30 Day Pelvic Floor Challenge

Before we do, there are a few announcements to make in regards to this podcast. So there are now 73 FitNest Mama Podcast episodes available to listen to. These episodes they range from solo episodes to amazing gifts I have been lucky enough to interview. And right from the get go. I knew I wanted this podcast to discuss all sorts of births and outcomes. Because I do wholeheartedly believe there isn’t a one size fits all approach. And I have gone out of my way to find guest speakers from all types of industries to provide a holistic approach to pregnancy and after birth care. So every episode is designed to help you feel a little bit more knowledgeable, a little bit more empowered, and a little bit more confident leading into this, what can often be a very unknown and sometimes daunting new stage of our lives. Moving forward, episodes are going to shift to fortnightly. There’s a few reasons. It is a huge commitment and a labour of love having a podcast and I absolutely do love it. And I want to continue this podcast, but for a few different reasons it will be best to drop to fortnightly. If you are newly pregnant, there are so many amazing episodes to dive into over the last 18 months that I’m sure again, provide hours of information and entertainment. So I told myself at the start of 2022 that I’m going to do two things. One is creating more space for me and my family. Like many of us, I think the last and nearly two years now, I feel like I’ve been chasing my tail a bit and try and keep all the balls in the air with a juggle of life. And for those who say it’s not a juggle, well, I need to chat to you because for me, I do feel like it’s a bit of a juggle at times.

So the second reason for dropping these episodes to fortnightly is I want to be able to focus more on the membership, FitNest Mama. So there are some really exciting things happening over the next few months that I want to be able to give my all. One of which we will discuss next. Rest assured ladies these episodes are still going to drop but they are just going to be fortnightly and I do have a huge favour to ask. Because if you haven’t enjoyed any of these episodes, could you please head to the app, if you’re on Apple podcasts, scroll all the way down to the bottom. So find the FitNest Mama Podcast, scroll all the way down and leave me a quick rating and review. So this really does help the podcast algorithm. It helps the podcast get found by more women just like you. And it also, it lights up my day so and what can sometimes be a lonely thing, podcasting, it’s just me sitting by my desk with a mic and a computer. It really does mean a lot to hear your feedback. So thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Let’s chat about this 30 Day Pelvic Floor Challenge. So this is what I encourage you all to join in on either by yourselves or if you’d like to support come and join us. So here’s the thing, pelvic floor exercises, they can be hard to remember, they’re easy to forget. I agree they’re a little bit boring at times. It can be hard to get into a bit of a routine and I really do feel this is the first bit and the hardest bit with getting started with pelvic floor exercises. It’s finding that routine. It’s like brushing our teeth. That can be boring. It’s not exactly that enjoyable. But it’s a routine and we’re in a habit. We do it twice a day and it just gets done. So pelvic floor exercises because these muscles are internal to the body, they’re out of sight, out of mind and often it can be easy to forget. It’s really hard to remember to do them. And sometimes it’s not until we have issues with pelvic health, that suddenly, the importance comes to light. And this challenge for you, is if you know you have weak pelvic floor, so perhaps you’ve just had a baby or you’ve had your pelvic floor assessment from a physio, and you know, you’ve got weak pelvic floor, this challenge is not for you, if you know you’ve got overactive or tight pelvic floor, or you know that strengthening isn’t for you.

So if you think this challenge is for you, I do invite you to join us either schedule it into your diary, or come and join us. So inside FitNest Mama, starting the first week of March, for the whole of March, a daily video or email is going to be sent out with different pelvic floor exercises. So these are going to start off easier, and they’re going to progressively get more challenging. I’m going to give you that motivation that support that daily email that daily check in into the Facebook group, we’re going to go through a variety of different exercises. So we don’t want to just be doing pelvic floor exercises in one position only. Once we are confident that we can do them properly, it is good to try them in different positions. Obviously, if you’re just at the start of your journey, and you’ve been given some directions by a pelvic floor, physio, you stick with the position they have suggested. But in general, we want to practice them in different positions, if that’s what we can handle. So sitting, lying standing, different positions and sitting, so kneeling, there’s lots of different positions. And we’re also going to get into some different speeds and different combinations. So some slow, some fast, some long hold some short holds, and different combinations to mix it up. This is designed to help give your pelvic floor a boost. I’m going to run you through a set of pelvic floor exercises in a minute, so stick around. But this 30 Day Challenge, it’s designed to help safeguard you against future pelvic floor health issues. So it’s designed to help protect your pelvic floor against issues that can come about such as leaking of urine. So that’s incontinence. It could be leaking of urine, but also feces or flatulence, so that inability to hold in a fart. So we really do want to help safeguard ourselves against these issues, as well as issues with pelvic organ prolapse. So that might be a sensation of a vaginal bulge, heaviness, that pelvic dragging sensation or that vaginal lump. I do have a pelvic health checklist that you can download. I’ll link it in the show notes. It’s a free checklist. Head to fitmestmama.com/checklist and the link is in the show notes.

