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Rooted Family Podcast
The Rooted Family Podcast brings Rooted Family Wellness Centre’s heart‑centred approach to you, offering honest, evidence‑informed conversations for every stage of family life, from fertility and pregnancy to postpartum and parenting. Based in Ottawa, Rooted Family is a hub for holistic wrap-around care, emotional support, and education that helps families feel connected and confident. (rootedfamily.ca)
Rooted Family Podcast
Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist: The Kegel Trap and Habits that are Wrecking Your Pelvic Floor
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"You're cleared at six weeks." It's one of the most common things postpartum moms hear, and according to Slesha Shah, our pelvic floor physiotherapist at Rooted Family Wellness Centre, it's also one of the most misleading. Six weeks is not the all-clear most moms think it is.
In this episode, Slesha walks Erin and Christine through what your pelvic floor actually is, why symptoms you think are normal are actually not, and what's really going on with leaking and pain.
They also get into why C-section moms need pelvic floor care too, the Kegel trap, pediatric pelvic floor, and the daily habits wrecking your whole system.
It's a big misconception. Kegels are very overrated, and people think that Kegels is the only solution. They will keep on doing Kegels and Kegels and Kegels. And if the muscles are already tight, you're making your symptoms worse. Do not push when you pee or when you're having a bowel movement.
SPEAKER_02Today we're joined by Slesha, a public floor physiotherapist here at Rooted Family Wellness Center. She's passionate about helping people better understand and care for their bodies at every stage of life. We're excited to have her here to break down some of the myths and bring awareness to pelvic floor health. So thank you for joining us today, Slesha. Thank you for having me today. I'm glad to talk about this. We are too. It's one of those things that uh, you know, used to be, I feel like it's getting better now, but used to be something that was very uncomfortable to talk about, right? Hush, hush about what is the pelvic floor and the conditions around it. So um let's start off with what a pelvic floor physio is, maybe what our pelvic floor actually is. So maybe just start right there.
SPEAKER_00So pelvic floor muscles are basically the group of the muscles located at the base of your body where your pelvis is. So the pelvic floor physiotherapy is to assess those muscles and just making sure that they are functioning properly and also they don't work in isolation, they work as a team with other muscles in your body, so we also need to work on coordination as well. So now some people think that we just have to strengthen those muscles, but it's more about relaxation and also coordination as well. And again, most of the people are not even aware about that they have a pelvic floor or something like a pelvic floor physio exists. Another thing I would say I'd like to explain the pelvic floor as a hammock or a trampoline. If it's too loose, it will create some dysfunction, like it won't support things properly, and if it's too tight, it is not moving properly. So that could also lead to some pain and other dysfunction of your pelvic floor as well.
SPEAKER_02So if you imagine like jumping on a trampoline, if it's you're you're gonna hit the ground if it's too loose, and if it's too tight, you you can't, you're just rattling your whole body. That's a great explanation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So if after it's some, you're like, you have a trampoline, you have a hammock. Do you do you give those analogies to clients or I do?
SPEAKER_00I do a lot about trampoline. Because I most of the plants can relate to that. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And that's why recommending Kegels, and I guess that you know we can go back and forth on this, but you're what you're describing is tight more and you're seeing more and more tightness. Um, not necessarily, and sometimes in combination with weakness, but not necessarily. And so by prescribing kegels, you might actually be um tightening that area. So do you wanna do you wanna just jump right into that? Because I feel like that is everyone's starting point for pelvic floors, like just kegels. So let's just maybe uncrack that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so again, like it's a big misconception. And I think kegels are very overrated in pelvic floor industry, if yeah, and most of the people think that kegels is the only solution. They will keep on doing kegels and kegels and kegels, and if the muscles are already tight, you're making your symptoms worse. So it's always better to work on relaxation as well as coordination with your diaphragm and the other muscles in your body as well. So, again, it's like if your muscles are already tight, you're trying to strengthen something which is already tight without even working on relaxation, and that will just make things worse.
