get to the pelvic floor. But it's usually
351
00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:35.509
takes something pretty significant for them to say, okay, now
352
00:17:35.529 --> 00:17:36.109
I need to get help.
353
00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.230
Do you see cases where there are people that are
354
00:17:39.269 --> 00:17:41.210
pretty young that have this issue going on? Or is
355
00:17:41.269 --> 00:17:43.859
it generally like a certain age range that you see?
356
00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:47.960
No, we definitely see young people, young men and women.
357
00:17:48.500 --> 00:17:51.880
So I would say in the female population, it's unfortunate
358
00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.900
because for women, we often think like, well, it's after
359
00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:55.799
you have babies, you have pelvic floor problems, or it's
360
00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:58.059
when you're in menopause. But there are so many young
361
00:17:58.099 --> 00:18:02.619
women who have painful periods, painful sex, urinary leakage, and
362
00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:04.319
they don't know where to go to for help. They're
363
00:18:04.339 --> 00:18:07.259
not even seeing a gynecologist yet. And so they're learning
364
00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:10.339
about us on TikTok and social media and YouTube because
365
00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:14.569
they're looking for answers. But I think for men, if
366
00:18:14.849 --> 00:18:17.769
you have an issue as a young man, it's likely
367
00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:20.869
not a hormone issue and it's likely not a prostate issue.
368
00:18:20.950 --> 00:18:23.579
Those are issues that come on later in life. It
369
00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:27.700
could be muscle tension. It could be which muscles affect nerves, right?
370
00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:32.180
Muscles affect connective tissue. They affect relaxation. So different things
371
00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:35.500
like a hard time urinating or starting your stream, feeling
372
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:38.460
like you can't empty completely, feeling like it's burning when
373
00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:43.500
you urinate, pain with sitting, pain with bowel movements, hemorrhoids.
374
00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:45.920
I mean, all of these things are pelvic floor related.
375
00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:48.640
And if you've gone to see a urologist and they've
376
00:18:48.700 --> 00:18:51.809
ruled out infections and you still have symptoms or you've
377
00:18:51.849 --> 00:18:55.029
taken antibiotics and you still have symptoms, your pelvic floor
378
00:18:55.049 --> 00:18:57.450
should be assessed. Wow.
379
00:19:01.819 --> 00:19:05.950
Somebody like myself to make a recommendation if I've scanned
380
00:19:06.009 --> 00:19:11.210
and gone through every single component and not finding any issue.
381
00:19:11.410 --> 00:19:14.799
I've learned now to look more at the micronutrient side
382
00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:17.960
and possibly gut health and cellular health problems, but that's
383
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.579
not always the question either. Some people have all of
384
00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:22.660
these things testing out and then you're at a loss
385
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:27.480
and you don't know. I have never once heard about this.
386
00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.359
So that brings me into my next question. How do
387
00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:33.599
we get this out there? Because my assumption is, and
388
00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:35.339
I could be wrong and correct me if I'm wrong,
389
00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:38.359
is a lot of general practitioners or doctors aren't saying, well,
390
00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:41.390
I don't see anything wrong. Send you to the vagina whisperer.
391
00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:43.930
So how do we, how do we get this, you know,
392
00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:45.069
information or how.
393
00:19:44.990 --> 00:19:49.450
Do we get that? You know, I think exactly the
394
00:19:49.490 --> 00:19:52.000
way that we're doing, this, I think, you know, bringing
395
00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:54.039
it to people themselves, I feel like a lot of
396
00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:58.200
medical information, it was like gate kept behind physicians and
397
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.160
you maybe were lucky enough to be in a city
398
00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:02.880
with a physician who maybe knew about pelvic floor therapy,
399
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:05.420
but it was still a last resort. Like, Oh, we've
400
00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:07.960
done all these tests and we can't find anything. Then go.
401
00:20:08.609 --> 00:20:11.509
And then you've suffered for months or years. So if
402
00:20:11.549 --> 00:20:15.859
you have an issue with anything from pelvic pain, painful sex,
403
00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:21.359
bladder leakage, frequent urination, sexual dysfunction, pooping issues, I'm like,
404
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.299
just go see one. And we'll tell you if there's
405
00:20:24.339 --> 00:20:26.400
no pelvic floor component, we'll be like, sorry, we're not
406
00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:29.789
finding anything. But more often than not, there is. And
407
00:20:29.829 --> 00:20:33.119
if there's other issues like an infection or you know,
408
00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:37.619
something else more pathological going on. We collaborate with other physicians.
409
00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:41.410
We refer out. I mean, I work with acupuncturists, dieticians, nutritionists,
410
00:20:41.849 --> 00:20:47.430
personal trainers, psychotherapists. I mean, hormone specialists, like we're just
411
00:20:47.569 --> 00:20:49.210
one piece of the puzzle. I don't think that we
412
00:20:49.250 --> 00:20:51.369
can always solve everything, but I think we're a piece
413
00:20:51.390 --> 00:20:54.339
of the puzzle that's often missed. And by the time
414
00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.420
people reach us, they're like, why didn't anybody tell me
415
00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:00.539
about this sooner? Right now they've suffered for months or
416
00:21:00.579 --> 00:21:03.369
years and they've their quality of life has changed or
417
00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:06.069
they spent gobs of money on treatments that were ineffective.
418
00:21:06.809 --> 00:21:08.650
And so I think it just needs to be brought
419
00:21:08.690 --> 00:21:13.150
in earlier. I think medical providers need to ask the questions.
420
00:21:13.450 --> 00:21:16.119
We talked a little bit earlier about sometimes people are
421
00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:19.859
uncomfortable talking about this and that means medical providers are uncomfortable.
422
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:22.059
And I'm like, get over it. Our job is to
423
00:21:22.099 --> 00:21:24.539
help the patients. And if you don't screen for these
424
00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:29.970
issues by asking about peeing, pooping, sex, menstruation, birth, hormones,
425
00:21:30.150 --> 00:21:33.539
then you're missing a big picture here, a big piece
426
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:34.119
of the puzzle.
427
00:21:35.019 --> 00:21:38.779
See, the older I've gotten and the more that I've
428
00:21:38.859 --> 00:21:43.339
worked in health and have understood that really, if you
429
00:21:43.380 --> 00:21:45.789
don't have your health, you really have nothing. You can
430
00:21:45.829 --> 00:21:47.549
have all the money in the world. You can have
431
00:21:47.710 --> 00:21:49.329
whatever you want, all the fame in the world. But
432
00:21:49.369 --> 00:21:51.130
if you don't have your health, what's the point in
433
00:21:51.230 --> 00:21:53.109
any of it? So there should be no embarrassment to
434
00:21:53.170 --> 00:21:56.539
talk about anything. If anything, you should be as open
435
00:21:56.579 --> 00:22:00.420
as possible to With all of this, I've been through that, like,
436
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:02.960
you know, not wanting to talk about eating disorder and
437
00:22:03.180 --> 00:22:05.039
problems that I've faced. And I've gotten to the point
438
00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:07.529
now where, one, it's helpful to tell other people so
439
00:22:07.569 --> 00:22:09.589
they can see that it's OK to talk about. No
440
00:22:09.630 --> 00:22:11.470
one's going to judge you. And two, it doesn't matter
441
00:22:11.509 --> 00:22:13.950
if anybody judges you because you're just trying to fix yourself.
442
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:17.740
So the hope is, is that people will listen to
443
00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:20.599
you and understand that they just need to talk about
444
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:22.339
it and fix it and correct it. And people should
445
00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:25.809
be more mature and more caring about health than anything else.
446
00:22:26.009 --> 00:22:30.529
And so my assumption is, is that you have let
447
00:22:30.589 --> 00:22:33.589
that out to say, hey, be open about this. Come
448
00:22:33.630 --> 00:22:35.789
and talk to me. Get it out there so we
449
00:22:35.829 --> 00:22:39.509
can fix it. Because I'm sure that just like anything else,
450
00:22:39.569 --> 00:22:42.109
if you prolong putting this off, you could make the
451
00:22:42.150 --> 00:22:44.640
problem worse. so bad that it could be far more
452
00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:47.059
difficult for you or anybody else to fix, right? I mean,
453
00:22:47.099 --> 00:22:49.240
you want to address this earlier than later.
454
00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:52.839
Totally. You know, and I think that to your point, Juan,
455
00:22:52.859 --> 00:22:54.599
I mean, I am a woman. I have two kids.
456
00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:57.259
I'm in perimenopause. Like I have had my own issues.
457
00:22:57.319 --> 00:22:59.549
And so people are like, how are you so vulnerable?
458
00:22:59.569 --> 00:23:01.549
I'm like, if I'm asking other people to come see
459
00:23:01.589 --> 00:23:03.910
me and talk to me about these really intimate parts
460
00:23:03.950 --> 00:23:06.650
of their life and things they maybe never told anybody,
461
00:23:06.690 --> 00:23:09.859
like I... feel like they deserve that same thing from me.
462
00:23:09.940 --> 00:23:13.799
They deserve compassion, transparency, vulnerability. And the other thing is
463
00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:16.930
that people are not alone. I think so many people
464
00:23:17.009 --> 00:23:18.849
don't talk about these issues and they feel like they're
465
00:23:18.890 --> 00:23:22.210
the only one. But I've been in this practice for
466
00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:25.150
18 years. I've treated tens of thousands of patients. I
467
00:23:25.170 --> 00:23:27.190
tell a lot of stories in my book because I
468
00:23:27.710 --> 00:23:29.539
think it's important for people to know that if you're
469
00:23:29.579 --> 00:23:32.359
experiencing it, somebody else likely is too. We're just not
470
00:23:32.460 --> 00:23:35.210
talking about it. So I really, I always say I
471
00:23:35.250 --> 00:23:37.910
want to normalize the pelvic floor conversations. I don't want
472
00:23:37.930 --> 00:23:41.430
to normalize the pelvic floor problems. And that's where I
473
00:23:41.509 --> 00:23:43.549
think that we really need to shift the narrative of
474
00:23:43.609 --> 00:23:45.849
let's talk about these things. And then we're able to
475
00:23:45.890 --> 00:23:49.230
find solutions for them instead of dealing with them kind
476
00:23:49.269 --> 00:23:52.039
of so quietly, but then not even knowing that there's
477
00:23:52.299 --> 00:23:52.910
help out there.
478
00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:57.279
Perfect. That's awesome. I love it. So I want to
479
00:23:57.700 --> 00:24:00.000
kind of talk about your book a little bit here.
480
00:24:00.119 --> 00:24:04.599
So it's called Floored. Is this something that is put
481
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.559
out for men and women or just women in terms
482
00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:08.420
of what you talk about? And kind of get into
483
00:24:08.619 --> 00:24:11.970
what you're expressing in this book or what you're trying
484
00:24:12.009 --> 00:24:14.470
to convey and what people can expect to learn from it.
485
00:24:15.569 --> 00:24:17.930
So the full title is Floored, A Woman's Guide to
486
00:24:17.970 --> 00:24:20.329
Pelvic Floor Health at Every Age and Stage. So it
487
00:24:20.410 --> 00:24:22.630
is for women. And I say it's for everyone with
488
00:24:22.670 --> 00:24:24.579
a pelvic floor because if you have a daughter, if
489
00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:26.859
you have a mother, if you have a wife, I mean,
490
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:29.380
I get men reaching out to me. saying, I found
491
00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.599
you on Instagram. I think my wife has this problem.
492
00:24:31.700 --> 00:24:35.789
And so they're searching. I mean, not to generalize, my husband,
493
00:24:35.809 --> 00:24:38.109
he wants a solution. And if he can't find one,
494
00:24:38.130 --> 00:24:39.809
he wants to keep searching for one. And so I
495
00:24:39.849 --> 00:24:42.009
see a lot of men doing that to support their partners.
496
00:24:42.769 --> 00:24:44.490
But it's a woman's guide. And I think one of
497
00:24:44.529 --> 00:24:46.970
the things I want women to understand by reading the
498
00:24:46.990 --> 00:24:50.589
book is that, one, these muscles exist. And there are
499
00:24:50.650 --> 00:24:52.910
things you can do to prevent issues. I think we
500
00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:56.519
live in a healthcare system where we're always doing damage control.
501
00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:59.099
We're like addressing problems afterwards where I'm like, there's a
502
00:24:59.140 --> 00:25:01.500
lot you can do to prevent issues, whether it's you're
503
00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:05.349
becoming sexually active, you're pregnant, you're recovering from a baby,
504
00:25:05.369 --> 00:25:08.230
you're heading into perimenopause. At every stage in life, your
505
00:25:08.289 --> 00:25:11.589
pelvic floor requires different things. And I want to give
506
00:25:11.609 --> 00:25:13.430
you the tips and tools to take care of it.
