Join Christina and Sam, chat about core health and how this impacts our quality of life in the short and long term.
WHAT IS THE TRUE CORE
Definitely is more than the abs and back. It is composed of the core four, which is the diaphragm (your breathing muscle), pelvic floor (foundation), transverse abdominals (deepest abdominal muscles) and multifidus (deepest back muscles). If your pelvic floor isn’t working well, this impacts the whole core. Idea to have synergy of all
COMPONENTS OF CORE TRAINING
Understand what the core is. Alignment is key. Without proper alignment, each component can’t work at it’s best. Want to avoid breathing into the chest, or holding the belly, or gripping the pelvic floor (if leaking). This call causes a disruption in the core. Breathing is the most important factor. Encourage women to slow down and breathe can be a big challenge. This society is based on instant gratification which can prevent us from building our foundation.
THE SIGNS OF CORE DYSFUNCTION
Signs are pelvic organ prolapse, which is when the pelvic organs start to fall in and out of your vagina or anus. Leaking urine, back pain and hip pain. Diastasis Recti, which is the separation of the abdominal muscles, creating a weakening of the core breathing system.
CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING LEAKING AND CORE DYSFUNCTION IN THE LONG TERM
50% of women by age 50 will have some degree of pelvic organ prolapse. They aren’t even aware of it. It is possible to reverse prolapse without surgery. Don’t want to be ignoring the symptoms. It is not normal to leak anytime. We have to think about the consequences of ignoring these symptoms, like not being able to run after your kids, or take part in a class, or having to wear adult diapers. When you get to menopause, things don’t get better. Muscle atrophies and hormones take a nosedive. You lose muscle faster than you can create it. Your pelvic floor is like all the other muscles in your body, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Many women will delay taking care of things until something drastic takes place. Samantha talks to her clients about the bare minimum requirements and that even if they get out for a ten minute walk everyday, that has to be it.
Incontinence is the second leading cause of being placed in a nursing home. There are no excuses for ignoring your symptoms.
BARRIERS TO GETTING HELP
There are so many barriers to getting help, especially when you have advertisements normalizing it with young women wearing. Light bladder leakage - actually called incontinence, so not a real term. One of the reasons why they don’t get help is because they don’t want to embarrass their doctors. The doctors aren’t asking either. There is also a disconnect between doctors and pelvic physiotherapists because there is a misconception that it doesn’t work. Surgical bladder lifts fail 50% of the time in the first 5 years. The big reason is that there is no education, post-op or rehab or pre-hab. It is a bandaid. It is not getting to the root cause of the problem.
DIASTASIS RECTI
This is the separation of the connective tissue called the linea alba. Alignment has to be taken into consideration the way you stand, avoid exercises that result in abdominal coning. The need to close the gap has gone and now the aim is to have tone across the connective tissue. You can have a three finger wide diastasis but bounce a quarter off of the linea alba, there are no concerns about it, but if there is a narrower gap and can touch your organs.
If you have a dysfunctional diastasis, you may see doming with an ab curl. It is about managing intra abdominal pressure. There is pressure day to day and the aim is to get alignment. If you have weak connective tissue, you can have chronic back pain.
