Episode #57: The Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast is 2 years old! Ask us anything
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Audible
In this episode, Rhonda and Dayna celebrate 2 years of the podcast by hosting an “ask us anything” episode! Tune in for the answers to all your burning questions about physiotherapy, podcasting, and what’s next!
===============================
If you liked this episode of Pelvic Health and Fitness, share it with a friend, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or subscribe anywhere you listen to your podcasts!
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN EPISODE
For more information on tummy tuck surgery and rehab, check out: Lisa Ryan and Munira Hudani of Tummy Tuck Rehab
For fellow fitness and healthcare pros: Check out Rhonda’s PDF Creation Service
PODCAST LINKS & RESOURCES
Check out Rhonda’s FREE Resource Library
Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast
Book with Dayna (Rebirth Wellness)
SHOW NOTES:
(0:58) - How we are celebrating 2 years of the podcast!
(1:18) - Question 1: Did you both always know you wanted to be physiotherapists?
(9:12) - Question 2: Have either of you had injuries that you had to go to physiotherapy for, yourselves?
(19:15) - Question 3: From Emma (@pressplayphysio) What’s been your biggest lesson from podcasting?
(26:10) - Question 4: From Sandra (@home.health.physio) DR - In regards to diastasis recti, how do we know if it’s healed?
(36:30) - Question 5: From one of Rhonda’s Strong at Home clients: Does it make any difference if I do the single exercises three in a row opposed to doing the exercises in the circuit routine, three times?
(41:25) - Question 6: If you were going to be anything other than a physiotherapist, what would you be?
(47:15) - BIG announcement about the podcast, and wrap up!
-
Episode #57: The Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast is 2 years old! Ask us anything
We're excited to have you join us for this episode of Pelvic Health and Fitness. I'm Dayna Morellato, Mom, Orthopedic and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. And I'm Rhonda Chamberlain, Mom, Orthopedic Physiotherapist and Pre Postnatal Fitness Coach. On this show, we have open and honest conversations about all phases of motherhood, including fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, menopause, and everything in between.
We also provide helpful education and information on fitness, the pelvic floor, and many aspects of women's health, including physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Please remember as you listen to this podcast that this is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical conditions. Please contact your medical provider if you have specific questions or concerns.
Thanks so much for joining us. Grab a cup of coffee. Or wine. And enjoy!
Okay, welcome everybody to the Pelvic Health and Fitness podcast, where today we are celebrating our second birthday. Woo hoo. So, uh, so we are going to answer some questions, listener questions, questions that Rhonda got through her Instagram.
Um, just a little bit more of a get to know us, uh, type format today. So, uh, Rhonda, I'll have you start with the first one here. The first question that came in was, did you both always want to be physiotherapists? Yeah, great question. And I. I think I wanted to be a physiotherapist from somewhat of a young age.
I was a competitive gymnast growing up and I remember my first injury in that sport was a dislocated elbow and I don't necessarily, yeah, I don't re I don't remember in this moment going to physiotherapy, but like that was part of my life trying to rehab that elbow. I remember not loving it because they had to reef on it to get my extension back.
For the, for those of you, if you don't know, dislocating an elbow is really hard to do. Yeah. I am hyper mobile. I have very flexible joints, so I think I was prone to that type of injury in the first place. But yeah, I do, again, I don't remember specifically going and I don't remember. Hating it. But like, I remember my parents talking about how challenging that was and it wasn't the most enjoyable experience, but I think I also in that moment thought about how cool of a career that would be even from a young age and then just going through other, just various injuries.
I had plantar fasciitis pretty bad at one point in my gymnastics life. And I do remember that. I remember. Um, going to physio, having ultrasound on it, doing exercises, having manual therapy done to my foot. Um, and yeah, I remember thinking at that stage, that would be pretty cool. And then in high school, I did a co op placement at a physiotherapy clinic in town.
That was an interesting experience because I was just like an assistant at that clinic. They every so often I would sit in with an appointment, but very much I was doing the filing. I was cleaning the treadmill, folding laundry, holding laundry. And so, but I think I knew enough in those moments to realize this is obviously not what I would be doing if I became a physio.
And so, yeah, still after that placement decided that's what I would pursue. And yeah, basically. My schooling from that point on was to lead me down that path. So I'm thankful that that's sort of what I aspire to be early on and it panned out to be an amazing career. So I know not everyone has that experience and yeah, I'm thankful for that.
How about you? Um, definitely from a young age. I remember I wanted to be a vet . Um, I wanted to be a vet. I wanted to be a vet. I wanted to be a vet. And then I had an unfortunates, uh, situation where I ended up going to what I thought was going to be a routine visit, um, with my friend and her cat. I must have just been at their house after school or something.
