Can you trust him with this?

I know for certain that my faith in Christ has been the reason why I have been able to move forward and conquer my pelvic health struggles.

And when I say conquer, I don’t mean that there was any miraculous healing or that I am totally free of pelvic health concerns.
Rather I mean that they don’t stress me out or control my mind, my identity, my thoughts or actions in the way that they used to.
For the most part, I move and live confident in my body’s ability to respond well.
I continue to be prudent in my movement and exercise-this means checking my ego, something God probably things is good for me anyways…

I do sometimes fear making prolapse worse.
But overall I don’t live in fear or anxiety of pelvic organ prolapse, because I know that God is in full control of my body and what happens to it and ultimately, I do trust him.

So while I understand that it’s my job to do whatever I physically can in my own flesh to be a wise and responsible steward of my body, I also know that God is in control and his grace covers all my actions.
It is his will that will be done.

Our bodies our like our homes, gifts from God and often a direct result of hard work and investments that we have made.
We wouldn’t not clean our floors, mow the lawn or wash the windows and wait for God to do all that.
But at the same time we know that things like appreciation in value, safety from fire or climatic events are ultimately in God’s control and we have to trust him that whatever happens, his love and grace for us will prevail.

Drawing security from things like homes or bodies strictly based on our own investments and work is flawed logic, because unprecedented things go wrong to perfectly healthy bodies and beautifully kept homes, no matter how responsible we were.


But that doesn’t mean that we should all start living like a bunch of hoarders that trash the place (literally with the house, or metaphorically with our bodies), it just means that we have to resist the temptation to put our faith and trust in creation and ALWAYS focus it on the Creator.

This is the one of the difficult parts of injury, illness and physical catastrophe.

We don’t always know where the line of responsibility and control is.
What is on us and what is on him?
When diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse (POP), initially I was ready to get to work and find solutions (i.e. I went to PT), but when that didn’t work, I began to give up, mourn, wallow, despair and think that this was going to be my new normal.

There were a few different events and people that crossed my path online that gave me HOPE and inspired me to at least TRY to move forward, but what REALLY helped me to move forward was remembering that God had a plan for my life and I didn’t need to be afraid.
He made my body and my body is smart.
It can in many ways heal itself.
It can be strong.
It doesn’t have to be perfect, pristine or young and unmarred forever to do amazing things.

Not to long ago, someone in my Instagram community reached out to me and asked,
“Where do you go for strength in the Bible when you need to understand why bad things happen to good people? Some days I wonder what he is trying to teach me in all of this.”

Phew!

WHAT A QUESTION! Right?

At that moment I felt such. HUGE responsibility to have a solid, authentic and inspiring answer.
As a Christian, I think that we are often prepared/terrified for the hard questions that will come from non-believers, but the truth is that as members of the body of Christ, we have to ALSO be ready to feed, nourish, love and hash things out with fellow members of the body of Christ.
We all need love, direction, encouragement and hope.
We all need fellow believers that in times of trouble, point us back to Jesus and His word!

And so here was my answer:

——————————————————

“Ahhhh! Such a great question. I struggle with this too! In fact, I just bought a book by Joni Eaereckson Tada (Spectacle of Glory, it’s great!) because I TOO am also working on this and figured, who better to teach me than a woman that became paralyzed in a diving accident and still praises God and does great work!

We live in a culture that tells us everything is for us and about us. Even Christians!
Certain leaders in the Christian world motivate women to take action, but also reinforce the idea that life here on earth is only about happiness and self fulfillment, but there is NOTHING in the Bible that supports that idea.

Our life here is a vapor.
God gives us enjoyment and fun.
He made beauty here and gave us friends, children, spouses, enjoyment health and experiences, but his purpose in making us is for us to worship and choose him, to become holy, even amidst trials and setbacks because life on earth ISN’T THE WHOLE STORY!

Jesus who was perfect suffered here, so we should expect to as well and know that our God will provide what we need to survive and grow.”

Verses that support this:

James 1:2-4 

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Psalm 57:2

I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.

Jeremiah 32:19

19 great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you reward each person according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.

Job 42:2 

2 “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Proverbs 16:4 

4 The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
    even the wicked for a day of disaster.

Proverbs 19:21 

21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Romans 8:28 

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:2 

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

“But I STILL struggle with it all and when I do, I mourn and have pity parties.
Then I try to ask God for help and perspective.
I find ways to use my injury and all that it’s taught me to help others and grow my trust in Him.”

————————————————————

The Bible says that we can do ALL things in Christ that strengthens us!
This means that we can EVEN move past our injury or chronic illness.
This is not a guarantee that in this life, on this earth we will be able to reverse or completely health what has happened to us.

I feel very fortunate that my movement practice and lifestyle changes have helped me to come back from things like pelvic floor dysfunction, prolapse and major gut health problems.

I still have MAJOR considerations when it comes to my diet, lifestyle and exercise practice-that is, I still have to be careful and care for these injuries and health issues, but overall, I mostly live pretty normal, pain and symptom free life.

I know that not everyone that reads this will necessarily have that, but we have to have HOPE

We have to believe that God’s will prevails and whatever is happening in our lives is according to his purpose and will be the best thing longterm.
Life on earth is NOT our entire life, fellow Christians.
Which to me, actually makes me feel less pressure in some ways as I age and see my youth leaving my body, I remember that this body and this world are not my eternal home so I want to make the most of them while I can, but when they disappoint me, I look to him and remember, He is my home.
He is my security.
He is my future.

“Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.”

I’ll leave you with one of my FAVORITE songs for reminding me of this:

“In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.”

— IN CHRIST ALONE" WORDS AND MUSIC BY KEITH GETTY & STUART TOWNEND COPYRIGHT © 2002 THANKYOU


Contact me about speaking at your women’s group, church, gym, book club, etc,

 About Sarah…

Sarah Smith is a Functional Pelvic and Gut Health Educator Level, Strength Coach, Original Strength Pro, Level 2 Russian Kettlebell Instructor and postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and with a Masters in Soil Science and Agriculture.

She helps women feel confident, capable, content and STRONG in their bodies!

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University.

She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, and conquer their pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, diastasis recti and gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

Sarah is a mom to three wild boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Did you know these were solvable symptoms of an over-recruited pelvic floor?

Have you ever wondered why intercourse often feels burny or painful?

Or why you struggle to keep a tampon in or why it’s painful to insert?

What about spasms in your pelvis?
Painful feelings in and around the vagina?

Tailbone pain?

Constipation?

ALL of these symptoms can present together or alone and can be indicators of an “over-recruited” pelvic floor.

What does that mean?

Your pelvic floor muscles in organic pink. The magenta signify from top to bottom, your rectum, uterus and urethra attached to your bladder) Image used with permission from Pelvic Guru.

Well, basically it means that the muscles of your pelvic floor are working too hard, too often or in an imbalanced manner.
This can be due to breathing habits, nervous system stress, inflammation in the body, movement mechanics, and other stressors.

In a sense, your pelvic floor is lifted, tight, tense and it needs to relax.

In fact, your pelvic floor needs to relax and recruit, move UP and DOWN like a trampoline, all day long everyday.

That’s called “moving through its full range of motion”.

When it can’t relax, insertion of anything (tampon, etc.) will be painful.

There is also a persistent tugging on the tailbone/sacrum that can start as pain during sitting and then radiate all the way down the lef.

Elimination is also difficult. The pelvic floor needs to relax in order for stool to exit the rectum.
Without that routine relaxation that makes regularity happen, stool hangs around, becomes dry and more difficult to excrete.

I know. I know. You’ve been told that a “tight” vagina is a good thing, “strong” pelvic floors are better for sex and for not peeing your pants.

But the truth is that supple, responsive, pelvic floors that move their their full ranges of motion (recruit AND relax) are what you want for good sex, strong bodies and insurance against incontinence.

Why it’s time to take action!

Let’s be real here.
If you are dealing with ANY of the above listed symptoms, your quality of life isn’t what it could be.


I’ve worked with MANY women that shy away from becoming intimate with their spouses because they just can’t seem to enjoy sex.
They often blame themselves or on occasion, their partner’s inability to make sex enjoyable.
But either way they are avoiding sex because let’s face it, it stinks.
Which puts that aspect of the relationship in an awkward place.
I mean enjoyable sex and sustainable intimate relationships HAVE to be based on a “give and take” system.
White knuckling it and tolerating sex just to get through it even though it’s really uncomfortable and not enjoyable is just one giant problematic elephant in the room.


I also have clients that find sex can be incredibly painful and uncomfortable due to constipation.
Gas, bloating, and discomfort that is associated with constipation or sluggish elimination causes us to lose confidence in our bodies and not wish to be touched in any way.