SPEAKER_02I can't imagine that in like other parts of our body, right? Like if we have a tight neck and then we're like, okay, squeeze it more, right? We actually yeah, we have to learn to relax those muscles. So it's very similar. So, what is a kegel actually? Let's go there, because I think there's might be even misunderstandings about what a kegel is, and like you said, when it's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00So kegels is basically some people would think that to squeeze your pelvic floor muscles or to contract your pelvic floor muscles. Some people imagine that if you're peeing, you need to stop your pee midway, and that is kegels. But what I tend to explain it to my clients is that more than contracting and squeezing, think about lifting up those muscles because when you work on contraction or squeezing, sometimes you use your ab muscles, sometimes you use your glutes or your inner thighs as well to compensate for everything. So, my ideology is that imagine a blueberry and you're trying to pick up that blueberry or lift up the blueberry when you're doing a Kegel. And it's more recommended again when you're focusing only on the strength and you don't have any tight muscles in your pelvic floor, and that we can only do by assessment. Sometimes when we do here or when we talk about symptoms from the clients, we get to know a little bit area, uh like we have a little bit of idea about if the muscles are tight or if the muscles are weak. Like some people with prolapse issue can have weak pelvic floor muscles, but if then some people are having incontinence, it could be either tightness or weakness. It could be either or. So it's always better to have it.
SPEAKER_01Or automatically assume when there's incontinence that it's weakness, but it it could be tightness as well. Yeah. Interesting. Or uncoordination too of the things that are happening in there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So what I usually recommend is let's start with relaxation first, then work on coordination, and then dive into strengthening of the pelvic floor.
SPEAKER_02It's like a little undoing, an undoing, right? That kind of tightness, then pattern, then get to that.
SPEAKER_01Well, and like you said, Erin, when you go to get some body work done on a on a sore muscle, they're gonna work to relax that muscle to relieve soreness. They're not gonna be like, okay, do all these exercises to get it acting better. You have to actually undo what's kind of gotten knotted up and then work on coordinating and strengthening. Yeah, it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00And interestingly, I have seen that people don't know how to relax at all. Like they have always heard about kegels, but they have not they don't know how to relax their muscles. So it's like teaching them everything from the basics and then working on kegels. And again, as you mentioned, Erin, most of the times people do kegels wrong as well, like using all the other muscles except the pelvic floor.
SPEAKER_02So there's lots of lots going on. It's like they might not even be what you need. And if you are doing them, you might even be doing them wrong. I literally, as you were talking, I'm like, oh, blueberries. I'm like starting to signal it. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna start doing those. Um, so why I guess you then you've described them that relax how people don't know how to relax. So I guess like one thing is like we like you said, we don't even know we have a pelvic floor, which is a disservice to us because everyone has one, right? That's the thing, men and women. And this idea that we don't even know how to relax it. So what are you seeing? Is it is it our like is that our society? Are we used to like sucking in? Is that what a lot of women, particularly? I know you work with mostly women, but like, why do you think there is such a a tightness out there?
SPEAKER_00I think it's more about sucking in, as you mentioned. Like, we as women, we are very conscious about our body, we'll tend to suck our belly in, suck our bum in, and just stand doing that. And second thing, because the muscles are internally, we don't see them. We are not aware about how they are working, so we don't know what relaxation is, and even sometimes I've noticed that if the if they are too tight or if they're clenching, it's all involuntary or unconsciously. People are not even about aware about that they are doing something like this.
SPEAKER_01I'd like to tell the little story of what happened with me. Um, so I'm now in my fift mid-50s, but I think I was about 40 and I experienced my first incontinence. I was jumping on a trampoline with with a with a youth, um, and I dribbled, and I was like, what in the sweet heck is going on here? And I went to my doctor and uh I explained what had happened, where I know many women would even have trouble doing that, and I get that, but he was a male doctor, and he said, Welcome to your 40s, and then nothing else was offered to me. So then I was like, Seriously, like this, okay, well, I guess it's normal and I'm just gonna have to deal with it. And I then had an appointment with my naturopath, and she was like, No, no, no, go see a pelvic floor therapist. And I was like, uh and that was 13 years ago, right? Like, and then I went and saw a pelvic floor therapist, and then oh, lo and behold, I got to work on the things that were causing that, and things improved. Welcome to my 40s.
SPEAKER_02I have a similar story. I went after I had my first and I had uh, you know, a significantly I had forceps and right like the whole shebang with is his his delivery, a long pushing stage. And um, I went to my gynecologist or a gynecologist follow-up after six weeks, oh no, two months. I was experiencing yeah, weakness and pain and things. So I went at two months and she said, Oh, you look like you just had a baby. And I walked away from there. And I didn't seek, I didn't know, I didn't know about pelvic floor physios until my second.