Alright. Let’s run through some pelvic floor exercises to get you a bit of an idea about what I’m talking about. But if you would like 30 days of that motivation and support to really help boost your pelvic floor recovery, then come and join us at fitnestmama.com. You can either join up for a month if you just want the month only, or you could join for six months if you want. There’s a discount for a six-month membership. Okay, pelvic floor. Let’s get started, ladies.

Today I want to get focused on that back passage. That back passage can be an easy way to start in terms of learning how to lift your muscles. Okay, before we even start, let’s all relax our pelvic floor. Let’s let it go and let it drop and flop. Nice deep breaths. Let your tummy relax. Let all that tension melt away. Okay, now drawing up around that back passage. So imagine you’re stopping yourself passing when you’re drawing up and in, keep breathing. Keep drawing it in for 5-4-3-2-1 fully release. Let it go. Good. Let’s try drawing it up again. zipping up drawing it in for 5-4-3-2-1. Let it go. I will just say if you can’t hold for five seconds. If you’re not at that stage you hold for whatever you can. It’s always quality over quantity.

Okay, we’ve got three more to go. Let’s draw it in from that back passage. Zipping up Indian zip you stopping yourself passing when keep breathing for 5-4-3-2-1 fully release. Let it go. Two more. Let’s go zip it up. Draw it in. That’s the way lovely deep breaths. Zip it up a bit higher if you can for 5-4-3-2-1 fully release. One more record. Let’s go drawing it up and then zip it up nice and strong for 5-4-3-2-1 and fully release. Okay, time for some quick lifts. We’re zipping it up, release, lift, release your drawing up and then as if you stopping yourself passing wind, or imagine this is sucking up a pee through your vagina. So drawing up and release, zip up and release, we’ve got 10, relax, nine, release, eight, release, seven, release, six, release, five, release, full, three, relax, two, relax last one, and then let it all go.

I’m having a bit of a chuckle. Because I’m sitting here at the mic, and I’m doing all the hand actions. Zipping up, I’m lifting up my hands, and I just do it naturally. This is what I do with all my members and my clients. When I’m on a video call, you see me doing the actions with my hands. And I think that helps. So I’ve never actually really done this on a podcast because it’s a very auditory podcast. You can only hear me, whereas I do feel that video. And that’s why the challenge will be delivered via video, because I do feel that really helps with that awareness and that knowledge and all the rest. So I’m just having a bit of a chuckle because I’m doing all these movements here that you can’t see. Alright, we’re going to finish off with a longer hold a 30 seconds endurance hold. These are our slow twitch muscle fibres; these are a half lift only a 50% maximum lift. So because it’s a smaller lift, hopefully you can feel you can hold for longer. We’re only going to do 30 seconds today, which isn’t a huge amount of time. So just to give you a bit of an idea before my mums inside FitNest Mama get back to running, I encourage them to be able to hold for a minute before getting back to running. So you want to build up those endurance muscles to about a minute give or take.

Okay, let’s go. So everything relaxed, start off from that position of relaxation again. And now just do a small little half lift. Keep drawing up and in just halfway. Keep breathing. Amazing. If you feel yourself drop off guard. Just come and join us again. Beautiful, keep breathing. That’s about 10 seconds. 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20. Keep holding with us for another 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, fully let it go. Well done ladies. You’ve just gone through some strength hold lifts. Some quick lifts and a long hold. So that’s a good start. Yeah, hope you enjoyed that. Hope you found that useful. Send me a message on Instagram at @fitnestmama and if you’ve got any questions about this upcoming challenge starts in March 2022 at the time of recording. Having said that, if you’re listening to this podcast down the track later in the year, we will be holding these every few months inside FitNest Mama. So come and join us whenever you are because there will be a pelvic floor challenge coming up soon. So if you’d like to come and find out more come and message me on Instagram or just come and join us it’s there’s a seven-day trial as well at the time of recording. So it’s www.fitnestmama.com. So that’s it ladies, I trust you found those pelvic floor exercises helpful.

Remember, it’s all about chipping away putting one step forwards in front of the other and just giving it your best shot. So before I sign off, remember my team and I will be putting together the show notes for this episode with all the links that I’ve talked about including that pelvic health checklist at www.fitnestmama.com/podcast. That’s it ladies. I will see you in a fortnight for our next episode. Have a great day and thank you once again for tuning into the FitNest Mama Podcast.

Thanks for listening to the FitNest Mama Podcast brought to you by the FitNest Mama Freebies found at www.fitnestmama.com/free. So please take a few seconds to leave a review, subscribe, so you don’t miss an episode. And be sure to take a screenshot of this podcast, upload it to your social media and tag me, @fitnestmama, so I can give you a shout out too. Until next time! Remember, an active pregnancy, confident childbirth, and strong postnatal recovery is something that you deserve. Remember, our disclaimer, materials, and contents in this podcast are intended as general information only and shouldn’t substitute any medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. I’ll see you soon!