507
00:25:13.930 --> 00:25:17.210
And then also, if you are experiencing a problem, There's
508
00:25:17.250 --> 00:25:19.430
resources in the book to help you. Like, what are
509
00:25:19.450 --> 00:25:21.809
the exercises to start with? How do you massage? How
510
00:25:21.829 --> 00:25:23.910
do you know if you're doing a Kegel correctly? How
511
00:25:23.950 --> 00:25:26.279
should you be sitting if you have pain? If you
512
00:25:26.299 --> 00:25:28.599
have pain with sex, what are different positions to try?
513
00:25:28.619 --> 00:25:31.859
You know, just so many things that over the years
514
00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:34.380
I've been practicing, this is the daily things that I
515
00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:38.089
tell my patients. And yet not everybody can come see Sarah.
516
00:25:38.150 --> 00:25:40.089
Not everybody can see a pelvic floor therapist. So how
517
00:25:40.130 --> 00:25:43.130
do we get this information into women's hands in a
518
00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:47.069
very easy, accessible, and affordable way? The second part of
519
00:25:47.109 --> 00:25:49.710
this is I really want us to change the experience
520
00:25:49.750 --> 00:25:52.930
of the next generation. I have two kids. I have
521
00:25:53.009 --> 00:25:55.930
so many friends who have daughters and children, and they're like,
522
00:25:56.509 --> 00:25:58.410
I don't know how to teach my daughter how to
523
00:25:58.470 --> 00:26:00.470
use a tampon, or I don't know how to talk
524
00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:03.720
to her about sex, or how should I teach my
525
00:26:03.779 --> 00:26:06.619
kid about how to poop properly because he's constipated. And
526
00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:09.119
so if we know better, then I think we can
527
00:26:09.160 --> 00:26:13.240
teach the next generation better as parents and really... help
528
00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:15.609
them have a different experience. And I think my generation
529
00:26:15.650 --> 00:26:18.390
or even my mom's generation had with respect to pelvic
530
00:26:18.410 --> 00:26:18.970
floor health care.
531
00:26:19.950 --> 00:26:21.730
So is this the first book that you've written then?
532
00:26:22.509 --> 00:26:24.839
Yes. And I will say right now, it may be
533
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:28.559
the last, hopefully not, but it's a huge endeavor. I mean,
534
00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:33.220
It's a two-year process. And I mean, I dove, I
535
00:26:33.259 --> 00:26:35.920
had a research assistant. I mean, we dove into the research.
536
00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:38.059
I looked up my old cases from over the years
537
00:26:38.099 --> 00:26:41.789
to have really rich patient stories. I used kind of
538
00:26:41.890 --> 00:26:44.490
all my old techniques and tools. I mean, everything. I mean,
539
00:26:44.509 --> 00:26:46.789
there was so much in this book that I wanted
540
00:26:46.829 --> 00:26:49.150
to put out there. And I could have written a
541
00:26:49.170 --> 00:26:51.289
book just about pregnancy or just about menopause. But I
542
00:26:51.289 --> 00:26:53.349
was like, we need to start just from the basics.
543
00:26:53.430 --> 00:26:55.970
Like people don't even understand the basics of this part
544
00:26:56.009 --> 00:26:59.119
of their body. So it was a two-year process. But
545
00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:01.480
the really cool thing is the way that I got
546
00:27:01.539 --> 00:27:04.039
the book deal was it was a follower on social media.
547
00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:07.480
And she worked for HarperCollins Publishing Company. And she said,
548
00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:10.720
I think that what you're saying is really important. And
549
00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:13.019
would you ever consider writing a book? And I was like,
550
00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:16.190
I'm going to have to think about that. I'm really busy.
551
00:27:16.470 --> 00:27:19.410
But I owned a physical therapy clinic in New Orleans
552
00:27:19.450 --> 00:27:21.450
at the time. And I was building up my online
553
00:27:21.509 --> 00:27:23.890
exercise platform. And I was like, I just don't have
554
00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:27.500
the capacity. So I ended up selling my clinic. And
555
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:30.559
the day after I sold my clinic, I signed the
556
00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:33.009
book contract. And so I had to make some shifts
557
00:27:33.049 --> 00:27:35.809
in my personal and professional life to take on this endeavor.
558
00:27:36.170 --> 00:27:37.950
And I still work for the clinic. I sold it
559
00:27:37.970 --> 00:27:40.150
to the two women who were my employees at the time,
560
00:27:40.190 --> 00:27:42.990
and now I work for them. But yeah, it's been
561
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:45.619
a pretty interesting journey just to kind of follow this path,
562
00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.359
just like you, Dylan, of like, where am I headed?
563
00:27:48.380 --> 00:27:50.460
You don't always know, but you just kind of go
564
00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:51.180
to where you're called.
565
00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:55.140
And let me shout Harper and Collins because they introduced
566
00:27:55.180 --> 00:27:58.480
me to you and they've introduced me to some amazing people.
567
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:02.400
And so just wanted to point that out because I'm thankful.
568
00:28:02.460 --> 00:28:03.559
I'm thankful for them too.
569
00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:07.680
Yeah, they're really, really great. And so that's a publishing
570
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:08.859
company then, correct?
571
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:11.240
They do. And the imprint I'm under, kind of which
572
00:28:11.289 --> 00:28:13.509
is a specialty imprint, is called Park Row Books. And
573
00:28:13.529 --> 00:28:17.309
that's where my editor, Erica, is. And I met with
574
00:28:17.369 --> 00:28:19.450
this team and it was all women and they were
575
00:28:20.269 --> 00:28:24.269
really behind this mission-oriented book. And they've just been great.
576
00:28:24.329 --> 00:28:26.710
I mean, I have a great team. And yeah, I mean,
577
00:28:26.730 --> 00:28:29.589
it's just wild, literally like a cold email. And then,
578
00:28:29.650 --> 00:28:31.730
you know, two years later, you're a published author. And
579
00:28:31.779 --> 00:28:33.980
it's just a really cool experience to kind of have
580
00:28:34.019 --> 00:28:35.819
gone through this and to be where I am now.
581
00:28:36.539 --> 00:28:38.640
God works in great ways, I have to tell you.
582
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:41.079
And it happens out of nowhere when you least expect it.
583
00:28:41.099 --> 00:28:43.420
And sometimes some of those messages you think you don't
584
00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:45.769
want to open or you think might be, they're worth
585
00:28:45.809 --> 00:28:49.150
a look. You can tell. I mean, I know you've,
586
00:28:49.250 --> 00:28:51.390
I'm sure when you get the followings, cause I get
587
00:28:51.410 --> 00:28:53.730
them all the time and you get all this crap
588
00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:56.279
that comes in, but it's, it's always worth a second
589
00:28:56.339 --> 00:28:57.980
just to look at it. Right. I mean, cause you
590
00:28:58.019 --> 00:29:02.759
never know that's, that's an amazing scenario and story. So I've,
591
00:29:03.819 --> 00:29:06.779
obviously thoroughly looked at your website and what you do
592
00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:08.809
and what you offer there. I want to talk about
593
00:29:08.849 --> 00:29:10.180
some of the things on here. I'm going to pull
594
00:29:10.220 --> 00:29:13.289
it back up that I, that I see. So one, you,
595
00:29:13.369 --> 00:29:15.210
do you have, it's a, it's a membership you have
596
00:29:15.269 --> 00:29:16.349
on your site then, correct?
597
00:29:16.390 --> 00:29:17.450
That people can join.
598
00:29:17.730 --> 00:29:18.450
Let's talk about that.
599
00:29:19.109 --> 00:29:19.349
Yeah.
600
00:29:19.410 --> 00:29:22.390
Thank you. So I, it's called the VHive and I
601
00:29:22.430 --> 00:29:25.329
started this post COVID because a lot of people weren't
602
00:29:25.390 --> 00:29:28.890
able to access the pelvic floor therapist in person and
603
00:29:28.950 --> 00:29:31.400
people were working out from home and not back to gyms.
604
00:29:31.460 --> 00:29:35.420
And so I created online pelvic floor workout routines and there,
605
00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:37.950
some of them are strengthening. Some of them are relaxation.
606
00:29:37.970 --> 00:29:43.059
A lot of them are like pregnancy. birth preparation, postpartum recovery. Also,
607
00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:45.980
I just launched a perimenopause and menopause program, which adds
608
00:29:46.099 --> 00:29:48.920
in weight, but all of it is pelvic floor focused.
609
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.450
It's teaching you how to contract your pelvic floor, how
610
00:29:51.490 --> 00:29:54.789
to relax your pelvic floor, how to modify exercises if
611
00:29:54.809 --> 00:29:58.839
you're having a pelvic floor problem. I'm not a fitness professional.
612
00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:01.619
I'm a pelvic floor therapist and I really try to
613
00:30:01.660 --> 00:30:04.440
stay in my lane. But I mean, if you, a
614
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:06.579
lot of people are scared to exercise or they don't
615
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:08.740
know what's safe or what's not if they leak or
616
00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:12.339
if they have prolapse or abdominal separation or diastasis recti.
617
00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:15.279
So I wanted people to have a resource of how
618
00:30:15.299 --> 00:30:17.440
do you do this at home? And it's 10, they're
619
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:20.890
10 minute workouts, 10 to 20. So you don't need
620
00:30:20.890 --> 00:30:22.750
45 minutes. I mean, if you're a busy mom, you
621
00:30:22.789 --> 00:30:25.039
don't have 45 minutes three times a week, right? You
622
00:30:25.150 --> 00:30:27.799
maybe have 10 minutes, but I'm like, everybody does have
623
00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:30.500
10 minutes. Like you scroll for at least 10 minutes
624
00:30:30.539 --> 00:30:33.019
a day. So if you can carve that out a
625
00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:35.720
couple of times a week and really start working on
626
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.539
your pelvic floor, I mean, the benefits are huge. And
627
00:30:38.579 --> 00:30:41.160
I've had women over the years that are like, I
628
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:42.960
did this before my birth and I had the best
629
00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:46.380
birth experience. I had no tearing or... I've been leaking
630
00:30:46.440 --> 00:30:49.000
for years and I'm finally able to run again. Or,
631
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:50.880
you know, my mom has prolapse and I don't want
632
00:30:50.900 --> 00:30:52.849
to end up like her in diapers. So like, thank
633
00:30:52.869 --> 00:30:56.089
you for giving me resources. And it's very affordable. It's
634
00:30:56.109 --> 00:30:59.970
like $ 21 a month at the cheapest level. And that's
635
00:31:00.009 --> 00:31:04.450
important because not everyone can access, you know, in-person therapy
636
00:31:04.650 --> 00:31:07.970
or out of network, you know, private services. So I
637
00:31:07.990 --> 00:31:11.269
really want this to kind of become the normal for
638
00:31:11.329 --> 00:31:13.390
women's health care so that they can work on their
639
00:31:13.430 --> 00:31:14.650
pelvic floors and prevent issues.
640
00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:17.900
Before I go further, you said prolapse. Could you just
641
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:19.839
tell everybody what that is or what that means?
642
00:31:20.259 --> 00:31:24.140
Yeah. So prolapse is when your pelvic organs aren't supported
643
00:31:24.200 --> 00:31:26.950
well by that hammock of pelvic floor muscles. And so
644
00:31:27.470 --> 00:31:30.349
your bladder, your rectum, or your uterus kind of start
645
00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:32.950
to drop down into the vagina. You might feel a
646
00:31:32.990 --> 00:31:34.910
bulge at the opening of your vagina or like some
647
00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:38.309
things like falling out. And it sounds scary, but it's
648
00:31:38.349 --> 00:31:41.650
really an issue where your muscles are tense and you
649
00:31:41.670 --> 00:31:44.430
might be straining or they're weak and the muscles or
650
00:31:44.710 --> 00:31:46.809
the organs are kind of pushing through. And so by
651
00:31:46.930 --> 00:31:49.990
strengthening your muscles and working on relaxation, you can kind
652
00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:53.319
of actually relift those organs and give them more support.
653
00:31:53.380 --> 00:31:55.940
But it's 50% of women who have given birth have
654
00:31:56.019 --> 00:31:58.680
some degree of prolapse walking around out there. And if
655
00:31:58.700 --> 00:32:02.589
you're lifting heavy weights and not breathing properly, you're engaging
656
00:32:02.630 --> 00:32:05.549
your pelvic floor, if you're straining with bowel movements or
657
00:32:05.750 --> 00:32:07.490
you're pushing when you pee, I mean, all of those
658
00:32:07.509 --> 00:32:10.250
things can contribute and make this issue much worse.
659
00:32:10.990 --> 00:32:14.390
Okay. So when you said pelvic organs, what are the
660
00:32:14.430 --> 00:32:17.009
pelvic organs for women and what are the pelvic organs
661
00:32:17.069 --> 00:32:19.710
for a man so that they know, hey, this is
662
00:32:19.799 --> 00:32:22.039
problem area and it could be related to this?
