wellness

Soft Foam Rolling Your Fascial Tissue. Women’s bodies undergo multiple iterations and changes throughout their lifetime. During each decade our hormones, reproductive systems, and maturation affect our neuromuscular patterning—in short, how our brains communicate with our muscles about how to function and move.   For most of us, these changes are subtle and we function relatively well until a major life event like pregnancy, childbirth, menopause or an injury occurs to make us have to pay attention to how our bodies are operating…or not.   What I have found over the years from studying how women’s bodies work, change, and most importantly, heal and thrive, is that one of the most challenging aspects is not only that changes occur, it’s being blindsided by them. The lack of preparedness, resources, and the fact that no one ever talked openly to us about what it’s really like to be a woman in this body, sends us straight into fear and panic-Googling spirals.   What I have also uncovered is…women are whip-smart. A little bit of practical education and tools are all we need in order to totally transform our quality of life and happiness.  For women of all kinds, this is the information I wish we each had about our bodies…  It Starts with Fascial TissueThe stuff that supports your soft tissues and gives our muscle form and connectivity. Fascial tissue is largely overlooked in the medical industry—only a few rehabilitative modalities discuss it and almost none truly understand how much it impacts a woman’s body and health.   Largely due to our changing hormone and collagen levels, along with developmental changes in our breast tissue, hips, and pelvis, our fascial tissue gets a lot more wear and tear than men’s.  So, it needs to be carefully cared for over our lifetime in order to facilitate optimal muscle function. And here’s the part that often gets left out of the conversation: postpartum fitness isn’t just about appearance—it’s about longevity, function, and preventing long-term issues like core instability, lower back pain, and muscle compensations. Whether you're newly postpartum or years into motherhood, understanding how to restore strength—especially through diastasis recti exercises postpartum—can have a lifelong impact on movement and strength. So, What Is Fascial Tissue?  A type of connective tissue in your body that creates structure for your soft tissue layers and cushions your muscle and skin so that they don’t stick to one another. Imagine it like a system of panty-hose—it can get stuck, dehydrated, even tear; like getting a run in your tights. Its job is to keep subcutaneous fluids moving and allow easy gliding between your skin and muscles.   Fascia Is A System What you do to one part will affect the whole—your pelvic floor muscles and the fascia within that system are intertwined with the fascia that runs all the way down to your feet, up to your low back and waist. This is why you may have a tight pelvic floor, sore feet, and a weak core that all feel impossible to move and strengthen.  If the fascia in your lower body is restricted and can’t glide,  it will restrict and de-activate your core and pelvic floor muscles.   In order to access your core, you need to  “iron out” your fascial tissue and then activate the lost muscles (commonly called neuro-strength re-patterning—more on this in next week’s issue of The Rewrite!), and strengthen these muscles or those that have been under-responding for years or even your whole life.  This process is especially important in diastasis recti exercises postpartum, where the goal is to reconnect the core and retrain deep stabilizing muscles before jumping into high-intensity workouts. The Big Takeaway! Soft-foam rolling feels amazing. Today, living in a world full of adrenaline and exhaustion, doing something that makes you feel good and increases ease within your body and mind is a win-win! Stress is addictive—it generates adrenaline which spurs you to action. But, we all know this leads to burn out and injury, which is your body’s way of forcing you to slow down and take a break.   So, let’s rewrite this narrative of health for our muscles—there is a way to stay strong, connected, and feeling great over our entire lifetime. Use a soft foam roller that flushes out fluid and helps the layers of your skin, fascial tissue, and muscles unstick and glide like never before!  Roll With Me I roll 3-5 times a week. I do it in the evening after my kids are in bed, as part of my bedtime routine. I sleep peacefully, without tension, and wake up feeling refreshed…and nothing hurts!  Imagine doing something in the evening that soothes you to a great night’s sleep and when you wake up, your back, feet, and hips feel amazing—allowing you to get up out of bed without aches and pains.  Try it…here’s the link to all the fascial healing and rolling videos on the RM App.  Bonus: if you’ve been wondering where to start with a new fitness routine, fascial rolling is it!  You’ll begin to feel a “yes” in your body, helping make daily life easier and providing you with the tools to engage in more focused workouts that build strength and stamina. When you sustain an injury or go through a major physical event like pregnancy and childbirth, your fascial tissue is challenged, damaged, and becomes restricted—mostly in your back, hips, pelvic floor, neck, and shoulders.   Making sure that soft-foam rolling is part of your daily routine and cross-training regiment ensures that you are able to access fully functioning muscles that can contract AND release to their fullest expression. As a result, this will help protect your joints, reduce chronic build of muscle tension and pain, prevent injuries and allow you to sustainably build muscle and keep it for decades to come.  And if you’re ready to take it one step further? Pair soft-foam rolling with an ab and glute workout to create long-term muscle balance. Activating your glutes and deep core stabilizers after rolling helps reinforce healthy movement patterns, improves posture, and enhances strength—whether you’re lifting weights or lifting your kids. One of the biggest secrets, rarely shared with women, is that while childbirth leaves its mark and initial injuries occur, the long-term effect is that your pre-existing movement patterns—like that misaligned hip or the shoulder that’s always felt a bit tight are suddenly amplified, resulting in the opportunity of your lifetime to build your functional, strong body better from than ever before. There’s no going back, just forward—stronger, more embodied and confident than ever before.

Embodied fitness for the mom-life you deserve and want most. No matter where you are on your journey, every mom needs to hear this… Your mind is forever altered, consumed, and reordered as soon as you have babies. The topics you hold, lists you manage, and needs you anticipate to ensure your family is safe and thriving, will never leave you.  You most likely wouldn’t trade your new reality for anything, but you also grieve the loss of your relatively peaceful, pre-mom brain. However, much as you love your children, no one prepares you with skills and tools to manage a mind that is constantly spinning, has trouble focusing for more than 5 seconds, and can’t remember anyone’s name anymore. You're not alone. Nowhere does that statement hold more true than when it comes to caring for your body and working out. The days when the biggest challenge was just getting your booty to class are over.   Your new reality is that you’ll spend an entire class doing a tug-of-war with your brain bouncing around and your unprocessed self-needs clattering for attention. Then, after the class, you buckle up to greet whatever is going down at home.  It almost doesn’t feel worth it and that, my dear friends, is the biggest trap of all. The idea that your mind should somehow be able to compartmentalize and “turn off” is just not real.  Our mental and physical health go hand in hand. They directly relate to and impact one another—and that is the greatest secret we can optimize as moms.   So, now that we have established that your feelings are completely normal and we know you’re dying for the ability to deeply focus once again, we can tackle the topic of mindfulness and how it is cultivated in your real-life, mom experience.   When I say “mindful,” most of us immediately think of yoga or meditation. Those are wonderful practices that I enjoy deeply, but mediation is kind of torture these days—if I’m totally honest. As we have established, being alone with your brain to spiral is not productive for most of us. We need something powerful and challenging to train our minds and focus our undivided attention onto. What if your invested workout hours did more than lift your booty, but actually nourished you so that you walked away embodying the mom and woman you most want to be in the world? That is where the opportunity of embodied fitness comes in!  Here’s how you’ll achieve just that: Taking the time to learn how your body works requires mental discipline. You can’t zone out while you’re working out—especially with RM. By engaging the mind and body together, you’ll achieve the physical and the mental reset you want most, with a shorter time on your mat! Your workouts get efficient and effective because you are working more muscles in an integrated way, the entire time.  So, here’s your step-by-step roadmap: Begin this year with Phase 1, Week 1 of the RM Method.  Follow the daily schedule of 30 minutes or less workouts a day and give your whole self to the workouts. No distractions—no checking your phone, fiddling with your hair, nothing!  Accountability + Motivation boosters are essential: Join the RM Inner Circle Group (it’s FREE with your membership!) on WhatsApp and receive daily love notes, inspiration, and feel empowered from other moms, just like you.  Love yourself when you feel stuck or feel like you’re failing.   Love your body. Love your temple. Remember, it birthed your babies.  We’ve got this…together, hands on each other’s backs.  

