1KHO 687: How to Be Kind to Your Pelvic Floor | Jenn Lormand, Tighten Your Tinkler

Oh, it's a beautiful world Ain't nothing on the screen that's ever gonna be this view Oh, it's a beautiful world And I just wanna share with you It's a beautiful world Such a beautiful world Hey friends, thank you for being here. Today's conversation is one a lot of women don't realize they need until something feels off My guest is Jen Lormand a clinical exercise physiologist researcher and founder of Titan your tinkler We're talking about the pelvic floor what it actually does why so many women struggle with leaks pressure pain or back issues And my common advice like just do kegels often misses the mark Jen shares her own story of birth trauma prolapse and being told surgery was inevitable And the non-invasive approach that helped her heal and has since helped thousands of women Reclaim normal activities like hiking running sleeping through the night and simply not thinking about bathrooms all day long This episode is practical hopeful and surprisingly freeing if you've ever felt limited by your body or worried that certain changes Were just part of being a woman. This conversation will give you clarity and options. All right, let's get into it March is when homeschool families start looking ahead You can almost see the finish line spring goals end of your milestones Maybe even testing around the corner and this is such an important time to reinforce key skills and build confidence before wrapping up the year If you are thinking about assessments, whether required by your state or simply the benchmarks you've set for your family It's helpful to have a tool that makes review simple and clear. That's where ixl can really shine ixl is an award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into homeschooling It offers interactive practice across math language art science and social studies from pre-k through 12th grade A personalized learning for each child keeps them engaged and gives parents clear insight into progress What stands out this time of year is a real-time feedback and progress tracking Kids get instant explanations when they miss something and parents can see exactly where growth is happening And where a little reinforcement might help it takes the guesswork out of finishing strong Make an impact on your child's learning get ixl now and 1 000 hours outside listeners can get an exclusive 20 off ixl membership We may sign up today at ixl.com slash 1 000 hours Visit ixl.com slash 1 000 hours to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price Welcome welcome to the 1 000 hours outside podcast My name is jenny earth and the founder of 1 000 hours outside and someone recently left a Review and so i'm actually like left me spiraling gen Someone left me a review and it doesn't say that the podcast is boring, but in my mind it made me think that But it was a review and it was actually really kind of like a nice review It was like this podcast has changed my parenting Also, it's repetitive and i was like what Also, I can't deal with anything negative. So I was like Totally thrown for a loop. I was like, I am spiraling. Okay to say i'm a fan of this podcast is an understatement I listen regularly my 2b red list has grown exponentially and what i've learned frequently comes up in my everyday conversations That being said I find the episode topics and guess Becoming quite repetitive. So today we're going to be talking about your pelvic floor So there Here's your monkey wrench. Yeah, I'm like I have every single time I read a new book I was like, how can this be repetitive? So the author is sarah and so sarah today will not be repetitive Jen lorman is here to talk about tightening our tinklers. Welcome Jen So much for having me jenny Well, thank you. So whoever wrote that review and left me four stars instead of five We'll now know everything about how she's supposed to pee and prolapse and all these things and so It is not repetitive. Okay. Can you talk to us about your background here? So I love learning about this stuff because one time somebody told me that I was gonna mess up my bladder I pee and I learned from you that I pee like the exact right amount The situation was is that I went on a camping trip. This matters because it affects you getting outside You know, can you go camping? Can you go on a hike? You know and and you're having leaking or you have to go to the bathroom right away And people talk about this like they're like it really affects their quality of life And so I'm like I can make it through the night and in the morning I peed in this big Like I was on this camping trip on a river and you pee in this they give you a like a plastic container Like you would use for food and you pee in it and it had the amount of ounces on the side So I was like, oh, I peed I can't remember what the number was. Anyways, I was like, oh, I peed a lot I was like, I'm really good. Then you dump in the river And so someone told me they were like, no that you've stretched your bladder out That's too much pee and then I learned from you that it wasn't and I was actually a really good peer But basically I'm just trying to tell Sarah that we're not repetitive. So, okay Can you talk to us about what's happening with women? Perry menopause is an issue because your estrogen changes puberty is an issue Our pelvic lures aren't issue because we have these babies we carry kids Where did your interest come from? What are some top things that women should know? Holy moly. Okay Well, I'm Jen Lorman. I'm a mom of three and I'm a clinical exercise physiologist published researcher I got into this really because of my own story. I had a very traumatic birth with my first son And had I got pregnant six months after having my first son and so Things started to snowball and spiral for me Can you give us a little bit more detail and not your personal business? But yeah, when you say I mean, this is a very personal Well, it's pretty personal, but that's okay But when you say traumatic birth and you know, that's a that's a phrase that I would imagine a lot of people would use I would say our first birth was traumatic. Yeah, I had to have the foley bulb I don't even know if that's what it's called. Honestly, but like it was like it was induction and I had preeclampsia I had to collect I'm talking about pee I had to collect my pee in a jug for like a whole weekend and they had to give the numbers and the numbers were awful And so I was hooked up to all these machines and then he like wouldn't come So they had to break my water But I don't know if it was already broken because he was born and he had all these scabs on his head So she had been picking his head. She'd been trying to break the water But like wasn't getting the water was getting the scalp and then I was hooked up to all these machines I was