Anyways, this poor kitty had to be put down. So after I came home sobbing, it was very clear that I probably wasn't going to make it as a vet. Um, so yeah, it was sort of a heartbreaking thing anyways. A little bit of background information just on our schooling. Rhonda and I were part of the double cohort, if you know you know basically what it meant was Rhonda graduated from OAC grade 13 and I was the first year to graduate from grade 12 we did not go to the same high school but it.
There was a lot of pressure on us in high school, at least that's how I remember it to sort of decide what your career was going to be, which is crazy because I remember talking a lot about it with a guidance counselor in grade 10. So I had been exposed to physiotherapy, a couple times my mom had had.
She had had an elbow surgery also randomly tennis. She had severe tendonitis or something in her elbow. I don't even remember because I was so young. So I knew she was going to physio for that and sort of witnessed the rehab process of that. And then she had a surgery on her knee, same thing. Um, my grandfather actually had Quadruple bypass surgery.
So I witnessed cardio physio, which is not something that a lot of people were even aware of when we were in physio school. Um, a lot of people come into physio school expecting to work in clinics and that is where a lot of us end up going out. But physio does exist in the hospital and it doesn't exist in the cardio respiratory realm.
And so I saw his breathing exercises and some of the Like chest physio and stuff that got done for him. So it was definitely on my radar. And after this, uh, I couldn't be a vet experience and sort of being hounded at school to pick a career. Isn't that crazy to think we were like 15 years old. And I was always active.
I had certainly not had any injuries and never really grew up playing anything competitively. I played school sports. So I was definitely in that where physio seemed like a good fit. Um, And then I ended up going to physio when I was in university, uh, essentially I had really severe patellofemoral pain and ended up at Fowler Kennedy here in London.
And so I got my first Hands on taste of what physio would look like then from like a clinic life perspective. And I was definitely already on the path, taking all the courses to apply to physio school down the, down the road. And I remember thinking, well, at least I, well, I'm glad I think this looks cool while I'm here.
Um, and then even still, I remember very much thinking going into like the first year of physio being like, I hope I like it. Um, But yeah, it's been a, it's been a great career. I think there's, it's a great career for sure. There will always be a need for physios. And, um, I do think pelvic physio as a, as an adjunct to this story was definitely not on my radar.
Uh, interestingly, if you would have told me I would have been a pelvic physio in even my first years of. Couple of years of practice. I probably would have laughed at you as I've mentioned before on the podcast. And now I truly believe it saved my career only because I was working in a clinic with a lot of like, Oh, hip WSAB MBA.
And so. Those can be sort of trying cases. And when I got into public physio, it was like, I finally found my passion in the career. So, um, yeah, and that's just taking me all sorts of different places now too. As you know, I, you never probably thought that you'd be working online as a physio either. No, it's a great career.
I think it's only going to continue to diversify. And then there's lots of other cool opportunities that can come out of it as well. So, yeah, so cool. And I, I totally agree with venturing into pelvic health. Definitely was not on my radar when that elective came up in school, honestly, it didn't even cross my mind to even consider it.
No, like what? Yeah, honestly, I probably was like, Definitely not. Like I read the title. Nope. Yes. Yeah. Um, which is too bad. I think, um, it's now not a mandatory credit, but it is built into a mandatory credit where it's part of, yeah. So everybody's getting a little bit of exposure to some of the concepts of diastasis and Kegels slash reverse Kegels and things like that, which is good.
I think that's really great. Yeah. It's such an important part of our body and part of our. Lives that, yeah, it should be a core component. I think core, no pun intended.
All right. So we, you and I both kind of touched on this second question, but if there's any other ones, um, have either of you, I have either of you had injuries that you had to go to physiotherapy for yourself. So you touched on a couple of Dayna. Was there any other ones that you. Yeah, I, it was really just my knee.
I definitely, although now that I'm saying that I do think I went in high school. Um, yeah, for my knees, always patella femoral type stuff, like knee pain, very common, I had the typical teenage girl knees actually, I totally forgot about that until this moment and then ended up, I played a little bit of soccer, just very recreationally people, definitely not competitively, um, in university.
And I. Flared it up, but they, at the time, weren't really sure if I had sort of tweaked my lateral collateral ligament. And so, um, anyways, I was having pretty severe pain then both times knees. Um, that's, that was my sort of breadth of experience personally. But then, like I said, I had, I had witnessed and tons of friends who had gone to physical therapy.
Physio, right? I definitely had a lot of friends who were athletes or, um, had broken a bone or something and ended up in physio. So I, I was definitely very aware of it. And I forget, I think we've talked about this, but did you go to pelvic physio yourself, like through pregnancy postpartum? Um, I didn't. Um, With Kara, I checked in with one with Nolan.