Knowledge every woman needs to live a strong, embodied life. You’re not doing anything wrong and your body isn’t broken. I’m going to say something seemingly basic, but totally revolutionary for us each to hear: Women’s bodies have different cross-training needs than men’s over the arc of our lifetime.  Understanding how your female body works is how you thrive and stay strong for the long haul.  As the new year is underway and we are all hitting the fitness routines hard, a thought has occurred to me that I wanted to share with you. I hear these statements uttered in disbelief from almost every woman I’ve ever worked with and is quickly followed by her tearing up: “I’ve never felt those muscles before—actually, I don’t think I ever knew they existed. I definitely never felt my abs like this in a plank or sit up before.  I think I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life.” These realizations are usually delivered with a mix of disbelief, frustration, sadness and…hope.   Hope that she finally now knows, but also, fear of what else they might not know and still be doing wrong.  My answer to those spinning mom-thoughts is simple: it’s totally normal that you never really understood how to do a plank, a sit-up or the basics of your body’s changing, cross-training needs—you are a woman and no one ever taught you how to work out and how your muscles work (or don’t!) at different points in your life.    If you’re pregnant, understanding how to modify your movement is key. The best pregnancy workout routines focus on building strength while prioritizing stability and alignment—laying the foundation for a smoother postpartum recovery. So, let’s change that! As you harness your new year’s motivation to hit the gym, cue up your favorite videos, and lace your sneakers for those runs in the park, I want to share 5 powerful shifts you can make to prevent injury, feel better in your workouts, and get the full-body results you want and need. The bonus? A sustainable fitness habit that meets all of your mental, physical, and emotional mom-needs in less than 30 minutes a day.     1. Simple Sit-Ups Muscles activated: Your back and abdominal wall.   While doing a basic crunch, feel your lats (the large muscles under the shoulder blades) wrap you before lifting the upper body off the ground. Instead of squeezing your neck and shoulders to crunch, this will help lengthen your upper spine by pulling the back muscles down and enclosing the rib cage.  You’ll also want to feel engagement in your chest. My favorite cue is that your boobs are driving your ribs downward towards your belly button—it's a funny image, but it triggers your pecs to flex with your upper-most abs. These muscles, coupled with your lats, creates a true 360-degree sit up.   2. Powerful Planks: Muscles activated: Your entire body!    Start off by doing a few squats, so that your pelvis is mobile and your glutes and upper-thighs are lit up and ready to work. Getting planks out of your shoulders and into your core requires practicing with your knees down in “incline plank.”  Take some weight off your upper body and turn on your chest/upper back, pull your lats down while thinking about your glutes pressing your pelvis down while your abs and thighs press up—chin in neutral so that your neck is long and throat is relaxed. If you’re in the early postpartum phase, this is where a structured approach makes all the difference. The best postpartum workout program won’t rush you into high-impact movements but will focus on gradual core strengthening—starting with deep transverse abdominal activation, breath work, and rebuilding pelvic stability. 3. Seriously Good Squats: Muscles activated: quads, glutes, inner & outer thighs. While doing squats, your pelvis should angle back and instead of reaching your arms out in front of you (this uses your shoulders and neck), put your fingers on either side of your rib cage, engaging your rib-girdle postural muscles, to hold you up instead of gripping your arms and shoulders for balance.  If you’re not feeling your butt as much as your thighs, that’s ok, but that’s a sign that you could use some isolated glute work to help your back body wake up and get involved.   4. Back By Deadlifts: Muscles activated: entire back body; especially back & hamstrings Your back body is essential to your fully functional, fit body and life. It gets as whacked out through pregnancy/childbirth as your abdominal wall and pelvis, but is often a forgotten or ignored part of the body. So, go gently and take your time, beginning with your pelvic corridor, abs and glutes. Then, begin working the dead-lift by hinging at the waist, wrapping your abs and squeezing your glutes, lats, and hamstrings to rotate back up. Start without weights and slowly add a few pounds once you’re feeling the full-body activation and workout.  5. Soft Roller For The Win: Muscles activated: Your entire body!  Your muscles turn on and off depending on your hormone levels, menstrual cycle, age, stress, sleep quality…I mean, the list goes on! Your body is built in layers and some layers get stuck, turn off or overcompensate when injuries are incurred. Soft-foam rolling essentially irons out these layers (also known as fascial hydration—we’ll dive into this more in the January 26th issue of The Rewrite) and allows your body to move freely, with ease and a full range of motion. It’s absolute magic!  Check out this short rolling video to try it for yourself. Postpartum fitness isn’t just about recovery—it’s about long-term strength, balance, and confidence in movement. Your body has been through a transformation, and the way you train should honor that. Understanding how to cross-train in ways that work with your body—not against it—ensures you stay strong, injury-free, and empowered for life. Whether you’re newly postpartum, years into motherhood, or just looking to refine how you move, these principles will help you train smarter, not harder.

Enter 2025 with purpose and joy with my favorite guided journaling and meditation rituals. New year, new you…same you. It’s all YOU!  Life occurs in cycles and nothing is more circular than a mother’s life. You wear so many hats and your physical body transforms and moves differently year after year. Your passions, hobbies, and self-expression are multi-faceted and woven together. That weaving becomes stronger and more vibrant as the years pass. New Years is such a powerful moment to pause and recalibrate; to spin the crystal of your life and bring attention to new sides of your being. Goals and inner vision are essential to keep moving forward, especially when navigating the hazy years of early motherhood. We’re not waiting to look up in middle-age and wonder, “Where did my life go?” We’re looking inside and living into what is most important and joyful now. I invite you to print this out (old school, I know!) and hand-write this journaling exercise. In a quiet space, turn your phone to Do Not Disturb, sit with a journal or piece of paper, and light a candle. Be still with yourself and take several long, deep breaths. When answering these questions, read them out loud to yourself. Then just let the answers come through you—no grammar, no spell-check, just free-thought writing. Dream back to this day last year. What were you hoping for in 2024? Where were you in life and what decisions were you about to make? What were your biggest wins this past year? What were your biggest challenges? How did you overcome them or how are you working through them? What do you love about life right now? What do you wish to change or begin? Let yourself dream and envision your most authentic, expanded version of life, especially include the parts you think are impossible. Imagine your life with all of these changes and new habits, active and alive in your day.  How do you feel? What do you look like? What do you do all day? For 2025, bring this big, beautiful vision into the next 12 months: Write 5 actionable changes you want to start.  For example a “big vision” could be: I want to move to Hawaii and live on the beach with my family. Your “2025 action” would be: I begin researching schools in Hawaii and choose my top 3 for my kids.   Another example of a “big vision” could be: I can run 10 miles and feel great. Your “2025 action” would be: I commit to a daily fitness habit that nourishes me, while progressively building strength and running capacity. Read your answers. What is your one word that is taking you into 2025?Your 2025 Word: Big Vision: Action Goals for 2025: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. So, say hello to 2025 and greet the year with optimism and an open heart. Begin your commitment to love yourself as you embrace the opportunities and adventures that lie ahead. Every year I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. I choose to live authentically with energy and vitality in all that I do—to abandon perfection and replace it with joy. I wish all these things and more for you, mama! Happy New Year!

