What is stuff that's like, oh, no. Honestly, diet culture, bounce back culture. Those are like probably. Get your body back. Yes. Or like here's the next diet that's going to get you where you need to be. Yeah. The more extreme ways of working out that actually kind of do end up leading to burnout. You stop. We see like sometimes your body doesn't do well. Like we see the adrenal glands shut down or we see different things towards like your energy levels just tank. millions of women are living with pain, discomfort, and silence, told that it is just a part of life. It doesn't have to be. This is Healing at Your Core, where pelvic floor physical therapist Brie Allred brings more than 20 years of clinical expertise to the conversations women deserve to have. Real answers, real healing, no shame. And now your host, Brie Allred. Welcome to Healing at Your Core. I'm Brie Ann Allred, and I'm so excited to introduce you to our guest today. This is Alicia Wood, and we've known each other now for about a year and a half. And I'm so excited to have you listen or watch this conversation and to see what you can learn from it. So Alicia, go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell them a little bit about you. Okay. Well, first of all, I'm so excited to be here and excited to have this discussion with Bree. Bree is my boss at Ilara Pelvic Health. And like she said, I've been working for her for a little over a year now. And it has been honestly life-changing for me to work for Bree. I've been able to create a business that is based off of not only my values, but they mesh so well with our mission and our values at Ilara Pelvic Health and just our mission to help women to feel their best and to reduce their symptoms and to feel strong. And so it's been such a pleasure being able to work for Brie. So I am a certified personal trainer. I also have a couple of different certifications. I'm certified as a pregnancy and postpartum fitness specialist, as well as a menopause coaching specialist. So just trying to help women in all the stages of life. And along with that, the pregnancy and postpartum and menopause certifications, I have some knowledge of the pelvic floor and how that works while you are exercising, specifically lifting weights, and how I create all of my strength training programs to be very pelvic floor friendly. I work alongside Bree and one other doctor at Ilaria Pelvic Health to make sure we work together to help you to have not only a strong body, but a strong pelvic floor. It's been a fun, kind of unique collaboration. Working and we move a lot of women into more wellness services with Alicia. So we find that our clients keep their gains and are able to kind of take it just even into more of their regular workouts and have some kind of step down where Alicia's there watching and programming and doing different things. And it's been really fun to educate and bounce ideas and do different things there. Yeah. Yeah. So fun. What other questions? So what made you decide to get like a pregnancy postpartum certification? What led you down that road? Yeah. Great question. So I always had pelvic floor issues. Honestly, for as long as I can remember as a teenager, I had, I dealt with leakage during track season and I had urgency as a teenager. And I remember being like, is this my life? Is this normal? And I didn't have anybody ever tell me it wasn't. And then I had babies and it got much, much worse. And I got to a point where I was like, I have to be a part of the solution. And I wanted to be, and I always wanted to become a certified personal trainer. So once I got the certification of the personal training, then I was like, I want to go into this area. And so I was, went and searched the web, found one of the best ones I could find as a pregnancy and postpartum fitness specialist and got that done so that I could not only help others but help myself in the realm especially of fitness and strength training. Yeah we teach what we've learned right and what we've experienced and I think that fuels our fire a little bit more. Oh absolutely so yeah. Tell me let's say like what was one of the what are some of the most common mistakes I guess that you see women make when working out that could be less than ideal or maybe a little bit more detrimental to their pelvic floor well I mean I think kind of one of the most obvious ones is when people leak when they are exercising. And that's a common, I think, thing that people try to normalize. Yeah. Right. It's a common side effect. We'll say that that's a common side effect of having children. Yes. It's a common symptom of pelvic floor dysfunction. Yeah. And again, here's Brie's tagline. What's common is not normal. So we're gonna kind of challenge that to where it's like, it's not normal. So stop accepting it as normal. I often hear women's joke about how I only wear black leggings so that they can hide if they pee their pants a lot or they have to wear a lot of like sometimes multiple pads like go change it throughout their workout or little things like that that we think is just something you have to live with or that it's just normal and they'll mention the ones that choose not to go to exercise class because of the leakage Yes. Yes. Right. It's like all of a sudden now we're we're switching this from just a pelvic floor issue to like an overall health issue. Yeah. They avoid things that they love because it becomes an embarrassment