Um, and then I'm my own worst patient, if I'm honest, I just did my own physio. I didn't have a lot of challenges after Nolan because I had I, well, I had more challenges with Nolan, but I had so much more knowledge about how to manage it. So, um, I, I actually didn't ever check in and then the world went upside down.
So, and actually when the world went upside down was when I, I truly started to have my own challenges. And so, um, interestingly, I sort of had to just educate myself and, and, uh, physio myself, Yeah. Um, which as you know, a lot of public physio is. is exercise, um, strategies and pressure management strategies, which was an interesting thing in a pandemic when you're home with a toddler and a baby.
Yeah. And so. Management stress. Yeah. So, um, I actually just thought recently I have no challenges, but I was like, yeah. You know, If I almost five years out from my youngest, I should probably check in. Just have somebody. Um, What's the word? Non biased. Non biased opinion of my pelvic floor. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't hurt, right?
Oh, definitely not. Yeah. Yeah. I had my elbow dislocation and then plantar fasciitis were kind of like the big injuries I remember growing up. And then, yeah, touch wood. I was an athlete most of my life. I didn't have many other major injuries other than those two. And, uh, Yeah. The only other experience with physiotherapy was when I was pregnant, I went with both pregnancies just to have like a baseline check in of my pelvic floor and then postpartum both times.
And then I immediately postpartum just to get a check in, everything was, was good. I had the diagnosis of the prolapse, but then same as you just self educated myself and became obsessed with learning about the pelvic floor for my own body. Um, and then I did, uh, work with one of our friends. I went back to see a pelvic physio when I was, must've been.
Last year. So yeah, I would have been like three, three years postpartum. Um, and just having just some issues going on with my hip that I was curious whether there was a pelvic floor component. And yeah, sure enough, getting some work done on my pelvic floor was beneficial for that hip. So that's just a note to anyone listening.
If you're dealing with like chronic hip, low back pain, tailbone pain, all of those things that you don't think equate to you. pelvic floor tightness or pelvic floor issues, it might be beneficial to check in because there likely is a component. I want to qualify myself there a little bit. I didn't go during my first pregnancy slash postpartum.
I was just sort of starting my training with my daughter at that time. And just the way the training goes, like it was very much focused on incontinence. So while I knew about the Seeing public physio during pregnancy, even myself in it, at that time didn't fully understand the benefits of going. And truly, and we've talked about this before, like after my first, I didn't have any challenges.
It wasn't until after my second that I started to be like, Ooh, maybe I pushed myself. But by then I just knew so much more that I really felt confident and self managing myself. And, Yeah, so we are learning learn from us. Just we highly recommend it. I wish I had gone earlier earlier on. Yeah, I know. I know.
I wish I I wish I had known about pelvic pelvic physio and. You do this too. And how knowledgeable they are on birth prep. I feel like I was so clueless about that. The only sort of birth prep I knew of was the midwives would have offered, like, classes. But I don't know. There was something I, I just wasn't, that didn't appeal to me to take like a birth class.
I don't know why. No, I think I really, really enjoyed the ignorance the first time. Me 100 percent. If I am completely honest, and I have had several clients when I chat to them about the benefits of a birth prep class, because there is a lot of good research to support going through the motions, so to speak, and sort of chatting about different options and that being associated with more positive birth outcomes.
Um, I, ignorance was on my side the first time. And I do think I had, I, I would say I had very good birth experiences. Um, so I don't, I hope I'm not sounding like a hypocrite, but I just didn't know what I didn't know. And actually somebody asked me recently, just in the last couple of weeks, if I knew everything that I know about birth now, would I do my births differently?
Which is an interesting question as someone who. Thinks that I had very smooth, um, thankfully, I'm going to say easy. I don't think births ever easy, but you know what I mean? Like straight forward births, I suppose. Um, and I absolutely do. I absolutely do think that there, there would be more that I would like to try.
Yeah. Just almost like a case study of myself because I educate people on all these positions and using the peanut ball. And, um, yeah, I think it would be interesting. I'm not having another baby, but I think as a case study on myself, if I were to have another, I might do some things differently. Yeah. Me too.
Yeah. Especially now. You know, after having kids learning that I have a tendency to have a tight pelvic floor, hold tension and getting into like a meditation practice myself. Yeah. I would have like really explored like hypnobirthing and just that side of things, I think, yeah, just like I can, I can really picture how I felt in the moments of the both deliveries and how, yeah, it's just such an out of body experience and how.
I don't know. I wonder if I had some sort of like hypnotherapy practice, if that would have helped, like, I don't know if you can ever be like fully a hundred percent calm when you're in pain, but I don't know, it'd be just curious. I'd be curious what I would have felt like or done if I had that experience.
