The Unsung Heroes: Everyday Activities Supported by Pelvic Floor Muscles By PHRC Admin While often overlooked, the pelvic floor muscles are unsung heroes that play a vital role in supporting everyday activities. These muscles, located at the base of the pelvis, provide structural support to our internal organs and facilitate essential functions. In this blog post, we will explore …
Pelvic Floor Education is Coming to Classrooms
By Stephanie A. Prendergast, DPT, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles “Girls aged 12 to 17 should be taught in school how to do pelvic floor exercises, according to new draft health guidelines.” – BBC News For the past 21 years my career has been focused on advancing the field of pelvic health. Last week the BBC posted an article …
Pelvic Floor Muscle Function: Breathing Into Sexual Pleasure
By Karah Charette, DPT, PHRC Berkeley & San Francisco As a human being, you have a right to pleasure- safe, consensual, and sexual pleasure. We are fortunate to participate in a culture where conversations about sexuality and sexual function are becoming more mainstream and accepted. We are now having nuanced conversations about the myriad of factors that affect …
No-Equipment Workout for a Happy Pelvis and Strong Core
By Courtney Edgecomb, DPT, PHRC Los Angeles Even before gyms and group fitness classes closed for COVID-19, I was a big fan of at-home workouts. Don’t get me wrong, I love the community, atmosphere, and variety of equipment available from gyms and classes, but the price can get high and I run like the wolves to avoid traffic or parking …
Pelvic Health Products We Love: Part One
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas Here at PHRC we regularly discover all sorts of new and cool products that are available for people’s pelvic health needs. I am amazed at some of the products available and that are being developed and am so thankful there are people that are creating these products because they are SOOO helpful! Pelvic …
The 4th Trimester: Postpartum Pain is Common but not Normal, Part 2
By Courtney Edgecomb, DPT In Part 2 of my 2-part post I will cover different therapeutic strategies for postpartum pain. As a new mom, self-care and appropriate medical attention is critical to ensure you stay as healthy as possible for your little one. I am sure it is daunting to find time for yourself at the moment, but it will …
Stress Urinary Incontinence in Athletes: Why You Leak When You Exercise
You may have heard murmurings at practice, the gym, in yoga, or maybe you’ve got your own experiences to share, of people describing incidences of urine loss while exercising. This is called Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and is described as a loss of urine associated with a stress to the body causing increased intra-abdominal pressure, such as running, jumping, lifting, …
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job: Scott’s Recovery from Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
The holiday season tends to be a stressful time for many people. It’s not uncommon for people to feel their bodies tense up as the levels of stress and anxiety rise – and every year we see an increase in patient numbers as a result. In December, I had the opportunity to evaluate a male patient, who I’ll call Scott, …
The Ankle Bone is Connected to the Pelvic Floor Muscle Function
By: Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington With Halloween just occuring, I had been seeing skeleton decorations everywhere and it got me thinking about anatomy. Cue the ‘Dem Bones’ song we sang as kids – “the knee bones connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bones connected to the hip bone,” the ankle bones connected to the pelvic floor…wait, I didn’t …
Childbirth Medical Interventions and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
By: Admin As a pregnant woman and pelvic floor physical therapist, I am surrounded by stories, advice, and opinions about the right way to give birth. Most of us know that pregnancy and childbirth often result in trauma to the pelvic floor and perineum, which can lead to incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and painful sex, among other things. …
Foul! What the Media Got Wrong about Women’s Health!
Over the last year, the media has come under increasing scrutiny: visit almost any website, and you’ll see that the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” have taken over the headlines and the comments section. Now, I love the people who produce pieces that aim to educate the community, especially when the subject is women’s health and the author is …
Reducing perineal trauma during labor and delivery
By Stephanie Prendergast, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles Who doesn’t love a crowning baby cake? If our image didn’t catch your eye the title of this post probably did if you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant. Last week we presented a pelvic health quiz about the role of the pelvic floor muscles play in childbirth. This week we …
Posture and the Pelvis: Part One
By Admin “In all nature structure determines function” – William Herbert Sheldon, father of somatotyping “Form and function are a unity, two sides of a coin” – Ida P. Rolf, biochemist and fascial genius “Conjunction junction, what’s your function?” – Schoolhouse Rock, how us 30+s learnt grammar Structure and function are intricately connected. Our posture is the structure in …
Love and Vaginismus: Mary’s story of personal growth
By Melinda Fontaine Mary is an amazing story because in a matter of months, she went from not having any penetrative sex for many years to having unrestricted intercourse with her partner. When Mary was a young woman, she saw a gynecologist for a routine exam. Now, lying on the exam table with your butt almost falling off the …
Pelvic Myths: True or False?
By Melinda Fontaine Have you heard these common pelvic rumors? Can you guess which ones are true or false? As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I’ve heard quite a few old wives tales about the pelvis. Test your Pelvic IQ with these 16 true or false statements! T/F Drinking water will make me have to pee more. T/F …
Ending Kegel Confusion: Here’s What You Need to Know
I recently had the opportunity to get together with a group of moms through the Holistic Moms Network (HMN) in Fremont, CA. I had put together a talk on what I thought were the most common issues moms of any age might be facing, but I wanted to spend some time asking them what they felt they needed more information …
Did I really Just Pee my Pants?
If you’ve read any of my past blog contributions, you know I’m someone who has managed pelvic pain for the past decade, (if you haven’t read them, feel free to check them out here, here, and here) and while I was confident that in that time I had gamely faced and overcome all of the issues, big and small, that …