and they're not sure what to do. But I think that's one of my passions is like helping people to see there are things you can do. Yeah, there is help. And even, you know, if they I always direct people to pellet for physical therapy literally as soon as I can. But more than that, too, is just like there are little things you can do during exercise that just help support you a little bit more if that is something you experience. And you don't have to do like the quick pee before you exercise as well, too. Or the multiple piece. Yes, yes, yes. During the exercise. I think another common mistake that I see that is actually kind of more detrimental than helpful is specifically when people are doing like a squat or a deadlift and they go down. And as they come up, they come up and they clench their glutes like crazy. And it's just one of those little things that it's like, oh, actually, that can cause more lower back pain. And your glutes are already really engaged in this specific situation. And you don't have to do that. And it can make things a little bit worse. So those are the two that come to my mind. That woman. Yeah. Super fun. What does a healthy exercise routine actually look like? That is a really good question. I think it depends. Because as a personal trainer, one of my things that I say all the time is any movement is good movement. So find something you love and stick to it. Something that's going to keep you the most consistent. If you hate lifting weights, it's probably not your best exercise routine. And while I'm super biased and I'm like, we love weightlifting for health. Yes. But if you absolutely hate it and you're going to like, it's like you're not going to keep doing it. Yeah. Yeah. So I think just find something that you love. However, you know, like I said, strength training is one of those things that actually is going to help as you age. So much. So much. And with your pelvic floor issues and it's the longevity. Right. And so obviously, if you can try and go towards strength training. But I also want to add that I think a lot of people go really extreme and then they burn out. And that's also not necessarily healthy. Right. Or the best way for you to exercise. I'm really passionate about helping my clients find a way that they can lift weights for literally the rest of their life. that they don't burn out, but also like help them reach their goals. And also I try to help them kind of get rid of all of the fitness junk that can kind of keep you from honestly reaching your goals for a long period of time. Yeah. Let's talk about some of the fitness junk. Fitness junk. Right. What's the stuff that you're seeing? What's trending? What is stuff that's like, oh, no. Honestly, diet culture, bounce back culture. Those are like probably... Get your body back or like here's the next diet that's going to get you where you need to be. Yeah Also just like kind of like I said the more extreme ways of working out that actually kind of do end up leading to burnout Where you like you going really strong for a really long time maybe even for a couple years and then you just you stop well you stop we see like sometimes your body doesn't do well like we see the adrenal gland shut down or we see different things towards like your energy levels just tank or your nervous system there's been a lot of talk a little bit about women and higher cortisol levels and that's why we're struggling with weight loss. And so let's talk about that a little bit. Right. There's trends there. And it's that idea of like, yes, if we're working out and just raising our cortisol levels and not allowing them to resolve, we've got issues as well. Diet culture, bounce back culture, what we were talking about, just like the extreme forms that kind of lead to burnout where you're like going a hundred percent during every single workout. I think in all in actual reality that it's less you actually have to lift and exercise less than you think like there's a lot of people I see that work out like six days a week sometimes an hour two hours and like I said if that works for you right now and that's your and that's in that's your season of life and that is what is best for you please keep going however if you want to be able to do this for the rest of your life find a routine that where you can work out like two to three days a week is all and does not sound like way more doable than like six days a week you're gonna do this five six days a week you gotta be there for an hour and i gotta do that's the other thing too i'm like i'm in a season of life i'm like i'm running a business yeah we're starting a podcast i have four kids and it's like i have 30 minute workouts and i I started finding that if I pushed them to 45, my workout consistency went way down. So I'm like, all right, 30 minutes it is because 30 minutes consistently is going to win the race every time. Yeah, that's like one of those fitness junk things where people think they have to work out an hour or it doesn't count. Yeah. Right? Or even just like another small one is like, if I don't turn on my watch, this workout doesn't count. We've been so technology-ass. Yes, right. But we're so, we're also, I think we live in a culture where we can be really hard on ourselves. Yeah. and I think women especially yeah like not okay we're talking to our ladies we love you right we love our guy counterparts but there's just a lot of pressures from a fitness standpoint