Yeah, for sure. Like when I think about my first labor. I don't think anybody really knows what to expect in terms of how you're going to handle that intensity of a pain. Now, I will say, as a little bit of background information, and I didn't know it at the time, but at 38 weeks with my first, I developed a kidney stone.
and it was on par with labor pain. Like it was horrendous pain and you get some cloudy pee and the doctors are excited that your kidney stone broke up at the end of it. You don't even get a cute baby. So like the. It's very different. Um, I had a point to this. Uh, basically. Like, you don't really know how you're going to handle that pain or what that's going to feel like.
So. Really and truly having those two experiences back to back. It completely took me by surprise and I don't feel like I had any strategies. I was surviving my contractions. Yes, me too. Yeah, for sure. Whereas with my second, just because you do know what that feels like, what it's probably going to progress like ish, obviously birth has a plan.
Um, I did. I used the ball a little bit more. I definitely use some of the knowledge that I gained just as a physio, but also just learned from the first time. Um, so there are for sure things I felt completely blindsided by. The intensity of it. Same. Yeah. I know. I don't want to go back in time because I'm glad I'm done, but it would be interesting if I would have done things differently.
Yeah. My oldest keeps asking for a sibling. I'm like, no, ma'am. We are a man to man defense in this house. Okay. So I, our next question, are we mentioning who asked them? Yeah, we are. Yeah. Um, I asked, I asked both of these people and they said it was okay. Okay, so from our friend, Emma, who is at Press Play Physio on Instagram, if you're not following her, you definitely should be.
She's a wealth of information. Her question for us was, what's been your biggest lesson from podcasting? That's a good question and I know why she asked this she is and again she gave me permission to say this that she herself is starting a podcast coming up as well. So this is why I think she was curious to ask this question.
Um, yeah, I feel like I've learned a lot from podcasting, I. I think you and I both are talkative people. I have always known I have like the gift of gab. People have always told me that my whole life, but I was nervous to start a podcast. Like I don't, I'm sure people listening are like, we just, we just do this.
And it's, it seems I'm sure, well, maybe that, that we do a good job. I hope so. Um, but I was nervous, you know, just, Coming up with things to talk about. And are, are we going to sound like we know what we're talking about? Are we going to mess up what we're talking about? Like I was nervous to start it, but it's, it's been good.
Like, I feel like just built my confidence that like, we know what we're talking about and we do have important things to say and we can help people across a podcast and yeah, that's been a really cool lesson. I think another cool one is that. inviting guests onto a podcast. It's such a mutually beneficial thing.
So it's beneficial to have guests on our podcast, but it's also beneficial for people to get on other people's podcasts because it's just more exposure for them. Um, it's good for SEO, which is like search engine optimization because you share their stuff on your, on their, sorry, shared their stuff on our website and vice versa.
Um, so that's been really cool. Just reaching out to, you know, some of our most influential mentors that we've had on the podcast and having them just be like, yeah, I'd love to, that's been really cool. Like just, yeah, fangirl moments over like some of the people we've gotten to talk to. Yeah. That's been really, really cool.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think for, yeah, definitely I was nervous too. We started this in what the pandemic, like the height of the pandemic. And I think at the time, like it was definitely a way for us to sort of, you know, use our skills in a different way and hopefully help and educate other people. But it was also a way to connect a little bit to like, um, and hang out with you.
You're one of my good friends. So that was nice in terms of what I've learned. Listen for all the listeners, just so we're clear, Rhonda does most of the work here. Um, I show up for the interviews. Rhonda is working hard, scheduling most of our guests and doing all of the backend stuff. So we love her for that.
Um, so the actual like technicalities of a podcast, I am. Truthfully, not so sure my biggest thing that I've learned or my most favorite thing about doing the podcast has been outside of talking to you on a regular basis has been our guests for sure. I think it was. Like some of the people who I really held on to their every word when I was postpartum, found them on Instagram and then became a pelvic physio partially because of them, we have talked to.
Yeah. Jessie Mandel, Anita Lambert, like those are, were huge players for me and becoming a pelvic physio. And so to get to know them and speak to them was fantastic. Everybody else who we've had on, I have learned at. So many valuable little tidbits and has just some really great conversations. I think it's so invaluable Yeah, it's such a great way to connect people.
Like Antony was in Australia. Yeah. So cool. Right. So it literally can connect you to people around the world like social media can, but this is just a little bit more personal because you're essentially sitting in a room together, having a chat about a mutually, um, loved topic. And that has been so, so cool.