But EVEN if you can push all that suffering aside, the truth of the matter is that your ENTIRE body relies on a healthy pelvic floor.
The pelvic floor is the BASE of your torso.
It stabilizes that body all day long every day and impacts the health of everything from your neck to your ankles.
Think of your house or apartment.
If you found out that the foundation was over-stressed and incapable of it’s job of supporting everything above, would you feel confident and safe?
Would you continue to invest in the house by say remodeling your kitchen, when you knew at any time you could have MAJOR support and balance problems?

The longer pelvic floor problems persist the more likely it is that you will begin to experience problems up and downstream from them.
Shoulder injuries, foot pain, ankle and knee issues can ALL stem from a torso that’s struggling to move and stabilize well, which stems from a pelvic floor that ain’t going its job.

What to do if this is you?

Step 1. See a pelvic floor physical therapist.
This is a type of PT that specializes in muscles of the pelvic floor.
She will evaluate your hip and glute strength, check your posture to help you understand some possible reasons why your pelvic floor is working overtime.
She can also manually release those tight muscles to give you instant relief.
You can search for one local to you here.

No access to a PT?
Check out this program!

Step 2. Watch this video to learn more about why you may be over-recruiting your pelvic floor!

Step 3. Take action and begin to change your breathing and movement mechanics.
The BEST way to start down-training and relaxing your pelvic floor is with your BREATH!

Breathing deeply with the diaphragm will:

• calm your nervous system

• begin to relax your pelvic floor while moving it through its full range of motion

• increase your core strength so your pelvic floor isn’t doing all the work..
  
  I know that breathing seems soooo simple and you may thing that it’s not enough action to make big change and impact your pain/
  But you’ve GOT to TRY IT!:

  
  Set an alert on your phone and spend 3-5 minutes practicing your diaphragmatic breathing 3 times a day and take note of your symptoms.
  For you focusing on the INHALE/ RELAX part of the breathing cycle will be ESPECIALLY important.
  
  
  Don’t know how to breath with the diaphragm?
  Click here! To Grab my Breathing For Pelvic Health Jump Start Guide to start TODAY!!!

 About Sarah…

Sarah Smith is a Functional Pelvic and Gut Health Educator Level, Strength Coach, Original Strength Pro, Level 2 Russian Kettlebell Instructor and postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and with a Masters in Soil Science and Agriculture.

She helps women feel confident, capable, content and STRONG in their bodies!

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University.

She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, and conquer their pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, diastasis recti and gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

Sarah is a mom to three wild boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Stop program hopping and do this instead!

We’ve been trained by fitness culture that we need to find the perfect program that works for our metabolisms, physiques, unique genetic makeup, personality type, you name it.

And while I TOTALLY believe that yes, we need to shop around for the training program and coaches or trainers that best meet us where we are now and are consistent with our values and goals, I have also learned that it’s MORE important that we understand ourselves and how we operate than it is that we program hop until we find the perfect Cinderella shoe-fitting exercise experience.

Like, “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?” is in my experience, a rare sentiment when it comes to most programs. It happens, but not often.


When we take the time to know ourselves, how we operate, our habits, behaviors, work ethics…our truly personally meaningful goals, then we can make almost ANY training program work for us.
Because we modify.
We modify exercises, schedules, expectations, and workouts to BEST suit us.
 

• If you’re an “all or nothing” personality, then you know you need structured movement plan for every day, because without the impetus to keep showing up, you quit.
  
  

• If you’re a rebel, then you may find being told EXACTLY what to do, makes you feel limited, in which case, you need to learn to adjust your workouts in a manner that empowers you.
  
  

• If you currently struggle with movement limitations or injuries, then there’s probably NO program that will work exactly for you without you having to make some decisions and modifications while you get to the bottom of your challenges.

The reality is that there is no such thing as a perfect fit and unless you are working 1:1 with a trainer (and even then) it’s difficult to find a program that is custom fit to you.

And what happens when it doesn't fit perfectly?
We quit. 

"I guess this wasn't the right program for me...."

Sure sometimes this is absolutely the case, but for my serial program quitters out there, I want to tell you THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!


Today I am giving you permission to STOP waiting for the exercise program that is the perfect compliment to you and START paying attention to how you work and making programs work for you.

You will have WAY more options in movement and exercise, feel empowered AND will become more consistent than you ever have before.


I trained for my RKC by following the recommended RKC training program, but my pelvic floor troubles and CRAZY schedule of a mom with 3 young kids prohibited me from following it exactly. 
So I used the framework but MODIFIED, MODIFIED, MODIFIED. 

Yes modifying a program also means that we have to modify our exceptions. 
I knew how long it took me to become prepared or even the manner in which I would be prepared would be different than someone that did the program EXACTLY as I did, BUT I also know that it was modify or do nothing. 
So I chose to modify. 


Afraid that you don't have the skills to do this because you're not a trainer?

I get that.
Here are some easy ways to modify a program or exercise even when you have no background in fitness. 
These are ALL strategies that I teach my clients to empower them to feel confident in movement EVEN when I'm not there to guide them!

• Take more rest

• Reduce the weight

• Move more slowly

• Use lighter weight and move faster

• Substitute exercises-overhead work not agreeing with you? Find another way to work your arms

• Reduce the effects of gravity-increse the incline of a plank or pushup, squat to a chair, rock on the floor instead of squatting, etc.

• Use your pressure management breathing strategies to support your core and pelvic floor

• Shorten your workouts so you can be sure to check in daily

• Add natural movement practices to an "exercise" program like walking, crawling, rolling, getting up off the floor without using your hands

• Carry heavy stuff

The options are ENDLESS once you feel EMPOWERED to make decisions and start funneling your energy into MODIFYING programs and exercises to meet you where you are.

Oh and by the way, great coaches are GREAT at offering you modifications.
So you get what you pay for when you buy an exercise program or course.
Keep that in mind!


Ok, so what can you do today to modify that DVD, PDF or past email with a free workout circuit from me to make it possible for you to get it done?

Need a modifiable kettlebell workout?
Download onehere!!!

Not into kettlebells? I got you. Click here for a 3 Day Exercise Formula that you can MODIFY!

xoxo,
Sarah

Sarah Smith is a Functional Gut and Pelvic Health Educator and she’s on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS! 

She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate, and published author with a Masters in Science. Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

She loves her boys, her Savior, soil (good thing because her life is full of it), her bulldog, Bella, best friend and husband Jeremiah, coffee and not folding laundry.

If you want MORE information about YOUR pelvic floor and why you shouldn’t settle for incontinence, tailbone pain, discomfort and pain in intercourse, constipation, pelvic pressure and the feeling of organs in your vaginal canal DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE! 

"Free in Three", a three day formula to change your body and your mindset around exercise

There are seasons in our lives when it seems IMPOSSIBLE to make exercise happen!
Funny enough, those BURSTING at the seams periods of our lives are often when we need the stress release and health benefits of movement MOST!

What if taking care of our bodies with movement doesn’t have to be all or nothing?
What if we don't need to hit the gym 2-5 days a week to get results and feel good?
What IF we could have a simple three day formula for movement that we could adapt to our weeks as needed.

Here’s how it works:

All we have to do is find THREE days a week that match up with the formula, a day for walking, a day for resets (gentle movement) and a day for strength training.
And on GOOD weeks, maybe we repeat the formula to get 6 days of movement.
Other weeks, maybe we don’t even get in the full three day formula, but the important thing is that we have OPTIONS to help us check that movement box, remain consistent and become persistent without the crush stress of “conventional” exercise programming OR the guilt, for that matter.

Have I piqued your interest yet?
Check out the formula below!

DAY 1 Leisure Walk

For many people, Day 1 is Monday.
If you always struggle to “get back on track” on Mondays, switch things up.
Make Sunday your Day 1.
On Day 1 we walk for a minimum of 30 minutes, but you main goal is to walk as long as possible! Grab a friend, pet or family member and MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Even if climate is a factor, get creative about making this happen.

This is NOT about steps.
This is NOT about burning calorie. It’s about:

• calming your nervous system with contralateral movement (walking)

• balancing hormones - leisure walks positively influence blood sugar, cravings and digestive (gut) health

Day 2 Build Strength

So now you have some movement momentum (or movementum, as I like to call it!)
Today we are challenging our bodies with some SUPER simple, yet challenging strength training.

Complete 4 rounds (should take about 20-30 minutes, rest as needed!) of the following:

• 15-20 bodyweight squats-you can also do them weighted

• 10 get-ups, this means you lay down on the floor and try to get up to standing with minimal assistance from your hands - notice if you favor one side and try working BOTH sides

• 6-8 pushups OR plank for as long as you can **see my video on pushups!

• 60 seconds of blanket shakes (rest as needed) ** see video

• 60 seconds marching in place or skipping (REALLY SWING THOSE ARMS!)

Day 3 Press Reset

One of my FAVORITE movement habits that I have cultivated is #pressingreset with Original Strength!