663
00:32:22.619 --> 00:32:25.819
Right. So in the female body, your uterus, your ovaries,
664
00:32:26.380 --> 00:32:30.109
your bladder, and your bowels. And then you also have
665
00:32:30.250 --> 00:32:32.089
your balls are kind of connected to your colon, so
666
00:32:32.109 --> 00:32:35.619
any kind of digestive issue. For males, it's their bladder,
667
00:32:36.220 --> 00:32:39.700
their balls, which hold stool, and then their prostate. And
668
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.839
men only have two openings. Men only have two openings
669
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.720
in the pelvic floor, one for the urethra through the penis,
670
00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:49.380
and then the anal opening. Females have three openings. They
671
00:32:49.400 --> 00:32:53.359
have the urethra, where urine exits, the anus, where poop exits,
672
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:57.910
and then the vagina for vaginal birth, vaginal intercourse, menstruation. So,
673
00:32:57.990 --> 00:33:01.190
you know, females just have more susceptibility to weakness, too,
674
00:33:01.230 --> 00:33:03.470
because they have an extra hole. But we see that's
675
00:33:03.849 --> 00:33:05.769
the difference between female and male bodies, too.
676
00:33:06.289 --> 00:33:09.710
Okay, so then that would bring this question. If someone
677
00:33:09.910 --> 00:33:12.619
constantly is holding urine or, you know, holding too long
678
00:33:12.660 --> 00:33:16.339
before they go to the bathroom or whatever the case
679
00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:19.960
that that may be, would that potentially cause a pelvic
680
00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:23.019
floor problem for them if they're doing that?
681
00:33:23.819 --> 00:33:26.940
Yes, I see this all of the time. I see
682
00:33:26.980 --> 00:33:30.119
it in teachers, medical professionals, people who don't like to
683
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:35.349
use the bathroom in public. Holding your bladder too long.
684
00:33:35.410 --> 00:33:38.210
So the normal frequency to pee is two to four hours.
685
00:33:38.369 --> 00:33:42.829
If you're going more frequently than that, you're going too frequently.
686
00:33:42.849 --> 00:33:45.250
It's like overactive bladder syndrome, which your pelvic floor is
687
00:33:45.289 --> 00:33:48.509
a component. But if you're holding it longer than four hours,
688
00:33:49.309 --> 00:33:52.670
you can create hypertension in those muscles and then your
689
00:33:52.710 --> 00:33:54.039
bladder gets really full.
690
00:33:54.059 --> 00:33:54.170
Right.
691
00:33:54.569 --> 00:33:57.069
And then when you try to pee, you can't relax.
692
00:33:57.450 --> 00:34:00.349
So then you try to push, you have to sit down,
693
00:34:00.390 --> 00:34:03.329
you strain, you have to push in your stomach to
694
00:34:03.369 --> 00:34:05.710
try to get your bladder to empty. You know, there's
695
00:34:05.789 --> 00:34:08.789
all of these things that it can totally lead to
696
00:34:08.829 --> 00:34:11.190
a pelvic floor issue. And it can even lead to
697
00:34:11.230 --> 00:34:13.690
a urinary tract infection because you're not emptying your bladder
698
00:34:13.750 --> 00:34:17.329
frequently enough. And then bacteria accumulates in the bladder and
699
00:34:17.349 --> 00:34:20.590
creates an infection. So I always tell people pee when
700
00:34:20.610 --> 00:34:24.010
you have the urge to pee. Like don't overhold it.
701
00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:27.190
And I think people can go too frequently or too infrequently.
702
00:34:27.269 --> 00:34:28.849
And both of those are pelvic floor problems.
703
00:34:29.650 --> 00:34:32.030
So by holding it, you could potentially have a twofold
704
00:34:32.070 --> 00:34:34.969
problem by creating a urinary tract infection and creating a
705
00:34:35.010 --> 00:34:37.670
pelvic floor issue and did a double whammy on yourself.
706
00:34:37.809 --> 00:34:39.289
So there's multiple things that could happen.
707
00:34:39.309 --> 00:34:39.710
Okay.
708
00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:43.469
On top of not feeling so good while you're holding it. Right.
709
00:34:44.269 --> 00:34:46.550
you know, if you hold urine too long, it can,
710
00:34:46.610 --> 00:34:48.590
sometimes it can give you a headache. Sometimes it can
711
00:34:48.610 --> 00:34:51.409
make your heart flutter. Sometimes it can make you like nauseous.
712
00:34:51.530 --> 00:34:53.010
I mean, there's a lot of things that I've seen
713
00:34:53.050 --> 00:34:55.969
people have, or even myself when I've been like, Oh,
714
00:34:56.010 --> 00:34:57.489
I'm driving. I don't want to stop. Cause it's a
715
00:34:57.510 --> 00:35:00.099
long distance drive, for example, you know, something like that.
716
00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:03.099
And so that's good to know. And I had the
717
00:35:03.179 --> 00:35:06.179
feeling that that might be the case. Here's another question.
718
00:35:06.219 --> 00:35:09.219
So for instance, like when I'm trained to athletes and
719
00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:12.179
been a personal trainer for 20 years now, I guess
720
00:35:12.260 --> 00:35:15.650
I guess I'm getting older, but, um, So one of
721
00:35:15.690 --> 00:35:17.590
the things that you have to be careful of is
722
00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:20.320
even with abs, their muscles, you don't want to overtrain them.
723
00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:22.880
If you overtrain them, you can potentially go backwards when
724
00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:26.219
it comes to your pelvic floor and you're training them.
725
00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:29.699
Is it wise to like do a set of your
726
00:35:29.699 --> 00:35:32.210
10 minute exercises one day, take a day off, do
727
00:35:32.250 --> 00:35:34.829
it again? Or can we overtrain those muscles? Can we
728
00:35:34.949 --> 00:35:38.289
undertrain those muscles? What's the recommended protocol? And I know
729
00:35:38.329 --> 00:35:40.969
that probably depends on the severity of what's there or
730
00:35:41.030 --> 00:35:43.449
what's not, but let's just talk about a maintenance plan.
731
00:35:43.860 --> 00:35:46.050
Yeah. This is such a great question because these are
732
00:35:46.090 --> 00:35:48.389
muscles like any other muscle in your body. You can
733
00:35:48.630 --> 00:35:51.610
absolutely overtrain them. You know, I had a gentleman who
734
00:35:51.829 --> 00:35:54.110
years ago I was seeing him. He had urinary leakage
735
00:35:54.190 --> 00:35:56.789
after his prostate was removed. After you have prostate cancer,
736
00:35:56.809 --> 00:35:58.909
they can remove your prostate and it can lead to
737
00:35:58.949 --> 00:36:03.800
erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. And he was doing 2,000
738
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:06.440
Kegels a day. And when I went in to assess
739
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:10.159
his muscles, he had so much pain and spasm in
740
00:36:10.219 --> 00:36:13.320
his pelvic floor that And he was like, I'm sitting
741
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:14.800
in a truck and I'm a truck driver. So I'm
742
00:36:14.820 --> 00:36:16.590
just like doing Kegels all day. And I was like,
743
00:36:16.619 --> 00:36:18.929
but you don't need, just like, you don't need 2000
744
00:36:18.929 --> 00:36:22.510
bicep curls, right? Like, what would you say? You want to,
745
00:36:22.730 --> 00:36:26.070
you want to load, you want to work to fatigue.
746
00:36:26.150 --> 00:36:29.949
You want to gradually increase intensity. You can do heavier loads.
747
00:36:29.969 --> 00:36:32.070
You can do more reps, but like you do three
748
00:36:32.130 --> 00:36:35.880
sets of 10 max. Right. And so it's, it's about
749
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:40.409
gradual strengthening, but you don't need more than 30, you know?
750
00:36:40.429 --> 00:36:42.590
But the other thing is you have to bring this
751
00:36:42.690 --> 00:36:46.349
muscle into function. So if you're at the gym and
752
00:36:46.409 --> 00:36:48.590
you're like, oh, I have pelvic floor weakness, right? Or
753
00:36:48.610 --> 00:36:50.170
I want to make sure I'm protecting my core and
754
00:36:50.190 --> 00:36:53.789
my pelvic floor. I would guide you to engage your
755
00:36:53.829 --> 00:36:57.309
pelvic floor. So pre-contract. A pelvic floor contraction is what
756
00:36:57.349 --> 00:37:00.449
we also call a Kegel. Do a pelvic floor contraction
757
00:37:00.690 --> 00:37:05.150
prior to lifting, prior to squatting, prior to lunging. You know,
758
00:37:05.829 --> 00:37:08.710
contract these muscles before you load And then make sure
759
00:37:08.730 --> 00:37:11.550
that you're breathing. A really common thing that we see
760
00:37:11.630 --> 00:37:13.929
with a lot of heavyweight lifters and trainers is that
761
00:37:13.949 --> 00:37:16.800
they hold their breath when they're lifting heavy loads. And
762
00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:21.400
it's a compensatory technique. And it's fine to lift heavy loads.
763
00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:24.539
But as a long-term strategy, it will blow out your
764
00:37:24.579 --> 00:37:26.579
pelvic floor. I mean, you'll have hemorrhoids. You can have
765
00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:30.059
rectal prolapse. You can have a hernia, diastasis recti. Because
766
00:37:30.579 --> 00:37:32.659
that air is getting trapped and it doesn't have a
767
00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:34.699
place to go. So it's going to find the path
768
00:37:34.739 --> 00:37:37.170
of least resistance. So in a male body, it might
769
00:37:37.210 --> 00:37:41.170
be an umbilical hernia or a hemorrhoid. But in a
770
00:37:41.289 --> 00:37:44.889
female body, we have vaginas and we have that extra
771
00:37:45.550 --> 00:37:48.099
layer kind of opening of weakness. So it will lead
772
00:37:48.139 --> 00:37:55.280
to prolapse, urinary leakage, pelvic pain, because you're not breathing
773
00:37:55.340 --> 00:37:58.820
while you're contracting. And over time, it can cause dysfunction.
774
00:37:58.900 --> 00:38:03.030
So that's a kind of an icky situation because I
775
00:38:03.110 --> 00:38:05.250
want women to be able to lift heavy. But I'm going,
776
00:38:05.309 --> 00:38:08.170
if you're Your bladder contents are spilling out as you're
777
00:38:08.190 --> 00:38:11.769
doing it. Reach your PR goal, but just know you're
778
00:38:11.809 --> 00:38:14.010
likely causing some pelvic floor dysfunction, just like you may
779
00:38:14.050 --> 00:38:16.929
cause a muscle strain or strain somewhere else in your body,
780
00:38:17.559 --> 00:38:19.519
but it is affecting your pelvic floor, which could lead
781
00:38:19.559 --> 00:38:20.539
to a more severe issue.
782
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:24.760
And that's something to be cognizant of. I get some
783
00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:26.920
kickback on this, but I always teach people you have
784
00:38:26.960 --> 00:38:30.610
to lift smarter, not heavier. Yes, I want people to
785
00:38:30.710 --> 00:38:33.250
lift a good amount of weight, especially as we get
786
00:38:33.449 --> 00:38:35.760
older and That's not the wisest thing in the world
787
00:38:35.800 --> 00:38:39.940
to do because essentially as we get older and as
788
00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:42.769
we age, there's a bunch of degradation going on throughout
789
00:38:42.809 --> 00:38:45.710
our bodies, whether it's bone, muscle, joints, ligaments, tendons, all
790
00:38:45.730 --> 00:38:48.150
of that and all that pressure. And it all applies.
791
00:38:48.489 --> 00:38:51.500
And there's no good or point in trying to lift
792
00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:53.579
too heavy and then hurting yourself and being on the
793
00:38:53.619 --> 00:38:57.010
shelf forever. And I get these people that have kicked
794
00:38:57.050 --> 00:38:58.429
back and be, oh, you got to lift heavy to
795
00:38:58.449 --> 00:39:01.760
gain muscle. Really? Because I've trained Mr. Olympia athletes with
796
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:04.860
15 pound dumbbells, screaming and crying. If you do it right,
797
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:06.920
you do eccentric movements and teach them how to do
798
00:39:06.980 --> 00:39:10.320
it properly. But, you know, people get this one track mind.
799
00:39:10.340 --> 00:39:12.119
And then just like you pointed out, it can have a,
800
00:39:12.679 --> 00:39:15.619
a trickle down effect all throughout your body, right? Doing
801
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:19.079
things that are not necessary to do unless you're in
802
00:39:19.099 --> 00:39:21.820
a powerlifting competition. And I'm not saying don't I'm not
803
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:24.119
saying lift baby weights all day, but what I'm saying
804
00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:26.860
is do it smarter, do it wiser. And that's just,
805
00:39:27.230 --> 00:39:29.429
it all correlates and trickles down. Now you brought up
806
00:39:29.469 --> 00:39:33.400
a hernia. and that immediately took me to, is there
807
00:39:33.480 --> 00:39:36.199
any sort of correlation between like a weakening of the
808
00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:42.929
abdominal walls there that would potentially cause that weakening from
809
00:39:42.949 --> 00:39:48.010
a pelvic floor issue? Is that possible? Or Look at
810
00:39:48.030 --> 00:39:50.769
it from the other way. Could developing a hernia cause
811
00:39:50.829 --> 00:39:53.969
weakness down there? Let's like invert these in which or
812
00:39:54.070 --> 00:39:55.110
both is accurate.