like drug So there's a lot of different ways for things to be fairly traumatic. Yes. So for me in particular I had some of the same things that you're talking about happened And my child got stuck in the birth canal was born at gar zero and They could not get him out. He was stuck and so they were trying forceps. They switched to a vacuum He was in the birth canal So they couldn't do a c-section at that point and so it's it's really a miracle that my child is Now 21 and and thriving and doing well But in that process of trying to get him out I tore hole to hole and then that got infected and Um, just from I was pushing for a very long period of time. So I was completely incontinent both ways postpartum So just a lot of trauma to the tissue of the pelvic floor specifically And then obviously getting pregnant six months later I wasn't fully healed and so that led to something called vulva varicostates Which are essentially hemorrhoids of your vagina. They can get the size of coconuts during pregnancy and very painful And so I dealt with that my second pregnancy and was able to deliver via c-section And my obi at that point pretty much told me Jen. You really shouldn't have any more babies um My husband and I practiced natural family planning Waited and then did get pregnant nine years later and that pregnancy threw my body into Stage two pelvic organ prolapse essentially of all three pelvic compartments. So my bladder my uterus and my rectum all prolapsed less than a year postpartum with my third child I was Referred for a full pelvic floor suspension surgery at 36 years old and the urogyne ecologist that I met with was incredibly kind And basically looked at me and said I really hate doing the surgery on someone so young as you because You're gonna need to have the surgery multiple times throughout your life essentially And so I obviously left that appointment cried my eyeballs out and the lord just convicted my heart at that point Your body's made to heal and that's really the starting point of tightening your tinkler at that point because I felt like I had nothing to lose in everything to gain To begin exploring holistic options to try to reverse my own prolapse And improve my own quality of life because at that point I wasn't able to hold my child My infant I mean I couldn't do most of the moming things because I I was in so much pain. I had so much pressure And I was still dealing with lots of incontinence both ways urinary and bowel incontinence So that's kind of the story of tightening your tinkler. Yeah, sure And the traumatic birth It is My mom has always said having a baby is like pulling a cabbage patch out of your nostril And I was like that. It's not great But the point is he's like there's a really no easy way for them to come out and occasionally You know, you see these birth videos of like people who are free birthing on youtube and they're like in a few Well, then they you know and outcomes of baby or you know, they talk about people who are like Out in the rice paddies collecting rice and then they squat down and deliver their baby and then they go right back You're like, well, that's not what happened for me And there can just be like such this spectrum of how it goes Can you explain what prolapse is for someone who has an experience it or is sort of like Maybe things they have it but doesn't totally know. Yeah prolapse is the falling Down and into one another of the pelvic organs So in a perfect world Your organs are stacked and organized very neatly and nicely in these little compartments And oftentimes particularly for women who there Were forceps or vacuum used throughout their delivery the soft tissue compartments become damaged And so if you've had that type of delivery, you're at much greater risk of developing prolapse because of that So the organs are falling into one another and they're also falling down And you know progressed stages of prolapse the organs can actually begin to exit the body Okay, so you have this did you do the full suspension surgery? I did not You didn't have to do it. No, that's part of our story. I am I am 12 years out And have still I get to walk around most days and not even realize I have prolapse. That's what the message is here That's why, you know, we we want to scream from the rooftops that non-invasive interventions when you catch this Zero stage zero to two. There is a lot of hope for you to not have to be Poked and prodded by someone else in an office, right to not have to poke and prod yourself with internal devices To not have to do key goals And to not have to have surgery Our bodies are designed to heal god did design our bodies to heal So you have this signature program I we talked about this a look like quite a long time ago, but then Um, someone messaged me that I didn't know very well as she texted me that you know I think I knew but I didn't know super well and she was like I did the program and it changed my life This is something that people are talking about a lot, but then don't really know what direction to go Obviously key goals is is one of the words that gets thrown around a lot. Can you talk about the misnomer there? Look, you know better you do better and key goals were the very first exercise designed to strengthen these muscles, right? Just you know for people who are not very anatomically inclined Your pelvic floor is a sling of musculature that holds our guts in from the from the bottom There's no bony structure that does that it is all soft tissue And so key goals are really just a contract Release, right? That's that's all it is and it's skeletal muscle mass and people are like, okay What does that mean? It means that it works like your biceps. It works like your hamstrings and your quads, right? They're functional muscles. They work through movement And doing a key goal is simply contract release So it's only going to strengthen that muscle group in that particular position So if you're doing them sitting great if you sneeze when you sit and you key goal You may be able to stop the p-league, but what happens when you're driving, you know a lot of women kegel and cross their legs You can't do that driving Or you know, what if you bend down to grab a hamper of laundry and you sneeze? You want your pelvic floor to support you there so that you're not, you know Um leaking everywhere Yeah, so they're limited They're limited and they can cause something called hypertenicity Which is an over tightness of the pelvic floor and then that produces It's a spiraling cycle of increasing all of these symptoms that we're talking about P leaks pressure pain with intimacy gas leaks hip pain back pain pressure inability to initiate the stream of urine when you feel like you need to use the restroom And then possibly leaking urine after you've used the restroom when you stand up Or leaking urine during during sex