How to find your balance and stay present during the holidays. Threading the holiday needle between my family-of-origin and my created-family is always a tricky task. I try to be grateful for the whole tapestry of who I am and where I come from, but it does not occur naturally—I have to cultivate it. Therapy has played a big part in helping unlearn my default of shame and self-criticism and shift instead towards cultivating genuine celebration and appreciation for all parts of life. The key for me is to plan a day with a series of family centered activities that are handmade, simple, and authentically express what brings us joyfully together over the holidays.   So, after many years of trial and correction, here’s my list for you, your kids, and your partner, (and your entire extended family to boot!) to be able to lean in and contact true feelings of abundance and gratitude this Thanksgiving. Begin With Being PresentSet your work and phone boundaries—decide when you want to be OOO and unplug.  Constantly checking your work will only cause stress and that unyielding feeling of never doing enough anywhere.  Choose your holiday or choose your work and draw a line between them for a day or two.  Move That Body!This one is non-negotiable for me. Take just 30-45 minutes of the day to exercise and get your body moving. It’s essential to being able to hold, feel, and stay present with your family. Get outside together and enjoy a post-meal walk, do a video (check out my Thanksgiving Special—do it on repeat all weekend!) or even make a hopscotch board in your hallway and play with your kids (if you’re afraid to jump, head over to Phase 1, Week 1 and we’ll get that pelvic floor issue cleared up!). Ken and I trade workout times and we plan the cooking accordingly. Meaning, I work out first, he gets the food in the oven, then we trade. I usually head into the kitchen and hit the pie production while he gets in his workout. At the end, we both feel accomplished, energized, and mentally ready for the day! We Put Turkey On Time-OutTurkey isn’t part of our Thanksgiving spread—it’s just too much food, takes too long, and we all prefer local, organic chickens instead. The focus here, though, is on moderation, not gluttony and overconsumption, which destroy the true meaning of gratitude. Keep it simple, choose a few dishes that you love like sweet potatoes with marshmallows (mmmm!), braised kale, cornbread stuffing (that’s my must-have!), Ken's cranberry sauce (that’s his!), an apple or pumpkin pie…and we are good to go!   Nature Makes It NiceGo for a walk outside with your family and invite everyone to gather a couple of natural objects that they find beautiful (think: pinecones and fall leaves!) and bring them home to create a unique center-piece for the day. We also include a single beeswax candle in the center of the nature wreath to serve as our touch-point for giving thanks when lighting it at the beginning of our meal.  Gratitude At The TableInvite the kids to take a few pieces of paper and color one side (this helps keep them busy for a few minutes, too!). Then, cut them into strips and place them in a basket with a few pens. Before dinner, everyone takes a strip and writes what they are grateful for this year then places it back in the basket. At the start of the meal, the basket is passed around and everyone pulls out a ‘grateful’ and reads it out loud. We finish by thanking the earth, farmers, and family for our meal and wish for blessings and peace to all. It’s simple and circumvents the religious pitfalls of blended family moments, while retaining spiritual connection to our earth and to each other.   Try To Keep the TV OffInstead of TV, consider cooking together, playing board games, and taking a group walk after your meal. I know…football, but maybe only part of the game? Involving your children in the day is what actually generates the experience of deep connection that we all yearn for. Doing everything yourself, leaves you feeling burnt out and exhausted—sure you get that ping of “I did it!” but that deep joy you look forward to actually comes from relating to your children and creating the day together.  Happy Thanksgiving. The day will go slower and the kids will throw flour everywhere, and you will feel so rich in life and love! If you’re looking for more attitude of gratitude to add to your holiday table, I love reading the following poem to my friends and family this time of year.  WHAT WE NEED IS HERE Geese appear high over us,pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,as in love or sleep, holdsthem to their way, clearin the ancient faith: what we needis here. And we pray, notfor new earth or heaven, but to bequiet in heart, and in eye,clear. What we need is here. – Wendell Berry –

When More Intervention Might Be Needed In my last Diastasis Recti article, I defined DR and shared how to assess your abdominal tone and strength—a true DR that needs additional treatment is actually not that common. Today, I'm going to talk about those cases, how it feels and looks, and how to treat it, should you be wondering about the state of your abdominal wall. To be clear, in my 20+ years practicing, I have only seen a handful of these cases and they have all been treatable with the following intervention. For those of us who embark on the journey of motherhood, there’s a lot about it that scares us…all the flipping time! Your body doesn’t have to be one of those things. It can be a refuge for self-connection, self-understanding, stress release, and emotional clarity.  Here’s how you know, what to do, and where to begin if you think you may need more help with your abdominal recovery post babies… HOW TO TELL IF YOU NEED FURTHER INTERVENTION A true Diastasis Recti is when the abdomen is like a pool of thinned and soft belly tissue—there’s almost no response even at the mom’s very best effort. In these cases, I refer moms to a very specialized pelvic PT for manual, visceral manipulation. This is because, the loss of the front core muscles will have also resulted in extreme weakness and tension in the back, pelvic floor, and hip-stabilizing muscles, requiring manual release, visceral movement, and often organ realignment prior to a mom’s ability to begin isolating, feeling, and engaging her transverse abdominals (TVA). In these cases, there are common symptoms that accompany the DR such as stress incontinence, back pain, hunched shoulders and “stuck ribs.” The term, stuck ribs, is used to explain how a widened diaphragm and ribcage are unresponsive when asked to expand and contract 3-dimensionally.  WHY DIASTASIS RECTI EXERCISES POSTPARTUM MATTER When caught early, Diastasis Recti exercises postpartum can play a critical role in closing abdominal separation and restoring core function. By progressively engaging the deep core muscles—especially the TVA—these exercises help rebuild tension and elasticity in the midline, allowing moms to regain strength and prevent further weakening. Proper core activation also reduces the risk of secondary issues like pelvic instability or back pain, making postpartum fitness a smoother, more supportive journey. THE 411 ON CONING + DOMING Ever heard of “coning” or “doming?” These terms refer to an abdominal contraction that instead of pulling down and inward, separates and pushes your midline out between the two sides of your 6-pack.  This separation and outward pressure occurs in a moment when your TVA are not able to engage and so your external abs are disorganized and de-stabilized, like when you’re 9 months pregnant or just gave birth.   COMMON CONING Sometimes coning spontaneously and naturally occurs when you sneeze, cough or simply try to sit up after lying down. These short-lived moments are not dangerous and do not ‘cause’ Diastasis Recti.  You can try and engage your TVA mindfully before you sneeze or cough (and definitely when rolling up out of bed) and this can help hold things in place in the moment, but it’s ok if you can’t and don’t. You will not make things worse because you are 9-months pregnant or 1-week postpartum and have a moment of coning. The coning that we want to watch out for is a separation that occurs when you are working out and your abs cannot sustain their engagement through exercise—so, you “cone.” Paying attention to this “lost TVA moment” will allow you to pause your exercise and use breath to re-engage from the inside out, continuing to strengthen your abdominal wall. If ignored, you begin to risk training your abs to pull apart for strength instead of together, which can lead to thinning and weakening of the midline, resulting in a more severe Diastasis Recti UNDERSTANDING YOUR CORE & ITS CONNECTION TO OTHER SYSTEMS A strong, engaged core doesn’t just impact your abs—it affects your entire body. Without a functioning core, your spine lacks stability, your pelvic floor compensates in ways that lead to tightness and dysfunction, and your breath becomes shallow and ineffective. PELVIC MUSCLE SPASMS & WEAK CORE MUSCLES One often-overlooked issue in postpartum recovery is the development of pelvic muscle spasm due to core weakness. When the TVA and deep abdominal muscles are unable to activate properly, the pelvic muscles overcompensate, leading to chronic tension, discomfort, and even pain. Many moms experience this as a tight, gripping feeling in the pelvic floor, which can contribute to urinary leakage, hip pain, and discomfort during movement. To prevent this, it’s essential to restore proper core engagement through breath work, progressive strengthening, and intentional pelvic floor relaxation techniques..   