SPEAKER_01She said, like, well, welcome to your new vagina. This is this is what you have now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I I write it and it takes someone, and fortunately, that's what I love about Rude Family and like the work we do, right? That inter inter multidisciplinary piece around someone coming in for a massage and then being like, what is a pelvic floor, right? So that exposure and that normalizing it too. And that I love when your like clients who have had a baby tell their mom to come. Like that for me is one of the most beautiful moments of like my daughter told me I needed to come and see you. I like I love those moments. So, like the you know, that generational piece of trying to normalize some of this again, like normalizing the the right things, not the wrong things, the weak things, not normal, the having a baby and and feeling you know that that uh yeah, I had a prolapse, right? So, like that um weakness and pain as normal. So I I love that we're shifting to a new normal around this, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And for postpartum, surprisingly, which is a very good thing, I'm seeing a lot of cesarean, post-caesarean birth months right now. And I was so happy about it because most of the time people don't come to a pelvic floor physio because they're like, we had a cesarean birth, our pelvic floor is not affected. Why do we have to see a pelvic physio? But I'm like, for those nine months, your pelvic floor was already under so much of stress because of the baby, and some mums they have the entire labor they are pushing, and then they have a cesarean birth. So that also just affects your pelvic floor a lot. So that's a good thing that at least it's getting more people are more aware about it now.
SPEAKER_02Also, general weakness in the abdomen, right? So, you like you said, it's a whole system. So if if you've had a cesarean birth, you've been cut, like your muscles are gonna get weak, and so you have to rebuild that strength. So, um, part of that could not be also just the general weakness in the abs. So, do you work a lot with that too? Like trying to regain connection to some of those core muscles too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what I've heard from most of the postpartum moms that we do not feel that connect with our body anymore. So that's what we work on, like just building that connection, working on the core activation, pelvic floor activation, because again, your core takes a backseat during pregnancy.
SPEAKER_02I find that I teach a uh a fitness class with postpartum moms, and I do I ask that. I'm like, do you are you guys having trouble like finding that ability to connect with your core? And most of them say yes, right? So I love your you you offer classes to kind of that root stress duration where it is about that, like slow down, right? That recovery piece where we think we can just go from zero to a hundred, and then yet, you know, you ask moms and they're like, Yeah, I have I don't, I can't feel, I can't engage my abs the same way. I can't kind of feel my belly button anymore. Um so how do you help then like in that recovery time? Like, is it right? Is it slowing right down and pulling people back from going too fast too soon?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I had a client who came to me about I think she was about six weeks, and she was like, I started running and I feel heaviness, and I'm like, you need to not run right now because you need to start working on just like some contractions, like pelvic floor contractions, core strengthening, then work on your glutes, inner thighs, and stuff. You start gently and then you build yourself to start go back to running. You cannot just go run, and they were like, My OB said I'm clear to do everything at six weeks. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm like, no. Because running is like a lot of single-leg stability exercises, and you need to make sure that your muscles are strong enough to at least stand on one leg without losing your balance, and then you go back to running. Recently they have come with like a uh return to running protocol. So it's good that they are doing research about those stuff, which they did not do before.
SPEAKER_02How does your pelvis change then, like in pregnancy? Because I definitely felt that. Like I was a runner before, and then I have a similar experience. Actually, like I didn't go that fast, but I was trying to run again, and I just was like, oh my goodness, like nothing feels everything feels loose and different. Like, does it actually widen? Do you what is kind of that that transformation that happens, or does it depend on the birth or the individual?
SPEAKER_00I think it it again, it's more subjective as well. Everybody heals differently. Also, it depends on how active they were during pregnancy, what were they doing during pregnancy, or even before conceiving. Now, when we talk about running, as I mentioned, a lot of single-leg stability. So we have to make sure that all your muscles are strong enough right now. And before that, we need to focus on just making sure that you're able to coordinate because connection is the big thing. If you don't have that coordination with your upper body and not with your lower half of the body, it's just going to be all mismanaged as well. So, yeah, just like getting back in shape slowly.