This is a lot of things It is a lot It's so funny. It's over the past two weeks I've had these two podcast episodes that have gone out that are about like how children are blessing, which I totally believe They are and and yes, they sure are and then you're there, you know The conversation is about how as a culture though a lot of people are choosing to not have children and you know, so they Conversation like this and they're like, oh But but to your point there are you have come up with these ways that can help people heal You are 12 years in you know thinking that you were going to have to have this pelvic full pelvic floor suspension surgery Not only once but several times throughout your adulthood and it's been 12 years and you haven't had to do it So there are answers out there for you and that's the way that the lord works So you go through these hard things and there are things that you can do so can you talk about how? Okay, so maybe you're having like a little bit of problems But not a lot and then you hit perimenopause which people are talking about that word a lot I never heard that word when I was younger but possibly because I was younger and so I'm not Talking to people that are in that stage you heard menopause menopause menopause menopause, but perimenopause is like the pre so can you talk about what's happening with the Hormones at that time and why things might feel worse Yeah, I love this question, jenny So perimenopause a lot of of folks are referring to this as like our second puberty But even a crazier roller coaster. Okay, because we know during puberty, right? There is a sudden Like fire hose cascade of hormones that happens, right? And so our teenagers Whoo, they're rough, right? And you get the acne and all the things well in perimenopause there is no There's it's super random and it's based off of each woman kind of what is happening in her body, but you've got Astrogen depleting you've got progesterone going cuckoo up down up down Some women lose testosterone other ones don't and then you've got cortisol Because of the stress in the body that is just going cuckoo crazy and increasing inflammation in the body now specific to the pelvic floor tissue The decrease in estrogen Decreases the elasticity and the collagen in all of our tissue. So, you know, if you're like one of these Christina and I call it one of these people that really cares about like, you know, how your face is aging and these kinds of things That's why to that particular age group all of these different products are recommended Collagen that is all that the only recommendations I get because you know how they say there's like targeted ads Online on social media every single one of my targeted ads is for some sort of a face cream type product And so what's happening on the face is happening internally. So and it's happening particularly to the the vulva tissue Okay, so the tissue of the vagina which is already thin Begins to thin more and so this is where the vaginal dryness comes in It's also The tissue that's holding up the pelvic floor becomes weaker Right. So all of a sudden these women seem to have a rapid onset of these bladder symptoms or lots of pressure and You know, like everything else that's happening in that point of time you're dealing with brain fog You're dealing with lack of sleep You know hot flashes and so it's kind of like this whack-a-mole Of okay, what symptom is screaming the loudest right now that i'm gonna whack with this solution But it's it's hot mess central Yeah, that's a lot. It's a lot. This is a lot to deal with. Okay So additionally you also talk about back pain. Yes, that's a surprising Thing that's also connected. You know, you're talking about pee and you're talking about incontinence and talking about prolapse and pressure But back pain is lumped in here as well Yeah, back pain is lumped in as well because again if you look at the anatomy of the body and we talked about pelvic floor being this sling of muscle There's attachments to the hips The back and the front of the pelvis so Literally your pelvic floor muscles attached to the sacrum the lowest part of your spine of your back And so I mean it's not hard to imagine that if your organs are falling down and out of your body It's pulling on the ligament attachments of the low back So yes, you're gonna have you could have back pain Sometimes women have hip pain pain at the front of the hip or the side of the hip This can all be associated with pelvic floor dysfunction This is such a fun announcement to make womb bikes is officially the 2026 bike partner of 1000 hours outside And if you've been around here long enough, you know, that's not a casual partnership We care deeply about the tools that help families reclaim childhood and womb is doing exactly that womb was founded by two dads in a vienna garage who simply couldn't find a bike that actually fit their kids So they built one and what makes womb different is that they don't start with engineering They start with empathy every part of the bike from the lightweight frame to the brakes size perfectly for small hands Is designed to help kids feel capable and confident in a screen dominated world bikes are more than bikes They are freedom. 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That's outside 10 for 10 off at wom.com March has been homeschool families start looking ahead You can almost see the finish line spring goals end of your milestones Maybe even testing around the corner and this is such an important time to reinforce key skills and build confidence before wrapping up the year If you are thinking about assessments whether required by your state or simply the benchmarks you've set for your family It's helpful to have a tool that makes review simple and clear. That's where ixl can really shine ixl is an award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into homeschooling It offers interactive practice across math language art science and social studies from pre-k through 12th grade A personalized learning for each child keeps them engaged and gives parents clear insight into progress What stands out this time of year is a real-time feedback and progress tracking kids get instant explanations when they miss something And parents can see exactly where growth is happening and where a little reinforcement might help It takes the guesswork out of finishing strong make an impact on your child's learning get ixl now and 1000 hours outside listeners Can get an exclusive 20 off ixl membership. We may sign up today at ixl.com slash 1000 hours Visit ixl.com slash 1000 hours to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price Okay, so you have a program. I want you to tell us about your program We have a signature program and there are Phenomenal phenomenal reviews on it and obviously your own story is like a life review on