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Don’t you DARE start a new exercise program in 2021 without reading this first!!! 

Our inner core is like a house comprised of a roof (diaphragm), front door (deep abdominals), foundation (pelvic floor), and back door (lumbar multifidus).  Most of us have “houses” that are currently FIXER UPPER projects. 

I would never ask a house with a roof that was caving in or a floor that was leaking to withstand a storm, just as we should NOT expect our bodies to withstand the pressure of a new and poten...

If you are pregnant, especially in this new landscape where staying healthy and safe is even more important, you need to start thinking about strengthening your body (and mind!) from home. 

If I were training an athlete for a triathlon, I would look at the demands of each of the three events and then work backward to design a training program to prepare my athlete for anything. 

Birth is no different. 

It’s one of the most demanding, humbling, and awe-inspiring events your body will ever p...

I’ll never forget giving birth to my first baby and taking a bath sometime that first week. 

I poked, prodded, and pushed my new belly around in the water, wondering if I would ever get my old body “back.”  I remember feeling disconnected, un-tethered, and weak. 

As I slowly re-introduced exercise, I felt different, and I quickly realized that I couldn’t just jump back into my old, familiar exercise routine.  I felt like my 6-week postpartum check-up was anticlimactic:

“What birth control...

Even though I’ve been traveling down the period products aisle at grocery stores for the last, oh, 31 years, I still sometimes get turned around. 

Maybe this has happened to you before too. 

You meant to buy a regular pack of pads with wings, but when you open it up, you discover they’re actually 3 feet long and tickle your belly button or crawl up the small of your back when you stick them in your undies.  You look at that *unhelpful* outline on the package wondering where you went wrong. 

I’ve been working with pregnant women for over 10 years. 

In my Prenatal Pilates class, we start each class with a theme or educational topic. 

During our last class, once we’ve had a chance to get to know one another and let our guard down, the women take turns going around the room and sharing the fears they have approaching their delivery. 

I’ve heard literally hundreds of women bear their souls about what has them shaking in their maternity stockings.  Here are the most popular answers:

Fea...

Dear Owner,

Hello up there from down here.  I was hoping we might have a few words.  You don’t look at me as much as I would like and I feel I have been mis-treated.  In case you haven’t noticed, I am beautiful.  And unique.  See, no two vulvas are exactly alike; we’re like fingerprints and we’re very proud of our individuality.  We don’t like it when you compare us to other vulvas.  Some vulvas have outer lips that completely enclose their contents; other vulvas have outer lips that are parted...

This is one of the most-asked questions I get as a Women’s Health PT and Postnatal Pilates Specialist. 

It’s a question I vividly remember asking myself one week after the birth of my first child when my once flat stomach bubbled up to the surface of the water as I attempted to relax in the tub.  I poked at this flabby skin pouch with a mixture of confusion and fascination.  The body I had once known and had grown to love over the first 28 years of my life (especially as it grew my child for t...

Diastasis Rectus Abdominus, or DRA for those of us short on time(!), is an abnormal separation of the left and right rectus abdominus muscles and can happen in babies, athletes, men, and women!  Having a history of being pregnant (no matter the delivery method) can put you at increased risk for this condition for several reasons. 

Excessive amounts of force on the linea alba (the connective tissue between the rectus muscles)

The abdominal region is the only area where connective tissue runs di...

It seems we’ve gotten a little turned around. 

If I were to have a deliciously healthy breakfast of chicken sausage and onions over a bed of quinoa and then have fast food and soda for lunch and dinner, would you look back on my day and conclude that it was a nutritional day for me? 

Of course not, that would be absurd! 

Yet droves of people are dragging themselves to the gym to sweat it out for an hour, and then slumping back into their cars to drive to work, or collapsing over computer stat...