Movement that changes your body is SO MUCH more than exercise! In fact most of us regular people that are not professional athletes or competitors do not have the time or resources to support exercising hard every single day.

Pressing reset is a simple concept and doesn’t have to take a lot of time (set aside 10 minutes, but work longer if you feel good!)
There are three major rules to it:

• Breath with the diaphragm

• The eyes move the head, the head moves the body

• Work across the midline (the imaginary line that runs down the body splitting it into right and left)
  
  
  

There are LITERALLY countless ways to press reset, but I’m sharing some of my favorite below.
There is no require number of reps, just do the movement for as long as feels good, then move to the next! Try to make it through 3 rounds of this suggested circuit, but feel free to play with the movement and make adjustments!

• Head nods (video)

• Rocks (video)

• Bird dogs (video)

• Crosscrawls (video)

Sound too simple?
It totally is simple, but that doesn’t mean that it will be easy and it doesn’t mean that it won’t get you results!

Complete this three day movement protocol TWICE a week for a total of 6 days of movement and watch what happens to your mindset and your body!

This is the same approach that I use with my clients to get them MORE consistent, STRONGER, BALANCED and more CONFIDENT in their bodies than EVER!

These movements are NOT complicated, but that doesn’t meant that these circuits aren’t challenging.
And the RESULTS?
They come from CONSISTENCY.
So you GOTTA , you just GOTTA made this a PRACTICE.

The good news is that these approaches to movement will help you to find enjoyment and peace in cultivating a routine movement practice and that is everything.
That is where all the results are!

**If you want a DOWNLOADABLE PDF version of Free in Three as well as an additional more advanced Strength Circuit, tips on how to REV up this protocol for more results and HOW to measure your success, click here!



Sarah Smith is a Functional Gut and Pelvic Health Educator and she’s on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS! 

Sarah is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science. Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

She loves her boys, soil (good thing because her life is full of it), her bulldog, Bella, coffee and not folding laundry.

If you want MORE information about YOUR pelvic floor and why you shouldn’t settle for incontinence, tailbone pain, discomfort and pain in intercourse, constipation, pelvic pressure and the feeling of organs in your vaginal canal DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE! 

Did you know that your tongue habits effect your pelvic floor?

The hypoglossal neurons that innverate the tongue are coordinated with the phrenic neurons that control the diaphragm. 

The hypoglossal neurons that innverate the tongue are coordinated with the phrenic neurons that control the diaphragm. 

What the heck does that mean?

It means your tongue, it’s position and activity throughout the day has the power to automatically or deliberately activate the diaphragm, signaling it to lower so you can breath better!

Struggling with to breath with the diaphragm, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your teeth!
Then it can better tell the diaphragm, “Hey dude, contract so you can suck air into the lungs.”

Using our diaphragm to breath all day long ALSO tells the pelvic floor to move up and down through IT’S full range of motion.

What happens when we don’t breathing with the diaphragm?
Shallow breathing up into the neck and shoulders tells the nervous system to RAMP UP, making muscles twitchy leading to more pain and tense, stiff muscles, increased symptoms too!

This ALSO causes neck and shoulder pain and tightness.

SO if you have pelvic floor problems, and if you don’t, one of the BEST things you can start doing is practicing keeping your tongue the roof of your mouth throughout your day to become a more effective nasal/diaphragmatic breather.

By facilitating better breathing through the nose and with the diaphragm you help your pelvic floor move through it’s full range of motion so that it remains supple and responsive to better support your organs (ahem, prolapse peeps) and reduce tension and pressure in the pelvis (ahem, over-recruiters/Type A peeps).

It also calms the nervous system, which positively impacts digestion, mood, strength and symptoms, more on that later!

#themoreyouknow

Learn more! Click here.

Sarah Smith is a Functional Gut and Pelvic Health Educator and she’s on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
Sarah is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science. Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She loves her boys, soil (good thing because her life is full of it), her bulldog, Bella, coffee and not folding laundry.

If you want MORE information about YOUR pelvic floor and why you shouldn’t settle for incontinence, tailbone pain, discomfort and pain in intercourse, constipation, pelvic pressure and the feeling of organs in your vaginal canal DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE!

Gratitude For Opportunities To Serve as Women and Mamas

If you’re tuning in here from social media scroll down to pick up where you left off at the**

My mom grew up living in the projects of Boston and at times had no home at all.
I remember as a little girl, when she cleaned the house (which was often, because she’s kind a clean freak) her telling me that cleaning her home was an act of gratitude for all that she had and her worship to God for providing her with a home and a family to care for.

Today as I cleaned my own floors I thought to myself, “ What a privilege it is to have MY husband and MY kids to clean up after, to have a home with floors to wash, to have a family that loves me, trusts me, depends on me and considers me a reliable constant in their life!”
I actually thought this.
No one is more surprised by this than I am.

Then I KEPT thinking…
Lots of memes, Instagram account accounts and YouTube channels these days poke fun of the endless, thankless work of motherhood and I think we need that comic relief.

In a world where many of us women are not connected in close community, we look to the internet for our sanity, comedy, validation and I think that’s ok.
We need to laugh at the crazy, the endless laundry, the selfish nature of our kiddos, our husbands’ inabilities to put their dirty socks in the laundry, the constant noise and chaos…


But I always WANT TO be careful to guard MY heart and my mind amidst all the jokes and “real talk” about #momlife to remember to be grateful for what I have and not fill my day or my head with complaining.

What I say over and over again can become true in my mind and my heart.

** Continue reading here:
Practicing gratitude for what I have today, work included, is a muscle that I need to exercise otherwise it weakens, becomes brittle and forgets how to function.

I’ll be the first to admit that our job as mamas is often hard, frustrating, tear-inducing and thankless, but that’s also real life.
I mean, if we were expecting it to be otherwise, that’s pretty of silly stuff.


Personally, I remember not appreciating the MYRIAD things my mom did for me as a kid, without a thought about it at the time.
I just accepted it as “part of her job”.

BUT from watching her, I also learned how to do hard work without grumbling and complaining, how to take care of a family and how to keep a home-albeit less clean than hers.


And isn’t that what I want for MY kids?

To find joy in their work and do it without complaining?
To know how to take care of their belongings?
To not always be searching for rewards and pleasure, but to buckle down and do character-building work like cleaning up theirs and other people’s messes?

How I behave shapes the culture of our home.
How we as a community of mothers act in our homes has the power to shape an ENTIRE CULTURE of people.



None of this means that I’m above paying someone to clean my floor, telling my kids to clean it or that I think being the maid should be the synonymous with motherhood or wife life, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that having relationships with people that rely upon us to be there doesn’t require a TON of work and self sacrifice.

Motherhood is a dirty job that requires grit and for us to get up in there and do some work. 

Motherhood is the greatest sacrifice that many of us will ever make in our lives and we make it daily.
But that’s the thing is, the nature or our relationship to our kids is not one of 50/50.
They can’t give back to us what we deserve for the work that we do.

And SOMETIMES I get the sense that the jokes we make about our jobs as mother over time create a sense of injustice.
We know that our kids aren’t in the position to even the score, so we look to our spouse to do so and we can resent them and forget that they too have a thankless job. This goes for all families, regardless of your division of labor agreements about breadwinners, etc.

In a world that often emphasizes that we should put ourselves first, I’m kind of feeling like humbly doing work for others and finding joy in it all might actually be the key to true lasting happiness.

Oh look! it’s actually God’ design for us to serve one another and to do humbling work without resentment.

John 13:12-17

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.
13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.
14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Basically….
Now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your dirty disgusting sandal clad feet, you should do the same for each other.

There’s a TON of messaging around us right now about self love and self care and about how thankless our jobs as moms are.
There’s also a LOT of pressure to be perfect, have perfect homes, dress cute and never yell at our kids or lose our tempers.
Here’s the thing , perfection is a lie. Relationships that don’t involve sacrifice and selfless actions are fantasies.

Waiting to be happy and content until everything is perfect means we will never have joy.

I can’t tell you how to be a perfect mom and balance caring for yourself with caring for your loved ones, how to cultivate appropriate boundaries in your life, what to say YES to and when to say NO, but I CAN tell you that:

A happy heart makes a happy face. Proverbs 15:13

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:14

Love the Lord Your God with all your soul, all of your mind and with all of your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:30-31.

"Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all." Mark 9:35

BET you thought I was going to put Proverbs 31 verses in here.

Please know that I share all this with you, but I say it to myself FIRST!!!!

PS-I will be writing a WHOLE OTHER POST on how everyday chores can be an AWESOME way to inject some pelvic floor-friendly movement into your day.
But I’ll leave it at this for now: In a culture that glorifies 30-60 minutes of exercise a day, we can actually get even MORE health and fitness benefits from injecting movement into LOTS of different parts of our days (like washing the floors on our hands and knees!) to feel better and have less of that whole, "I need. to psych myself up to go to the gym" type mental battle....which will. leave us with some more mental energy to be grateful too!

xoxo,
sArah

Sarah Smith is a Functional Gut and Pelvic Health Educator and she’s on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
Sarah is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science. Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She loves her boys, soil (good thing because her life is full of it), her bulldog, Bella, coffee and not folding laundry.