813
00:39:56.219 --> 00:39:58.400
Yeah, you have the way that your brain works, Dylan,
814
00:39:58.440 --> 00:40:01.239
is you're really like following this track and the answer
815
00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:03.360
is yes. It's like you're like cluing into all these things.
816
00:40:03.380 --> 00:40:06.519
I'm like, that's correct. So you have different layers of
817
00:40:06.539 --> 00:40:09.800
your abdominals and the deepest layer is called your transverse abdominals.
818
00:40:09.820 --> 00:40:12.820
That kind of wraps, you know, all the way around
819
00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:15.500
from your deep abs to your low back. And then
820
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:19.070
you've got your layers of... oblique abdominals, and then you've
821
00:40:19.090 --> 00:40:21.199
got your six pack rectus muscles, right? Those are kind
822
00:40:21.219 --> 00:40:23.920
of the out muscles that you have. I know you've
823
00:40:23.940 --> 00:40:25.760
seen yours. I've never seen mine, but I've heard that
824
00:40:25.800 --> 00:40:29.159
they're in there. But all that being said, that deepest layer,
825
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:33.389
the transverse abdominals connect to your pelvic floor. So when
826
00:40:33.429 --> 00:40:37.539
you activate your pelvic floor contraction, when you contract, Your
827
00:40:37.639 --> 00:40:40.880
deep abdominal transverse muscles contract at the same time. They
828
00:40:40.900 --> 00:40:44.059
work in synergy. You can't isolate them separately. So if
829
00:40:44.099 --> 00:40:47.199
you're engaging your deep pelvic floor muscles, your deep ab
830
00:40:47.239 --> 00:40:51.360
muscles are also firing. And that's actually the biggest reason
831
00:40:51.380 --> 00:40:53.840
that a lot of people have back pain or they
832
00:40:53.860 --> 00:40:56.500
can develop hernias or is because they're not activating the
833
00:40:56.579 --> 00:40:59.159
deep core. They're only doing rectus work or oblique work.
834
00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:02.280
And so before you even do any ab work, I'm like,
835
00:41:02.420 --> 00:41:05.050
pull your pelvic floor, your perineum, which is kind of
836
00:41:05.090 --> 00:41:07.690
the midline of your, we call it the taint, you know,
837
00:41:07.750 --> 00:41:10.929
in like urban dictionary, but the area kind of just
838
00:41:10.969 --> 00:41:12.670
at the base of your vagina or penis, and you
839
00:41:12.769 --> 00:41:15.730
lift that up and that activates those deep core muscles
840
00:41:15.809 --> 00:41:19.570
while you're working out. The hernia is caused by not
841
00:41:21.510 --> 00:41:24.309
having the correct pressure management, which is likely means you're
842
00:41:24.329 --> 00:41:27.199
not breathing well. Like it likely means you're holding your
843
00:41:27.239 --> 00:41:29.539
breath and that breath is trying to find a place
844
00:41:29.579 --> 00:41:31.139
to go. So it goes towards your belly button. It
845
00:41:31.159 --> 00:41:33.719
goes towards your inguinal area and you've got a hernia.
846
00:41:33.739 --> 00:41:36.400
It's also why disc bulges happen, right? That pressure from
847
00:41:36.460 --> 00:41:38.900
heavy lifting or poor posture has to go somewhere and
848
00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:39.659
you bulge a disc.
849
00:41:40.019 --> 00:41:40.219
Right.
850
00:41:40.300 --> 00:41:43.010
Or you get prolapse or you get a hernia. So
851
00:41:43.050 --> 00:41:46.269
it's trying to find its outward maneuver. I would say
852
00:41:46.309 --> 00:41:48.670
a hernia doesn't cause pelvic floor issues, but it's a
853
00:41:48.809 --> 00:41:52.349
sign of poor pressure management. And when you have that,
854
00:41:52.510 --> 00:41:54.070
it's like, okay, what do I need to be doing
855
00:41:54.110 --> 00:41:56.809
to modify it? Because you can fix the hernia surgically.
856
00:41:56.829 --> 00:41:59.550
And I have a lot of postpartum moms who get
857
00:41:59.590 --> 00:42:01.809
this after giving birth and their belly stretches out. There's
858
00:42:01.829 --> 00:42:03.809
so much pressure in there. It doesn't have anywhere to go.
859
00:42:03.829 --> 00:42:06.840
But if you fix it, there's a 50% chance of
860
00:42:06.889 --> 00:42:10.260
it failing and happening again because you never learned the
861
00:42:10.300 --> 00:42:13.579
right strategies. So to get to your point earlier about like,
862
00:42:13.599 --> 00:42:16.760
you have to kind of look for what's causing the problem.
863
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:20.550
Your breathing, your lifting, your posture, your core. And that
864
00:42:20.570 --> 00:42:23.820
will help kind of give you long-term relief. Okay.
865
00:42:24.420 --> 00:42:28.639
Sweet. Good to know. All right. So I'm thinking, and
866
00:42:28.860 --> 00:42:33.099
because of my background, I automatically always go to diet
867
00:42:33.380 --> 00:42:36.809
and supplements. And I don't know if there's any correlation
868
00:42:36.869 --> 00:42:39.969
here at all in terms of things that we eat
869
00:42:39.989 --> 00:42:42.489
or things that we could potentially take to help any
870
00:42:42.550 --> 00:42:45.250
sort of pelvic you know, issue or is there a
871
00:42:45.329 --> 00:42:47.909
certain types of diet that could have a negative effect
872
00:42:47.969 --> 00:42:50.639
there and maybe not? And are there certain kinds of,
873
00:42:51.670 --> 00:42:55.000
you know, supplements or, or any kinds of medicines or
874
00:42:55.099 --> 00:42:57.260
anything that you put people on that have those kinds
875
00:42:57.320 --> 00:43:01.000
of issues? Because like my mind immediately goes, oh, urinary
876
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:01.780
tract infection.
877
00:43:01.860 --> 00:43:02.099
Okay.
878
00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:04.199
We got cranberry, you know, like different.
879
00:43:03.960 --> 00:43:05.050
Things like that.
880
00:43:05.239 --> 00:43:07.690
And then this is more of a muscle issue, I understand,
881
00:43:07.750 --> 00:43:10.909
but is there any sort of other things that you
882
00:43:10.969 --> 00:43:13.429
treat people with or recommend diet wise that they should
883
00:43:13.449 --> 00:43:15.449
be doing if they have this problem. Yeah.
884
00:43:15.489 --> 00:43:18.380
I mean, the basics are like, if you have constipation,
885
00:43:18.449 --> 00:43:21.159
you're at a high risk of pelvic floor dysfunction. Constipation
886
00:43:21.179 --> 00:43:23.219
is the number one GI complaint in the United States.
887
00:43:23.260 --> 00:43:26.059
And it's super common with kids as well. So if
888
00:43:26.099 --> 00:43:29.760
you're eating too many processed foods, not enough fiber, you're
889
00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:32.989
not getting enough hydration. I mean, the basics are like
890
00:43:33.110 --> 00:43:35.809
you need fruits and veggies. You can take natural fiber
891
00:43:35.829 --> 00:43:38.219
supplements if you want. I'm a big fan of taking
892
00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:42.400
magnesium citrate for constipation. You take it at nighttime. It
893
00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:44.280
makes you a little bit drowsy, but a side effect
894
00:43:44.340 --> 00:43:47.780
is to soften your stool. And so you can have smoother,
895
00:43:47.860 --> 00:43:51.449
easier bowel movements. So yeah, it's a little bit of
896
00:43:51.469 --> 00:43:53.469
the chicken or the egg. If you're constipated, your pelvic
897
00:43:53.489 --> 00:43:55.070
floor is going to be tight. Or if your pelvic
898
00:43:55.090 --> 00:43:58.389
floor is tight, it can cause constipation. But either way,
899
00:43:58.750 --> 00:44:02.750
looking at what you're eating is super important. On the
900
00:44:02.769 --> 00:44:05.670
flip side with your bladder, some things that can irritate
901
00:44:05.690 --> 00:44:08.190
your bladder, you can have them, but if you have
902
00:44:08.489 --> 00:44:11.210
urinary urgency or leakage, you may want to just minimize
903
00:44:11.269 --> 00:44:17.300
how frequently you have them. Citrus juices like grapefruit juice,
904
00:44:17.420 --> 00:44:22.460
orange juice, spicy foods, wine, beer, chocolate, anything acidic will
905
00:44:22.500 --> 00:44:28.110
cause more bladder urgency and frequency. If you leak urine
906
00:44:28.190 --> 00:44:29.969
and you're going to go stand at a football game
907
00:44:29.989 --> 00:44:32.090
for hours and you love to have beer, like just be,
908
00:44:32.250 --> 00:44:33.679
know that you're going to have to pee a lot
909
00:44:33.719 --> 00:44:35.719
and you might want to be prepared to, if you
910
00:44:35.760 --> 00:44:37.639
leak urine or something like that, to have a backup.
911
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:40.179
But if you, or if you have a really important
912
00:44:40.199 --> 00:44:42.440
meeting and you know, coffee irritates your bladder and makes
913
00:44:42.460 --> 00:44:44.780
you pee, then, you know, maybe hold on the coffee
914
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:48.090
until after the meeting, things like that. They're fine to have,
915
00:44:48.139 --> 00:44:50.849
but just knowing the effect on your body is important.
916
00:44:51.659 --> 00:44:54.570
When it comes to supplements, so I, I mean, I
917
00:44:54.590 --> 00:44:57.789
take my own for perimenopause, which, you know, I take ashwagandha,
918
00:44:57.809 --> 00:45:00.690
I take fish oil, I take Vitex berry. I mean,
919
00:45:00.710 --> 00:45:02.750
I kind of take the standard ones that I think
920
00:45:02.789 --> 00:45:04.739
a lot of folks take. I'm actually a huge fan
921
00:45:04.760 --> 00:45:07.679
of CBD because I think that it can kind of
922
00:45:07.719 --> 00:45:10.400
have a very chill effect. And often when people have
923
00:45:10.460 --> 00:45:13.699
really upregulated nervous systems, they have tension in their pelvic floor.
924
00:45:14.449 --> 00:45:17.889
So everything from oral CBD, CBD lotions, but I also
925
00:45:17.929 --> 00:45:20.690
recommend CBD suppositories that you can put in your vagina
926
00:45:20.849 --> 00:45:23.219
or your rectum to help the muscles relax. It can
927
00:45:23.239 --> 00:45:25.519
also be found in some lubricants if you're using it
928
00:45:25.559 --> 00:45:29.639
for sexual activity. I'm a big fan of collagen because
929
00:45:29.659 --> 00:45:33.570
we have estrogen is responsible for making the protein of collagen.
930
00:45:33.639 --> 00:45:37.380
And when you have less estrogen when you're postpartum, And breastfeeding,
931
00:45:37.420 --> 00:45:40.800
when you're on hormonal birth control or you're perimenopausal or menopausal,
932
00:45:41.099 --> 00:45:44.519
you have less collagen. And collagen can weaken your tissues,
933
00:45:44.579 --> 00:45:48.059
give you less pelvic organ support, and lead to incontinence.
934
00:45:48.519 --> 00:45:52.539
So I like people to take collagen. I don't know
935
00:45:52.579 --> 00:45:55.380
much about creatine, so I don't comment on that a ton.
936
00:45:55.599 --> 00:45:57.760
But I think that there are some supplements that you
937
00:45:57.800 --> 00:45:59.679
can take, but it's a combination. It's like you can't
938
00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:01.900
just take ashwagandha and think your pelvic floor is going
939
00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:05.239
to be better. It's always a piece of the puzzle,
940
00:46:05.360 --> 00:46:08.090
but it's not just I think our society still wants
941
00:46:08.110 --> 00:46:11.510
this like magic pill or this like silver bullet and
942
00:46:11.809 --> 00:46:12.869
it just doesn't exist.
943
00:46:13.750 --> 00:46:16.889
No, it does not. And there is no such thing.
944
00:46:16.909 --> 00:46:18.349
And you have to do the work no matter what
945
00:46:18.389 --> 00:46:20.550
you take. It doesn't matter. You can take, I always
946
00:46:20.590 --> 00:46:23.210
tell people, I can put you on everything under the sun,
947
00:46:23.670 --> 00:46:25.769
but it doesn't mean it's going to do anything for you.