for females and from how our bodies are expected to look and yes and I mean there's a whole industry based on looking young and continuing to be a certain size and yeah absolutely and that is one thing that I feel like I'm very passionate about. I don't have a scale in our, in our clinic on purpose because healthy can look different for everybody. I always tell them, well, even my daughter and my clients, we all have different bodies and we're all, even if we all ate the exact same, we would all look so different. And healthy doesn't, skinny doesn't mean healthy. Skinny doesn't mean strong, you know, things like that. So one of the things I just thought was kind of interesting to talk about there when you're like, okay, we don't have to go hard all the time. Yes. Let's talk about how the menstrual cycle affects female training. So the menstrual cycle affects your training in a lot of ways. Yeah. I base kind of like off of symptoms that you're experiencing because some people have really hard periods. And at that time in your cycle, you don't have to push yourself. You can listen to your body. That's another really big thing that I think we're all, we're really passionate about in general, Laura, is listen to your body. Learn how to like, get back in tune with it. It's actually telling you a lot. Yes, so much. And so during, so I guess, yeah, during menstruation, you don't have to push really hard. Maybe dial it back just a little bit. Or if you're like, you wake up and you're like, oh, I am feeling extra sore today. Or like, I'm having really bad cramps, then do some like mobility and some breathing. Like maybe some yoga or some different stretch routine or something that day to focus and show a little self-love, a little kindness to yourself. Yeah. You know, and then the week before your period, usually a lot of women experience low energy as that is estrogen. Estrogen and progesterone both decline. They decline. Right. Okay. So you're going to obviously experience low energy. and then you know the day the week after your period is kind of like that sweet spot where you're going to feel a little more energy the weights are going to feel like not as heavy i feel like the week before your period the waist can be like that you've been using can feel like super heavy it's just like you're like why does this feel like a thousand pounds we feel like we're stepping backwards but it's like no we're not we're actually just working with our body during that time frame. Yes, exactly. So it has a lot to do with like menstruation, your cycle, listen to your body. It has a lot to do with your programming in general and like what you should or shouldn't do during that time. Just go from there. Okay. So if we were to say, if you were programming or we've got somebody that's like, okay, I really want to start some strength training and we're saying okay it doesn't have to be six days a week like really what does a healthy fitness do to be a beginner let's say beginner what's a healthy beginner kind of fitness routine look like how often a workout yeah how often should they be working out what kinds of stuff should they be doing is weight lifting alone enough do they need to add cardio like what does that look like if you're a beginner let's start just starting like yeah i've not really done much exercise or I've been inactive, maybe just my activity has been like kids. Yeah. Like what would I want to do? Yeah. So I would say start with one to two days a week. And what I... Because it's doable. Yes. Right? Do you hear that? Like it's doable. Yes. And also you're not going to stay there at one to two days a week, most likely for the rest of your life. Yeah. Right? I usually work my clients up to working out three to four days a week and that's it. And you kind of just stay there. um but start there one to two days a week 20 30 minutes tops right start with um some mobility some breath work always we always always start with breath work to connect to your pelvic floor and your diaphragm get those to start working together as they should and then i do some activation so um what worked what muscles are you going to be working on that day and what exercises can you do to get those to just be a little bit warmed up and get that blood flowing a little bit more. And then after that, I would say do a little bit of power work. So as we age, it's one of the first things to go is the power of your muscles. And that's what's going to help catch you as you fall. If you know, as you're getting older, and it's something that's so, so important. And so do some some power development work, then you're going to go into that strength portion. If you're a beginner, pick a few exercises. I would say intermediate to advanced, you're going to have between four and six exercises usually split up into supersets. And then after that, after you do those, you'll go into conditioning, which is where you're going to start working on that cardiovascular endurance. Also maybe have a little bit more power development in there too and you're going to raise your heart rate up a little bit more and then have a cool down. So with these beginner workouts of one to two days a week you're doing more where you've got a power phase, you've got a weight phase, you've got a mobility phase and you've got a cardio. So you're kind of getting you're more like a whole body workout and you're doing it in just that yeah in that time frame that you've