If you want MORE information about YOUR pelvic floor and why you shouldn’t settle for incontinence, tailbone pain, discomfort and pain in intercourse, constipation, pelvic pressure and the feeling of organs in your vaginal canal DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE!

Curb those Kegels and crunches!

The Kegel and the crunch have LONG been the two of the most popular exercises for female’s on a quest to build strength.

The Kegel is guaranteed to give you a pelvic floor that protects you from leaks, improves your sex life  and keeps your organs in place.

The crunch has been a gold standard for reducing belly fat and building that sickpack-donning core for literally decades now.


Well here’s the thing BOTH Kegels and crunches can CAUSE problems for your core and pelvic floor for THREE key reasons:

These exercises are:

• over-utilized

• often done incorrectly

• not appropriate for everyone all of the time

The truth of the matter is that EVEN when we do these movements CORRECTLY, they STILL are not the answer to sustainable, strong cores and pelvic floors.

So what IS the answer?

I’m glad you asked!!!

Sign up for my FREE course here!

Don’t miss out on this essential information!

No access to pelvic floor PT? Here's what you can do!

What can you do if you don’t have access to a pelvic floor physical therapist (PFPT)?

I talk with women all over the world that suspect that they have pelvic floor and core problems, but have no access to a pelvic floor physical therapist.

I’m a HUGE proponent of everyone seeing a PFPT even if it means taking a road trip.
WHY?
Over-recruited and under-recruited pelvic floors can cause similar symptoms, but are different problems that to a certain extent require different rehabilitation programming, so it’s REALLY helpful to work with a PT because they can examine you, check your muscle recruitment and help you understand exactly where your pelvic floor and core are today.

BUT, sometimes that just isn’t in the cards.

So if we don’t have access to PT OR we only have limited access, does that mean we can’t do anything?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Whether you are in pelvic floor physical therapy or NOT here are some things that we ALL need to be working on

Breathing.

Get that tongue on your roof of your mouth and breath with your dang diaphragm.

Loosen your waistband and whip off that sports bra if need be to get a FULL BREATH!
Your core and pelvic floor will NEVER be as strong and powerful as they could be if you don’t learn how to RELAX those muscles and MOVE your diaphragm through it’s full range of motion.

Relaxed muscles can recruit better.

Body mechanics.

HOW you hold and move your body impacts the neurological signaling and muscle recruitment that happens AUTOMATICALLY in the body.
Basically, you are training your body how you want it to move and respond to movement all day long every day.
Just sitting holding your phone in your dominant arm with your back rounded and your head hanging throughout the day is like doing 100, maybe 1000 reps of that movement.

Whether you know it or not you are telling your body, MOVE LIKE THIS.

There are body mechanics and alignment habits that are MORE conducive to optimal recruitment of your deep core and pelvic floor muscles.
There are positions that help your incredibly important stabilizing muscle, the DIAPHRAGM move and communicate BEST with your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles.

And the best part?
We can work on these things ALL DAY LONG EVERYDAY!

How to get started?
Grab my “Connected and Fit” core and pelvic floor freebie here.

Sarah Smith is a Functional Pelvic and Gut Health Educator Level, Strength Coach, Original Strength Pro, Level 2 Russian Kettlebell Instructor and postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and with a Masters in Soil Science and Agriculture.

She helps women feel confident, capable, content and STRONG in their bodies!

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University.

She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, and conquer their pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, diastasis recti and gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

Sarah is a mom to three wild boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Are you ready for the Overhead Press?

Did you know that pressing overhead isn’t appropriate for all bodies all of the time??

Alignment and recruitment mobility and stability of the shoulder joint JUST as important, if not MORE important than how “strong” you are.

You may be able to get the bell pressed up overhead, BUT can you do it using the best form and protect your shoulders from pain later?

If you press overhead and you don’t have the mobility to prevent flaring of the ribs or tilting of the pelvis, you can end up developing injuries or core and pelvic floor issues.

Pressing overhead is NOT a requirement for strength and fitness (unless you are doing an RKC or SFG kettlebell cert), so don’t feel like you’re weak or failing.

Kettlebells are AMAZING at highlighting the areas of our bodies that need a little extra attention and that’a a GOOD THING!

Check out my video below and then video yourself or press in front of a mirror and evaluate if YOU’RE ready to press overhead!

Train with kettlebells!
Take my 24 week kettlebell program designed to take you from beginner to expert in less than 6 months!

Check it out!

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Three Damaging Pelvic Floor Rehab Myths

With increased awareness around pelvic floor problems, we are seeing more and more information on social media and even in the mainstream media about solutions to pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and other dysfunctions of the pelvis.

For the most part this is a GREAT thing!
The more commonly discussed the topic, the more likely it is that women will feel less shame and embarrassment around the topic, but also that they will find SOLUTIONS!

But, as is often the case, drifting amongst lots of helpful and positive information is some misleading concepts and myths that will work AGAINST YOU as you try to rehab your pelvic floor.

Let’s check out some of the most popular ones in circulation!

Myth #1 Focus On The Floor!

I LOVE me some pelvic floor talk, but I have concerns. In insisting that the pelvic floor be considered, we have to be mindful of the message we are communicating.

We can’t ignore or forget it’s part of the whole, because...

IT’S PART OF THE WHOLE.

And we have to treat it as such.

•

In my personal experience and my experience working with clients I have observed that truly “strong” pelvic floors are the ones that work well and know their place.

They do their job, and ONLY their job.

They are surrounded and supported by strength.

They know how to relax.

They know when to work and how hard.

•

An anxious body, a dysbiotic microbiome, a pressure management system that is out of sync, or an imbalanced nervous system will all wreak havoc on a pelvic floor no matter how many kegels we do.

Let’s remember to #zoomout and acknowledge that pelvic floors have their own unique jobs that we want them to do well. They are supported and operated by our endocrine, neurological and microbiological (gut) systems, they have to work well with others and they can’t work alone.

Gosh, so much we can learn from these pelvic floors, eh??!!

Myth #2 Pilates and Yoga Are the ONLY Safe Forms of Exercise

For whatever reason, Pilates and gentle yoga have earned the reputation as the safe and ideal forms of exercise for postpartum moms and anyone struggling with prolapse or incontinence.

Like “Do your kegels, and then go do your Pilates and all your problems will resolve!”🤔🙄

If Pilates and yoga are your jam and you can find ways to do them that support your unique rehab process, i.e. they help you re-establish reflexive core stability, breath with the diaphragm, coordinate your PF with your diaphragm and recruit your pelvic floor optimally, then YAY!

But don’t kid yourself in thinking that these modalities are guaranteed to solve all of your pelvic health problems, because they ain’t.

And if you’re like me and you don’t want to be limited to those forms of movement and exercise, that is absolutely ok too!

•

You see, I’m all about that iron, particularly the kettlebell! To me it represents functional whole body strength and they are fun as heck to train with.

Besides that, there are countless exercises you can do with the kettlebell to build your body and support your core and pelvic floor.

Kettlebells come in many different weights, so you control volume and intensity of your movement. And with a handle that lends itself to all sorts of cool carries to help you train not just for sport, but for utility, because, hello, we have to carry stuff! Carrying kids, groceries, even just my body used to  increase my POP symptoms, until I started TRAINING how to be strong and manage pressure WITH kettlebells!

•

I’m not saying kettlebells are the End All Be All of fixing your pelvic health problems. They are no more of a panacea than #kegels are.

But they are an incredible tool that when applied well, can re-build strength in movement for clients of ALL ages and fitness capabilities.

And this can be said for MANY other forms of training besides yoga and Pilates.

Let’s stop limiting people to what has been deemed “safe” and let’s find things that inspire and address weaknesses!

Myth #3 Tight and Tense= Strong

We put emphasis on the need for pelvic floors (and vaginas) to be “strong” but many women hear “tight” and “forceful” and so they practice squeezing and contracting.

•••

But the reality is that the optimal heath of the pelvic floor is SO MUCH MORE complex and wonderful than that.

Exclusively focusing on what we perceive to be “strength” can be insufficient for optimizing pelvic health and often times causes harm.

The pelvic floor has jobs to do and a range of motion to move through.

•••

If you define “strength” as the ability to do your assigned job well, then sure, let’s make our pelvic floors STRONG.

BUT if you think a “strong” pelvic floor is one that is tight, lifted, contracted, tense and/or rigid, then read this graphic a few times.

Now grab my Pelvic Floor Freebie with this link.

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move, in a non-creepy way.

This is why you don't exercise

One of the biggest mistakes I see mamas making when it comes to getting in their training and daily movement is NOT treating it like a non-negotiable.

