Breathing!
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Yes, it’s simple. Yes, it’s the foundation of basically every function of the human body. Yes, it’s harder than it looks. And, yes, it’s almost always overlooked because of its simplicity; we are already born “knowing” how to do it. Right?
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You’d think. But life circumstances often conspire to affect our breathing patterns in myriad ways. Not the least of which is pregnancy and the hormone bomb-drop of the early (i.e. first 12 months) postpartum period.
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The good news is we have a *lot* of control over how we breathe. And learning to recognize patterns and their triggers is very valuable information. Manipulating your breathing can prevent/stop/reroute just about any circumstance imaginable. Seriously.
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Today, play around with directing your breathing to different areas. Think of, or physically place your hand on, a spot and send it there. It starts out that simple. Can’t do it? Keep creating the intention and keep practicing. You just need to wake up a forgotten skill. Most likely. Barring extenuating circumstances, of course.
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Here, I’m playing around with one-sided lateral rib expansion. Fun little party trick! 🤓
I know, I know, there is some lingering upper ab gripping. I am, *we* are, a constant work in progress, should you choose to seek the path of self-improvement. It’s a fun one!

Walking. Seems so innocuous, no? Notice how you walk throughout your day. Feet, arm swing, spine, hips/pelvis, breathing. The whole nine yards.

Here I first demonstrate the gait I see frequently, in women AND men. Lumbar (lower) spine rotates, thoracic (mid-upper back) spine stays still, arms going bananas in an attempt to create forward propulsion.

What we would like to see is some lovely cross body rotation (second demo), with shoulder rotating towards opposite hip as you step forward. A nice, relaxed, fluid motion. Of course, this can take some work to achieve, not the least of which is midback mobility (see my post on this from last August/September). But, in the meantime just notice what you feel and see. This is just a fun little test to see where you are at right now.

One of the things I see most often in women experiencing prolapse and diastasis recti is this lack of cross body rotation and general stiffness. And walking is the quickest way to spy this deficit. Complaints of low back pain are also often accompanied by the stiff upper body and overly-mobile lumbar spine.

The last part is a fun drill to do throughout the day to encourage more rotation. Exaggerate the rotation, and wiggle! Shake those sillies out!

Habit stacking with crawling because...why not?! I have been doing a lot more crawling lately to mix it up, work on serratus strength, core stability, and to keep my brain guessing by introducing novel stimuli every so often. Plus, it’s fun! Double plus, you’re already down on the floor with the kids, so get after it!

My pelvis used to rotate and rock side to side no matter what I tried, but once I stopped my reductionist approach to...everything...and started looking at the whole picture things started falling into place. Enter: the sippy cup. I can keep it standing and as close to motionless as I’ve ever gotten. Hooray!

It’s been good for my brain and body to get creative during this quarantine madness. Play, have fun, mix it up.

Squeeze in your workout Wednesday ! I lovelovelove to stack my habits and my exercise throughout the day. It’s laundry day (wait, with two toddlers isn’t every day laundry day?!) so how about squeezing in some extra squats and hip hinge work?

Is your chest doing all the work? Belly? Can you see the muscles in front of your neck popping out with each breath? Are your sides moving with each breath? Do you feel your back expand at all?

How about the quality of your breathing? Is it fast, slow, or relaxed? Loud? Quiet? Audible to the person next to you? Are you breathing through your nose or your mouth? Mouth open or closed?

Fun challenge: how quiet can you make it and still breathe comfortably? Hint: you’ll have to slow it down quite a bit!

Just notice. Be curious. Note how you’re feeling right now and how that correlates to your breathing pattern. Trying manipulating it and slowing it down with a few very slow and deep breaths (in/out through the nose). Then speed it up and breathe in/out through your mouth and see how you feel. Your heart rate will likely change. Which feels better?

Breathing is the simplest and yet most essential task of daily life. Automatic yet we can manipulate it, re-train it for better or worse. It effects every single essential task of the body. There are optimal and sub-optimal ways of breathing. Everyone is different and everyone has their best way of breathing.

The pelvic floor (PF) responds to every single breath you take. Cool, huh? So if you’re stressed, your PF is going to be stressed. If you’re relaxed, your PF should be able to relax. Unfortunately, we are often way too stressed and it creates some pretty gnarly patterns down the line. So stop every now and then and take three nice and slow diaphragm lubricating breaths, let chest rise slightly, belly/back/sides expand like a balloon would, shoulders and neck relaxed. Close your eyes if you can/need to. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Exhale longer than your inhale. See if you can feel your PF descend down gently with your inhale, and if you have high kinesthetic awareness, try to feel your PF recoiling back up on the exhale. That is what happens but so many of us have lost that connection to our bodies. The more you practice noticing the better you’ll get at it.