SPEAKER_02And you had relaxin in your body, that right, that that is the chemical that relaxes every I had I remember I stumbled a lot more. But my back actually felt a lot better in pregnancy, surprisingly. A lot of people actually have relief from some of the symptoms that they had before. But that relaxin, uh, you know, I don't know if you can talk to that, Slash, around that uh recovery part too. Like we we still have some in the postpartum period.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think we do have under under like three to four months postpartum. And that's why we tell people that you need to slow down because also you're more prone to injuries because your body's your joints are still loose and your muscles are trying to just working more to stabilize everything. So if you start with high impact exercises before you work on that area, it can just cause problem. It's not just you, it's also hormones.
SPEAKER_01Do you feel like this is another cultural piece, right? The return to your body. The influence of the social media and peers and you know, get get back. You know, how quickly can you get back to your previous self? And if if that's something that you're carrying with you, then that's that's how you're gonna move forward. And then your body will usually make you slow down.
SPEAKER_00I have a client currently, and she's about eight to nine weeks postpartum, but she does a lot of Google stuff, TikTok and everything, and she's like, by six weeks I should be able to do this. Why am I not able to do it right now? Everybody's healing process is different. You don't have to compare yourself with somebody else when you're healing, especially postpartum.
SPEAKER_02Such a disservice when you when you have like you know, my body was different than Christine's after having it very like we can't, we cannot possibly judge.
SPEAKER_01I used to tell my clients, it took your body nine months to get this way. How about you consider nine months to 12 months for it to possibly, but your body is just gonna have a new normal? It get being attached to getting it back to the way it was can be quite emotionally troubling for some people.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say then to like demystify the you know, your treatment, I guess, right? So that is, I think, what does hold a lot of people back. They are might be fearful of the internal exam. So can you speak to a little bit more about and sometimes I know you don't, and if they are very, very, very uncomfortable, right? I so how do you kind of guide folks into that who may be a little bit apprehensive or don't want even an internal exam?
SPEAKER_00It's completely fine if they don't want an internal exam. It's like completely optional. So what we do is we start with conversation like what are your symptoms? When did they start it? How is it affecting your daily activities and what goals are your for treatment? And then we move into the external assessment part. We do a lot in the external assessment as well, like just starting with how your breathing pattern is, how all your muscles around your pelvic floor is, also how you're moving. We'll ask the client to do a squat, a lunge, see their balance because again, coordination is the big part of it. We also want to see how your hip mobility is when you're squatting or lunging as well. Sometimes people have a lot of neck tension and jaw tension as well, which can affect your pelvic floor function as well. Sometimes a lot of feet instability can also affect your pelvic floor function as well. So, and as I mentioned earlier, when you give us the symptoms, we kind of get an idea if your pelvic floor is going to be too tight or too weak, or if it's a coordination issue, or if it's like a pressure management issue. And once we are done with the external assessment, then we explain everything about the internal assessment. I show them the diagrams of how your muscles are, what each muscle will do, and what are their functions, and also why is it important to do an internal assessment. And again, it's completely optional. Some people are not comfortable with it, and I totally respect it. I'm like, okay, we'll just work on the external. I already have a little bit of idea about from your symptoms what are we looking into, and then we can start with that treatment, and then after two or three weeks, if we don't feel that it's not going in the right path, we can reassess it, and then I'll just explain about the internal assessment all over again. And if they are comfortable doing it, we can do it that time, or we might just change some things or some approaches.
SPEAKER_02I was always surprised, like my I started my pelvic floor physio, how much time she didn't spend internally. We spent so much time on my hips, on my glutes. Oh my goodness, right? Like my tight glutes, my diaphragm. She would get into my diaphragm. Oh my gosh, right? Like all of that tightness was actually more, you know, causing more issues than um my pelvic floor, right? Being able trying to support all of that tension and function in there.
SPEAKER_01So um so I love that approach that you're bringing light to that can help people be like, oh, well, maybe I will give this a go. Maybe, you know, it's not as scary as it sounds.
SPEAKER_00But most people don't understand that your core also includes off your pelvic floor. They feel that it's only your abdominal muscles. And I'm like, no, it's your diaphragm, your abdominals, and your pelvic floor. So we just have to work as a team and not in isolation.
SPEAKER_01So and really bringing that awareness to that, to the link, right? That like we as doulas, we would always talk about how loose lips loose lips, right? If you want to like relax down there, your mouth and how you if you are like clenched, you're probably very tight, you know, like you're not gonna relax down. No, yeah, it's all it's all it's all linked.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, I love that connection. The the jaw piece is so fascinating. Like we, you know, and talking when when someone's giving birth, right? That ability to relax the jaw, that that connection is is really interesting. It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_01I think we also wanted to dive in a little bit and talk about some pediatric care, right? So children and their pelvic floor and the the impacts around that and how a physiotherapist can help with that.