HOW TO KNOW YOU NEED MORE HELP An Easy Way To Test Your Midline: Standing or lying down, simply take a deep breath. If your midline sticks out below your ribs (and your ribs don’t move), this is a sign that you need some help from a pelvic PT. Make an appointment with a specialized PT to help remobilize your ribs and diaphragm. They can also release the back tension that is keeping your TVA from gliding with your breath. EXERCISE & “DOMING” What can exacerbate your abdominal weakness and lead to a widening of the midline is sustained coning and weight-baring core work while the TVA are disengaged. For example, doing a plank while pregnant and the midline is pushing down and out instead of up and “hugging” the baby. If you are working out and noticing that your mid-belly is lax, bulging or can not draw in and together, then you need to pause and go back to your foundational TVA strength. BELLY BANDS: DOs & DON’Ts Belly bands are tight, elastic-type corsets that wrap around your back and waist to help hold your belly in. Moms are advised way too frequently to use belly bands and it f’s up their abs!  Extended or frequent use keeps your muscles deactivated and trains them to become increasingly passive and reliant on the belly band. I have seen this lead to complete atrophy of the majority of your trunk’s core muscle system, requiring months of rehabilitation and recovery.   I only advise using a belly band in very specific, early postpartum or post-operative situations, where the mom is often needing to care for her older children and or perform standing/walking tasks that are beyond her body’s capacity. In these instances, the band can lend itself to support the mom through a couple hours of activity and then, she takes it off, but I always use them with a plan to stop using them.   THE SURGICAL OPTION Surgery is the right choice for you if you and your medical team decide so. No one knows your body and your needs better than you. I have advised women with minimal separations to head into surgery because psychologically, they just needed to see a quicker fix than the rehab fitness was going to yield. Some have gone in because their tissues were so compromised, they likely would never be able to bring elasticity and strength back to the core without it.   Whatever you choose, I applaud you.  POST-OP TIPS Corrective surgery is major undergoing and you will need the same course of muscle reeducation and strength training post-op as you do now. But, the great news is, you’ll have muscles that are aligned where they are meant to be and tissues with enough tension and elasticity to engage and build 3-dimension strength! Remember, surgery will only be an option after you are sure you’re done having children. So, no matter where you are in your journey, a daily, mind-body core workout that meets you at your fitness level and supports your muscle activation are a must for your long-term health.  THE PUNCHLINE  A fit, active lifestyle is key to success. Find a program that inspires you and keeps you moving forward. It should resonate with you and you should feel changes happening as you make your way through the program. Postpartum Fitness & Core Strength: A strong core is essential for postpartum fitness. Whether you’re lifting your baby, returning to exercise, or simply moving through daily life, core stability is at the heart of it all. Strengthening your TVA through intentional movement ensures long-term function and resilience. For more on diastasis-recti and your pre and postnatal muscle education, check out the RM DR Program on our App.For an exceptional Pelvic PT, check out Beyond Basics with multiple locations located in Manhattan. 

How Children Can Self-Regulate and Keep The Candy Halloween is upon us and few places celebrate quite like New York City—it’s definitely a party. I was raised by a hippie, single-mom in the Santa Cruz mountains. Sugar was in large part villainized for much of my childhood, which led to some hard nutritional awakenings once I started making my own food choices.   So, when it came to sugar with my kids, I knew I wanted to do it differently, but I didn’t know exactly how. I knew I wanted to teach them about sugar and its effects, as well as its pleasure, without banning the sweet substance and the fun parties that often accompany it.   And, in 13 years of Halloween with two competitive trick-or-treaters, my daughters have never eaten, or even asked for, all of their Halloween candy.  Here’s how we do it… Make it a family affair. Ken and I dress up, go door-to-door with them, and make it a fun tradition that is about more than just candy. It’s about a shared evening of family and friends.   They are allowed to eat as we go. I check the candy as they unwrap it and then, they can go for it. I don’t stop them from enjoying trick-or-treating and eating as much of their treasured hoard as they want. We stop before they fall apart.  As it begins to get dark, we have a planned next phase of the evening. This way, it’s a transition rather than an end to the fun. We usually gather with friends either at our house or someone else’s and we are ready with a hearty veggie chili and fresh sourdough with lots of salty churned butter—it’s delicious, warming, grounding, and counteracts the inevitable sugar-high.   Water for the win! Have a water bottle on hand and keep putting the straw into their mouths, making sure they’re sipping and staying hydrated throughout the evening. Candy trading. The kids we party with after trick-or-treating pile together, dump out their hauls, and start counting, trading,and playing. By the end of the evening, they’ve all consumed a crazy amount of sugar, have celebrated, and are ready to put it all back into their plastic pumpkins.   At bedtime, expect exhaustion. Plan an extra-long teeth brushing where you can talk about how fun the night was and get in a quick bath and scrub off the facepaint. Finally, tuck them into bed knowing that you may need to hold them while they cry themselves to sleep from over-exhaustion. It’s okay—it’s one night and they’ll remember the fun, not how tired they ended up being.  Stash their stash. Once the kids are asleep, we take their pumpkins and put them on the top shelf of our coat closet. They’ve never asked for the candy again. Out of sight, out of mind—for you, too…because a giant bucket of candy is a hard temptation for all of us! The hangover cure. The following morning, we serve protein, veggies, and whole grain bread (like a big veggie frittata with sauteed kale!). We avoid serving desserts for a few days and keep food simple—as parents, we love halloween candy, too and always want to just rebalance a bit after the evening. Go for hearty veggie soups, roasted chicken and salads, bean and rice burritos with avocado and greens. We talk to our girls about nutrition and sugar. We’re honest about the feelings we all get from a sugar/party hangover. I explain how sugar operates in their bodies (it is absorbed instantly and burned even faster) and how processed sugar like candy is different from natural sugars in fruits and breads (that the body has to work harder to turn into energy) and that’s why they feel better eating fruit than a lollipop. We also are totally transparent about how we, as adults, have a hard time resisting sugar and how we make sure to choose foods that help rebalance our bodies in order to feel energetic and happy going into the week.  Shift the focus. November launches the next holiday—Thanksgiving, collecting fall leaves, and picking out funny gourds from the farmer’s market to decorate the dining table.   Give the candy away. By the end of November, we usually feel it’s time to empty the pumpkins and donate the candy along with some canned goods to a local food shelter. What I have witnessed in my girls is the ability to choose. At times, they choose too much and they are learning where that fine line is within themselves. They talk to me about how they feel and I ask them, “what foods would feel good to you to rebalance from Halloween?” and they have great ideas!  In the end, Halloween is a one night event.We hit it hard, have a great time, and then…it’s done! 