948
00:46:25.829 --> 00:46:29.000
If you're, first of all, if you're hormonally off, that's
949
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:31.860
the step one where, and then step two is you
950
00:46:31.900 --> 00:46:34.199
actually got to do something. I mean, it just doesn't work.
951
00:46:35.550 --> 00:46:37.789
Totally. And people are like, how do you strengthen your
952
00:46:37.829 --> 00:46:40.230
pelvic floor? I'm like, you have to exercise. And they're like, well,
953
00:46:40.250 --> 00:46:41.730
do I have to do it forever? And I'm like, well,
954
00:46:41.750 --> 00:46:43.389
do you have to brush your teeth forever? Like you
955
00:46:43.409 --> 00:46:45.599
don't have to, but your teeth will get like gross
956
00:46:45.619 --> 00:46:48.039
and you'll get cavity. So it's really a choice, you know?
957
00:46:48.139 --> 00:46:49.639
And I don't mean to be glib about it, but
958
00:46:49.659 --> 00:46:51.760
it's like, this is, if we want to take care
959
00:46:51.800 --> 00:46:54.139
of our bodies, we like have to take care of
960
00:46:54.219 --> 00:46:58.119
our bodies. And, you know, pelvic floor dysfunction is associated
961
00:46:58.199 --> 00:47:01.809
with depression, higher risk of ending up in a nursing home.
962
00:47:02.360 --> 00:47:05.239
higher rates of surgery. And so I'm just like, what
963
00:47:05.300 --> 00:47:07.739
can we do to care for our bodies in the
964
00:47:07.780 --> 00:47:10.969
long term? I don't want to spend gobs of money
965
00:47:11.230 --> 00:47:12.949
on diapers when I'm older. I want to be able
966
00:47:12.969 --> 00:47:14.809
to travel. I want to be able to run three
967
00:47:14.849 --> 00:47:17.250
miles for the rest of my life. And so how
968
00:47:17.289 --> 00:47:20.179
do we help keep people with a really high quality
969
00:47:20.239 --> 00:47:24.400
of life into our later years, which is now 40s, 50s, 60s,
970
00:47:24.440 --> 00:47:27.860
we start seeing our body changing so significantly. But if
971
00:47:27.880 --> 00:47:29.860
you have a pelvic floor issue, it can really affect that.
972
00:47:29.900 --> 00:47:33.199
And even relationships, like if You can't have sex or
973
00:47:33.239 --> 00:47:34.900
it's painful. I mean, these can cause a lot of
974
00:47:34.980 --> 00:47:38.449
marital relationship challenges. If you can't have sex, you may
975
00:47:38.489 --> 00:47:41.469
struggle to get pregnant. I mean, the effects go so
976
00:47:41.650 --> 00:47:44.590
deep that I don't think we realize how much powerful
977
00:47:44.630 --> 00:47:47.789
issues can really influence someone's life. But that's why I'm
978
00:47:47.829 --> 00:47:50.210
so passionate about giving people the resources for help.
979
00:47:51.070 --> 00:47:53.309
And I would point this out with what you just said.
980
00:47:53.469 --> 00:47:56.429
If you actually, because I do this a lot, where
981
00:47:56.630 --> 00:47:59.630
I'll actually sit down and start to do a full
982
00:47:59.670 --> 00:48:03.170
breakdown of, okay, So how many minutes a day do
983
00:48:03.210 --> 00:48:05.250
I spend doing the X, Y, Z? You know what
984
00:48:05.289 --> 00:48:06.809
I mean? And you'll sit there and you'll do that.
985
00:48:06.849 --> 00:48:08.989
And when you act put out to do something that's
986
00:48:09.030 --> 00:48:11.730
so minimal and so easy. And what am I doing
987
00:48:11.750 --> 00:48:14.610
in place of that? And is that helping me in
988
00:48:14.809 --> 00:48:17.449
any sort of way whatsoever to be a happier person?
989
00:48:18.110 --> 00:48:21.070
Am I thinking long term on what this could benefit
990
00:48:21.110 --> 00:48:23.320
me or hurt me? And when you start to do
991
00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:25.360
that and then you break it down, you go, oh, shit.
992
00:48:25.539 --> 00:48:28.780
Like in a few minutes a day. And actually, once
993
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:32.409
you develop a habit, especially a good one, You never
994
00:48:32.449 --> 00:48:35.489
want to miss it. I mean, you get bad habits
995
00:48:35.530 --> 00:48:37.010
and you say it's hard to break. But when you
996
00:48:37.030 --> 00:48:39.570
develop good ones. So if I miss the gym or
997
00:48:39.610 --> 00:48:41.449
if I miss a day of walking or a day
998
00:48:41.489 --> 00:48:45.139
of cardio, I am not pleasant at all. I mean, admittedly,
999
00:48:45.179 --> 00:48:48.820
I'm just not because I'm miserable. And it's I think
1000
00:48:48.880 --> 00:48:52.380
people if they actually it takes a week to two
1001
00:48:52.420 --> 00:48:55.219
weeks to get pushed through something and develop a habit.
1002
00:48:55.380 --> 00:48:56.860
And then once you do it, you never want to
1003
00:48:56.900 --> 00:48:59.480
be without it, especially when it's something good. And it's
1004
00:48:59.900 --> 00:49:02.719
you wean yourself off bad foods. Well, once you have
1005
00:49:02.739 --> 00:49:05.139
them after a month or two months, they taste like shit.
1006
00:49:05.719 --> 00:49:08.139
You know, it's like somebody that smoked. If you stop
1007
00:49:08.179 --> 00:49:10.659
smoking six months and then you start again, it'll blow
1008
00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:12.469
you away how gross it is. I did that with
1009
00:49:12.590 --> 00:49:14.610
alcohol when I used to party and then I didn't
1010
00:49:14.650 --> 00:49:16.309
drink for a couple of years. And then I did
1011
00:49:16.429 --> 00:49:18.110
like now I can't even have half a drink and
1012
00:49:18.130 --> 00:49:19.949
I just don't even want to be near it. Right.
1013
00:49:20.960 --> 00:49:23.960
So it's just like anything else, developing good habits is
1014
00:49:24.159 --> 00:49:25.500
the question that I had for you that I was
1015
00:49:25.539 --> 00:49:30.329
thinking of had to do with pregnancy. So do you
1016
00:49:30.409 --> 00:49:34.050
start or recommend somebody that is pregnant say, hey, be
1017
00:49:34.110 --> 00:49:36.610
aware that this could create you a problem. Let's start
1018
00:49:36.650 --> 00:49:39.550
working on this right now. And do you find that
1019
00:49:39.769 --> 00:49:43.949
pregnancy can be very problematic in causing this pelvic floor problem?
1020
00:49:45.050 --> 00:49:45.829
Yes and yes.
1021
00:49:46.219 --> 00:49:46.550
Okay.
1022
00:49:47.940 --> 00:49:50.340
Yes, when you are pregnant, that is the time that
1023
00:49:50.360 --> 00:49:54.099
we often see pelvic floor issues arise. And we don't
1024
00:49:54.179 --> 00:49:57.940
have any standardized postpartum rehab for women in the United States.
1025
00:49:57.989 --> 00:50:01.530
In other countries, they are sent to postpartum therapy, physical therapy,
1026
00:50:02.309 --> 00:50:05.179
like automatically. And we don't have that system here yet.
1027
00:50:06.079 --> 00:50:08.960
But during pregnancy, your pelvic floor muscles are getting weaker
1028
00:50:09.119 --> 00:50:12.219
over time. Your pelvic ligaments are softening and loosening and
1029
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:15.179
you have less stability in those joints, which that's what
1030
00:50:15.239 --> 00:50:17.469
our body's supposed to do. It's designed to do that,
1031
00:50:17.550 --> 00:50:20.429
but you can get pelvic floor issues as a consequence.
1032
00:50:20.469 --> 00:50:23.239
So I always say, you know, your pelvic floor is
1033
00:50:23.260 --> 00:50:25.960
this basket of muscles that supports a growing baby, right?
1034
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:29.639
Your uterus is inside that basket. And the beginning of pregnancy,
1035
00:50:29.659 --> 00:50:32.269
your baby's a size of an avocado, right? And then
1036
00:50:32.309 --> 00:50:35.170
maybe the size of a papaya. By the end, it's
1037
00:50:35.210 --> 00:50:37.469
the size of a watermelon. And so if you think
1038
00:50:37.510 --> 00:50:39.949
about a hammock holding an avocado, it's not going to
1039
00:50:40.130 --> 00:50:42.590
change very much. But if you think about a hammock
1040
00:50:42.630 --> 00:50:46.170
holding a watermelon, that hammock's going to sink down. It's
1041
00:50:46.190 --> 00:50:49.300
going to stretch out. It's going to get weaker. And
1042
00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:52.260
that's what happens during pregnancy. Your pelvic floor gets weaker
1043
00:50:52.420 --> 00:50:56.880
just during pregnancy. And low back pain and urinary leakage
1044
00:50:57.019 --> 00:51:00.920
are present in over like 75 of pregnant moms. Unfortunately,
1045
00:51:01.019 --> 00:51:03.369
doctors will say, oh, just wait until after pregnancy. But
1046
00:51:03.409 --> 00:51:06.010
if you don't address it during pregnancy, it's likely to
1047
00:51:06.070 --> 00:51:09.610
persist after the baby's born. So I always tell women
1048
00:51:09.650 --> 00:51:13.670
like during pregnancy, I really recommend strengthening during the first
1049
00:51:13.750 --> 00:51:16.659
and second trimesters. I have a whole online program for
1050
00:51:16.719 --> 00:51:21.389
pelvic floor strengthening. during pregnancy. And then in that third trimester,
1051
00:51:21.570 --> 00:51:25.489
focus a lot more on relaxation and stretching because you
1052
00:51:25.530 --> 00:51:28.230
need your pelvis to open up and your pelvic floor
1053
00:51:28.269 --> 00:51:31.150
muscles to relax for a vaginal birth. We don't need
1054
00:51:31.230 --> 00:51:34.449
super tight pelvic floors for a birth. We need relaxed
1055
00:51:34.510 --> 00:51:37.110
muscles that can lengthen and coordinate and get out of
1056
00:51:37.150 --> 00:51:39.969
the way for baby to come down the vagina. So
1057
00:51:39.989 --> 00:51:42.840
if they're super tight, it's almost like doesn't allow baby
1058
00:51:42.860 --> 00:51:45.039
to come down. So I focus a lot more on
1059
00:51:45.079 --> 00:51:48.099
like yoga and breathing and learning how to push properly
1060
00:51:48.159 --> 00:51:51.039
and different positions to push in that third trimester. And
1061
00:51:51.079 --> 00:51:56.539
then postpartum, you should do recovery. You should do retraining, re-strengthening,
1062
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:59.139
reconnecting to your pelvic floor and core because it's been
1063
00:51:59.159 --> 00:52:02.440
through 10 months of change and then birth, sometimes which
1064
00:52:02.500 --> 00:52:05.659
required a surgery. So it's definitely a time I think
1065
00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:09.800
women need to be proactive. And we also see a
1066
00:52:09.889 --> 00:52:13.550
lot of issues arise postpartum. And I really encourage women
1067
00:52:13.570 --> 00:52:15.570
to get them addressed, whether it's, you know, you gave
1068
00:52:15.590 --> 00:52:17.650
birth three months ago or three years ago. It's never
1069
00:52:17.710 --> 00:52:21.110
too late. I would definitely get help for the issues
1070
00:52:21.150 --> 00:52:23.010
or read the book and kind of get started because
1071
00:52:23.050 --> 00:52:25.199
there's a lot that you can do and it doesn't
1072
00:52:25.219 --> 00:52:26.219
get better as we age.
1073
00:52:27.199 --> 00:52:30.840
So I know this is a broad question, but who
1074
00:52:30.920 --> 00:52:33.260
is your target audience then with the book and with
1075
00:52:33.300 --> 00:52:35.579
your website? Do you have a general target audience or
1076
00:52:35.599 --> 00:52:37.559
is it just the widest variety possible?
1077
00:52:38.019 --> 00:52:39.159
Yeah, people with vaginas.
1078
00:52:41.889 --> 00:52:42.610
That makes sense.
1079
00:52:43.130 --> 00:52:46.849
No, but really, you know, I think that when people
1080
00:52:47.050 --> 00:52:49.170
like even, you know, my mom's in her 70s and
1081
00:52:49.190 --> 00:52:50.489
she's like, well, I don't know if I need this
1082
00:52:50.550 --> 00:52:53.429
book because I'm in my 70s. I'm going, well, you're
1083
00:52:53.449 --> 00:52:55.230
at a risk of leaking urine. You could end up
1084
00:52:55.269 --> 00:52:58.119
in a nursing home. You pee every 30 minutes when
1085
00:52:58.159 --> 00:53:00.539
I'm with you. Like, yeah, you definitely need this book.