SPEAKER_00So, yes, something like pediatric pelvic floor exists. And um, it's usually for kids somewhere between four years to 17, 18 years old. And we can help them with bed wetting, constipation, daytime leakages, fear of. Going to the toilet or also with potty training. Sometimes with teen girls, especially, we can just talk about menstruation, how to use the tampons, menstrual cups, and again, if they have any questions related to that as well. Some people, like especially dancers and gymnasts, their posture is a very messed up because of their sports. And also so that we work, yeah. So that also plays a great role in the like it affects your bellwork floor as well, because the postural issues. So then we work on that as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you're not doing internal exams at that point, unless, yeah, uh older, older, older girls maybe, but yeah, that that younger gender that which is interesting, right? That's my first was always my first thought. Pediatrics, like how do you get, you know, can you do an internal exam for that? So there's no internal, it's always those external systems. And you can do so much, like you said, even without doing internal exams on on women, um, you can you can already assess, I bet.
SPEAKER_00So if you know they're a dancer or a gymnast, you're already having your just a lot of lifestyle modifications and proper posture. That's what we start with, and also just showing them how to relax their muscles. There are different machines that we can use which has basically games on it. So kids are motivated to contract and relax their muscles because they think okay, they are playing a game. We we try to make it like very fun-based for the kid because it's easy to make a child feel bored and then they would not do their exercises at all. So we just have to make it more interesting and fun for them.
SPEAKER_02Can you imagine if every like pre-pubescent girl got a like a water education? You know, this education and comfort with their own bodies and knowledge, like I just I'm so excited for this next generation. And we can talk more about it and get this proper education.
SPEAKER_01Obviously, are focusing more on female, but there are issues that males can have with pelvic floor as well. So, in the pediatric kind of realm, if you were to see um a little boy, what would that kind of look like?
SPEAKER_00So boys usually have a higher chance of having constipation and fecal urgency than girls. And for boys, it's like they tend to hold N rather going to the washroom to empty their bladder or bowels. First and foremost is FOMO. If they are playing a game or if they are into sports or anything, they would not want to or or or in public, right?
SPEAKER_02Some I know that a lot of kids don't want to poop in public places. So they wait until they get home from school or whatever. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's more about tightening their muscles, or their muscles are tight and they are not relaxing it often. So we just work on down training, breathing, relaxation, and then just what we do is also asking them what their favorite sports is or what their favorite game is, and then we try to do the exercises which are related to that stuff, so they're more motivated in doing that. Sometimes kids are not even motivated to change anything in them, so it gets a little difficult that time, but then we just have to try and try.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So how how would you like so meta quickly we can wrap up maybe, but m menopause, like how would you uh we can again we'll probably have to unpack this one a lot, but in terms of say like a woman my age, so like right, like in 40s that are starting to experience some perimetopause. So we know that, or at least I've heard, right, that we when we when estrogen starts to drop, we start to develop more weakness. So is kind of that well, seeing a pelvic fluor physio as early as you can in terms of especially if you've had children, and then continuing to work with one, I think, into menopause. But what would be that symptoms? Would it start to show mostly with leaking, pain with intercourse? I think are big ones, but are there other kind of things to look for?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so leaking, pain with intercourse, and uh sometimes people feel a lot of pressure and heaviness as well in their pelvic floor, um, itching, dryness, and also prolapse symptoms as well. A lot of mismanagement of pressure, I would say. And older people tend to not take enough water as well. That also plays a great role. Not focusing on your breathing pattern. So it's again, it's like a whole system that we are working on and not just your pelvic floor. And sometimes people are sedentary lifestyle as well, so that also affects it.