I really, really have enjoyed that. I agree. It's we've said that, you know, selfishly, it's good for our learning good for our expanding our knowledge and talking to these amazing people in our field. And then just so awesome that then we just put that conversation out to the world and help other people, you know, teach and educate and Yeah, just such a cool thing.
The other thing I'll say too, in terms of like my biggest lesson, I, I don't know, I haven't listened to too many of them back. I can't listen to my own voice. I'm sure many people, I'm sure many people feel that, um, it would be interesting to sort of listen to the earlier episodes versus now. I think both of us sort of figured out along the way that we could just be ourselves.
It didn't have to be very like contrived and interviewee and, um, Like I'm definitely a rambly type person. I'm a bit sarcastic. And I, at some point, I think I just was like, I'm going to talk to you. Like, we're just talking in, in class. And so, yeah, that's, I think just be yourself has been one of the biggest lessons as well, because people are drawn to who you are and, um, you'll connect with people and people will connect with what you have to say.
If you're just who you are. Yeah. And that's been our vibe with this podcast from day one. Thanks. Sort of our message with our clients is, yeah, be yourself. Done is better than perfect. Um, so we, I've never edited out our ums or our, what we mess up. I, I don't want to edit those things out because we are real humans and we're recording on zoom.
We've tried other platforms that maybe the sound quality is better, which may be down the road we can change, but. I don't know. It's, it's done is better than perfect. That's been my motto from day one. We've consistently had an episode come out every other week. That was our goal too, was to not put the pressure on ourselves to do weekly, which is what most people do.
And yeah, I'm proud of ourselves that we've stuck with that and we've been consistent and yeah, I think if you are listening and you're considering starting a podcast, Just that would be my advice to you is pick a schedule that, you know, you can stick with. Cause that is usually what happens with podcasts.
A ton of people start one, but not a lot of people keep it going. So yeah, I think, you know, not succumbing to the pressure. Oh, we have to do this every single week or it doesn't count just like working out. Right. Yeah. Find that like all or something. And yeah, we've been consistent with that. Yeah, we have been.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, cool. All right. So our next question is from Sandra and she is at home. health. physio on Instagram. She is a listener to this podcast, which we are grateful for. She's a pelvic health physio herself. Um, so her question was in regards to diastasis recti, how to know if it's healed. And she thought this might be a helpful question to chat through for our listeners.
So do you want to touch on that, Dayna? It's a great question. Thanks, Sandra. Um, how do you know if it's healed? Oof. Um, everybody thinks it has to do with the coning and the doming. Um, and that certainly is one of the things that I have my clients look at because it's Easy to see, right? If you're doing a new exercise, you look down and you sort of see that typical tenting in the midline of your abdomen.
That could be a sign that you're sort of overdoing or going beyond what that abdominal wall or that linear elbow, which is a fancy name for the tendon down the middle is able to handle. So how do you know when it's healed? The opposite of that, maybe you're doing those exercises and you're not. Seeing that coning as much.
Um, certainly I think a lot of people have seen sort of the finger test and you can measure the size of the gap. I'm doing air quotes there. Um, that can be an indicator of healing. Certainly if you were two fingers and now you're fully closed, you can't fit a finger in there, or maybe you're down to one finger.
Um, certainly that can be a sign of healing. But more importantly than the size of the gap, it really is about the tension of that linea alba. So, and it can differ from exercise to exercise for a little bit, which can be frustrating to clients. I know they can have like, their diastasis is tolerating a plank perfectly fine, but we do a dead bug and they get a little cone or they go a little bit soft in the midline.
So what I typically have my clients do and to give them the tools to assess this. I have them look for any coning. I have them feel what their linear elbow feels like all the way along. So right from the beginning, this is what it, you know, feels like we've got this many fingers, maybe a little bit softer in the midline.
What happens when we engage? Can we feel that that midline firms up a little bit? Can we even feel how it fully closes if that is the case? And then I have them reassess their diastasis throughout their treatment so that they get a sense of what that feels like when they're no longer seeing. Um, and then I also have them pay attention to breath holding.
Yeah. If you're breath holding for an exercise. Then, um, maybe that exercise intensity needs to be changed, or maybe we need to just be a little bit more focused on that engagement of the deep abdominal wall. So I'm talking around it, but basically we want to see minimal coning. We want to be able to engage that deep core, which typically means It's a very tight.
It's a breath hold because it's not usually a max. Um, effort contraction with an abdominal exercise. And we either want a full closure. We can't feel fingers through there or at the. Or I shouldn't say, I was going to say at the very least, but it's not, it is just a true, or it's nice and firm in the midline.
So you can still maybe feel the two sides of. You know, the sides of the gap, but the tendon in the middle feels firm. It's not soft and squishy. Yeah. Yeah. I think my, you know, if someone came in to me and ask this question, you know, am I healed or is this healed? I think my question back to them would be, what does healed mean to you?