Days, weeks, months, years and DECADES will go by with you  barely exercising because the truth is, YOU HAVE NO TIME!

There is LITERALLY always something that needs your energy and attention.
Kids.

Laundry.
Pets.
Meal prep.
Shopping.
School events.
Showering.
That special work project your boss assigned you.
Homeschool lesson prep.
Community yard sale.
Church picnic.
Your best friend’s life crisis.
Your parent’s health condition.

Your life is FULL. 

The only way that you will cultivate a routine fitness, exercise, training or movement practice is if you say NO to something else and you CARVE out that time.

And I know that this is not easy, but it is simple. 

Your first step?
Make a realistic commitment to an achievable goal and make it happen as best you can.
If you’re reading this right now, then there is a pretty dang good chance you have pelvic floor, gut health, strength or fat loss-related goals, maybe ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Listen to me.

There is no one program that is going to make it all happen.
There is nothing wrong with you or your body.

You just have to make a choice.
Are you going to make it happen no matter how ugly it looks, how inconvenient it is, how uncomfortable you feel?
Or are you going to keep waiting?

And remember, your choice isn’t going to look like anyone else’s!

You may find it frustrating that the ONLY way you can get in a workout is to:
-let your toddler watch a screen

-leave the dishes in the kitchen

-wake up mega early

-skip laundry

-give up your work lunch break

While your Instagram friend Susie, seems to be able to manage a Pinterest caliber organized home, and incorporate her children into a yoga routine that keeps her 24/7 long and lean.

Stop wasting time looking around and comparing your path to other people’s.

Look at your own schedule, your own needs, your own body, your own goals, set your intention and GO AFTER IT as persistently and imperfectly as you can.

No one else is going to do it for you, but let me tell you something, YOU CAN DO IT!
Not because it’s easy.

Not because you have extra time.
But because you’re strong ass woman with grit and determination. 

I see you.

xoxo,

Sarah

Need a movement and training program to get you started?
Get Free In 3!

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Three Strategies To Help YOU FINALLY get consistent in exercise ** PLUS free workouts!

**Scroll down if you want to skip the TIPS and just get the workout!

All summer my husband and I have been traveling with our 3 boys around New England for the past month and have managed to train with kettlebells 3-4 days per week.

With a family of 5 moving around from place to place on vacation, being consistent with training could be almost impossible except that we had THREE simple strategies for getting out workouts in.

These particular strategies not only worked for us on this vacation, but they are my GO-TO strategies for both myself and my clients to stay consistent in our training EVEN when our full and busy lives make it difficult, so here they are:

1. Simplicity

2. Flexibility

3. Accountability

Let’s talk about them.

Simplicity:
WE kept our workouts MAJORLY simple on this trip for two primary reasons,

1. We only had space in our car and ease of transport for two kettlebells (12 K and 16K) and two resistance bands. IF we had brought much more than that, the equipment would have become a burden, nuisance to have around PLUS it would have been too cumbersome to lug to the beach, or pull out in the AirBNB yard to get our sweat sesh on. 

This was the case for us on this trip, but this may be the case for you right now!
If you don't have room in your home, the stroller, your car or your home office for lots of equipment, don’t worry. Being consistent with just a few pieces of equipment can build your body and physique AND help you to truly master exercise.
In Kettlebells For Cool Kids-my 12 week kettlebell program we only use TWO pieces of equipment!!

And
2. When you’re traveling and managing a family of 5, you simply don’t have the bandwidth for COMPLICATED workouts.

We found that it was FAR easier to be consistent in our training by keeping our training sessions to 3-4 compound (utilizing multiple muscle groups and joints) movements only.
If we wanted to add a few in more at the end, like a finisher, we had that option, but when we met out in the yard or at the beach to train, we knew that we were simply going to do a 3-4 exercises at a set number of reps and then move on with our day!
The weights were relatively light, so we kept the pace up and worked as hard as we could, resting as needed.

Flexibility:

I tell my clients this all of the time, but it was especially important on a family vacation, the only way to be CONSISTENT in your TRAINING is to be FLEXIBLE around what it looks like, where and when it takes place and how perfect it is.
On the days that we trained, we had a plan as to what we would do, but if we simply gave up when things weren’t going to plan (breakfast ran late, getting to the beach took longer, we forgot a piece of equipment, the kids needed us, etc….) then we would NEVER have honored our commitment to workout 3 times a week this month.
And so when things when awry, we just went with it.
We improvised with bodyweight exercises.
We accepted interruptions, even embraced them, “Sure kids we’ll play with you, let’s sprint down the beach to those rocks!?”

We just kept going as best we could and knew that whatever we managed to make happen was better than NOTHING!

That #persistenceoverperfection mindset, man, it is the BEST way to get things done and keep us coming back!

Accountability: 

Feeling like our commitment matters is helpful.

On this particular trip, Jeremiah (hubs) and I were accountable to each other in the way that my Kettlebells For Cool Kids are accountable to their fellow cool kids, my clients are accountable to me and you can be accountable to your friend, partners, coach, neighbor, or online community.

Rather than solely focusing on my own self and my own commitment, I also wanted to show up and train to support Jeremiah, my partner in crime.
I mean when it’s 92 degrees, sunny and you’d love to just lay around and drink coffee or nap and chill at the beach, knowing that your bud is willing to train with you and also wants to honor their own commitments can make all the difference.

At the end of the day, diet and exercise culture has trained us to think it’s OK to give up on our commitments to ourselves because many of us have DECADES of experience trying crash diet and exercise programs, that we quit because let’s face it, they suck and are impossible to stay with.

But the truth is COMMITMENTS matter.
It takes time and help to BREAK the habit of quitting and giving up on the promises that we make to ourselves.

Effective and smart programming shouldn’t MAKE you feel like you want to quit.
It should be adaptable to your real life, BUT you also have to be tenacious and determined to show up and do what you said you were going to do.

I have personally seen that for myself and my clients, the accountability piece is HUGELY important.
We are FAR less likely to break a promise ourselves or put our goals on the back burner because they are inconvenient, uncomfortable and or too much work IF we know someone is watching.

PLUS when we partner with someone else in our commitment, on those days when we truthfully don’t feel like working for ourselves, we can often muster the strength to show up for someone else.

This summer on days when we needed the SIMPLEST of workouts that would pack a PUNCH, workout WHOLE BODY and leave us feeling like we had WORKED OUT HARD-you know all that burny, sore good feelings we did the following workout:

In any order, complete the following (it takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on how much rest you take and you should rest as needed!:

100 KB swings **(beginners sub KB deadlifts)

100 pushups **(beginners sub 50 incline pushups)

100 weighted squats **(beginners sub bodyweight)

If you’ve NEVER learned how to do a kettlebell deadlift, proper pushup or squat, get
Kettlebells For Cool Kids™!

Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural. 

She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions. 

She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.

Three ways the gut impacts the health of your pelvic floor.

✅Tissue regeneration-your cells are dying and regrowing all of the time.
Without adequate nutrient uptake, they don’t have the necessary building blocks to build the best new tissue possible, the muscle tissue that makes up your pelvic floor, core AND your biceps!

Nutrition matters, we know that, but a diversely populated gut microbiome that is adept at processing your food and helping you extract the nutrition from it while keeping food particles from getting into the the blood stream via leaky holes in your intestines is also key!

✅Inflammation-can occur for LOTS of reasons.

It can be a response to those food particles and other toxins leaking out of the gut into your blood stream where they are attached by the immune system leading to a chronic state of inflammation..

It can also become a consistent state that occurs because one of the chief jobs of your gut bugs is to help clear oxidative stress-a normal outcome of chemical reactions taking place in the body...

But if they ain’t there or they aren’t healthy and numerous, they can’t clear the stress and BOOM we got inflammation 🔥🔥🔥

And this inflammation doesn’t just stay in the gut my friends, it can be in the brain, the joints, the pelvic tissues...

✅Elimination

You know, like how and how often you poop?

THIS is mediated by the bugs in your gut as well!

They have NUMEROUS jobs that help to make your stool the right consistency for it to EXIT consistently.
You need fiber to poop well not just because it adds bulk to your stool, but because the microbes that are process and package your poop up to exit the body LIVE on fiber.
But when you have a compromised gut microbiome, eating foods high in fiber leads to bloating, cramping and LOTS of discomfort.


Without the bugs and their food source we can find ourselves in vicious cycles of diarrhea AND constipation or just constipation/dry, hard, difficult to eliminate stools

Constipation is a HUGE problem for both folks with #pelvicfloordysfunction and #pelvicorganprolapse.
In fact in my experience, my clients with an over recruited #pelvicfloor, aka #pfd, both constipation and inflammation are an issue.