Tips From My Husband To Yours I was in a private session recently when my client nonchalantly said, “I don’t know how any marriage survives the first year of parenthood.” I was like, “Yeah, it’s HARD!”  You’re both sleep deprived, all of your individual origin stories have been unleashed (and you don’t have energy to process that shit during a 3AM feeding) and the love you both feel for this little being has eclipsed everything. The score sheets of who’s doing what, quickly come out and partnership deteriorates into debate.  In my in-person practice, group classes, and with my own mom circle this is an ongoing conversation. We are constantly unpacking the dynamics of our marriages on parenthood and figuring out what works and what doesn’t— a place for each of us to download the stress. And, one thing is crystal clear to allllllll of us… Moms need help.  But, telling us that we need help and should just ask for it is not helpful.  Here is what you both can do instead. From the RM Inner Circle chats and from my own marriage (this list is tested and approved by Ken!), these are “easy” ways to make some shifts—the challenge for you both is to make the shift.  Remember to keep it light, have fun, and lean in… HOW TO REALLY HELP HER(Psssst…share this list with your partner!) Understand Her Mental Load: It takes longer for moms to explain and delegate than to do it ourselves. Instead of asking, “how can I help,” observe the shared home you live in and then tell her, “I see [blank] needs to be done.” Then, propose a timeline of execution, “When you’re done feeding, I’ll put the baby in the ergo and start the laundry. Do you feel like you’d be in a place to shower or workout then?”   Make Decisions: Moms live in decision overload. Make some of the decisions and then run them by her. For example, “I see we have zucchini and arugula in the fridge. I’ll pick up chicken and make a salad to go with it for dinner.  Does that sound good to you?” Be Her Emotional Support: The internal, mental script running in a mom’s head is peppered with self-criticism—even the most evolved mom is living in a constant state of self-doubt. She needs to be grounded in honesty and seen and heard, not argued with. The best support you can offer is to ask if you can give her a hug and tell her she’s an excellent mom. Follow by giving her an example of something you appreciated about her mothering from that day. It will transform her inner state. The Anti-Hero: Partner, know yourself and be honest about what you need. If you’re overriding your own needs, thinking that’s helping her…it’s not. Neither is solely focusing on yourself. The volume is turned way up on everyone’s needs after a baby arrives and noticing burn out in yourself and in her will help you understand and address each other’s base-line needs before the wheels come off.   Calm During The Storm: She’s going to have a moment (or many) where she freaks out—it’s a cry for help. She’s been red-lining too long, too hard. Please don’t react. Ask if you can hold her and then just hold her.  Do not try to fix anything. Tell her she’s doing a great job and reflect back to her what she’s saying, “I hear that you hate seeing the laundry on the floor,” keep it simple. This is not the moment for analyzing—hold, calm, and love.   Lead The Calendar: Create it, color-code it, and share it with her. Put in the obvious appointments (doctors, work, etc.) and then invite her to make a list with you about personal daily needs like showers, workouts, sleep, alone time, time together, and then schedule that shit! Yes, even the naps. It won’t all work all the time, but if you can hit 50% of your aspired schedule, you are winning at parenthood!  Keep Laughing Together: Remember to turn each other’s attention back to the loving family you are growing together. Negativity has a gravitational pull, but so does positivity. Learn to flip a power struggle or reactive moment on its head with a living room dance, a hug, a smile or a simple reminder, “I love you and we’re winning at parenthood!” Teamwork makes the dream work—you guys got this! 

RM’s Secret To Success For All Expecting Moms Exercising while pregnant is excellent for you and your baby’s health. It helps reduce stress, helps your body adjust to daily changes, and supports the increased weight of your belly with less pain and discomfort. Entering birth with strong, functional muscles makes your body better prepared for the delivery room and more resilient when it comes to healing post birth.  These are all pretty well known facts about staying healthy during pregnancy. However, as much as we hear these messages, they are often presented in pretty stark contrast against a whole litany of “don’ts” and “be careful.”  This makes for a lot of confusion for women in an already nebulous time of pregnancy and while preparing to grow your family.  What I find (and found in my personal journey into motherhood) is that the more you connect with your body, diffuse stress, and clear your head, the better equipped you are to make informed decisions about each stage of motherhood and your health. How Diastasis Recti Exercises Help A strong, functional core is essential not only during pregnancy but also for recovery after birth. Many moms worry about diastasis recti, or abdominal separation, which occurs when the connective tissue at the midline stretches due to pregnancy. Diastasis recti exercises postpartum play a key role in helping close this gap by retraining the deep core muscles to activate properly. Starting with gentle core engagement during pregnancy makes it easier to rebuild core strength and prevent excessive separation postpartum. RACHEL’S PRENATAL FITNESS TIPS + TRUTHS  Establish a daily habit that strengthens and calms your muscles and mind before you have a newborn in your arms. This will give you an extra boost of courage to keep showing up after the baby is born, especially on the days that are the hardest to find the time. This will serve your long-term health and happiness while providing a reliable place to cut through self-doubt and confusion through motherhood and beyond. Listen to your doctor about safety guidelines—ask questions when you are unclear on the advice and risks being presented to you. Then, choose a program of exercise that resonates with you and makes you happy.  Choose instructors you trust. They should be able to answer your questions, or point you in the right direction if they aren’t sure. Instructors  should also be educating you about your body and why certain moves are being adjusted at different points along the way, so you know how to self-adjust or correct a movement at any point in any class.  Your fitness needs will be forever changed after becoming a mom. It’s the truth and I say this because I want to set you up for success rather than stumble and feel like you’ve somehow failed in your recovery. You will never workout like you did at 20 years old, and that’s a good thing! Your fitness routine needs to support the mental gymnastics that comes with motherhood and the exhaustion you feel at the beginning. Put simply, you can workout and will love your workouts…you just need to cross-train differently now.  It all begins in your core and I mean that in the most sincere way. Your core is exactly that—the center for all movement and the origin of strength for your limbs. You will always have layered, 360-degree ab exercises as part of your cross-training now, and the best time to begin learning how to isolate and train the layers of your core is while you are pregnant (or before!).  Your muscles are the same before, during, and post pregnancy—they just behave differently at each phase. Understand your muscles, how they function and most importantly, what it feels like when your body is connected. The result? You’ll move well for the rest of your life. A weak core during pregnancy and postpartum can lead to pelvic muscle spasm, which happens when the deep core muscles aren’t properly engaged, causing the pelvic floor to compensate. This can result in discomfort, tension, and even pain in the lower abdomen, hips, and pelvic region. By strengthening your TVA (transverse abdominals) and learning how to connect your core and pelvic floor, you can prevent excessive tightness and improve mobility, both during pregnancy and postpartum recovery. Get familiar with postpartum recovery during pregnancy. I interweave postpartum recovery videos into prenatal workout programs for many reasons. I want you to learn them now, while you have the mental and emotional bandwidth. This will make you excited to do something that feels familiar and nourishing o your body and soul when you are in the throes of postpartum fog—where every inch of your body and life feel new and unfamiliar. During those early days as a mom, it’s important to come home to a workout that reminds you who you are at your core and how to connect deeply with