Right. So I think there's so much fear mongering about diastasis out in the world. And so there is so much focus on the gap. Right. And I think I, I also like to, you know, Teach my clients how to self assess themselves. And yeah, I think, um, correct me if I'm wrong, but if there's a two finger, I think sometimes even like three finger or less gap.
That is very sort of like normal within normal limits of like a functional abdomen. So I try to just, you know, remind clients and reassure clients that if there is a two finger gap, it's okay. Like there's, there's nothing inherently dangerous about trying things if you have a bit of a gap. And I think.
Yeah, the research is showing that that might not be the best thing to focus on. And yeah, focusing on the tension, focusing on like how deep you can get your fingers into when you, when you are contracting, which basically is that assessment of the tension that you're able to develop in that linea alba.
And I think when it comes to like coding and doming too, we've talked about this on the podcast and Anthony Lowe talks about this all the time. There's a difference between like a hard dome and like a squishy dome. Cause I think, yeah, there can be situations where, yeah, you have a bit of a gap, you're doing say a plank and you see some coning, but if you touch it and it's very, very squishy, That's not, you're not in like a danger zone of like damaging things.
Like sometimes this is the thing too. Sometimes the exercise you're doing, it actually might not be challenging enough to encourage your inner core to have to engage. So then you will see a bit of cloning and doming because your core doesn't feel like it needs to generate a lot of tension in that position versus if you challenge it even a little bit more, which sounds counterintuitive, then maybe those Inner fibers will kick on and then you'll feel, and you're like, oh yeah, now I feel, I don't see that don't doming.
And there is more tension. Absolutely. It's such like, it's such a fine balance, right? And it's an individualized person to person. Absolutely. I see that all almost daily. To be honest, you sort of start with the typical like lower level. And I think that's where a good, Um, and I think that, um, I think that a therapist or, um, coach can help you sort of navigate that because it really is your tissues.
Yeah. So no two bodies. Are able to generate the tension, the exact same, the same exercises at the same time, postpartum. So, um, That's where I get picky people. I've had people ask or like, well, what are just some quick exercises? And I'm like, well, we gotta, we gotta see that. Because yeah, it is, it's interesting to think, but I see it every, every week at least where the low level ones, I'm like, Oh gosh, we're getting some coning there.
And it's, you know, true coning or not pulling together. And then you load them a little bit more and they actually tolerate that, that load more, better, more consistently. And I think that's the other thing that I want to say as well. Is the internet has terrified people of doing anything, but we strengthen tissue with load.
So we have to load these tissues in order to heal these tissues. You just want to be a little bit selective about how you do that. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I think sort of the last point, and this can get into a whole other conversation, but a lot of clients potentially might be asking that question. If I'm healed, why do I still have like sagging skin?
Or why do I still have like a mummy pooch or whatever silly word that the internet has put out there? Um, so I think those are sort of different questions too, right? So I think Yeah, working, maybe it's working with a therapist and working through like body image stuff like they're You might have a functionally healed diastasis, which means, yeah, you don't have much of a gap.
You no longer present doming. You're able to do XYZ exercise without any symptoms or they feel good. They feel strong. However, you still don't like the look of your tummy and you are blaming it on a diastasis. And so, yeah, I think that's a whole thing. And, you know, if Then if, or if you're someone that still has a gap that remains, cause that can happen too, where you do, you know, physiotherapy till the cows come home for a year, two years, and you still have a gap.
That is a very normal occurrence. And that again, does not mean you're broken, does not mean you didn't do things right. That's just how your body adapted throughout your pregnancy and your postpartum. then there are some clients that choose to go the surgical route, right? And there's nothing wrong with either way.
If you decide to not have surgery, wonderful. If you decide to go for surgery, whether that's just for aesthetic reasons, that's totally valid. Or even if it's like, you know, you think there's a functional deficit because you still have a gap and you want to have surgery to repair that, then that is, again, very valid.
Um, there's one person I would suggest following two people, uh, Munira Hudani and Lisa Ryan. I'll put them in the show notes. They have a whole tummy tuck rehab program and they would be amazing people to reach out to if you're in that that world of I've done everything I think possible to heal my diastasis but I still am struggling with the aesthetics or I still am struggling with like the function and not being able to do what I want to do.
They would be amazing people to talk to. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, the rehab after that is still important. Yes. And going into a surgery strong is very important too. Very important. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, um, I'll, I'll do the next one because the next one was, uh, came in from one of my strong at home clients and she's wonderful.
She's been with me for a while. Um, she's been in the program and doing her thing, which is awesome. She's an older woman and killing it. Um, so her question was more like a specific question, but this can be sort of a generic question too. So in the strong at home membership, I basically pair, I have like a part a and a part B.