Any of my clients with #prolapse, particularly, rectoceol, are WAY more symptomatic when they are constipated due to that extra pressure and straining or the presence of old expired estrogen and toxins that are being resorbed instead of exiting in their stool.

The gut is SOOOO important for our health and the health of our pelvic floors, don’t leave it behind when working to improve your pelvic health!

Listen to my podcast on how your GUT work and what you can do to care for it by clicking here AND use the search function to read the other articles here on gut health and pelvic health!

Do you leak when you lift? Are you afraid you're making your prolapse worse? Here's a simple strategy!

Hey there!

I LOVE teaching women how to lift heavy things, but I ESPECIALLY love teaching them to LEVERAGE their breath and power to accomplish any physically challenging task.

You see, your breathing cycle is more than just about getting oxygen into your lungs (to oxygenate your tissues) and getting carbon dioxide (expired air) out, it’s part of your body’s natural ability to MANAGE PRESSURE.

Do you struggle to manage pressure?
Here are some clues that you might:

• You leak when you exercise (sneeze, cough or laugh too)

• You see bulging or doming in your core when you exert yourself

• You hold your breath and brace to feel strong when lifting something

• You feel pressure in your vagina after a long day or exercise session

• You have chronic low back pain and feel loose in your core

While learning to manage pressure is a concept that is covered IN DEPTH in my upcoming course, Connect Your Core and Pelvic Floor, today I am showing you some breathing cues to help you perform deadlifts AND kettlebell swings withOUT bearing down on your organs to brace yourself and feel strong in movement.

Check it!

Training with kettlebells can either help OR harm your core and pelvic floor. It all comes down to how you manage pressure and move your body. Check out this video on how to breath during the deadlift AND kettlebell swing!

To PRE-REGISTER for my Connect Your Core And Pelvic Floor course and have access to DISCOUNT pricing, complete the form below!

Troubleshooting the deadlift when your hamstrings are tight or you are tall!

One thing I often hear from new clients is, “Kettlebells hurt my back.”
And it’s true.
Kettlebells can ABSOLUTELY hurt your back, like bad.
But so can lifting groceries, sneezing, reaching in the backseat of your car to hand your kid a snack (this happened to me!) and sitting all day long.

You see it’s not really the MOVEMENT or what it is that we are moving (kettlebells, groceries, our own bodies), but HOW we are doing it.
How we are leveraging the strength and power of our body to move weight is what makes a movement safe or not.
It’s what determines whether a movement is painful.
And for sure, sometimes we have to modify some movements to better ensure that we are moving in a manner that is favorable for OUR UNIQUE body, and that’s absolutely OK!

Today I am showing you one of the many strategies that I’ve shared with the members of my Kettlebells For Cool Kids kettlebell training course, how to modify a deadlift or a kettlebell swing to help avoid back pain!

Check it out below!

Come try a two week sample from my Kettlebells For Cool Kids program!

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

Prolapse symptom increase, WHAT TO DO??!!

Increase in prolapse symptoms? 

Don’t freak out!!!

Read this.

Hey there!

I know ALL TOO WELL how frustrating and fear-inducing an increase in prolapse symptoms can be. 

“Did I make it worse?”

“Are my organs going to fall out”

“What was I doing wrong?” 

are ALL questions that have crossed my mind MANY times. 

What I’ve learned over the years is that:

1. Increase in symptoms does NOT necessarily mean a worsening of your prolapse.

2. An increase in symptoms can teach us something about our bodies. 

3. Sometimes it’s nothing and it passes with no good explanation.

my tips for dealing with an increase in prolapse symptoms!

Check your pelvic floor tension. 

If you have prolapse, chances are good that you have a history of not recruiting your pelvic floor enough, so I know it’s difficult to imagine, but you actually might be OVER-RECRUITING your PF. 

Before you are convinced that your prolapse is getting worse, either see your pelvic floor PT and have her check your pelvic floor muscles, MAYBE do some internal release of those muscles, or if you know how, use your thera wand to do it yourself. 

Here’s a video on that.

Pay attention to your bowel movements AND if you’re still menstruating, your menstrual cycle.

Even if you’ve been having regular bowel movements, are you sure that everything is coming out?
There have been times when after I use the Thera-wand for some release or some Moxibustion (that I ordered through my acupuncturist), a lot of waste, that apparently was hanging around for too long comes out and I have felt to much better!

Other times, a build up of gas from controversial foods or too much fiber has made everythgin feel swollen and uncomfortable for both me and my clients .
So there’s that too. 

When our period is approaching, peristalsis (contractions that move your food waste through your intestines) can slow down which can result in constipation for some women, not to mention that our hormones during ovulation or right before menstruation can ALSO make us more symptomatic. 

Check your digestion and check your calendar to see where you are in your cycle. 

It absolutely could be that!

What about your stress/breathing and movement lately?

It is NOT uncommon for many of us Type A personalities (Hi!) to process our stress by clenching our bellies, tucking our tailbones or tightening our pelvic floors. 
When is the last time you took some time for you and breathed with your diaphragm?

When I start feeling like this-and it happens often, so I’m better at recognizing it, I do some Original Strength resets, PARTICULARLY rocking and rolling because they are such SOOTHING movements. 

I also focus on my breath-more on that here. 

I may even do some belly massage. 

And what about your alignment and movement?

Check those ribs. Are they down? 

Is your pelvic position mostly neutral?

Are you focusing on your inhale/relax your PF and intently as you do your exhale/lift?
If you’re like, “What is she talking about?” or “I need help with this!” grab my freebie on the topic: here.

And then there are always a WHOLE host of other things you can explore with respect to diet, liver health, sleep and more!

If you want to learn about THAT, check out my upcoming Gut Health for Pelvic Health course!!!

The bottom line?

Once you have prolapse, you always have prolapse.
It’s a vulnerability in your body and mine.
Your prolapse may become symptom-free, undetectable and you may never notice it.
Perhaps your symptoms come and go randomly, or it may be that it persists, but you learn lots of ways to manage it.

The reality is that there’s a LOT about the body, hormones, inflammation, muscles, ligaments and the nervous system that we are still learning, so while there may not be a perfectly OBVIOUS cause and effect relationship between your symptoms and something else that is taking place in and around your body right now, we may one day soon discover MORE branches of the body and lifestyle that impact prolapse symptoms.
In the meantime, if you experience and increase in symptoms, try my recommendations above, do the things that typically make you feel best and give is a little bit of time.
These things happen sometimes.

Managing prolapse is LARGELY a mental process, but I’m here to HELP you!!
Amiright??!!

Before you freak out that this is your new normal, throw in a pessary-if you have one, to give you an extra lift, make an appointment with your PT to get checked and go do something that makes you HAPPY!

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

Zooming out from our health problems to get perspective, answers and real solutions!

I'm sort of on a roll this week with blogs posts and emails, but I have so many things that I want to share with you, that I sort of can't even help it!

Today I want to chat briefly with you about perspective. 

In the West, our healthcare system is largely one based on treating symptoms. 
We experience a problem in a specific part of the body and both we and our healthcare providers often problem solve as if the problem originated in said part.
Consequently, the treatment is solely focused on this one area. 



For example, if you go to the doctor with persistent knee pain, they will typically recommend you:
take an anti-inflammatory,
wear a knee brace, 
receive steroid shots to the knee
and if all else fails, get knee surgery. 


But ALL of theses solutions are about STOPPING the uncomfortable symptoms that are coming from the knee, which is in actuality a RESPONSE to other issues taking place in the body. 


Anything from the hips, to the ankle, toes, pelvic floor or head position....
diet, stress management, shoes, movement habits and lifestyle...
is IN FACT OFTEN behind the knee pain, but we are often so ZOOMED in on the location of problem and consumed with stopping the symptoms that we fail to realize that the knee's current state is not because of the knee at ALL, but due to many other factors. 




I see this same problem a LOT with the pelvic floor. 
I receive emails and DM's all of the time from people that had prolapse corrective surgery and how find themselves having symptoms again. 


This is because the surgery only took care of the symptoms of a larger problem of strength, stability, pressure management, lifestyle and tissue health. 
 

• Surgery doesn't change the health of your gut microbiome, which determines the health of your pelvic tissue and hormones.
   

• Surgery doesn't stop constipation, change your breathing habits or how you regulate intra-abdominal pressure. 
   

• Surgery doesn't sustainably lift your tissues or teach you how to move in a way that activates your pelvic floor as needed. 

And so because surgery is often just a big ol' expensive bandaid, we find ourselves back in the same ol' pickle. 

**There are absolutely instances when trauma merits surgery and or situations where we need surgical intervention to stop or slow damage to the body. But even with surgery, it's imperative that we not see it as a solution, but as something that is staving off problems...and the problems will return if we don't change how we live!



THIS is why I advocate that we all take a step BACK from our health problems and try to better understand the many other aspects of health in our body, to which our problems can be related. 