SPEAKER_02You can create the weakness as well. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I find if you start to have incontinence, you want to you drink less, right? You you're like, I I don't, if I can't make it right at half an hour or somewhere and I'm leaking, that's embarrassing. So I'm not gonna drink. So there's this kind of reinforcing cycle to not being hydrated enough, right? So it can create a perfect storm as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Other thing I've noticed is people doing like just in case pee. Like I'll just pee right now. What if I don't get the washroom later? Which is bad because then you're creating that scheduling or that bad habit for your bladder. But again, like we need to follow a proper schedule, like pee every two hours or every three hours, and not just like just in case. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I can share. I I started to have that. It started to become a bit actually, it created a lot of anxiety for me. I would travel on the bus to work, and I I I I I felt like I couldn't even make it to work. I jump off the bus to go to a washroom I knew was there. And so I I started to create this habit, like you're saying, right? And then I started to kind of get anxious about it. So the anxiety would make me like, okay, I know there's a washroom. I'm gonna jump off my bus. I'm gonna go pee, and I'm gonna get back bus, go to work. And so I and so I told my pelvic floor physio this, and it was actually I had to work on it mentally. So she like coached me through the bus ride. It's like, okay, you can trust yourself, you can hold this. So I was actually, that was like a huge revelation for me. And I didn't realize I'd created that habit and cycle. So yeah, I don't know if you can speak to that, but that that was a big it was a big trend learning to trust my myself again um and that strength again. Yeah. So do you see that? Do you see that a lot? That habit, even for adults, right? So children do it too, but even the habit breaking we do as adults, yeah. You see that.
SPEAKER_00I have currently I see a lot of like police officers and paramedics over here as well. And one of the police officers told me that I tend to hold my bladder for 12 hours straight. So then I was like, whenever I got my whenever I got washroom, I just used to pee. Like even if I don't have that urge to go use it, I would just use it because I didn't knew when I'm going to get it next time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if they're if they're in a police car for 12 hours, it's like, what are you what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02What are you gonna do? So you have to take you have to pee when you have a chance rather than. Exactly. When, yeah, yeah. So we can create our own cycles about that. Oh my goodness. Yeah, or nurses and doctors, I imagine, too, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, even us as jewelists, how much if you sat there and go get you some water. But even like in the hospital rooms, we would have to leave the hospital room and go to like the waiting room because we wouldn't use the the client's washroom there, right? I remember just being like, I've gotta go or I'm gonna die. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And kids, kids at school too, right? Like they have they have like they're scheduled. And so um, yeah, so they may there may be some habit forming there where they don't have to go, but they're being told you you know that's washroom break now. So um that that intuition um around wanting to go.
SPEAKER_01There was quite a bit of shame. As I I remember as a young kid in school, I need to go to the bath, right? You should have gone at recess. And then as soon as you kind of get that reaction from a teacher, you're like, Okay, well, I'm just never I'm not gonna listen to my body anymore because I'm being dictated, right? Like we've been programmed from such a young age, and then yeah, the teasing that can happen in the bathroom at school, all of that stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and also you're not allowed to drink water at certain times, right? In school, like that also plays a big role.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, the restrictions around those things. Yes. Hopefully, it's getting better. So, as we wrap up, what is one thing maybe you'd like people to know that about pelvic floor physia? Like, what's the kind of parting message that you would like to tell people?
SPEAKER_00There's this one tip I usually give to my clients to not push when you pee or when you're having a bowel movement. It's so bad for your like pelvic flow, you're just putting it under so much of tension, making it weak as well. So, yeah, that's the one thing I would say. And the other thing is uh if you notice that something is a little off, even just like a slightly bit as well, just go get it checked because there is help available outside, and the sooner you go, the earlier the symptoms get better, and you start feeling way better. I have heard this from so many clients that I wish I had come in sooner. So, yeah, like don't don't wait until that symptoms gets worse, even if you feel that it's just starting, just go see your pelvic physio and just understand how your body works.
SPEAKER_02And leave your phone out of the bathroom, right? Yes. That was a big one now. Oh my goodness. You know, it used to be the men just going in and reading their new their paper or whatever, but you know, all many of us now or uh kids, they're bringing we're bringing our phones into that washroom and they could be in there for a long time, right? Like you were saying that as much as like forcing it down, it's also that lingering um on the toilet and it can cause a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00We should not spend more than 10 minutes in the toilet. Like that's the maps you do.
SPEAKER_01We didn't even talk about hemorrhoids, which is closely linked to pelvic floor issues, right? So we'll have to revisit some of these. We'll do some more TMI together.
SPEAKER_02Well, thanks for joining us, Flash. This was fabulous. I hope people learned a lot. I'm sure they did. And it was this was amazing. Just again unpacking all of these pieces. Yeah. Thanks so much.