Part a I'll typically pair like an upper body exercise with a lower body. So say it'll be like a dumbbell strict press and then like a goblet squat, for example. Um, I'll pair them. I'll have people do like two to three rounds of 10 reps of each. And then part B might be, you know, something similar, like an upper body, a lower body, maybe like a core exercise, for example.
So if you've done CrossFit sort of like I have a cross Cross fitting spin on how I program workouts, but I like to work out that way. It works for clients anyway. So this client asked if, so say let's use that example, three rounds, 10 dumbbell, push, press, and 10 goblet squats. She was asking me if she could do, or if it's okay to do three sets of 10 of the push press alone.
And then move on to three sets of 10 of the goblet squad. So such a cool question. And, you know, it comes into exercise, programming, physiology, all that. So I'm not going to get too nerdy nitty gritty, but the reason I program workouts that way is a couple of reasons. So first one is I like to pair an upper body with a lower body, for example.
And I don't always do it that way. Sometimes I do an upper body with an upper body because that's fun sometimes too. But upper body with a lower body. So then you do your 10 push press, and then you give your upper body a chance to rest as you go into your 10 squats. So you're kind of giving those muscle groups a chance to rest, but then you're right away going into another exercise.
So it kind of keeps your heart rate up. Um, so it's a lot of benefits to that. Um, so then you're ready when you finish those squats, you feel your upper body feels ready to go into a set number two. Um, of the pressing. So I like that. I like that for just again, like overall strength building overall, getting that cardio respiratory system working.
Part two, or the reason too, that I love to do that is I work with busy humans. Humans. Busy moms. This person is an older woman. So she's still busy working. She has a lot of things. She's taking care of grandkids. Um, I understand you all are busy. And so I want efficiency. So if for example, you do, you know, 10 sets of 10 reps of your press, and then you were to rest for 30 seconds to a minute, and then you do 10 presses again, rest.
That's going to take you longer versus if you do your press, you go right into your squat. You do your press, you do your squat. That it's just, it's a more efficient way to get your workouts done. And that is a huge, huge part of the strong at home membership. I want you to get in and get out within like 10, 15, 20 minutes of getting your workout done that you don't have to think about anything else.
So those are sort of my answers. I think at the end of the day, if you do break things up, if you do Three sets of 10 of your presses in a row. And then you do three sets of 10 of squats in a row. There's nothing wrong with that. You're still going to get the same strength building benefits. You will still get the same cardio benefits.
It's maybe not getting the heart rate up as much because you're not switching, uh, immediately to the next one, but there's nothing wrong with that. So my answer to her was, if you want to do it that way, if that just feels better for you and you enjoy doing it that way, Go for it. I always say to my clients, I give you a template.
You can then make it your own based on what you see. Um, I give like the backup camera example. I give like the, the picture of you doing it, backing up in your car, but you still have to steer. So you still have to choose what you're doing. I just give that overall picture. So, um, does that make sense, Dayna?
Yeah, I wouldn't change any of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if that helps for any, any of you listening that do strength training workouts, basically at the end of the day, there's no right or wrong way to strength train. I would say there's going to be bros online that tell you like, Oh, such and such as terrible for you.
But if you're moving your body and you're building strength and you're not injuring yourself, you're doing a wonderful job. So don't. You know, get into the nitty gritty of like, is this right? Is this wrong? It's if you're starting training and you're moving your body, you're doing awesome. Yeah. You're you're moving.
You're winning. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. This last question is an interesting one. I don't know. I don't know. Um, so I'm going to ask you first. Okay. If you were going to be anything other than a physiotherapist, what would you be? Yeah, that is such a good question. Um, I've said this before to clients and I think as physiotherapists, we sort of touch in this area, but I always thought I would have loved to be like a mental health therapist.
I just, yeah, I, my degrees, um, in university was a major in kinesiology and a minor in psychology. And honestly, I think psychology were my favorite courses, even more than kin. Um, I just find the heat, the mind so fascinating and just. Learning about why humans do the things we do is just so fascinating. So like sociology, I guess, kind of too.
Um, and that's one of the favorite, my favorite parts of my job. And again, I don't tread into fit, uh, mental health therapist water because that's not my scope, but we do, you know, we get to know our clients. We talk to our clients, we talk through things, we talk through their symptoms. So there is sort of like a mental health component to what we do.
And I love that about my job. So I always thought that would be kind of cool, but I also, I love the exercise and the movement part of it. So I think, yeah, I think just talking to people all day, I also would feel like I'm missing something. So, but yeah, if I had to choose, that's what I would say. Yeah, that's a good one.