set aside. So you're doing and you're hitting all the different types, I guess, strength training, mobility work, and cardio. Yeah. I think a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I have to do so much cardio to like help my cardiovascular endurance. And it's actually one of those things where you can just like do like a couple exercises along with your strength session. And it really does slowly build over time. I love it when I have a client who comes in after they've been working with me for even a couple of weeks or a few months. And they're like, I went on a hike and I wasn't winded. And I'm like, well, number one, you're stronger. And number two, we've just slowly built up your cardiovascular endurance. Like you don't have to go out unless you want to, please, by all means, go out and run three miles to build that cardiovascular endurance. It goes back to that, like, what do you enjoy? What's your preferred method? So running's not bad. That's one of our, and like one of our things at Ilara, we're kind of like a middleman, I guess you could say, where moderation and all things to where I could even say in the pelvic floor world, you've got the like, do I do Kegels or Kegels bad, right? And I'm like, well, we kind of fall. Kegels aren't great for some people and they're actually exactly what some people need. So it's that middle ground of like, find what you like. Yeah. Right. And find this just happy medium and where things are. Yeah, absolutely. What should postpartum women know before returning to exercise? Oh talk about like fitness myths and yeah stuff like that Okay So number one is before you start exercising I want you to just breathe Like just start with some breath work And also like give yourself so much grace You just pushed out a whole human possibly more than one right I think that in general our women population that we talk to give yourselves so much more grace than you do, okay? And then also just that I know it's hard being stuck inside and maybe this is your first baby and you feel like your body feels foreign to you and you just want it back and you just want to feel like you did before you had babies. And the, you know, the reality is that your body will heal. You are not, you are not broken and that it's okay to start slow. It's okay to start small. I think that's something I not only do with my postpartum clients, but also like with all ages is we start slow. We start your body right where you're at that day. And we slowly, progressively build on that to build actual strength that lasts. So I would say start with some breath work, light mobility, wait. If you start walking, wait maybe a couple of weeks, then start with a five minute walk because it's actually really hard on your pelvic floor. Bree can talk about this, I'm sure it is for a long time. But because it's that, you know, that constant. That's constant light impact. It's the straw that broke the camel's back. Right. It's that repetition of small forces over time that can add up. And we're not trained to say don't be mobile. Absolutely. Right. Yeah. Because like walking is good, but it's just I think really important is the progressive nature that we talk about. Like you meet your body where it is and then you build on that because we see so many people and it was like, well, I was doing 30 minute walks before. And it's like, but when did you start noticing that you weren't feeling great? And it's like five minutes in and it's like, then you should have walked for five minutes because that was your body telling you that this is where it needs you to, where it needs you to be, where it's, where it's meeting its appropriate levels. Yeah. We see so much injury come from pushing your body or doing too much. Too fast. Yeah. Yeah. Also, please don't like jump right back into high intensity. Yeah. We do see that often where you're just like, I want to do something and you're not sure where to start. That's the first thing. I hear that a lot. I don't know where to start. And that's why I say start with some mobility. Start with some breath work. Build upon that. Pay attention to your symptoms. Go see a pelvic physical therapist about six weeks or if not earlier, right, depending on what's going on. And then we can build on that. Yeah. We really, and granted this is, it's very individualized. I think that's one of the, one of the keys I guess is getting some in-person care rather than just purchasing online programs per se. Not that online programs are bad. Like they do have reputable people behind them. They've got things there, but there's just something for knowing like this is where you are right here. And this is probably where you should start. Because if I have a mama that ran a marathon on at eight months pregnant, she's likely going to start out way different than somebody that was on bed, well, 100% way different than somebody that was on bed rest for a month before delivery. So it's everybody's individual. And there's going to be people that it's like, yeah, your body's ready for more quicker. And there's going to be other people where it's like, we got to dial this way, way back because we're totally making things worse instead of helping your body right now. Yeah. I was going to say that too. And just that it goes back to the thing we were talking about earlier yeah listen to your body like you know yes it will tell you if you'll just take the time to listen like so if you go for