I recently took the course called Foundations: Treating and Training the Female Runner (or any Female Athlete) by Julie Wiebe, PT. Julie is a brilliant and well respected physiotherapist based out of the United States and is currently a part of the teaching faculty at the University of Michigan, on top of the many other hats she wears. Her clinical practice, teaching and research focus is on female athletes and maximizing their abilities from an external pelvic health perspective.
I am a Female Athlete
A little bit about me. My name is Allison Fulton, I am a community health and pelvic health physiotherapist and a female athlete. I have always been some form of athlete my entire life, whether it was more being a house league player, high level soccer player, recreational runner, Zumba enthusiast, pickleball novice or a hot power yogi. After having many various sport injuries and delivering my 2 children, I always crave going back to sports, the gym and soccer. I never want to give it up. There isn’t another feeling that is quite the same as having the freedom to run, jump and play soccer. This is part of who I am, and after having children I did not want to leave that behind. I wanted to be the active mom out playing and running with my kids. I didn’t want to let pelvic concerns prevent me from participating in activities with my kids or playing sports again.
Clinical Pearls as a Physiotherapist
These are a few key messages from Julie Wiebe’s course that resonated with me and that I strive to uphold and practice in my clinical work in partnership with female athletes as a physiotherapist at ellephysio.
- The value NOT saying “Stop everything and do basic exercises”.
- Usually, with adjustments and modifications to their running or sport movement we can keep these women moving in a similar and/or more efficient way. If you know me, you know I very much disliked when any medical professional said stop exercising or running. This is part of who I am, so telling me I can ride a bike or swim instead wasn’t going to work for me.
- Our bodies change. ESPECIALLY after creating, carrying, birthing and caring for a new human
- First, you are amazing. Even if you don’t feel that amazing right now. I know my body changed a lot during and after having my children. Part of this change happens with our posture when we are pregnant and often isn’t addressed elsewhere in the medical system during or after delivery. Our posture seems so basic, we don’t even recognize how different our body is positioned after having a baby compared to before. The changes happen so gradually over the time of pregnancy. We may just identify areas of our body which are uncomfortable or achy. Posture isn’t just about sitting up straight or having our head too far forward. It is about where and how our whole body interacts with and moves in space. Having a trained eye for optimal posture and alignment with movement gives us clues as to what the problem may be so we have a clear direction to go. Never underestimate the power of posture.
- Breathing, breathing, breathing
- HOW do you breathe? Good question, right? Well, breath and the timing of our breath are huge players in pelvic health problems. It is actually quite essential to understand, as our diaphragm sits right below our lungs and as we fill it with air, it pushes down on our abdominal contents and pelvic organs. Our pelvic floor is meant to have some give to it- it should actually move with our breath as it is part of the deep core system. Sometimes we hold our breath without knowing it – which then puts undo pressure on our pelvic floor and can make us leak or increase concerns with a pelvic organ prolapse. Breath is a very powerful tool to use with our pelvic floor. It can prevent us from having any leaks or pain doing exercise. Also, just exhaling before the start of a task, like lifting- actually starts firing your pelvic floor muscles– without us even thinking about it!!
- Impact. “I can’t do that anymore.”
- Wait, HOLD that thought!
- Let’s first understand impact – We often think that activities that involve heavy pounding or jumping will cause us to have leaks. So maybe you switched from running to swimming. This is supposed to be a “low impact activity”. This may be true, but that doesn’t mean you won’t leak or experience heaviness in the pelvis. It is more about the way in which we do the activity that matters the most. Careful consideration of our posture and breath during these tasks, whether it is running, swimming or lifting weights; can give us great insight as to why we may have leaking episodes or heaviness in the pelvic floor. This means it is quite possible that with a few simple changes, you may just be able to get back to running symptom free! You don’t have to swim – unless that is your jam, then totally swim – and we can get you back in the pool with hopefully no leaks or pelvic pressure.
- It is never too late.
- If you are a person who decided after kids you couldn’t do those activities or run because of leaks, fear of leaks or prolapse symptoms. Please reconsider. Imagine if you got some help and made few simple changes that no one had told you before. You can return to running or get back to the gym in the way YOU want. It isn’t too late is what I am trying to say. If your kids are bigger now and you finally have more time to yourself to get to the activities you’ve missed, don’t automatically scratch them off your list. If there was no attention given to these concerns before, then chances are your body just wasn’t given the opportunity to make changes so that you could do them again.
Now is your time! Get back to being you!
If you are interested in learning more about this approach in pelvic health to running and return to sport, please don’t hesitate to book an appointment with Allison or one of our other incredible physiotherapists here at ellephysio.