the program So tell people where they can find it and what it is and then I would love to walk through Like from puberty through womanhood What are some things that we should be looking out for and know that we may not know But before we get there, can you tell us about your signature program? Sure. So this is an online program that Christina and I developed based on the research study that we did So we're published in two different research medical research journals And essentially we kept having folks approach us who went through it asking if we could put something online So we never planned to have this business But that's how it started and so it is that actual protocol That has been proven to help with things like Prolapse p-leagues all the things that we've talked about We recommend that you implement the exercises and the recovery tool So there's two components to the program One is about actually stopping figuring out what your triggers are and then using certain Positions we give a couple of weight for free on our website Um a decompression position diaphragmatic breath work these kinds of things to help stop the triggers and stop the symptoms And then we want to functionally Strengthen that pelvic floor like we talked about so there are no kegels. There are no internal devices There's three components of the exercise routine. We're talking about Once you learn this it's 10 minutes a day. You do it with your clothes on you can do it with your kids It's easy to implement. You don't have to sweat or take a shower afterwards. It becomes part of your daily routine to functionally strengthen your pelvic floor and And help stop these symptoms And this is then possibly a daily routine for forever Especially because the hormones are changing and it just similar It similarly reminds me of like a face care like someone who would spend 10 minutes a day doing that Gaisha thing or gua sha or whatever it's called. Yes, whatever that is You know like that thing and then they're doing and it's like a 10 minute I you know you sometimes you see videos of people that like wake up and they You know, they're spending 10 minutes They had a whole mask on overnight then they're taking that off then they're doing all these things for their face It's just it's a similar process that you do in perpetuity at that point I always like to compare it to brushing your teeth, right? We know if we don't brush our teeth our teeth are gonna rot You're gonna get cavities and the same is true. This is taking care of your pelvic floor And what I will say jenny is if you're not dealing with prolapse and by the way women can go take our quiz online It's free to find out where they fall in the severity of symptoms But if you're not dealing with prolapse, it's not necessarily true that you'll have to do it every single day You may be able to do it as needed. That's the way christina does it So she does it as needed when symptoms flare up. She does it for a few days They calm down and then she's okay Okay Okay, so this is all great info for anyone who's listening If you're interested and you go to tighten your tinkler dot com to find more last time You had a code for us. So if yes, it's a thousand hours. Yeah, it's still there It's still there and it gets you money off and I'll make sure I'll put that in the show notes And I did get I got a lot of response from people who said They heard it and they're like immediately like I need this, you know, I'm having a hard time going on hikes with my kids I'm having a hard time a runner all of these different circumstances And so They really found a lot of success there and in fact I have a couple I printed out a couple of people's responses after caring and giving birth to four kids I thought there were certain things I was just going to have to live with I'm so grateful to have been introduced to these ladies because they show me this is just not true They truly changed my life. I used to have a lot of lower back pain and neck pain the inner feel with my daily life My core had become basically non-existent. I used improper body mechanics, which didn't help the pelvic core routine changed everything for me No more lower back pain. I can now jump on a trampoline This other person said helping with my back pain in ways. No doctor ever could Jen and christine have been amazing in there is just Review after review that are similar to that. So people can check that out at tighten your tinkler.com Can you walk us through then especially because you know, I this wasn't talked about growing up You don't know to expect it necessarily And so the woman's body changes a lot like sometimes I look at my husband and I'm like, huh You mostly look the same In fact, I talked to this woman. I I really adore her. She wrote a book called come on home She's written great books her name is jessica smart And she had this little quote in her in her most recent book where they were looking at old pictures Like she's with her kids. She's got teenagers. So like, you know, we've been married for probably 20 years They were looking at old pictures You know, they're pulling up the wedding photos or dating photos or something like that And she said the kids are like, wow dad You haven't changed at all and she goes and then they didn't see anything else And I was like, oh my gosh It is it is a thing like occasionally you see a woman who kind of looks the same probably as she did as a teenager But I'm like for a lot of us and like I things have really changed So can you walk us through some of the stages of womanhood and what we could be doing to Pay attention to our pelvic floor. Are there are there preventative things? Yeah, and go Okay So here are ways that you can be kind to your pelvic floor And you know when you're outdoors You tend to squat to pee, right? A deep squat is actually ergonomically correct to empty your bowel and your bladder So a very kind thing that you can do for yourself is get by self a toileting stool a k a a squatty potty For your restrooms. Um, this naturally this ergonomic position naturally relaxes the pelvic floor And it helps with straining if you deal with chronic Constipation and that constant strain that is not kind to your pelvic floor um, and so and it also helps you Start that stream of urine if if you have a Overtight pelvic floor like we were talking about earlier It can help start that stream of urine. So that's something kind that you can do Number two is a well, can we can we stay with the squatty potty? Oh, yeah, please. Okay. This does make a lot of sense to me because we were at this um national park in utah and You would actually that's the trip I went on where you had to like you would wake up in the morning Okay, so we were at one of the national parks there and they had regular bathrooms and then they had holes in the floor So they had like squat bathrooms