Sometimes (a lot of the time) this is parenthood and you do what works . My arm was tired. I stir with my right and don’t want to exacerbate a muscle imbalance I have worked hard to re-balance since becoming a mom so I kick up a leg and my cute toddler can rest on my thigh and my arm gets a rest. Bonus: I can work on relaxing my hip flexors, engaging my #glutesofglory , core stability, and breathing into my glutes to get them to lengthen on the left.

Of my two kids, he is more of a Velcro baby still, and he loves to watch me cook. So it shall be 😎

​{Last night’s dinner was a vegan Moroccan carrot red lentil soup. So yummy, so chunky, so easy.}

Lateral rib expansion. Oh so good. I have been working on this daily since January and I finally feel like I've got some! I was a chest-breather-turned-belly breather, so it was really hard for me to break those habits and learn a new pattern. It does require an obsessive focus, for sure, but it is so worth the time. 

I like to first do some focused side breathing while blocking the opposite side so that I can open up tight sides and low back. Do 3-5 breaths each side and make sure you are sending that breath where you want it! Watch out for breathing too far down into the pelvic floor. I feel a crazy stretch in my side every time so I try to do at least 5 of these through the day, but ideally up to 10 times! Then, check out that amazing lateral expansion.

Ten months ago, there was exactly zero movement out to the side. Oh sweet progress.

Now, it is daily maintenance to keep things moving in the right direction. Some days are better than others, and I notice that stress really clamps down on my sides and back so I make sure to fit in extra breath work on those days.

Breath re-training is tedious work. Real talk. Just keep chipping away at it each day and don't expect miracles early on. I like to take a lot of video to track my progress and on the days I feel frustrated with the process, I check out where I have been and where I am now and it is an instant mood lifter! I'm serious. I felt so vain at first, but truly how else will we know we have made progress along the way with these "small" things?

Try this out and let me know how it goes!

Part 4 of Car Seat Calisthenics!

This one will help wake up that core! I want you to think TALL, chin tucked slightly, abs engaged from the bottom up, ribcage down, and hip hinge from the glutes/hips. Only go as far down as your hamstrings allow in order to keep that good hinge. Set the car seat on something to make it higher if needed.

Push through your pinkies to engage shoulders and serratus anterior (remember her? She is besties with external obliques). Don’t sink into your shoulders, engage them!

Keep that core engaged throughout and move mindfully.

No bearing down my ladies with prolapse...none. Do what you can, skip what you can’t for now. If walking out and back with bent knees helps, do that.

Note: I have *no* baby in the car seat, which would have been helpful to keep it more stabilized. Empty made it a LOT more challenging!

Note again: This is sped up 2x so take it slow, breathing through the movement! Again, think: mindful movement, exhale on the effort.

Oh wait, another note: if these are too hard, modify!
~If hamstrings are a hindrance for hinging, put the car seat up higher.
~Bend knees to start and work up to straight legs if too challenging at this time.
~Hip hinge, hip hinge, aaaaaand hip hinge!
~Walk out as far as you can while keeping core engaged and without any doming/bulging/pooching.
~KEEP YOUR RIBCAGE DOWN! Yes, even in standing.
~Use a mirror or video yourself and see what is going on so you know what to fix or high-five yourself for doing well 😎

Well done 🙌 You now have a quick, four part, car seat workout that you can squeeze in without even having to wake up a sleeping babe 😁

Part 3 of Car Seat Calisthenics!

This time balance is challenged. We all need more balance, in all things 🧘‍♀️

I want you to think TALL, chin tucked, abs engaged from the bottom up, ribcage down, and hip hinge from the glutes (no rounded back! Only go as far down as your hamstrings allow in order to keep that good hinge. Set the car seat on something to make it higher if needed.

Keep that core engaged throughout and move mindfully.

No bearing down my ladies with prolapse...none. Do what you can, skip what you can’t for now.

Note: I have *no* baby in the car seat.

Note again: This is sped up 2x so take it slow, breathing through the movement! Again, think: mindful movement, exhale on the effort.

Oh wait, another note: if these are too hard, modify!
~If hamstrings are a hindrance, bend your stance leg more.
~If single leg deadlift is too challenging at this time and/or balance is not there then do a double leg version.
~Hip hinge, hip hinge, aaaaaand hip hinge!
~Don’t use any weight and then work up.
~KEEP YOUR RIBCAGE DOWN! Yes, even in standing.
~Use a mirror or video yourself and see what is going on so you know what to fix or high-five yourself for doing well 😎

Stay tuned for part 4!