yourself. Set up your pelvic PT before you give birth. A great pelvic PT will often see you in the third trimester (or before, if you need help with any pain or discomfort). Prenatal physical therapy visits will help open the gateway from your abs to your pelvic bowl, while making sure you’re in the best condition for birth. Doing this prior to delivery will make it a positive, postpartum appointment—something you’ll look forward to as it marks your progress and healing! Listen to your body. When something feels “off”...stop, take a break, and check in. Your intuition is powerful and it’s always okay to call your doctor or midwife and ask about something you are wondering about. This is how you learn and know where your body’s guardrails of safe exercise are at each phase of your pregnancy. And remember, everyone is different! Find your groove. It’s a challenge to know how you will feel or what your energy will be like each day—this is the perfect prep for motherhood. You will never know what each day will bring, and it is great practice for working out intelligently and intentionally rather than just going through the motions (which won’t give you the physical results you want). So, slow down and tailor your workouts to meet your needs. Cross-train for your current life and a strong booty and core will follow! Why Core Strength is Essential for Postpartum FitnessYour core strength is the foundation of postpartum fitness. The stronger and more functional your core is during pregnancy, the better you will heal postpartum and transition into an active, pain-free lifestyle. A well-trained core supports your spine, improves balance, and helps restore proper pelvic alignment, making it easier to regain strength and stamina after birth. A Place To BeginIf you’re looking for a great way to fit fitness into your prenatal schedule, check out our RM Begin - Prenatal Program on the RM App. There’s a whole lineup of videos that will help familiarize your body, muscles, and lifestyle for what’s next!  I’m here for you through every phase—from prenatal to postpartum and beyond. x

Nothing to Fear & Everything to Learn Companies have learned that fear sells—especially to women and most definitely to moms.    If you are afraid AND only have access to partial or distorted information about your body, then you are more likely to buy whatever they tell you will fix the problem.  Case in point, Diastasis Recti.   Diastasis Recti (pronounced dai·uh·stay·suhs rek·tai or just DR for short):  Is a common condition that describes a thinning and weakening of the abdominal wall and an inability to create a strong, unified contraction of all of the layers of your abs across the midline, or Linea Alba. PELVIC FLOOR SPASMS & ITS CONNECTION TO DR One lesser-known but related issue is pelvic floor spasm—a condition where the muscles of the pelvic floor become excessively tight, leading to discomfort, pain, and difficulty engaging the core properly. Many women with diastasis recti experience pelvic floor spasm due to the instability in their core, causing compensations in the pelvic muscles. Addressing DR through proper engagement of the transverse abdominals (TVA) can help relieve unnecessary tension in the pelvic floor and restore functional movement. ANATOMY 101 In order to make an accurate strength assessment and informed decision about your healing, we are going to first dive into understanding what your muscles do and why. Your TVA (transverse abs) form the base of all of your mid-trunk muscles, from the back through your side waist, across the front of your hips. They are your stability muscles that glide back and forth around your waist when you take deep breaths.   Resting on top of your TVA, are your visible ab muscles, which are your mobility muscles—meaning they are the ones that flex and extend to help you bend over, turn and lift heavy objects (like your toddler!). Here’s what you need to know: Isolating your TVA is new for most people.  I certainly never had to do it before having babies.  But, and this is essential - learning to isolate and strength train your TVA is the secret sauce to rehabilitating your pelvic floor, your back and entire trunk function. This is because your TVA is the foundation for your entire body. When your TVA is passive and unresponsive (which naturally occurs with pregnancy and childbirth), you will experience all kinds of tightness in your hips, back and pelvis.  You’ll feel like it’s impossible to engage your abs and like you’re stuck and can’t move easefully. A disengaged TVA often contributes to other conditions like incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. TAKES TIME TO LEARN YOUR TVA, BUT IT WILL PAY OFF Chances are, you’ve never had to isolate your TVA. I certainly hadn’t prior to giving birth! My core had just always kind of been there for me. So, learning how to breathe and create the subtle glide of your TVA without triggering other muscles (like your hip flexors) requires both patience and consistency. The more you practice, the stronger your neural pathway from your brain to your TVA becomes, making it easier to strength-train and make progress.   Check out this video in Phase 1 for detailed instruction on strengthening your TVA. THE SECRET ABOUT MEASURING DR: There is no standardized way to check for DR by a healthcare provider or even by pelvic PT’s. If your OB does a quick check at your 6 or 8 week check-up and declares you fine or “3 fingers,” take a breath, go home, and follow these steps to discern your actual abdominal capacity.  WHAT DO FINGER MEASUREMENTS MEAN? Not much, honestly.   Consider a belly at total rest. If I stick my fingers into the space between the two sides of your six-pack, chances are I’d be able to get a few fingers in there, especially if I’m digging around.  Now, consider a belly that has been activated into a best-effort attempt to co-contract your TVA and your six-pack? This midline would be much more firm.   Then, take the same belly, on a mom who hasn’t slept in 24 hours, whose back is jacked and ask her to make a best-effort contraction—her midline would measure much more weakly.   Here’s my point (and some homework!): Hold your initial DR reading lightly. Let it be a guide post that you check every 6-8 weeks as you are doing progressive strength and rehabilitative work (ahem…like working your way through RM Phase 1, for example). HOW TO KNOW YOU’RE READY TO WORKOUT Right after delivery, your belly is literally a deflated balloon—the tissues are stretched and beginning a healing process that spontaneously contracts and shrinks your tissues. This is NOT the time to start digging into your midline to see if your abs are separated—they are and that’s totally normal.   In the early days post-childbirth, it’s best to do some simple breath-based, TVA engagement (follow along here) where you’re waking up your abs to work within the movements of daily life—to help you stand up, sit down, and support a baby cradled in your arms.   DIASASTIS RECTI EXERCISE POSTPARTUM: THE FIRST STEP TO RECOVERY When you’re ready to start rebuilding strength, diastasis recti exercises postpartum are the best place to begin. These gentle core activations target the TVA and pelvic floor, helping restore stability and prevent further complications like pelvic floor spasm. The earlier you can reconnect with your deep core muscles, the more effectively you can support your spine, hips, and overall movement patterns. Once you are feeling like you want and need more, head over to the 4th Trimester program. Timing is personal—for me, it was about 10 days post birth. So, no matter when you’re feeling like you need to get into your body and begin moving the newborn kinks out, it is the right time.   WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE READY  Have your mind in the right space and understand your motivation to help your body heal and feel more at ease. Enter a place of curiosity with your body. Go from tending to your recovery, to helping your body heal and regain strength—not from hating your postpartum body and trying to get anything back from before motherhood. That is all in the past. Now, you are in the present and moving forward. Remember, you are living the opportunity of your lifetime—to embody and know yourself as a mom, as a woman, as all of the facets of brilliant you. Motherhood is everything…the entire suite of human emotion, thought, and self-expression. It takes courage to enter your body as a mom, because you will release feelings that are big—they could be scary and you might even discover some inconvenient truths. But, this is the gateway to thriving and really enjoying your life.   Be brave—you can do it! You can do anything you set your mind to…you gave birth! So, place fear of your body, mind, and emotions aside, roll out your mat, and discover what is possible in this lifetime.   I’m in there with you, every step of the way.