1086
00:53:00.719 --> 00:53:03.000
Or it may be a young woman in her 20s
1087
00:53:03.099 --> 00:53:04.980
that has pain with sex. And she's like, well, I
1088
00:53:04.980 --> 00:53:07.039
don't I'm not pregnant, but and I don't leak. And
1089
00:53:07.059 --> 00:53:09.219
I'm like, yeah, but you might have pain or you're
1090
00:53:09.239 --> 00:53:10.079
sexually active.
1091
00:53:10.639 --> 00:53:10.769
Mm hmm.
1092
00:53:11.050 --> 00:53:14.130
What I really think that I tell everybody is read
1093
00:53:14.170 --> 00:53:16.429
the first chapter and the last chapter. Those are my
1094
00:53:16.510 --> 00:53:18.869
two favorites. I just did the audio book recording and
1095
00:53:18.949 --> 00:53:21.889
reread the whole book. And those two chapters, I think,
1096
00:53:22.449 --> 00:53:26.239
really sum up what's important, what's kind of total BS,
1097
00:53:26.300 --> 00:53:28.760
because there's a lot of like wellness industry stuff for
1098
00:53:28.780 --> 00:53:32.039
the vulva and vagina, why we need this. And then
1099
00:53:32.079 --> 00:53:34.539
you can kind of cherry pick which chapters you like.
1100
00:53:34.559 --> 00:53:36.559
Like if I have a peeing problem, then I'm like, okay,
1101
00:53:36.599 --> 00:53:39.280
read the bladder chapter. If I'm pregnant... then read the
1102
00:53:39.320 --> 00:53:42.750
pregnancy and birth and postpartum chapters. If I'm perimenopausal, read
1103
00:53:42.769 --> 00:53:45.289
the menopause chapter, you know? So kind of go to
1104
00:53:45.329 --> 00:53:47.769
what you need it for, but you're going to go
1105
00:53:47.809 --> 00:53:50.289
through every stage of life as a woman and you
1106
00:53:50.309 --> 00:53:52.230
may be pregnant and postpartum and then a couple of
1107
00:53:52.250 --> 00:53:55.110
years later be perimenopausal, you know, or start having pain
1108
00:53:55.139 --> 00:53:57.099
with sex and then you need to read the sex chapter.
1109
00:53:57.159 --> 00:54:00.219
So I think actually when people read it, they're going to,
1110
00:54:00.500 --> 00:54:02.619
what I do is I tell you what's normal, how
1111
00:54:02.719 --> 00:54:04.840
often should you be peeing? What should sex feel like?
1112
00:54:05.239 --> 00:54:08.789
What is, how do orgasms work? how to insert a tampon.
1113
00:54:08.849 --> 00:54:11.550
I mean, like everything from the basics of your body
1114
00:54:12.090 --> 00:54:15.429
to how should you be peeing and pooping and lifting
1115
00:54:15.449 --> 00:54:18.610
and breathing so that you don't cause an issue. And
1116
00:54:18.690 --> 00:54:21.269
then if you are experiencing issue, what can you do
1117
00:54:21.309 --> 00:54:23.010
at home to start helping with it? Like you can
1118
00:54:23.050 --> 00:54:26.190
start these things right now. And you and I talk
1119
00:54:26.230 --> 00:54:28.510
a lot about like, hey, it's just 10 minutes a
1120
00:54:28.550 --> 00:54:29.929
couple of times a week. And I know some people
1121
00:54:29.969 --> 00:54:31.519
are like, oh my gosh, I can't put another thing
1122
00:54:31.559 --> 00:54:35.280
on my plate. But these are really small changes you
1123
00:54:35.320 --> 00:54:38.300
can make. Literally like Just changing how you sit when
1124
00:54:38.340 --> 00:54:41.559
you poop or changing how you breathe when you lift
1125
00:54:41.840 --> 00:54:45.110
or how to relax your muscles to pee. And all
1126
00:54:45.119 --> 00:54:48.250
of those small changes add up to make a very
1127
00:54:48.369 --> 00:54:52.190
big difference with your body. And so they're not big
1128
00:54:52.269 --> 00:54:54.889
life overhauls I'm asking you to make. It's really small changes,
1129
00:54:54.929 --> 00:54:56.789
but you have to be consistent with them. And it
1130
00:54:56.809 --> 00:54:58.250
can go a really long way for you.
1131
00:54:58.829 --> 00:55:01.440
Yes. And it shouldn't just be what else do I
1132
00:55:01.440 --> 00:55:03.500
have to add onto my plate? It's what kind of
1133
00:55:03.599 --> 00:55:05.980
nonsense am I doing that I can eliminate from my plate?
1134
00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:07.170
Right. Great point.
1135
00:55:07.269 --> 00:55:11.230
Yeah. People will always look one way without factoring in
1136
00:55:11.349 --> 00:55:13.849
the other way, because there's two sides to all of this.
1137
00:55:13.909 --> 00:55:17.010
And so people tend to, their minds just go to
1138
00:55:17.050 --> 00:55:21.750
the negative right away. I've learned to train myself to go, okay,
1139
00:55:22.590 --> 00:55:25.250
before I say this sucks, does it suck? What am
1140
00:55:25.289 --> 00:55:27.070
I doing that sucks that I could replace it with?
1141
00:55:27.139 --> 00:55:29.559
It'll make my life better. So it's an excellent point.
1142
00:55:29.940 --> 00:55:33.079
And that's where I was going with that broad question was,
1143
00:55:33.920 --> 00:55:35.760
I was going to relate this to what I do,
1144
00:55:35.900 --> 00:55:39.230
because There's so many people that go, oh, I'm so young.
1145
00:55:39.250 --> 00:55:40.789
I don't need to do that. Or, you know, this
1146
00:55:40.829 --> 00:55:44.369
doesn't apply to me. And I am so firmly against
1147
00:55:44.409 --> 00:55:46.949
that because there's so many things that you could find early,
1148
00:55:47.030 --> 00:55:49.869
for example, that could prevent a problem later. I found
1149
00:55:49.909 --> 00:55:52.829
a problem with my LP little a, which is a
1150
00:55:53.130 --> 00:55:56.590
genetic issue because I think, oh, I have a perfect diet. Oh,
1151
00:55:56.659 --> 00:55:59.059
I do this and I do that. And so all
1152
00:55:59.099 --> 00:56:01.320
of my cholesterol and all this, oh, it's all okay.
1153
00:56:01.360 --> 00:56:03.719
We'll come to find out it was not. And had
1154
00:56:03.780 --> 00:56:06.489
I not looked when I did that, I mean, I
1155
00:56:06.530 --> 00:56:08.690
could have had a potentially four or five years down
1156
00:56:08.710 --> 00:56:12.150
the road, a big, big problem and caught it early enough,
1157
00:56:12.329 --> 00:56:14.150
even though I was too young. And they'll tell you, oh,
1158
00:56:14.170 --> 00:56:15.710
you don't need to test for this. Oh, you only
1159
00:56:15.730 --> 00:56:18.050
need to test once for this. This is not true stuff.
1160
00:56:18.639 --> 00:56:20.579
And so that's where I was going to drive with
1161
00:56:20.639 --> 00:56:24.679
yours is, hey, you could prevent a problem by checking
1162
00:56:24.719 --> 00:56:27.619
when you're 20 or working on it and catching it
1163
00:56:27.639 --> 00:56:30.619
ahead of time. And that's why, and as a man,
1164
00:56:30.679 --> 00:56:33.539
and I would like to point this out too, There's things,
1165
00:56:33.840 --> 00:56:36.059
for example, like on a blood panel, we have to
1166
00:56:36.119 --> 00:56:38.760
have estrogen, just like you have to have testosterone, but
1167
00:56:38.860 --> 00:56:41.380
men will go, oh, or women will say the same thing.
1168
00:56:41.420 --> 00:56:43.800
And it's like, hey, just because this may be a
1169
00:56:43.980 --> 00:56:48.190
direct correlation with women, as you pointed out, it's important
1170
00:56:48.210 --> 00:56:51.070
for men. So don't just think that it's a women's thing.
1171
00:56:51.489 --> 00:56:53.530
And I'm glad that we talked about this because in
1172
00:56:53.670 --> 00:56:55.869
my mind, I thought it was only a women's thing too.
1173
00:56:56.110 --> 00:56:59.750
And so I just would really hope that any man
1174
00:56:59.889 --> 00:57:04.389
listening to this would say, I've got these problems, this
1175
00:57:04.489 --> 00:57:06.670
might be it, and then come and see you and
1176
00:57:06.730 --> 00:57:10.909
talk to you. Now, at your clinic, is that something
1177
00:57:10.929 --> 00:57:12.869
that anybody can just come to or do they have
1178
00:57:12.889 --> 00:57:14.869
to get a referral from a doctor? How does that work?
1179
00:57:15.510 --> 00:57:17.510
No, in every state in the United States, you can
1180
00:57:17.550 --> 00:57:19.909
go to a pelvic floor therapist without a referral from
1181
00:57:19.969 --> 00:57:24.079
a physician. Sometimes insurance or the state requires you to
1182
00:57:24.159 --> 00:57:27.969
have a physician's approval to continue. In Louisiana, we don't
1183
00:57:28.010 --> 00:57:30.750
have that. You can absolutely just keep coming. But in
1184
00:57:30.889 --> 00:57:32.909
every state, you can at least get an evaluation. So
1185
00:57:32.929 --> 00:57:34.530
if you're like, hey, I'm not sure I want to
1186
00:57:34.570 --> 00:57:36.010
talk to my doctor yet, or I'm not even sure
1187
00:57:36.030 --> 00:57:37.989
if there's a problem, you can find a clinic, go
1188
00:57:38.010 --> 00:57:41.719
to Google, ask your friends. You know, there's, you can
1189
00:57:41.760 --> 00:57:43.980
go on social media and literally type in like pelvic
1190
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:47.539
floor therapist near me or pelvic floor therapy, you know, Louisiana.
1191
00:57:47.579 --> 00:57:49.500
And there's so many people who will pop up. So
1192
00:57:49.559 --> 00:57:51.880
they're all over the place. And I would even say like,
1193
00:57:51.920 --> 00:57:54.340
go check out my blog because there's a ton of
1194
00:57:54.449 --> 00:57:57.090
information on there, not just for women, but it's also
1195
00:57:57.150 --> 00:57:59.809
just like, what is your pelvic floor? What's normal to pee?
1196
00:57:59.889 --> 00:58:02.110
How should you poo? Like sign, do you have a
1197
00:58:02.150 --> 00:58:04.909
pelvic floor issue? And so I think people can start
1198
00:58:04.949 --> 00:58:07.230
going down these rabbit holes and then look around and
1199
00:58:07.429 --> 00:58:11.449
actually understand. you'll realize how many other people are seeking
1200
00:58:11.489 --> 00:58:13.360
help as well, or there could be a clinic down
1201
00:58:13.380 --> 00:58:15.739
the street. So I would say at least get an
1202
00:58:15.780 --> 00:58:18.420
evaluation and see, and then you can always try some
1203
00:58:18.460 --> 00:58:20.800
of the things that help. You can get them from
1204
00:58:20.820 --> 00:58:22.599
your therapist, you can do them from the book, whatever
1205
00:58:22.639 --> 00:58:25.179
the case may be. You can do my online program.
1206
00:58:25.739 --> 00:58:28.090
But I think that the biggest thing, and we talked
1207
00:58:28.130 --> 00:58:30.530
about being proactive about health, is I'm like, you get
1208
00:58:30.690 --> 00:58:34.150
one pelvic floor. And you can't replace it. If we
1209
00:58:34.210 --> 00:58:36.389
know that it can lead to all of these dysfunctions,
1210
00:58:36.429 --> 00:58:39.150
like you have to proactively take care of it and
1211
00:58:39.269 --> 00:58:41.690
recognize early when there's an issue. Because a lot of
1212
00:58:41.750 --> 00:58:44.329
us will have back pain, hip pain, or pelvic floor problems.
1213
00:58:44.349 --> 00:58:47.070
Like it's not, none of us are immune to these issues,
1214
00:58:47.130 --> 00:58:49.489
but if you have them, then I would seek help
1215
00:58:49.550 --> 00:58:52.219
sooner than later because they can be so easy to
1216
00:58:52.260 --> 00:58:56.340
address and so easy to overcome. We just don't talk
1217
00:58:56.380 --> 00:58:58.519
about it, you know, but it's what I talk about
1218
00:58:58.579 --> 00:59:00.420
all day. And so I know how common it is.
