You will never hear me preaching about weight loss, or dieting, or “bouncing back”. Those aren’t phrases I ever use because I’m passionate about teaching women that when we focus instead on teaching the body how to FUNCTION at its absolute best, we will feel so much more capable, aligned, alive. The rest will fall into place.

Stay with me here, because I know you’re thinking “skinny bitch. What does she know? How can she possibly help me?” Hear me out because I have a track record for helping other women lose multiple inches off their waistline, because despite what many women think, those extra inches are not always “weight” related.

While bloating can very often be food related, as a pelvic floor expert I see all too often that a weak pelvic floor also has a huge effect on the way our midsection looks and very often is a major contributor to “belly bulge”. The pelvic floor is the literal foundation of...

Why Kegels aren’t helping you and what to do instead...

Did you know that Kegels are not particularly effective for the majority of women? That’s because they don’t give you the full picture of what needs to happen in your pelvic floor (the phrase and technique was originally made popular by a male doctor in the 1940s). I used to teach Kegels as a stand alone exercise, but I have since learnt that the pelvic floor was never designed to function/move on its own. It was designed to move in tandem with the diaphragm and it actually behaves and functions infinitely better that way.

The problem with Kegels is that:

a) it encourages “clenching”.

Clenching can very easily cause the pelvic floor to become too tight. And it can be very difficult to strengthen a muscle that is too tight.

and b) Kegels only give you about 20% of the picture.

Meaning, telling your pelvic floor to contract on its own without it working in tandem with your diaphragm is...

Do you find that doing crunches, sit ups and planks just don’t give you the same results as when you were in your 20s? Or do your abs bulge or look strange when you try to do a sit up?

Think of the abdomen as being like a pressure canister. If when you crunch or do a sit up the pressure makes your lower abs bulge, then that pressure is also likely making your pelvic floor bulge as well.

This is bad because it can cause leaking, and even prolapse symptoms. So if you were thinking that leaking is “just a part of being a mom”, it’s not. It’s a pressure management issue.

There are plenty of ways in which you can strengthen your core that do not involve this high pressure situation. Which means that crunches are actually your least effective option at this point.

I’m assuming you’ve already done my free pelvic floor training to learn how to better manage this pressure (if you haven’t, the link is at the bottom).

Here are my 3...

Just as with the rest of the body, the pelvic floor loses collagen as we age. So just like when our boobs and our chin starts to feel the effects of gravity over time due to decreased skin elasticity, so too does the pelvic floor. A lifetime of high impact activity without a proper pelvic floor routine to provide support can cause just as much (if not more) wear and tear on your pelvic floor as pregnancy and childbirth. Which is why it becomes even more important to strengthen and tone the pelvic floor as we get older, whether we’ve given birth or not.  

I am seeing more and more women in their 40s who’ve never given birth who say to me “I think I might have a diastasis but how can this be when I've never given birth?”   

Collagen is kind of like a glue that holds all the cells in the body together. It is very important for helping the connective tissue of your pelvic floor to remain linked together in order to support healthy...

You’ve heard me say it a thousand times on instagram “your breath is the most important piece of the puzzle”, but WHY exactly is it so important??

During pregnancy the front of our ribcage must flare out in order to make space for our growing baby. Remember how it became more and more difficult to breathe towards the end of your pregnancy..? We basically all forget HOW to breathe during pregnancy.

After pregnancy, when the bottom of the ribcage remains flared out in the front, it causes the stomach to also protrude. It is not possible to get a truly flat stomach if the ribcage is still flared.

Look at the image below . This is a student of mine. I've put the arrows on there so that you can see the difference in ribcage flare. Look at the difference in the angle of the arrow. It might not look like much, but it makes a HUGE difference to the shape of your midsection. We have almost entirely corrected it due to correcting the BREATHING...

I was recently given the incredible opportunity and great privilege to collaborate with doctors, physical therapists and birth professionals in the kind of book that should be handed out in high schools and gynecologists offices. This book was a passion project like no other. All of the authors of this book had something unique to share. From personal stories, to anatomy lessons, to helpful tips and solutions to some of the most common postpartum symptoms. 

But this book is not just for women. Men have a pelvic floor too. And many even suffer from Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD) without even knowing it. Do you know a man who refers to his “dad belly”? That could very well be related to PFD. In women it’s affectionately referred to as the “mummy tummy”, the fupa, the mom pooch. We’re told “you’re a mom now. It’s part of the package”, but it simply isn’t true. We just have to have the knowledge of how to fix...

Stress Incontinence occurs when you cough, laugh, run, jump, sneeze etc, and you pee your pants a little as a result. This often happens when too much pressure is exerted on the bladder, forcing urine out. In most cases, this is a result of weakened pelvic floor muscles, usually due to childbirth, age, and/or menopause. But there are also circumstances that can aggravate stress incontinence, such as obesity, smoking, high-impact activities like running and jumping, and a chronic cough. Women can also experience stress incontinence when doing things like standing from sitting, getting in and out of a vehicle, lifting heavy things and having sex.

Urge Incontinence is also known as Overactive Bladder (OAB) and occurs when there is a strong urge to urinate despite the fact that your bladder may not be full. This urge is often strong enough that you can’t make it to the bathroom in time. While women with stress incontinence leak urine, women with urge incontinence may...

A diastasis is a thinning of the fascia in the front of your abdomen. When you peel an orange, think of fascia as being like the white layer between the juicy orange and the thick skin. Fascia is the layer in between your skin and your muscles and it runs through your entire body, connecting and facilitating movement. It’s an incredibly overlooked structure in our body that plays a key role in holding us together and is a very important piece of the body puzzle.

With a diastasis (or the thinning of this part of the fascia), think about when you wear a hole in the knee of your jeans from over stretching the fabric. That is essentially what has happened with a diastasis. But the big difference is that fabric cannot repair itself (you’d have to sew on a patch to prevent it from getting worse), but the body has a remarkable ability to repair itself. As long as you stop doing the things that are making the thinning worse in order to allow the body the space to heal.

...

So we all know and love high pressure ab exercises (crunches etc), but what exactly is a low pressure ab exercise? Well, it’s pretty much any ab exercise where the spine stays in neutral, and it can have varying degrees of intensity. Here’s an example of a moderate low pressure ab exercise for you to try:

• Lie on your back and bring your legs into tabletop position.
• Lift your pelvic floor and wrap your transverse abs to a level 3 like we talked about above 
• Bring your right hand and press it against your left knee and raise your left hand up towards the ceiling
• As you exhale, press your right hand and your left knee towards each other quite hard without changing the position of your spine or pelvis, whilst simultaneously reaching your left arm and right leg out straight to about 45 degrees from the ground (diagonal)
• As you inhale, bring it back in
• Think about diagonal energy coming across your core from your right ribs to your left hip and notice just how...

Are you wondering whether the Postpartum Protocol 12 week course is worth the investment? Wondering whether you'll find the time to complete it? Wondering whether you'll notice a difference in your body..?

Here are some testimonials from other Postpartum Protocol mammas who are saying it's worth the commitment!

Want to experience these results for yourself..?

We would LOVE to have you join us! Click the link below to sign up

>> The Postpartum Protocol <<

Emma xo