Tips + Secrets for Healing Your Secret Parts I always wondered why laboring women were totally naked in birth videos—not even wearing a top? Wtf?   I was about to find out… My First Birth Adventure: My water broke during rush hour in the middle of Astor Place. I already knew every birth story is different—there are expected and unexpected circumstances that surround them all, and my first experience made that crystal clear.   After grabbing a cab from someone else, yelling that my water had just broken and her yelling back, “Oh…well, yes—you take it then,” I proceeded to drive home to Brooklyn, going in the opposite direction of my hospital. I often get a sideways look from people when I get to that part of the story, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to be except in my shower, alone, safe and…out of my clothes! After grabbing a cab from someone else, yelling that my water had just broken and her yelling back, “Oh…well, yes—you take it then,” I proceeded to drive home to Brooklyn, going in the opposite direction of my hospital. I often get a sideways look from people when I get to that part of the story, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to be except in my shower, alone, safe and…out of my clothes! I was as prepared as I could be. My husband and I had taken the birth class, painted the nursery, and even hung the mobile above the crib in anticipation of meeting our baby. However, at that moment, none of the preparation mattered.  Little known fact: Your water doesn’t just break once and stop. It continues to flow out of you…a lot of it…for a while. Coupled over with increasingly blinding contractions, picking our way through NYC traffic at 6PM, I proceeded to flood the cab driver’s backseat with my amniotic fluid.   I left him the biggest tip of my life as I muttered ‘I’m so sorry’ and sprinted up the stairs to our apartment, undressing the entire way. By the time I was in the shower, my contractions were so intense, they were dropping me to my knees. My husband at that moment was in East Hampton—at least 3 hours away. I wasn’t due for 15 more days, so I had told him I’d be fine and to go that morning. Now, he was desperately trying to get back to the city while I was in the shower with contractions 4 minutes apart.  Hollywood-worthy, yes. Unique and personal? 100%.   The ending was sweet—he made it for the birth of our daughter. My friends stayed at the hospital until my husband arrived, and 12 hours later, I delivered my daughter vaginally.   Postpartum Recovery: What No One Tells You The first moment I even considered the resulting state of my vagina was when the nurse was walking me to the bathroom for the first time and helping me with an ice pack when she proclaimed, “Wow, you are swollen!” I didn’t understand what was so swollen, and then I tried to sit down. For two days, I had to sit on a soft pillow because a chair was too intense on my pelvic floor. Nothing prepared me for the healing process that follows a vaginal delivery. It’s something we don’t talk about enough, but postpartum recovery is real. Your body has just been through one of the most transformative experiences, and it needs intentional care and time to heal. Swelling, tenderness, and discomfort are normal, but movement, gentle stretching, and breathwork will help support your recovery and ease the transition into motherhood. Then came the constant “do your kegels” advice, which I had NO IDEA how to do. Squeeze what? Where? Since this fateful entry into motherhood 13 years ago, I have not only pioneered my own pelvic floor and vaginal recovery, but I’ve helped countless women do the same.MYTH DISRUPTORS: During & After Birth What you need to know and how and when to do your kegels (or not!): TRUTH ABOUT TEARING Your vaginal wall is very resilient and you are not ‘giving birth wrong’ if you tear or not - genes, muscle tone and frankly the angle and speed at which your baby exits your body have the biggest impact on your chances and honestly, not a lot of that is adjustable in those last few moments of pushing your baby out.  These tools will help your pelvic floor remain functional and able to stretch and rebound best (so as to make birth easier and decrease your chances of tearing): Definitely staying active, fascia rolling, hip and pelvic floor opening exercise, and core strengthening throughout pregnancy will support your ability to engage actively in the birthing process. The result? Improved pelvic floor muscles and ability to sustain birth and recover well.   THE WHOLE PELVIC FLOOR There is a difference between the distention and stretching of the vagina itself and the distention and injury sustained by your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor and rectum receive the full brunt of vaginal childbirth, and it can be difficult in the first couple of weeks post-birth to discern the full landscape of needed recovery between vaginal and posterior stretching and weakness. ICE, WITCH HAZEL & THE SOFT, FOAM ROLLER In your early days post-birth, ice and witch hazel pads are your BFFs to help the swelling go down. Eventually, you’ll want to focus on your upper torso. Your ribs and back are important, making sure there’s room to breathe and move, keeping your shoulders and neck open with soft foam rolling and gentle stretches. Should You Use a Postpartum Corset? The idea of wearing a postpartum corset is popular, but it’s not a cure-all for recovery. While light compression can provide comfort in the early days, relying on a corset for too long can prevent the deep core muscles from reactivating naturally. Instead of binding the belly tightly, focus on breathwork, TVA activation, and progressive movement to restore core strength in a functional way. BREATHE FOR TVA ENGAGEMENT Breathing and your Transversus Breath Activation are next. Your TVA is anatomically connected to your pelvic floor, low back, and hip bones—learn more on this topic here. Breathing for TVA engagement is the real relief and stability you’re craving in those early weeks post-birth. Once your TVA begins to glide, it will support your body’s natural healing process, lending you better back support when sitting, feeding, and moving with your baby. They will also begin to spontaneously lift and support your pelvic floor muscles by holding the weight of your upper body so you are not collapsing your weight onto your pelvis.  HEAL YOUR SCAR TISSUE If you tore or had larger intervention like an episiotomy, the scar line needs time for healing. Depending on the degree of the tear, you’ll begin to feel your stitches dissolving, or visit your doctor to remove the stitches. At this point, you want to think about scar care. Similar to a c-section, the tissues need breath, relaxation, and functional re-education. Kegels are not the way to go for this. However, breath-based vaginal wall contractions are! Want More? Here’s my go-to for educating your breath and isolating your transverses abs through breath-based exercises. The RM Pelvic Corridor | Not a KegelOnce you can breathe and engage your TVA, move your attention down to your vaginal wall. Breathe all the way in, as you begin to exhale you will contract just your vaginal wall as if you’re trying to squeeze a tampon. Once you begin your next inhale, relax your vaginal wall (without baring down) and repeat your exhale exercise. You’ll feel the vaginal wall begin to respond with contractions and releases better with each attempt.   Once you feel a general “yes,” you are going to evolve the contraction. Imagine the contraction traveling even further up the birth canal to the center of your body behind your belly button. It’s like a continuous, internal tunnel of strength at the very center of your body—I call this the RM Pelvic Corridor. Anatomically speaking, we are co-contracting your pelvic floor, vaginal wall, and TVA for a functionally re-educated deep abdominal system that forms the foundation for ALL of your external muscles, from butt to inner thighs and six pack…this is where you start! Incontinence is normal right after vaginal delivery. The above exercises, coupled with some pelvic floor PT, will result in achieving reliable bladder control (yes, even when jumping on a trampoline!). In some cases, the urethra sheath is injured or there can be subtle issues with visceral tissues and organ placement—all of these nuances can be looked at by a skilled pelvic PT and/or a Urogynecologist. But, please know you don’t have to just live with a lifelong incontinence. Through the rehabilitative phase, you need to move daily, even just your breath-based pelvic corridor exercises and a little soft foam rolling. This is because you are working on neuro-strength repatterning. You are training muscles to activate when your brain tells your body to stand up, sit down, lie down, bounce, burp, feed, carry, and walk.The more frequently you work with these muscles, the more they will be strengthened in your daily mom-life and the better it will all feel.Now, You Start To Thrive Your entrance into motherhood was and is the opportunity of your lifetime to understand your body and inhabit yourself from the inside out. This is your time to develop a lifelong fitness habit that will carry you well beyond your early mom-years and into your great-grandma years! Addressing Pelvic Floor Spasm Post-Birth Many moms experience pelvic floor spasm due to the intense work these muscles perform during birth. This tightening can lead to discomfort and even difficulty with movement. The key is gentle release work, breath-based engagement, and mobilization exercises to help the pelvic floor relax and restore its function. Working with a pelvic floor PT and practicing intentional breath-based movement will help relieve tension and support long-term healing. I am more mature, disciplined, and at home in my skin than ever—I still LOVE a sweaty, endorphin-pumping workout, I just cross-train better for it. And, so can you! Check out what’s possible for you here. 