You know probably for people who come in that are international and that's what they're used to doing And so anyways everyone was like super intrigued Well, I'm looked at it, you know, I was like, whoa, you know, it's just a hole in the floor And it and it was in a lot of ways it makes sense that you if you do that your whole life Obviously those squat muscles that you know, they say you should be able to squat and that is the position often or I would imagine It's helping you prepare for childbirth. How many times do you pee a day in your lifetime all the way up till childbirth? a lot so What the thing that's tricky for me is that Full squat is like a full body thing And if you're peeing in a hole and you don't want it to splash so like If you're peeing on the ground, let's say, I mean you have to have like a wide squat. Otherwise, it's going to splash to your feet This is interesting, right? Okay, so I could see how squatting like that would actually really get your body ready to have a child The squatty potty just seems so Lame in comparison. That's probably the wrong word, but so miniscule It's like, oh it lifted your feet four inches or six inches or eight inches Well, so the key is to get the knees higher than the hips Okay, so, you know, there are different heights of that squatty potty So depending on if you have a comfort height toilet You're gonna have to get your feet a whole lot more elevated to get your knees Higher than your hips. That's what's gonna help those muscles relax But I agree it is much different than a deep squat, but it begins that ability to get those muscles to turn off But knees higher than the hips is what's happening when you squat and that's what the squatty potty is doing I mean, this is a relatively inexpensive Thing that you could be doing now. I then I would wonder this gen since If you're squatting to pee and this is sort of the natural thing throughout most of human history that you squat to pee and that you don't You don't have a toilet. So this is throughout most of human history. You're squatting Should this be part of the routine starting in childhood? Yes, yes Most definitely well and look if you have young children, this is gonna help them Evacuate their bowels like it's going to help, you know oftentimes, especially with The diet of kids today and all that a lot of kids are dealing with chronic Um constipation, which you know is another tip of make sure you stay well hydrated. We always recommend electrolytes Especially, you know with any outdoor activity, you definitely want electrolytes But it also helps with the consistency of your stool and your you know your kid's stool And that goes along with soluble fiber. So things like chia seeds and flax seeds. These are milled chia seeds and flax seeds adding that fiber to to help both soften But also bulk the stool for folks who deal with chronic diarrhea Okay, so peeing and pooping with knees above hips This is something that you that people used to do their whole life And this is something that you could implement and I don't know like maybe Maybe if you're outdoors with your kids and you're on a hike Yeah, let them try it All right, we are not repetitive on this podcast. Okay All right deep squat to pee the squatty potty, which is not expensive. You can get in your home How do you clean it? With chlorox wipes. Okay. Yeah, that's how I clean mine. I have one in every toilet in my house Yeah, and they used to just make the ugly white plastic hospital looking ones But now they have like really cute bamboo wins and no way. Yes. Like they're way more attractive so Some of the white ones, but Way to go to the squatty potty people. They came up with an incredible name. Yes, they did I talked to this lady the other day who was talking about how like, um We might end up with dry eye disease and I was like, oh, I do not want that And so she was saying that you can um, you can wear this a heated mask And it will heat up your eye oils Insta that you don't get dry eye disease and the company that made them was called Hydration, and I was like, oh, that's really good. So the squatty potty well done to whoever came up with that. Okay. Yeah so that's something that we're talking about from preventative and All the way through you could be using something like that. Okay for sure the other thing particularly for girls that I recommend is Not wearing compressive garments around your middle. Okay, even if you're not having bladder issues, what you're doing is increasing Your abdominal pressure Which increases the amount of force going down onto the pelvic floor Explain more what do you mean by compressive garments around your middle? So anything that's too tight for older women We think of spanks and you know, all of those kinds of garments that we're trying to flatten The tummy and all of these things like guess what it has to go somewhere, you know, and it goes down Christina did a great reel about this. We call it the tube of toothpaste Okay, you know analogy of when you squeeze the middle of the tube a toothpaste Where does the pressure go? It goes right down right out out of the tube and that's your pelvic floor so all that pressure is going down and You're literally cutting cutting yourself in half. So it's disrupting that Abdominal pressure which sets you up for things like umbilical hernias as well because that's also a pressure management issue Sorry, sarah Blakely. I know because I love her. I hate when I have to say that because I love her Goodness, there's a lot of things to think about that actually is like such a complicated situation. Isn't it Jen? It's like here we are as women and there's so much pressure to look a certain way And then that pressure to look a certain way is causing pressure on your pelvic floor And there are long-term implications of that. That's interesting. I didn't I wouldn't have thought of that So that's an interesting thing to know about and it's like you think about girls who are in dancing or who are exercising, right? Or who are in gymnastics and wearing some kind of tights, you know, because your body has a story of your whole life You don't just wake up one morning with prolapse. Yes, childbirth is a big impetus for prolapse, but there was weakening that was happening before this So I love that we're talking about proactively thinking about the whole picture of your whole life of your body because If you do these things you're setting yourself up for success with not having to deal with these issues later on And I remember in my childhood having to wear tights because we went to church We went to a church where you had to dress up on Sunday and I hated tights My tights always had a run in them like always it's like how like what who came up with this idea? You know, you've got kids and you're going to put something on them that can get snagged So, you