When I hurt my shoulder, I tried stretching it and resting it...but I never got any healing or was able to move past the chronic pain until I sought out someone that understand how my shoulder was responding to my ENTIRE body's movement mechanics. Shoutout to Kate Galliett!



And when I developed prolapse, my breakthrough moment that lead to progress and healing was when I began to understand that my prolapse was only sort of about the pelvic floor, but was MORE about how I was carrying my body around all day long every day...
how I was breathing....
how my body was struggling with major gut dysbiois and this was resulting in malnourished tissues and elimination struggles
and lastly
how my stress and failure to take care of my body was increasing my stress response and worsening symptoms. 


And so today, whether it's pelvic health, knee pain, food struggles or motivation to move and train your body, I want to encourage you to zoom out!
Whatever narrative you've created about your pain or condition, I want you to put it on the shelf today. 


Instead of "I have a bad back", consider that your back pain is a message to you that something or things in the body aren't functioning optimally. 

What is it connected to or impacted by in the body?
Your hips, abdominal muscles, glutes, shoulders, feet....

How often do you "train" your back to be strong and able to do the things you need it to do?
Even standing or sitting up straight takes energy and work!

Do you simply stretch it, or do you build it and its capabilities?

Is back surgery or pain reliever going solve the root cause of your problem?

If you stick your finger in the back pain "hole in the dike" will the water start coming out another area of the body? 
Chances are pretty great that it will. 


Instead of, "I have always been a fat kid" or "I can't help but binge at night", "I don't like moving or exercise," 

Stop blaming yourself or your body and find all the tiny or big threads that are attached to these actions and tendencies and see where they lead you?
What is this behavior a RESPONSE to?
What is it telling you about yourself and your life and what's ONE little thing you can do today to try to address the LARGER issue?

And most importantly, where can you find someone that can HELP you get perspective and zoom out??!!


For ease of understanding and discussion, we have split up the body into lots of little pieces and given those pieces names. 
But make no mistake, EVERYTHING is connected. 
Zooming out from your problems is going to give you PERSPECTIVE and OPPORTUNITY to find LOTS of different solutions and areas of impact in t he body to calm your pain and give you LASTING healing. 


Which reminds me, you are invited to join my seminar on mindset strategies I employed to finally get some healing from my pelvic health struggles!
If you're struggling now, still battling the same level of symptoms you had when you were diagnosed or WORSE, then you're going to want to attend. 
It wasn't until I got my MIND right around my prolapse, that I was able to find solutions, strategies that worked and healing!
Come join us!

SIGN UP HERE



xoxo,
Sarah Smith 

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

From bitters to breathing, here are FIVE things I bet you're not doing to help your gut and pelvic health struggles

The gut (pink area #3) and the pelvis (green, #4) are CLOSELY related neighbors.
When once is in suboptimal condition, often the other suffers!

These two important parts of the body are so tightly linked to one another as well as OTHER systems in the body.

Therefore it’s in our best interest to “zoom out” , stop hyper-focusing on our pelvic floor struggles, begin to look for other problems that we can address in the body to improve the health and function of our pelvic tissues.

Today I’m giving you FIVE action steps you can take to improve gut and pelvic health and restore balance to the body!

Let’s start with adding more bitters to your diet

Photos from Country Living Magazine

What are bitters?
Bitter greens like chicory, dandelion, arugula, radicchio, endive and burdock.
Licorice, gentian root, artichoke leaf, mugwort, black walnut leaf, sarsaparilla and there are manyY more!

What do they do?
We are STILL learning about the many benefits of bitters, but the quickest explanation is that because they have a strong and pungent taste, like a poison, but do not have an poisons properties, the brain signals to the digestive tract to GET TO WORK!
The liver begins to detoxify and digestive juices start flowing to help the body process what’s coming down the pipe.
Bitters are “cooling” so they help to reduce inflammation which can results in anything from a reduction in stress to pain!

Why are the beneficial?
Consuming bitters stimulates the release of gastrin, a digestive hormone that signals to the body to secrete saliva, hydrochloric acid, pepsin (a digestive enzyme that breaks down food), and intrinsic factor (responsible for vitamin B12 absorption).

The liver and the gallbladder produce and secrete bile in response to bitters, ALSO helping with the digestive process.

If you’ve read my other blogs on the gut/pelvic floor connection, then you KNOW that digestion is DIRECTLY related to the health of the pelvic floor.
Tissue health confers structural stability and responsiveness to neural signaling and requires adequate nutrient absorption and nourishment.
The better we digest and absorb nutrition from our diet, the better our tissues and muscle health.
When we are malnourished, we see muscle wasting and a lack of regeneration of tissue.

Additionally, sluggish, inefficient digestion causes constipation or a viscous cycle of diarrhea and constipation.
Straining in the bathroom applies lots of pressure to the pelvic floor.
Anyone struggling with rectocele OR an over-recruited pelvic floor, knows how important, easy, routine elimination is for their pelvic health and comfort.

Bitters stimulate the liver and therefore help it to better do its job!

Because bitters are a “cooling” chemical, which means they can fight inflammation that is causing your pelvic or abdominal pain. (reference)

For more reading about the benefits of bitters click here and here.

How to incorporate bitters?
First! Always ask your healthcare provider/functional medicine doctor before starting any supplements.

1.Drink dandelion root tea daily. This is a SUPER mild and low dose of bitters that you can easily incorporate into your diet. There is such things as too much of a good thing, so read the box to see how many cups per day are recommended and START slow!

2. Eat more bitter greens! Arugula, radicchio, chicory, and artichoke leaf can all be easily added to a salad and grown in your own yard or container garden on a balcony!

Moving on to training the parasympathetic nervous system…

Market Watch .com

I can not stress enough how important it is to train your body to spend LESS time being stressed.
I have ALL of my clients train activating the parasympathetic nervous systems throughout their days and in their workouts!

Many of us, especially those with Type A personalities like me!, are living our lives in a chronically stressed state.
We have shallow breathing patterns.
We tense our bellies.
We clench our jaws.
We go, go, go until we crash.

You and I, we need to train ourselves to spend MORe time in the parasympathetic mode of our nervous system, rest and digest, vs. FIGHT OR FLIGHT!

Why is this important?
When we are in the sympathetic mode of the nervous system (fight or flight) our body chemistry changes. We create more acid, cortisol, and adrenaline.
This makes our muscles tense and twitchy. We are over-stimulated and often times have difficulty being present or mindful of our decision.
Blood flow is diverted away from the intestines to the heart, muscles and brain so that we can ReSPOND quickly, but health of the gut, digestion and nutrient absorption suffers.

When we chronically produce adrenaline and cortisol, over time the body becomes LESS sensitive to them and we then have to resort to stimulants like caffeine, sugar, lots of exercise and taking on more and more projects to feel good and energized.

Why does this impact pelvic health?
Well it impacts your pelvic health in any number of ways.

1. Digestion and elimination is compromised which again causes lack of nourishment to the tissues and elimination struggles like constipation.

2. The health of the gut microbiome suffers too because the loss of blood flow and constant stress kills your good bugs. Your good gut bugs reduce stress and inflammation in your pelvic tissues and hormone regulation. Without them you can experience and increase in pelvic pain or symptoms of prolapse.

3. Fight or flight mode means shallow, short breaths and the diaphragm is NOT moving through its full range of motion. This impedes adequate relaxation and recruitment of the pelvic floor, pelvic position and core stability (check out my handout here) which will increase or worsen you symptoms, stall your rehab!

What can you do?

In extreme cases, some individuals (and this is becoming more and more common) need vagal nerve therapy. The vagus nerve is what tells the body whether it should be in the parasympathetic or sympathetic state of the nervous system.
When it comes disregulated from trauma, surgery or chronic stress, sometimes it needs to be “reset” so that the body can re-learn how to move smoothly in between the two modes of the autonomic nervous system.

But let’s say you don’t have signs of vagus nerve dysfunction, here are THREE more things you can do YOURSELF to stimulate the parasympathetic mode of the nervous system.

3. Stomach massage

Massaging your own belly and manually moving around abdominal contents can help to relieve stress, and tension and relax the body.
Massage in a counter-clockwise direction and don’t every push on anything painful.
Working with a bodywork specialist and having them demonstrate how you can self-massage is a GREAT idea!
Click here for more info!
Bonus, if you’ve been struggling with digestion or constipation this should help!
If you are experiencing an increase in prolapse symptoms or over-recruitment, this can help to relax the tension in the belly and pelvic floor and take pressure off of your pelvic organs too!

4. Diaphragmatic breathing practice.
Breathing with the diaphragm (tongue on the roof of your mouth, inhaling through the nose) is a sure way to calm the body and get into Rest and Digest mode!

If you are prone to stress, it’s a good idea to do some diaphragmatic breathing right when you wake up, before you go to sleep, before your workouts, and periodically throughout your day. Set an alert on your phone!!