a walk and you're super super you know early postpartum a couple days postpartum and you notice more bleeding oh okay that's your body telling you you need to dial it back maybe just do a two-minute walk and then build up to that you know so just that gradual progression is huge but i'm finding the right starting point yeah but i do like what you said about it's very individualized for sure. Like some woman can come in and they're like ready to go based off of what they did before they had the baby, you know, and what their strength level is already at. That's where it can be hugely helpful to do strength training when you're pregnant. Yes. As well, because I always give the analogy, I tell my clients, I'm like, there will be a drop just a little bit postpartum because we've had hormonal changes. You just delivered a baby, didn't mean or had a major surgery. I guess you could look at it like vaginally. Actually from insurance classifications is still classified as a surgical diagnosis, which was just, I don't know, informational to me because we don't necessarily think of it as a surgery, but it's like you got something in your body out of your body, right? And then if you do a C-section, that's a major abdominal surgery. So there is going to be some drop. We know that, but the drop is somewhat predictable within a range, I would say. Yeah. Somewhat predictable. And yes, how did your delivery go? There's factors that affect that, but we still have a, you went in here, we're going to see a drop, right? To where your levels here. But if we go in here, we still get the same drop, but can you see the difference on where you're ending up because of where you started? So it can be, I don't know, just a pitch. I'm like, yeah, sounds terrible, right? That we're both passionate about, but it's like, there's huge benefits to remaining active and being strong while you're pregnant as well, because it's going to change the health of your tissues and your strength and things going in and will have you end up at a different place postpartum as well. Yeah. And that reminded me of another fitness myth that you can't strength train during pregnancy or that if you didn't strength train before you got pregnant, that you can't pick it up and you can't start. I see that. Well, I think that's a general recommendation of the doctors. I'm like, well, if you were doing it before you got pregnant, you can usually safely do it while you are pregnant. And I'm like, obviously, we're not going to want to go like snow skiing. Right. If you've never been snow skiing, maybe when you're pregnant, it's probably not the best place or time to try that. So there is some some situations where that holds true. But strength training, I would agree. Yeah. Well, and that's why we we apply that progressive overload, even in pregnancy. If someone comes to me and they didn't really do a lot before, we're going to start their body right where they're at. And in their pregnancy, based off of the trimester, all the stuff, and then slowly build on that. And there's so, so, so many benefits of strength training during pregnancy that go into the delivery part. So many. I always, I tell my clients, you are training for a marathon right now, right? And obviously the finish line is birth, but you need to train for that birth, right? Yes. And prep your body. And one of the best things you can do, you've got to be strong or hopefully, you know, feel strong during birth. And strength training is a really great tool for that. Agreed. Agreed. one of the common questions that we get in our clinic, we have a very unique setup at Ilara, where we have a specialized personal trainer working kind of in our clinic and able to work hand in hand with pelvic floor therapy. It's very unique and really neat. And we got virtual options if anybody's interested. But let's talk a little bit about the dynamic of when do they see you, the personal trainer, versus when do they see me or Sarah, the physical therapist in our clinic and how does that dynamic work? So I think sometimes it can depend also can like depend on their preference, right? What are their goals? I mean, once again, we're meeting people where they are, right? And there is a little bit of a financial difference between seeing a physical therapist and seeing a personal trainer. Absolutely. Yeah. So typically I'm a little cheaper than going to see a pelvic floor physical therapist. However, I usually recommend going at least to have one visit with Brie or Sarah at the clinic just to get like a baseline because I often will base their specific customized training program off of what you guys have found. Information that you've gotten. Yes. Yeah. Because it is just like we were saying before, because you're not doing any internal exams. No. Right. And so that's not in your scope of practice. It's not something you even want to do. No. Yeah. It's like, it's good. But it is very much where it's like, this is what I do as I assess the musculature. And it's really helpful, I think, for you to know when it's like they have a tight pelvic floor, they have a weak pelvic floor, or it's just a coordination issue. And those are really generic buckets. There's a lot more that can kind of come into that. But it's really nice to be like, hey, Alicia, we found this. Can you program accordingly or be aware with form or be aware with different things? Or you might need to cue this a little bit differently to be