know as a kid we wore these tights and then I I do remember hitting puberty age a pre puberty 12 13 or is like all of a sudden the tights change and they were like these Tight tights right around the stomach. You know, it was that whatever they would call that. What did you say? compressive It was like compressive around the stomach. So even different than like a regular pair of tights that you wore when you're eight years old now it's change and it's all about body image and is it Sucking in the right places. Okay, so watching out for that and that can start young Yes, I can start in the in the puberty years Okay. All right. All right. So let's get then up to when we're heading into the childbearing years I would love to talk about when you're pregnant pre-pregnancy and also that postpartum period Like right after you know, like the you know that a couple weeks after the baby's born Okay, what can we do pre-pregnancy or during? Well, are there any things that we could like so basically these two things are pre-pregnancy things, right? So it's like a squatty potty squatty. That's a pre-pregnancy thing Considering your compression What you're wearing that's also a pre-pregnancy thing. Is there anything else pre-pregnancy, you know We're in our late teens early 20s We think we want to have kid down the road anything that we should be doing or aware of be aware of Well, again going back to the whole body. What I will say is high impact activities repetitively, okay? So if you were a cheerleader if you were a long-distance runner throughout your adolescence without Functional training of the pelvic floor this sets you up for more pelvic floor issues there's research studies done on cheerleaders high school cheerleaders and 100 percent of the girls had some Symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction clearly none of them had children But it's it's that repetitive high impact activity that can cause issues something else that people don't think about Is chronic allergies or chronic respiratory disease like asthma? That you have that again that forceful downward pressure on the pelvic floor repetitively over time That weakens the tissue and also creates that pressure imbalance So these are things that can set us up for issues both during pregnancy and post pregnancy and so being proactive With doing things like diaphragmatic breath work and a functional strengthening of the pelvic floor Before pregnancy is is a really smart thing to do I would not have thought about that So if you're listening in and you're a mother and you've got daughters in particular And they're of these ages and especially because sports have become very intense You could be I didn't consider that at all Jen. This is something that you could be doing preventatively It's just part of their You know their health their exercise routine is Functional training of the pelvic floor. Yeah, no one's really talking about that at all 100 of the cheerleaders had symptoms and allergies. So you're sneezing all the time Blowing your nose. Okay. All right using in the coughing. Yeah, okay, then What happens we get pregnant? Obviously, there's just I mean everybody knows pregnancy It becomes trickier, right? Because if you've got these issues your uterus sits on top of your bladder Right, and then once you hit the 20 week mark, you're kind of limited in terms of decompression positions and those kinds of things About what you can do laying on your back Right, but there are some in-person pt programs now, which is fantastic for Issues that do occur during pregnancy But again, like, you know, if you're peeing more than 10 times a day if you're having Urgency issues when you're peeing or increased pressure down there during pregnancy It's going to be a challenge, you know, you can wear some of the garments, right that help like a Nice belly band to help lift the belly to give the bladder some breathing room, which we recommend there are um things like a um a supportive garment The the name is escaping me right now. I'm in perimenopause. So brain frog Um, it's called a v2 supporter garment This is what I use during my second pregnancy that I was telling you about when I had those varicostas So if you're feeling a lot of pressure during pregnancy, this is a garment that really helps support from underneath That you can wear but it's really more of those types of things if you're experiencing these symptoms During pregnancy, there's not much, you know That you're going to be able to do because the belly the baby's going to continue to grow You know the pressure is going to continue to build on the bladder and the pelvic floor So all the more reason to have this be a preventative part of your life If you at all can do that as opposed to only once there's problems afterwards Yes, and look we have some women that do come into our program pregnant And do the modified versions and get some relief, but I um christine and I are just big about Not over promising what is realistic, right? I mean You know during pregnancy is a tricky time to guarantee. Oh, this is going to get completely resolved The likelihood of that is very low, but postpartum You know once women get clearance from their healthcare provider, whether that's their midwife their ob You know starting with some gentle diaphragmatic breath work They can honestly start that As soon as they deliver because we have four different diaphragms in the body one in our head thoracic inlet, okay respiratory diaphragm and your pelvic floor is a diaphragm And so with that I need more I don't even know really what I when I if I would have thought of diaphragm I would have thought of when you breathe in deep. Yeah, your respiratory diaphragm That's the only one I would have ever thought and in fact, I would have thought that's what the definition is It's like whatever happens when you breathe in deep that expands your diaphragm So I don't even understand that there are more than that Yeah, so they there are so there's one in your head that regulates the cerebrospinal fluid and how it is Being pushed throughout the the brain you have the thoracic inlet, right? You hear a lot about this now because everything is about lymphatic flow, which I love because people who have prolapse have Lymphatic flow issues, right because your main lymphatic return is in the pelvis But anyway, that's lymphatic drainage right at the collarbone Then you've got your respiratory diaphragm, which we all know regulates our breath, right really important And then you've got your pelvic floor sitting at the bottom that again, these are all managing fluid and pressure And so when there is dysregulation of one of these diaphragms There is a trickle down trickle up effect that happens And so that's why diaphragmatic breath work Is usually one of the first things that's recommended when you're having pelvic