When I feel symptoms of pelvic floor tightness or prolapse OR feel like my digestion is suffering, breathing has ALWAYS helped to decrease the symptoms and calm more mind and body.

If you’re never practiced it, start here and here.

5. Start ROCKING daily!


Rocking on all fours creates space in the pelvic and abdominal cavities. It calms and soothes the body and it’s how you learned posture and alignment in the first place as a baby!
Rocking can be a TOTAL game changer, if you do it consistently.
It will calm you AND set you up for future diaphragmatic breathing success, because of how well it aligns your body and facilitates the movement of the diaphragm.

Get started with it here!

If you’re ready to get serious about your pelvic floor problems.
If you’re trying to avoid surgery but are tired of this subpar existence that has you sitting on the sidelines and struggling to feel POWERFUL in your body.

Then you have to check out Hold Up! The strategies I teach in this course address the root causes behind your prolapse and will help you find HEALING while conquering your prolapse!

Come and learn more!

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

The first steps to healing after prolapse?

For months after my pelvic organ prolapse diagnosis I was distraught, frustrated, depressed and angry.

I was afraid to move, lift, sneeze, squat, bend over, pick up my kids….

I felt lost with absolutely NO direction for how I should go about my days.
Sure my physical therapy had provided me with exercises, but how do I MOVE? How do I LIVE??

There were months of wrestling with all this, up late at night searching on Google, reading forums and articles on prolapse in which all of the information was so doom and gloom….providing no hope whatsoever…
One evening, I was on my computer in middle of night searching furiously for answers or a glimmer of something positive and stumbled upon a forum in which a Crossfitter was posting about prolapse.

She was explaining how she too had prolapse, but had figured out strategies that allowed her to continue training.

I stopped dead in my online tracks.

Someone with prolapse was STILL TRAINING?
Not only that, but they were doing CROSSFIT?

But I had been told not to lift anything, not to walk downhill???
What the heck?!


I immediately felt hopeful, relieved even.
This sparked a desire to become innovative, so that I could get back to lifting!
I started to consider that prolapse, although not really a solvable problem, it was something I could tackle and work with, around or through.

I went to bed that night with feelings of peace and determination, knowing that tomorrow, I was going to start doing things differently.
And so I did.
I stopped researching prolapse and got to work researching the pelvic floor, it’s function in life and fitness.

I realized that if I could better understand how it was supposed to work, then I could try to solve my prolapse problem and at least decrease my symptoms and get back to what I loved, which was lifting.


That lightbulb/hopeful moment for me was in 2016 and it sparked a cascade of mental and physical events.

• Five months later I earned my Russian Kettlebell Certification.

• Six months after that, I found boldness around this issue and a passion to help other women feel less alone and started speaking out about pelvic organ prolapse and pelvic health struggles publicly online and in my business.

• And in another 6 months I earned my Level 2 Russian Kettlebell Certification, an incredibly challenging and physically demanding two kettlebell certification
  
  
  
  
  

There was a lot of physical work, healing, rehab, re-learning of movement that went into rehabbing my pelvic organ prolapse and earning my kettlebell certifications, but the single most IMPORTANT change I made in my life was changing how I thought about my prolapse and my body.

Even now, when I have bad days, symptom flare-ups, regrets and frustrations about what COULD HAVE BEEN, it is the MENTAL work that makes ALL of the difference in my life.

And so I’m sharing the FIRST TWO steps from my FREE seminar, Kettlebells Over Kegels: mindset shifts for conquering pelvic organ prolapse.

This seminar is about how I shifted my movement and mental strategies from a place of FEAR and FOCUS on prolapse to a place of PERSISTENCE, DETERMINATION STRENGTH and a SYSTEMATIC understanding of my prolapse in the context of my whole body!

This is the system that worked for me.

Step 1: Stop looking back.

Anyone with prolapse can tell you that anxiety about prolapse intensifies symptoms.
Our fear and feelings of regret ABSOLUTELY fuel these anxious feelings and not only limit or stall our rehab process, but can even make things feel WORSE!!!

You don’t ACTUALLY know what caused your prolapse.
Sure tearing during birth, long labors, gut health and elimination struggles, interventions like forceps and and vacuum suction, high BMI, diabetes and insulin resistance, poor tissue health and hormone struggles are risk factors for prolapse, but what caused those things to happen to us?
Movement mechanics before and during pregnancy?
And inability to relax the pelvic floor before and during labor?
Antibiotics, pathogens, stress or nutrition habits that recked our gut microbiome?
Lack of support during our birthing process??

We could drive ourselves MAD trying to tease out the ACTUAL cause and the reality is that there was most likely a cascade of events and risk factors that got us where we are now.
And we can’t go back.
We can’t reverse time or prolapse.
BUT we CAN absolutely move PAST it and work WITH it!

Looking back and fixating on what was or what should have been, prevents us from moving forward.
It limits our growth because our goal, the direction we are trying to move in, it’s in the past.
It’s an impossible destination.

I think you’re getting that now.

It was when I STOPPED obsessing over mistakes, anger about ALL the things no one ever told me and ALL the things I shouldn’t have done or could have done, that I began to make progress.

I started to funnel all that energy into creating and working towards are new goal: getting back into to movement with prolapse and reducing my symptoms as much as is possible, taking it one day at a time.

I decided that I could blaze a NEW trail, not just for myself but for ALL WOMEN struggling with prolapse!

Because at the end of the day we know two things:

1. There is NOT enough research on prolapse, the causes and or what ultimately happens to women with the right support,training and therapy.
   
   
   

2. We, the women of 2019 that have pelvic organ prolapse, we are writing history. We are defining the future of prolapse for ourselves and for others.
   
   
   We HAVE to believe that.
   We HAVE to live that as best we can.
   We have to surround ourselves with others that share this belief, so that when we feel like we are floundering, they can ground us.
   
   
   
   
   

Step 2. Zoom out, Stop hyper focusing on the pelvic floor and begin to understand the system in which it operates.



For me, laying on a table, kegeling with a machine attached to my body, hyper-focusing on forcing my pelvic floor, all by itself to return to its previous state was NOT working.
In fact, it was making things WORSE.
In the days after my PT, I would experience more symptoms and feel more depressed about my progress, than ever.
This is NOT because PT was bad, but because what I did in physical therapy wasn’t making up for how I was living my life outside of the PT office.

The pelvic floor, just like EVERY OTHER PART OF THE BODY, does NOT work in isolation from itself.
And if you’re like me, even before prolapse, it wasn’t working so great, by itself or with the other parts of my body.

This is why I named this seminar “Kettlebells over Kegels” because to me kettlebells are symbols of:

1. Functionality

2. Whole body communication and recruitment

3. Strong and mindful movement

And THAT’s the approach that informed MY HEALING!
Understanding and working towards improving the functionality of my pelvic floor required that I understand it in the context of my whole body and that I become mindful about how it responded to and supported my daily movements, both in and out of the gym!

Kegels aren’t bad, they’re just like isometrics in exercise.
They have a place and a benefit for teaching your body where you want it to go, but they are only one strategy and they should only be used to teach a particular part of the body what you want it to do in the context of the whole entire system.
They are only one part of the story and for some people, they have no business being in the story at all.

Kegels are ONLY helpful for women that have difficult recruiting their pelvic floor, but not every women with prolapse has that exact problem.
Some women have been kegeling their whole life and still have prolapse.
Some women have SUPER active parts of their pelvic floors while others are weaker and non-responsive and a Kegel alone is not going to help that. It can even make things worse.

Zooming out was an empowering (although a little overwhelming) experience because it helped me to see all of the OPTIONS I had for restoring health and function to my pelvic floor.

If you’ve been spending all of the time since your diagnosis zoomed in on the pelvic floor, trying to force it to comply with your desired for healing and reduction in symptoms, try taking a step back and thinking about ALL the other pieces of health that connect to your pelvic floor.

• Diet, nutrition practices, digestion and elimination (pooping)

• Stress, anxiety, depression

• Breathing habits

• Hormone struggles

• Daily movement practices

• Alignment habits

All of these pieces of your health impact your prolapse and vice versa!
If you’ve hit a wall with your prolapse therapy, try looking at these issues either on your own or with a professional to see if there’s some work that you can do to improve the overall function of your WHOLE SYSTEM.
Everything is connected!

To continue learning about mindset shifts for conquering your pelvic organ prolapse, pre-register for my online seminar here.

Sarah Smith is on a mission to help women conquer their pelvic health struggles and build STRENGTH and SKILLS!
She is a strength coach, RKC2 Kettlebell Instructor, Original Strength Pro Instructor, certified personal trainer, postnatal fitness specialist and pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil and Agricultural Science.
Sarah works online and in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is a Believer, wife to her best friend, Jeremiah, a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog.
She loves soil, coffee and not folding laundry. 
Come follow her on Instagram or Facebook.