I also, I don't know if we, maybe we've talked about this at some point in our friendship. I also took a minor in psychology and I agree those were my favorite. Those are my favorite courses, for sure. I took those specific, I got them, I think I took like first year psych and loved it, and then I just kept taking them because they were the ones that were more fun for me, and I ended up a minor.
Yeah, same. If I were anything other than a physio. I don't, I don't actually know. I think I could be a couple things. I, I'm hesitating because one of the things I said to Rhonda before we even chatted about this is I would love to be a professional organizer. Don't judge the room behind me if you're looking on YouTube.
This is, room is a work in progress. Um, but I love implementing systems and organizational things and taking a room and sort of making it look more organized for sure. I can watch those videos on Instagram of the home edit or whatever, where people are just like putting those fancy containers and filling them until the cows come home.
That is a form of like meditation for me. So that would be something I would think would be a fun job. Although. If you are in this realm and you're not called professional organizers, I apologize, but you know what I mean, I assume that there comes, that comes with a lot of headaches. I sort of am in my role moving into a little bit of an educator role.
I don't think, I think the world of primary school teachers, I don't think I have it in me to teach young children, but I think perhaps teaching sort of professionals or, or adults is something that I could move into. Yeah, yeah. I've always thought that about you. You are a great educator. Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah. I will say too, and this will be like a little, a little plug. So I apologize, but I also, um, I've always been techie. I've always loved technology. It's always come naturally to me. I've also always been like a bit artsy. So I always, I remember, you know, growing up always. Doing the slideshows for people's weddings and, you know, making like scrapbooks for people, my friend Candace, I remember making like a scrapbook where I would like color the pages for her.
So I've always had sort of like that side of me too. And so one area I'm sort of diving into is PDF creation on Canva. I remember when I started my online business, I would spend so much time on Canva, like a silly amount of time that I should have been doing other things, but I just enjoy it so much.
And so I remember I was telling one of my friends about that and my favorite days is being on Canva in my business. And she was like, really? She's like, I hate that. Like, That is like the last thing I want to do. And in my head, I'm thinking, Oh, everyone must love canvas. She's like, no, I hate it. I'm not good at it.
It takes me forever. She's like, you should explore that. Like if you love it and you, you know, spend hours on there and it feels like minutes, like that means something. And it's like, Oh, maybe you're right. And so, but imposter syndrome came in where it's like, I'm a physio. I'm not a graphic designer. Like who am I?
But I, you know, ventured into it last summer and I'm gonna kind of venture it into again this summer, basically creating PDF projects for fellow fitness and health care professionals. So if you're someone that has a Google doc and you are terrified to put it into Canva, you have no time to, you hate it, you'd rather, uh, You know, ship that off to somebody else, um, to do it, then that's something I'm exploring too.
So I guess if I was not a physiotherapist, that's what I would do, but I am doing that. So I don't know if that counts. Yeah. Well, that's, uh, that's why I say I'm starting to move into a little bit of that role, but you do love that stuff and you're fantastic at it. So ship it to Rhonda. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.
Such a fun chat, Dayna. Such a fun chat. I will just take a moment here to say that I, in our third year, I'm going to be stepping away a little bit. I will be popping onto the podcast just a little bit, um, less frequently. Definitely have enjoyed all of these conversations in the last two years, but life is changing.
My kids are getting busier with their sports and as I said, I, I am actually working, um, in an educator role part time right now. So I've just got more on my plate. Um, so for the next year, you're going to see, or hear, I suppose, a little less of me overall. I'll pop in sort of like pokaroo here and there, but Rhonda is going to take the wheel and I know that she will do a great job.
Ah, you will be missed Dayna. It's been honestly so much fun doing this. And like you said, Selfishly has been great. Chatting with you every couple of weeks to do the podcast and yes, I'll look forward to having you basically as a guest appearance on, on the podcast. So yeah, for those of you listening, I will still be here.
I, because I have an online business, I've basically created my schedule to build the podcast into my days. So I am still loving it. I'm going to keep it going. And yeah, I'll look forward to chatting with Dayna when she can. Um, so nothing much is going to change, uh, as a listener, our intro, we're going to keep the same.
We're going to keep the cover the same and just kind of, again, just keep trucking and keep being perfectly imperfect as we put these episodes out into the world. And thank you to all of you for listening and being with us for these last two years. It's been, I'm just, again, so proud of ourselves that we kept this going and it's been two years.
That's wild. It's been two years. Happy birthday. Happy birthday podcast. Thanks Rhonda. Thanks for listening to today's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you liked what you heard, we would love if you could share this with a friend, leave us a review, or subscribe to anywhere that you listen to your podcasts.
Thanks for being here.