floor issues because we're trying to Resync those two diaphragms to work together the way that god designed them to work Okay, so right, you know postpartum those are things that you could be doing Yes postpartum Is an interesting time because there are different paths that people take and I changed my path because I ended up with a midwife I had two cisterine sections and then had three vaginal bursts with a midwife And I love her She's become a really good friend of mine But she was the first person I heard say you're gonna have this baby and then you're gonna rest And then I was able to read books about it like there's one I really like called the first 40 days Where you rest and one of the things that you talked about was for the sake of your pelvic floor and giving that time And I think there's a lot of pressure though to be like my baby is two days and I'm out at target Look at me and you know, I'm so resilient Can you talk about then? The the postpartum period and how to be the kindest to your pelvic floor During those I mean however long I mean some people say it's like the fourth trimester It is the fourth trimester. I love I love that saying um, I think so many of us struggle with being still And allowing ourselves to receive from others So I just I say that right off the bat that I think that is the real struggle But it is so important because this is the time where your body and mind and heart is giving so much Right, so being still is really important We teach a nice gentle decompression position for the pressure management piece that we were talking about earlier also to to help the uterus Begin to decrease the swelling and all of those things so that and the breath work are very easy kind things that you can do along with Using the squatty potty The fiber the hydration all of these little things really matter and then obviously The fiber and hydration with that first postpartum poop that everybody freaks out about All of those things can really help ease the passage of that and you know in terms of healing if there was tearing or you know, if they if they were cut down there, you know salt water in a Irrigating the area or taking a little sitz bath in a in a couple of inches of water with Some magnesium salt or epsom salt all help heal that tissue which is really important We would do herbal bath And my midwife would sell those little these little kits and they were I know they have a lot of really great kits now Yeah, there's just a lot of good options. I think that they're you know, for me I just there was no information about it or there was but I wasn't exposed to it and then when I was exposed to it I found that there was a lot of information about That time and so my midwife would say one week in the bed one week sitting on the bed One week near the bed So it was a three week time and she would say things like look, you know You don't want a lot of people coming in and getting in your baby's face So she's like if you're sitting in your bed naked, you know That baby's on your chest and people come in and visit they're not going to stay very long And that's really what you want, you know, I love that if you could go fold some of my laundry or on your way out That that that would be really helpful and I just found that I hadn't really been exposed to that But you had to fight for it. You have to fight for it She would put a sign up on the door that was like do it was like bright pink And it would be like do not stay for longer than this amount of time Or if you are make sure that you're you know, you're helping and it was nice, but it was also direct About supporting the mom during that time and I would say that I feel like I healed Really well when I followed that You just kind of had that time of rest And it is hard to be still It is hard to be still and look You have to in order to heal you have to be in rest and digest So you have to be in a less stressful place Right, so that that means being able to receive that help and Just be present for yourself and your baby. So I love like Man, I wish I I really wish I had someone doing that for me during my face part in period because that sounds fantastic Yeah, a little cocooned and I think that helps that sort of restful time There's a lot of pressure to like get out and go and and go do things But for the sake of your pelvic floor it was like just rest in the sake I think of the baby Then the you know, the baby thrives because they're just there they're warm. They're next to you They're nursing when they when you know when they want and I love that But it's something I didn't know about until my midwife brought it up and then really pushed for it Like with the little because she knew she knew that people are gonna come over and that they want you to They're like wanting you to Entertain them host them Give them that you know, like no, you're you're staying near the bed. Okay. All right so then you get through these childbearing years and Then hit this time period where you're in your second puberty Hormones are going crazy and so things you already talked about this but things can pop up or or become escalated and so once again Yours was escalated and you were able to find natural ways out. So this is really for The whole spectrum of ages It really is. I mean it can be used preventative or and proactively or Reactively to a certain point like we talked about. I mean what we proved is that our protocol works great for women stages zero to two prolapse and um So, you know things more progressed than that which are if women go and take our quiz They're gonna be put into a category of green gold or red We are able to help women that fall into the green and gold zone And we make recommendations for women that fall into the red zone Okay, um because they are a little bit too far progressed for a diy online program They're gonna need some in-person intervention for that. Okay one last thing because this is coming up everywhere there's a lot of talk about weighted vests and You know that they're helpful. I've had on I think two guests Maybe three maybe have had three guests on to talk about it and different things and you know, I talked to a man recently You know, he's and I guess men can have prolapse too, but it's just not as Common so, you know, he was wearing like so much weight on him I think 40 pounds he said and he's like Anti, you know with pushing back against gravity and it's helping with his weight loss and things like that But if you you have said that if there's already issues here, you have to be really careful with this I'm gonna say something that's incredibly unpopular particularly to the perimenopausal women because this has been sold to us as the ultimate solution for women to avoid Losing bone mass right because the other thing that's happening behind the scenes here is osteopenia progressing