able to have that. Yeah. And if they have like prolapse, that's a really big thing for me to to know. Or if they have hernias, we're going to be doing their pressure differently during each exercise even. So because we're really looking at pressure management a lot within because you even think of like leakage. Things are coming out of the body when you don't want them to. can work with pressures to help mitigate and change that as well. And when we're talking about pressures, like you hold your breath, right? Pressure goes down versus can we generate more upward force with exhaling, with doing just different cueing that we all have. But I just thought that could be helpful where it's like, yes, we're looking, or if they have hernias in the front, we're going to make sure that we're doing eliminating pressure out kind of that front wall and maybe absorbing at other places in the body. So it is very specific and it's nice to have that awareness. Yeah. I think when if people were to come to me first I always do like a pelvic floor screening just like a very basic one And if things come back where I like ooh this person experiencing a lot of leakage a lot of pelvic pain or maybe even a little bit right Or they have painful intercourse or, you know, just some of these pelvic floor symptoms. Or they notice some pressure or heaviness or bulging or pain in the pelvic area. I'm going to say, hey, let's have you go see them first and then come back to me once your treatment is done with Bree and Sarah. And then when we see them for that evaluation, a lot of times we're looking to determine like is, and I'm familiar with how Alicia programs. I'm familiar with a lot of, she does some group classes and individual training as well. And so we kind of know that it's like, okay, this is going to be appropriate for you. Or sometimes it's like, no, you're not to that level yet. And so we're going to be working on the rehab side of things. I would really say I'm like we're rehab based, meaning we have a deficit in something and we're working back up or we have an injury on something and we're working back up to normal. And then Alicia, I feel like is very much kind of towards the end of that process. Not that everybody has to be 100 percent back to normal because you're still qualified to do that. Right. But I think it really shifts to more like you're more of the wellness space where it's like, OK, I just want to get better at this. I just want to get stronger. I don't want to. And there are some things where it's like, I want to be able to like throw my kid in the air that is still appropriate for what you're doing. But it's like, if we have an injury, that's where I think it's more of like a physical therapy side of things versus a personal training side of things. Is that a, would you say that that's a good distinguishing factor there? And there is some gray area there because a lot of times you put yourself working out on your own. So you want some other eyes on you and some different cueing And Alicia is very appropriate for that. But it's been so fun to have this relationship because it's like, oh, like this is you're doing really great. Let's bump you over to it's like I still think you need somebody that knows how to cue you. I still think, you know, somebody that's that's watching and progressing you and doing things there. But you don't necessarily need like, oh, we've got an injury and we're offloading and we're doing this. And and I think it's really nice to have that handoff back and forth to where you're like, oh, this is a little over my head. Let's go see them for a little bit. And for us to be like, OK, I don't necessarily feel like I'm using my expertise to the fullest because they've kind of graduated out of that. And it's like, OK, let's get you in the wellness space. It's a good time to like hand them off after they've. Because there is that in-between phase where I'm like, you don't really need physical therapy, but you still need eyes on you. Yeah. You still need somebody telling you what to do and programming and being aware of what's going on. Yeah. And for sure still being aware of their symptoms. Someone who fully understands. I think that's like something that sets me apart as a personal trainer is from a lot of other trainers is the basic personal training certification doesn't have tell you anything about the pelvic floor. And sometimes things can happen where if you had someone who had a little bit more knowledge about the pelvic floor and your symptoms and what's going on, that it could have maybe gone a little differently or been avoided. And it's just that you'll find this in any space. Absolutely. Not all providers are created equal. Not all trainers are created equal. Yeah. And you, so this is one of, I don't know, we will get on one of my soapboxes a little bit that it's like, oh, I've already tried physical therapy. It didn't work for me. And it's like, or was it just not quite the right fit for you? Or was it a pelvic floor issue and you saw a spine specialist? And a spine specialist is fabulous, but if there's a pelvic floor component, they're not going to bring that in. They're not, they're not assessing it the same way. They're not doing the same way. And the same goes for training, right? It's like, so if you've tried one, you haven't tried them all. Right. So, and sometimes it's even just a personality fit. We found that in our clinic too, just providers, like