1219
00:59:01.480 --> 00:59:04.469
I'm thinking because I have to go to the chiropractor
1220
00:59:04.510 --> 00:59:07.989
so often and I've been in there since I was
1221
00:59:07.989 --> 00:59:12.159
17 with my back and everything. Are there? misalignments in
1222
00:59:12.199 --> 00:59:16.239
your body anywhere, especially lower back, which I know a
1223
00:59:16.300 --> 00:59:18.769
lot of people have shifts in your hips and areas
1224
00:59:18.809 --> 00:59:21.409
like that, that could also cause a problem down there
1225
00:59:21.429 --> 00:59:24.980
that like say, so, so for instance, when I broke
1226
00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:27.119
some vertebraes in my back and it was always strengthen
1227
00:59:27.159 --> 00:59:29.219
your core, strengthen your core, strengthen your core. I said, dude,
1228
00:59:29.280 --> 00:59:31.469
I can't strengthen my core anymore. There's nothing more I
1229
00:59:31.510 --> 00:59:35.570
can do. Is there like something that could be potentially
1230
00:59:35.949 --> 00:59:38.489
out of alignment that no matter what you do could
1231
00:59:38.530 --> 00:59:41.150
then cause it could directly affect your pelvic floor. And
1232
00:59:41.170 --> 00:59:42.969
so you would need to address both of these or
1233
00:59:43.210 --> 00:59:44.750
no matter what you do, you're not going to strengthen
1234
00:59:44.769 --> 00:59:47.489
the pelvic floor until you get the other aspect fixed.
1235
00:59:47.929 --> 00:59:53.329
Correct. So yes, I would say that There are 36
1236
00:59:53.329 --> 00:59:56.320
muscles that attach to the pelvis, your core, your glutes,
1237
00:59:56.539 --> 01:00:00.699
your abs, your pelvic floor muscles, your low back muscles.
1238
01:00:00.739 --> 01:00:04.340
So anything that is influencing one of those muscles can
1239
01:00:04.420 --> 01:00:07.400
influence your pelvic floor. Literally, if you have a labral tear,
1240
01:00:07.519 --> 01:00:09.519
if you have a bulging disc, if you have SI,
1241
01:00:09.559 --> 01:00:13.449
just joint dysfunction, where sometimes there's like a misalignment issue,
1242
01:00:13.469 --> 01:00:16.690
if your pubic symphysis is separated or kind of misaligned,
1243
01:00:17.190 --> 01:00:19.489
all of those things will change the alignment of your
1244
01:00:19.550 --> 01:00:22.719
pelvis and therefore change the the tension and tone in
1245
01:00:22.739 --> 01:00:25.420
your pelvic floor. So that basket of muscles may be
1246
01:00:25.480 --> 01:00:28.519
tighter and shorter on one side or longer and weaker
1247
01:00:28.599 --> 01:00:32.159
on the other side. And sometimes it's an injury or
1248
01:00:32.179 --> 01:00:34.260
an episode that does something like say you had a
1249
01:00:34.300 --> 01:00:37.480
back injury, but the other thing is also chronic postures
1250
01:00:37.519 --> 01:00:39.630
and positions that we assume. So if you sleep a
1251
01:00:39.639 --> 01:00:42.389
certain way or you always hold a baby on one
1252
01:00:42.449 --> 01:00:44.650
hip and your right side is always short and tight,
1253
01:00:45.309 --> 01:00:47.610
or you've got weak hip muscles on one side because
1254
01:00:47.650 --> 01:00:51.389
of an injury, So all of those imbalances influence your
1255
01:00:51.409 --> 01:00:53.820
pelvic floor. And so the way that we actually treat,
1256
01:00:53.860 --> 01:00:56.030
it's not like we go straight to the vagina or anus.
1257
01:00:56.070 --> 01:00:58.150
It's really like peeling layers of an onion. Like I
1258
01:00:58.190 --> 01:01:00.349
look at your posture. I look at your back. Do
1259
01:01:00.369 --> 01:01:05.210
you have surgery, scoliosis, abdominal scars, diastasis recti, a hernia,
1260
01:01:05.289 --> 01:01:07.510
all of those things. I look at your glute strength,
1261
01:01:07.550 --> 01:01:10.469
your hip mobility. And then I work on those things
1262
01:01:10.550 --> 01:01:12.949
and then help kind of get closer, peel that layer
1263
01:01:12.969 --> 01:01:14.769
of the onion, get to the muscles and tissues and
1264
01:01:14.809 --> 01:01:18.570
fascia externally, and then work internally to Because I could
1265
01:01:18.610 --> 01:01:20.550
go in and release your pelvic floor muscles till the
1266
01:01:20.570 --> 01:01:24.269
cows come home. But if you have overactive glutes and
1267
01:01:24.289 --> 01:01:28.769
a piriformis syndrome and a tight QL and rotation, then
1268
01:01:28.809 --> 01:01:30.590
I'm like, I'm not going to get very far because
1269
01:01:30.630 --> 01:01:33.690
those factors are still influencing your pelvic floor. And to
1270
01:01:34.090 --> 01:01:37.179
your point about the core, it's like, I think, again,
1271
01:01:37.239 --> 01:01:39.539
we look at the outside core muscles, but we don't
1272
01:01:39.559 --> 01:01:41.440
look at the deep core muscles. We don't look at
1273
01:01:41.460 --> 01:01:43.920
the pelvic floor and the transverse abs. And I'm like...
1274
01:01:44.329 --> 01:01:46.670
we're putting walls on a house that doesn't even have
1275
01:01:46.710 --> 01:01:50.510
a floor. Like you literally haven't built the foundation. So
1276
01:01:50.690 --> 01:01:53.469
oftentimes I think a lot of athletes that I work
1277
01:01:53.489 --> 01:01:55.369
with get frustrated because I'm like, okay, let's just work
1278
01:01:55.409 --> 01:01:58.699
on some, some heel slides or some leg marches. And
1279
01:01:58.719 --> 01:02:00.199
they're like, God, this is so boring. But I'm like,
1280
01:02:00.260 --> 01:02:03.920
if you don't get the foundation, you can't, you're getting
1281
01:02:03.960 --> 01:02:06.260
to that next level isn't serving you because you don't
1282
01:02:06.300 --> 01:02:10.079
have that deep core engagement and support to support like
1283
01:02:10.179 --> 01:02:12.780
super strong abs and upper body and thighs and all
1284
01:02:12.820 --> 01:02:15.599
these things. So Again, you kind of have to look
1285
01:02:15.880 --> 01:02:17.780
outside and inside about what's going on.
1286
01:02:18.199 --> 01:02:20.260
And that's, once again, we'll go back to it again.
1287
01:02:20.380 --> 01:02:23.679
Addressing the underlying issue to fix the actual issue is
1288
01:02:23.760 --> 01:02:27.619
sometimes what it takes. I'm glad you talked about the assessment.
1289
01:02:27.679 --> 01:02:31.190
So let's say, for instance, I come into you and
1290
01:02:31.210 --> 01:02:33.469
you start giving me an assessment. One, would you take
1291
01:02:33.489 --> 01:02:35.630
an x-ray if you think there's an issue? Is that
1292
01:02:35.670 --> 01:02:37.889
something you do? And two, let's say that you see
1293
01:02:38.130 --> 01:02:41.829
I'm just out of whack. And for you to work
1294
01:02:41.929 --> 01:02:43.630
on me, I need to get that fixed first. Is
1295
01:02:43.670 --> 01:02:46.570
that something you say, do you have somebody in-house that
1296
01:02:46.630 --> 01:02:48.449
is like a chiropractic that helps with that? Or is
1297
01:02:48.510 --> 01:02:50.079
it like, hey, you got to go get this taken
1298
01:02:50.099 --> 01:02:51.780
care of first, come back to me, and then we
1299
01:02:51.820 --> 01:02:53.739
can work on this. Like, how does that work when
1300
01:02:53.780 --> 01:02:55.719
you do find these underlying issues?
1301
01:02:56.559 --> 01:03:00.440
So it's in conjunction with. So if somebody has kind
1302
01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:02.960
of a pelvic misalignment or they need some kind of
1303
01:03:02.980 --> 01:03:06.260
chiropractic adjustment, I'll continue to see them while they see
1304
01:03:06.280 --> 01:03:09.760
the chiropractor. Because if you get adjusted, but the muscles
1305
01:03:09.820 --> 01:03:14.059
are still spasmed or overactive, then that displacement is going
1306
01:03:14.079 --> 01:03:16.789
to reoccur. Like the chiropractor is kind of putting it
1307
01:03:16.849 --> 01:03:19.269
back in place, but if you don't fix the muscles
1308
01:03:19.309 --> 01:03:23.190
and tissues and ligaments that are influencing that, then it'll persist.
1309
01:03:23.570 --> 01:03:26.210
So I work on, say you get realigned or I
1310
01:03:26.269 --> 01:03:28.289
release the muscles and tissues, it makes it easier for
1311
01:03:28.329 --> 01:03:31.210
a chiropractor to adjust you. So it's very much in conjunction.
1312
01:03:31.329 --> 01:03:34.059
I don't do, PTs don't do any x-rays. We're not
1313
01:03:34.139 --> 01:03:36.900
licensed to do them, but I also, people aren't coming
1314
01:03:36.940 --> 01:03:38.280
in to see me for a fracture.
1315
01:03:38.300 --> 01:03:38.760
Yeah.
1316
01:03:39.579 --> 01:03:41.199
Most often people aren't coming in to see us for
1317
01:03:41.300 --> 01:03:44.460
acute pain. We can work with chiros and physicians to
1318
01:03:44.539 --> 01:03:46.460
get that. But I would say most often that's not
1319
01:03:46.500 --> 01:03:49.070
what we see. What I do do though, is I
1320
01:03:49.369 --> 01:03:51.789
absolutely refer to a physician of like, I think that there's,
1321
01:03:52.309 --> 01:03:53.789
you know, I've had two women come in who have
1322
01:03:53.829 --> 01:03:55.849
pain with sex. And when I'm working on them, they
1323
01:03:55.869 --> 01:03:59.190
have this deep hip pain and their hips are so
1324
01:03:59.269 --> 01:04:01.019
overactive and they've got popping and clicking. And I'm like,
1325
01:04:01.059 --> 01:04:02.739
I think you have a labral tear. And then I'll
1326
01:04:02.800 --> 01:04:05.019
refer them to an orthopedist and they get an MRI
1327
01:04:05.059 --> 01:04:07.179
and they do have a labral tear. but the hip
1328
01:04:07.219 --> 01:04:10.949
dysfunction is influencing the pelvic floor. So you kind of
1329
01:04:10.989 --> 01:04:13.510
just have to have your thinking cap on is to
1330
01:04:13.550 --> 01:04:16.630
like look outside the pelvic floor muscles. But we work
1331
01:04:16.650 --> 01:04:19.989
with and collaborate with other practitioners all of the time.
1332
01:04:20.090 --> 01:04:23.510
I think that that's a real strength of physical therapists.
1333
01:04:23.550 --> 01:04:25.849
I think sometimes other practitioners are like, no, we're just
1334
01:04:25.889 --> 01:04:27.670
going to do this or we're just going to do
1335
01:04:27.730 --> 01:04:30.400
medicine or we're just going to do surgery where we're
1336
01:04:30.440 --> 01:04:32.940
really thinking about like all the different aspects and really
1337
01:04:33.039 --> 01:04:36.219
trying to collaborate to do what is most supported in
1338
01:04:36.260 --> 01:04:38.760
the evidence is to have like multidisciplinary care.
1339
01:04:39.480 --> 01:04:42.559
That's the key. When I stopped being resistant to talking,
1340
01:04:42.760 --> 01:04:45.820
like I was very territorial when I started making videos
1341
01:04:46.039 --> 01:04:47.800
at like way, way back. Cause I was one of
1342
01:04:47.820 --> 01:04:49.389
the only people talking about what I did and I
1343
01:04:49.449 --> 01:04:52.269
wasn't working with anyone. Once I put that guard down
1344
01:04:52.309 --> 01:04:54.570
and collaborated with people and work together with people, I
1345
01:04:54.630 --> 01:04:57.269
figured out how much more we could accomplish together and
1346
01:04:57.989 --> 01:05:00.949
do this and put your, you're being very selfish by thinking,
1347
01:05:00.989 --> 01:05:03.980
you know, everything is, and not working with others to
1348
01:05:04.079 --> 01:05:06.400
fix somebody's problem. You know what I mean? So that's
1349
01:05:06.440 --> 01:05:10.670
really a real pleasure to hear that there's, I was
1350
01:05:10.730 --> 01:05:13.449
probably just an outlier doing the way that I did,
1351
01:05:13.469 --> 01:05:15.969
you know, and being such a prick, but it's really.