into osteoporosis during this period of time, which is a huge issue and The latest research shows that wearing a weighted vest while walking while Doing, you know, your laundry cleaning your house. I mean, I see all of this online all the time What that can do for you is it can help with your balance. It can help increase muscle mass It can help with weight loss. However, if you're dealing with pelvic floor issues It's going to progress and worsen those issues and that's for a couple of reasons It's due to anatomically where we're wearing it Okay, we're wearing it where it clips way up here. This is the fascia lines That hold up your bladder sling around your neck. Okay. Oh, we talked a lot about abdominal pressure It's creating a constant downward pressure. That's different than lifting weights because you're getting breaks In between right in between reps. It's a constant downward pressure on the pelvic floor And so the thing about pelvic floor issues are if you leave them unaddressed They're going to progress and so this is why oftentimes in our inbox We have women perimenopausal postmenopausal women Doing some of these things and all of a sudden they're like help me help me All these issues are so much worse. And so what I want to say is Go take our quiz and if you score in the gold zone or the red zone, please don't wear a weighted vest Because it's going to make things worse and the latest research shows that it does not help increase bone density okay, so Jumping or heavy lifting? Okay is going to help increase bone density and so I just feel the urgent need to say that to all the women listening because For this particular subset of people wearing a weighted vest is is not going to be good for you Yeah, that's going to really exacerbate what's already happening. Okay, that's super good to know gen. How often should I pee every day? 10 times no matter how much water you drink 10 times 10 times that is a lot Yeah That's a lot. It's no more than 10 times No, one hour than 10 times no more than 10 times and when I was referred for surgery. I was peeing 22 times a day That was the first thing that that he had me do and I was like, whoa, okay The bathroom really is ruling my life. Is it 10 or is it 10 is the most? 10 is the most no more than 10 times a day. What's the minimum? I don't know All right, so there's an upper limit 10 10 is your upper limit But that just goes to show you how much you would be squatting your whole life If you pee let's say I guess eight to 10 times a day Your whole life as a woman you will be squatting so much in that those like squat muscles They see you lose those over time. So just kind of an interesting. Yeah, the flexibility Yeah, interesting thing to think about that Every single time that women would do that it was preventative and protective for their bodies And so now we have these toilets, which are a wonderful modern day invention, but potentially causing Considerable problems over the course of a lifetime just that one thing not doing the deep squat to pee All right, Jen. Well, first of all, this has been super informative second of all Thank you for providing an episode that is not repetitive. So Everyone thanks you especially Sarah and if anyone else wants to leave a comment or What's it called a review that says i'm not repetitive? I would feel that would make my soul feel good So thank you in advance for anyone who wants to combat that one I can't even stand. I'm like, I do not like living in a world where there's public reviews Oh gosh, I'm like, can we not again? But then you're like, I like the good ones But I don't want to hear any of the like you should improve but I'm like, well, maybe I should improve. Okay All that to say I so appreciate this. I'll make sure that I'll put the link in the show notes But it's just tighten your tinkler. That's really easy to remember. You say it's a Silly name with serious results. We always end our show with a favorite memory from your childhood that was outside and this really does relate because This can really limit your life if you're having different issues here And it limits your life if you can't carry your baby and all those types of things So can you talk about your own childhood with a favorite memory from? Yes, my favorite memory outside Which all my kids laugh at me because I always make them do this Is laying in the grass looking up in the sky and making up stories about all the cloud shapes That's what I just oh, I have so many great memories doing that by myself and with friends and cousins Oh, I love that your kids are like mom. I don't want to do this again Like it's so much better than a video game. Can't you tell? Yeah I love that Jen. Thank you for your time. Thanks for teaching us all of this. These are obviously critically important issues and incredible to know that there are things that we can do both preventatively and post when it seems like there is no hope Is similar to your story where it probably seemed like there was no hope and you were able through God's wisdom and help To find a path forward and then you're helping so many other women do the same. Thank you for being here Thanks so much for this opportunity. Jenny. I really really appreciate it Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If this episode sparked an oh, wow that explains a lot moment Here's a simple next step Jen and her team offer a research based non-invasive public floor program and listeners to this podcast can get $50 off their signature program with code 1000 hours You can find everything at tightenyourtinkler.com Including their free quiz if you're not sure where you fall one thing I'll add This is a kind of episode that's worth sharing with a friend a sister a mom a running buddy Someone who's quietly dealing with symptoms. They've never talked about Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do is pass along good information Being able to hike can't move and play comfortably matters and this conversation supports that in a very real way Thanks again for being here until next time. May you find extraordinary moments on ordinary paths Get outside open your eyes feel that sunshine kissing your skin throw your worries out to the wind Climb some trees skin your knees feel that grass on your feet again Get out there and take it in Oh Ain't nothing on the screen that's ever gonna beat this view Oh And I just want to share with I just want to share with you It's beautiful Such a beautiful It's hard to concentrate when you're worried about your health It can feel like there's a wall between you and the rest of the world Like you can't be fully present Hello AXA Health, how can I help? At AXA Health Insurance we build our teams with people who care So when you need us we're here to support you For cover that cares search AXA Health Insurance Pre-existing conditions are not covered