some personalities fit better and that's, that's not a bad thing. I actually did a research study, which surprised me, but the number one factor, whether someone got better with physical therapy or not was whether they liked their physical therapist. Oh, I believe it. To where it's, and it was, it really came down to that trust relationship. And it came down to the fact of like, I trust that you know what you're doing. And so I therefore I'm going to do what you say. And I'm going to you just go into an environment. And I'm like, we've all felt this, right? You go see a doctor and you're just like, oh, like we just did not jive at all. And therefore it's kind of like, am I really going to like one? I'm not going to go back and see them again. And so I'm like, from a physical therapy standpoint or a training, it's like, yeah, We can do a little bit in one visit, but it's really tricky. It's like it usually takes more than one visit to get things where we need them to be in education. And even from a physical therapy standpoint, like I'm constantly evaluating how your body has responded. I'm a scientist. I gather information. I gather data in your initial eval. And then I am looking at that and kind of putting together a hypothesis. And then I give you a treatment. and I watched, did your body respond the way that I think it did if my hypothesis is correct? Yeah. Right? Did it respond the way that it should if my hypothesis is correct? And if it didn't, I'm like going back like, shoot, what did I miss? What am I needing to change up? What am I switching? And so that repeat visit I think is very important to kind of see like, okay, here's what I think was going right. Or what I think is a different thing. But I'm like, here's my diagnosis. Here's what I really truly believe is going on in your body. Yeah. It doesn't respond the way that I think it does. So what I want to do is that I think is super important for sure. We're constantly evaluating, constantly changing, constantly moving things differently. Yeah. And I think it's just important to be that safe space for women. Some people come to me as a trainer and I do help them with their strength, but they're able to like open up to me as well that maybe in other ways you might not with a trainer at a big gym somewhere because they know I have these backgrounds and that I work alongside Bree and Sarah. and they're like, ooh, okay, I do pee when I jump. I'm like, yay, thank you for telling me. I actually say that all the time. I'm like, you did our initial consults. I'm like, I need you to tell me when you pee your pants. And they're like, oh, okay. I'm like, no, I really do. Because if you don't tell me, then I can't help to minimize those symptoms specifically when you are exercising, right? We need the specifics. We want the TMI. Yes, yes. And so I'm just really grateful to be a part of such a safe space for women to just like not only get strong, but be a part of their healing journey. You know, I don't think that people think of strength training as necessarily a healing part. They're just like, I'm just here to get really buff or and that's great, too. Right. But it has so many healing components. We try to go a little deeper. Yes, we love to. For sure. Yeah. No pun intended. That's true. Right. But it's one of those where it can be kind of funny. I'm like, can you imagine? I mean, you just go to your gym and there's trainers. Yeah. And you're kind of like, okay, let's, I want a female trainer. Great. But they're not going to ask these questions. Yeah. They're not going to be asking you like, do you leak with that? How did that, do you know what I mean? Like, how'd that fill in your pelvic floor? Yeah. What do you notice this? So it's just a unique, a really unique kind of relationship that we have. Yeah. I think it's really, really powerful to be able to get people there. There's a reason I came to you a year ago. I was like, Bree, hire me. She basically did. I did. That tells you a little bit about Alicia. She's a go-getter. But she did. And she's like, so I really want to work with you. And she's like, how do we make that happen? And I knew that we had that same, at the end of the day, like the same mission. Yeah. And how we could work so well together to help women feel so much better. Yeah. So. We just want to empower everyone to live their best life possible. Yeah. We don't want to accept common as normal. Yep. No. Great. Well, thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me. We loved it. And again, just love working with you and love that we are able to grow this together and to provide something very unique. for women that are wanting to help them grow and learn. Yeah, I feel the same. Great. Thank you. So if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, or you're wondering if you have pelvic floor symptoms that could, you know, lead you to seek care, we're going to attach in the show notes a quiz that you can take. And if you have three or more of those symptoms, you should be seeking care with a pelvic floor physical therapist. We also offer some virtual coaching and some virtual personal training. and you can find us at ilarapelvichealth.com. Millions of women are still waiting for someone to take their symptoms seriously. You found this show, share it. New episodes of Healing at Your Core release every week. Evidence-based, non-surgical, and built around one belief. You do not have to live with this.