1352
01:05:17.630 --> 01:05:19.510
It's not a prick. I mean, it's what we're trained
1353
01:05:19.590 --> 01:05:22.059
to do. You know, like our system is siloed. Like
1354
01:05:22.119 --> 01:05:24.480
you go see one person for the one thing, but
1355
01:05:25.130 --> 01:05:27.409
I think as we grow as practitioners, like I didn't
1356
01:05:27.449 --> 01:05:30.010
used to work with chiropractors and now I, all of
1357
01:05:30.050 --> 01:05:32.849
my pregnant patients are seeing chiropractors and, you know, things
1358
01:05:32.889 --> 01:05:34.380
like that. And so I think it's a way you
1359
01:05:34.409 --> 01:05:38.019
kind of find, you also find the people who kind
1360
01:05:38.039 --> 01:05:40.139
of align with your philosophies, you know?
1361
01:05:40.159 --> 01:05:40.230
Yep.
1362
01:05:41.000 --> 01:05:43.159
And so I think that, you know, as I practice,
1363
01:05:43.179 --> 01:05:45.659
I'm like, I don't know everything by any means. I
1364
01:05:45.679 --> 01:05:48.550
just know a lot about a very small topic. Yes.
1365
01:05:49.360 --> 01:05:52.159
That I can help you with. Outside of that, we'll
1366
01:05:52.199 --> 01:05:53.300
find the right person for you.
1367
01:05:53.820 --> 01:05:56.820
I always say that. I don't know everything. I'm just
1368
01:05:56.860 --> 01:05:58.920
very good at what I do, but I still defer.
1369
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:01.239
I have mentors I defer to that I go to
1370
01:06:01.300 --> 01:06:02.969
for help and I don't have an answer. I'll get
1371
01:06:03.010 --> 01:06:05.289
you one. I'm not going to front like I have
1372
01:06:05.309 --> 01:06:09.130
them all because no human really does. So I think
1373
01:06:09.170 --> 01:06:12.659
that's important to do that as well. So when it
1374
01:06:12.739 --> 01:06:14.960
comes to other things you offer on your website, I
1375
01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:17.789
know you've got blog posts. I mean, you're constantly updating
1376
01:06:17.829 --> 01:06:22.050
people with information and helping people. And I mean, do you,
1377
01:06:22.550 --> 01:06:25.610
you're constantly coming up with new methods, new teachings, and
1378
01:06:25.889 --> 01:06:28.530
then anybody can come and listen to you or watch you. Right.
1379
01:06:28.610 --> 01:06:29.719
I mean, right.
1380
01:06:29.860 --> 01:06:31.019
Is that free for everybody?
1381
01:06:31.039 --> 01:06:35.039
So on social media, my handle on Instagram is the
1382
01:06:35.079 --> 01:06:37.500
vagina whisperer where you can just, I have so much
1383
01:06:37.559 --> 01:06:42.530
information on there. And then I, I also have my website, thevaginawhisper.com
1384
01:06:42.570 --> 01:06:44.710
has all my blog, which is totally free. I have
1385
01:06:44.730 --> 01:06:47.349
a bunch of free guides for everything from birth to
1386
01:06:47.409 --> 01:06:52.219
pelvic floor, you know, relaxation for painful sex, for perimenopause, just,
1387
01:06:52.300 --> 01:06:55.840
you know, resources for folks. And then we offer online consultation.
1388
01:06:55.880 --> 01:06:57.940
So if you do want to meet with somebody one-on-one,
1389
01:06:58.719 --> 01:07:00.579
it's a really easy way to do that. And then
1390
01:07:00.800 --> 01:07:03.159
of course the membership where people can have kind of
1391
01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:05.809
at-home pelvic floor training programs. And you take a quiz
1392
01:07:05.849 --> 01:07:07.630
so we kind of know what you need help with
1393
01:07:07.690 --> 01:07:10.719
and help direct you down the path. So all of
1394
01:07:10.760 --> 01:07:13.500
that is free except for the membership is paid, but
1395
01:07:13.519 --> 01:07:15.940
it's super affordable. I mean, somebody is like, I'm like,
1396
01:07:15.980 --> 01:07:19.099
it's the cheapest program is $ 21. It's so cheap. And
1397
01:07:19.139 --> 01:07:21.239
I was like, the other day I went and, you know,
1398
01:07:21.280 --> 01:07:23.340
my kids wanted Chick-fil-A. I'm like, I just spent 50
1399
01:07:23.340 --> 01:07:28.079
bucks at Chick-fil-A. What kind of economy is this? You know,
1400
01:07:28.139 --> 01:07:29.860
but it's like you, when you think about what you
1401
01:07:29.889 --> 01:07:33.550
spend money on, I'm like, this is your health. And
1402
01:07:33.650 --> 01:07:37.130
as you mentioned, like, this is the, probably the most
1403
01:07:37.210 --> 01:07:40.269
important thing that we can do. take care of it.
1404
01:07:40.510 --> 01:07:42.010
You know, we do live in a system where I'm like,
1405
01:07:42.070 --> 01:07:44.949
you have to be the advocate for yourself. Like solutions
1406
01:07:44.989 --> 01:07:47.250
are not going to fall into your lap. Physicians are
1407
01:07:47.289 --> 01:07:49.530
not going to always ask you the right questions and
1408
01:07:49.590 --> 01:07:51.889
lead you to the right person. Like you have to
1409
01:07:51.949 --> 01:07:55.510
really dig and fight and advocate for yourself because it's
1410
01:07:55.590 --> 01:07:57.510
just the way that it is, you know? And so
1411
01:07:57.570 --> 01:07:59.760
I really encourage folks if they think they have a
1412
01:07:59.800 --> 01:08:03.760
problem or they're experiencing one to like check out the website,
1413
01:08:03.860 --> 01:08:05.960
buy the book, take the quiz, whatever it is, but
1414
01:08:06.639 --> 01:08:10.199
just start somewhere. Just make one change. And I think
1415
01:08:10.239 --> 01:08:13.820
you'll realize that, again, like these really simple things can
1416
01:08:13.860 --> 01:08:17.220
go a really long way. And I'm also like, I
1417
01:08:17.260 --> 01:08:19.720
want to have great sex until I die. I want
1418
01:08:19.739 --> 01:08:21.899
to run forever. I want to work out forever. So
1419
01:08:21.939 --> 01:08:24.880
like why would I not do the things to help
1420
01:08:25.239 --> 01:08:29.289
me be able to do that? And– You know, I'm
1421
01:08:29.329 --> 01:08:31.590
in perimenopause right now and I think that there's a
1422
01:08:31.609 --> 01:08:34.210
lot of doom and gloom around kind of this stage
1423
01:08:34.369 --> 01:08:36.760
for women, but I really see it as like a runway.
1424
01:08:36.840 --> 01:08:39.220
I'm like, okay, I've got the yellow lights flashing. I'm like,
1425
01:08:39.279 --> 01:08:41.760
you need to strength train. You need to eat better.
1426
01:08:41.840 --> 01:08:43.380
You need to take care of your body. You need
1427
01:08:43.399 --> 01:08:46.329
to strengthen your pelvic floor. You need to, you know, like,
1428
01:08:47.100 --> 01:08:49.119
just like we take care of our skin externally, like
1429
01:08:49.199 --> 01:08:51.460
take care of your insides too. And so I really
1430
01:08:51.500 --> 01:08:53.439
look at it as an opportunity to like, I get
1431
01:08:53.510 --> 01:08:57.189
this warning signal before my hormones completely shift. Listen to them,
1432
01:08:57.350 --> 01:08:59.869
like be proactive and feel in control of your health.
1433
01:08:59.960 --> 01:09:01.520
instead of feeling like it's controlling you.
1434
01:09:02.140 --> 01:09:05.130
Absolutely. Do you do any like live speaking? Do you
1435
01:09:05.149 --> 01:09:06.329
do that anywhere? No, I mean. You should.
1436
01:09:06.949 --> 01:09:07.359
Not yet.
1437
01:09:07.550 --> 01:09:07.810
I mean.
1438
01:09:07.829 --> 01:09:09.489
You should.
1439
01:09:12.159 --> 01:09:14.699
You know, I love this topic and it's like just
1440
01:09:14.760 --> 01:09:16.800
a body part to me. It's like an ankle. It's
1441
01:09:16.859 --> 01:09:18.520
not that big of a deal to work with it
1442
01:09:18.579 --> 01:09:21.039
and talk about it. And I'm just really appreciative to
1443
01:09:21.079 --> 01:09:23.199
be able to collaborate with folks like you who are
1444
01:09:23.319 --> 01:09:25.899
open to sharing this information with their communities and not
1445
01:09:25.970 --> 01:09:28.569
making it weird or awkward, but like, hey, let's talk
1446
01:09:28.609 --> 01:09:31.149
about this because, you know, people need to know.
1447
01:09:31.170 --> 01:09:33.789
I think it's weird to not talk about it because
1448
01:09:33.810 --> 01:09:38.569
it's a problem. I mean, really, you should, and I'm
1449
01:09:38.590 --> 01:09:40.529
not just saying this because you're on here, because I
1450
01:09:40.550 --> 01:09:43.680
just Don't do that, but you should be talking and speaking.
1451
01:09:43.739 --> 01:09:46.600
I'm sure that all of these conventions and places would
1452
01:09:46.649 --> 01:09:49.550
be thrilled to have you to talk about something like this.
1453
01:09:49.670 --> 01:09:53.470
It would be very beneficial and very helpful, just something
1454
01:09:53.510 --> 01:09:57.529
to consider to add to your already stacked plate.
1455
01:09:58.750 --> 01:10:00.550
But no, it's really, you know, when people are like,
1456
01:10:00.930 --> 01:10:02.970
where did you come up with these ideas? And I'm like, oh,
1457
01:10:03.029 --> 01:10:06.130
I didn't. People asked. People said, will you write a book?
1458
01:10:06.470 --> 01:10:08.550
Will you do a post about this? Do you have
1459
01:10:08.590 --> 01:10:12.810
a blog about that? Do you offer home workouts? And
1460
01:10:12.829 --> 01:10:15.270
so it's really like I just kind of listen to
1461
01:10:15.329 --> 01:10:18.170
what people say. And if I'm able to do it,
1462
01:10:18.220 --> 01:10:21.479
I'll do it. And I think it's really the strength
1463
01:10:21.560 --> 01:10:23.880
of you and me. It's just like if you listen
1464
01:10:23.939 --> 01:10:27.039
to what people are saying, they'll tell you what they need.
1465
01:10:27.159 --> 01:10:30.039
And if we can help them, we'll do it. And
1466
01:10:30.100 --> 01:10:33.399
so it's just been a real honor, to be honest,
1467
01:10:33.439 --> 01:10:36.350
to literally... throw up some Instagram posts in 2017. And
1468
01:10:36.680 --> 01:10:39.779
then here I am later, you know, just really loving
1469
01:10:39.819 --> 01:10:42.600
this work and being able to kind of just improve
1470
01:10:42.640 --> 01:10:45.539
the healthcare of people and their pelvic floors has just
1471
01:10:45.600 --> 01:10:48.279
been a real honor. So it's, I'm having a blast
1472
01:10:48.300 --> 01:10:48.670
doing it.
1473
01:10:49.229 --> 01:10:51.050
Well, you could say this for yourself. You are the
1474
01:10:51.229 --> 01:11:00.289
only vagina whisperer in existence. I can guarantee that. I really,
1475
01:11:00.470 --> 01:11:06.109
really appreciate your time. I learned a ton. today. And
1476
01:11:06.430 --> 01:11:10.449
I really didn't expect to have three fourths of this conversation.
1477
01:11:10.510 --> 01:11:13.670
So it's even better. And I think that this is
1478
01:11:13.710 --> 01:11:16.850
going to be so enlightening for so many people. And
1479
01:11:16.869 --> 01:11:19.710
I think it's going to really, really make people one
1480
01:11:19.750 --> 01:11:23.609
more comfortable and two more aware. So those two things
1481
01:11:23.689 --> 01:11:26.029
right there are some of the biggest hurdles that we
1482
01:11:26.069 --> 01:11:30.180
have to overcome is teaching people and getting their comfort levels.
1483
01:11:30.260 --> 01:11:32.609
And I think And I truly believe that we were
1484
01:11:32.649 --> 01:11:35.260
able to do that today. And I just thank you
1485
01:11:35.310 --> 01:11:38.199
again for your time and really for your efforts and
1486
01:11:38.220 --> 01:11:40.340
your willingness to talk about all of these things.
1487
01:11:40.939 --> 01:11:41.859
Thanks for having me, Dylan.
1488
01:11:42.380 --> 01:11:46.619
Absolutely. All right, everybody. Well, that wraps up another episode.
1489
01:11:46.659 --> 01:11:49.569
I hope everybody enjoyed this and learned a ton from it.
1490
01:11:49.779 --> 01:11:52.739
Stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Gemelli and
1491
01:11:52.819 --> 01:11:54.979
the Vagina Whisperer signing off.