How to Prep, Plan & Heal Like a Badass After more than a decade of working with women and guiding their postpartum recoveries, there's not much I haven't seen. And the truth is, while there are some key differences between a c-section and vaginal birth, beyond the initial healing phase, there are more similarities than you might expect. However, those key differences are important and can make all the difference when it comes to planning the best outcome and making a full and active recovery.   The initial weeks of postpartum recovery after a c-section require patience and intentional movement. Your body is healing from a major surgery, so focusing on gentle movement, breathwork, and core awareness will set the foundation for long-term healing. The 411 on C-Sections I’ll begin with the obvious, but often glossed-over fact: A c-section is major abdominal surgery.  Your doctor cuts through your abdominal layers, muscle, fascial tissue, moves your intestines out of the way and then opens your uterus. It’s a lot for a body to recover from and if your experience was in any way unplanned or urgent, the psychological and emotional recovery can be just as intense as the physical.   So, whether you are heading into a planned surgery or are looking for answers because you unexpectedly delivered via cesarean, I’m here to support you with my game-changing tips that will help you get the care you need from your medical team, understand what has happened to your body and learn how to design your personal recovery plan. Planned C-Section: Ask all the questions! If you know in advance that you’ll be delivering your baby via cesarean: Speak with you OB about the details regarding your surgery, where they perform the incision and how they close you post-operatively. Do they close you themselves or do they have someone else perform the closure? What materials do they use to close you (internal stitches and external). This will open the conversation and put you in the driver’s seat to make informed decisions and requests regarding the surgery itself. Previously delivered via c-section? If you’re experiencing pain, bumpiness or unevenness around your old scar, your surgeon can revise the scar tissue during your new c-section and restitch you for best abdominal healing and functional recovery.  My Major Pro-Tip: Consider speaking with your OB about having a plastic surgeon in the operating room to close your incision. They are the best trained in the bizz to minimize scarring and stitch for optimal, functional recovery.  Note: This can be a delicate conversation to have as it's outside of a physician's normal operating procedure—they may think it’s unnecessary. However, a great plastic surgeon can make a huge difference in your abdominal recovery and if you want to explore this option, you have the right to request it.  An exceptional resource for the Plastic Surgeon route is  Dr. Sophie Bartsich  who has pioneered educational resources for women preparing for planned c-sections.  D Post Operative: What to expect and what to do in those early days.  Just like any other major surgery, expect a period of healing and rehabilitation, followed by targeted muscle re-education and integrative strength exercises.  In the first few days post-surgery: While the incision is still healing, you will want to follow your doctor’s guidelines carefully. Keep it clean, rest as much as you can, and when you feel ready and able to begin standing and walking, go slowly. Expect some digestive discomfort, bloating and gas, as well as limitations to your ability to stand, sit, walk, and carry your newborn. In brief, you’ll need some help tending to your and your baby’s needs for a few weeks—be ready to ask for help!   Emotional Check In: You will most likely feel grateful and frustrated having other people help tend to your baby’s needs. This conflicting emotional landscape is totally normal and it’s ok to want help, but also want to be the only person taking care of your baby.    Buckle up! This tug will be with you for the rest of your life—welcome to motherhood. Accepting it will help you navigate your need for close intimacy with your sweet baby and space for yourself; year over year and decade over decade.   Improve Healing In The First Weeks: Go slowly and listen to your body. The first effort you will make in recovering movement and sensation in your abdominal wall is…breathing. All pregnancies change the dynamics of your breath and hijack your diaphragm. Plus, newly post-op, you will instinctively want to curl around your incision, which can lead to compressing your already weakened core muscles and increase pelvic floor pressure.  This mindful breathing video will improve circulation, relax the trunk muscles, and begin the recovery of your nuero-musclar connections (how your brain triggers specific muscles to move or not!). From these simple breath practices, you can begin to add some intentional and gentle muscle contractions through the rib cage, waist and Transversus Abs.  Get more of my post-op recovery guidance in : The RM 4th Trimester Program (all on the RM APP) Scar Care: Reduce adhesions and improve your ab function Once your incision has healed and your doctor has given you the “green light” for some gentle movement, you can begin scar massage which will improve nerve regeneration, reduce swelling and adhesions, and increase blood flow (= quicker and better tissue healing), all of which leads to better overall function of your abdominal wall My Massage Hack: Take a little bit of your regular moisturizer and lightly massage your scar when you get out of the shower.  Begin with gentle, circular fingertip movements, then, over several weeks, you can increase the pressure and begin moving up and down across the scar. There’s no doubt you’ll feel things—numbness, tingling, emotions…go slowly. About 60 seconds of tender, self-attention to feel, hear and be present in your recovery. STOP IF: You feel pain. That’s your guardrail to how deep you can go. You’ll be able to take a little more pressure for longer as you progress in your healing. If pain is ever persistent, sharp or just feels “off,” call your doctor and get it checked out.   Pelvic PT: Yup, for a c-section…Depending on your healing and doctor’s clearance, around weeks 6-10 post-op, make an appointment with a Pelvic Floor specialized PT who practices manual, visceral manipulation. You can ask your doctor for a prescription and even if the PT is out of network, you may be able to receive some reimbursement from your insurance provider.  Why + What to Expect:  First, your pelvic floor PT should talk you through everything, from listening to your birth and health history, to telling you how they will touch and treat you.  Internal work is very common and often very effective for aiding and accelerating c-section recovery. This is because your trunk muscles and pelvic floor muscles are all connected.  When you undergo low abdominal surgery, the scar tissue can adhere to itself, other tissues, and even to organs—which often leads to tightness and feeling restricted across the groin and throughout your pelvic floor.  A skilled Pelvic PT will release triggered or spasming pelvic floor muscles and re-mobilize internal and external fascial tissue.  This will allow you to begin engaging your Transversus Abs (or TVA) and what I call ‘the pelvic corridor’ for a fully functional, strong pelvic floor and abdominal system. Generally, a few sessions with a great pelvic PT is enough.  But, if you sustained other injuries while delivering (ie. tearing, organ prolapse, incontinence) you may need a longer course of treatment coupled with targeted exercises.  Again, this should be an ongoing conversation with your PT so that you are aligned every step of the way.   From Healing to Strength Training : How to start and how to stick with it Once you have been cleared by your physician and are feeling ready to begin exercising, it’s important to remember that your fitness needs and schedule are different in these initial months (and years!) postpartum. You'll want tools (like the RM Soft Foam Roller) to release tight muscles, flush out swelling + stiffness while reducing the physical impact of daily mom'ing on your body.  Ab Exercises After Cesarean Not all core exercises are created equal after a c-section! The right approach to ab exercises after cesarean involves: Starting with breath-based core activation to prevent pressure buildup on the incision. Prioritizing deep core work over traditional ab exercises like sit-ups, which can strain healing tissue. Progressing movement intentionally to restore abdominal strength without overloading weak tissues. Focusing on breath and controlled movement first will help rebuild stability safely, making it easier to return to strength training without setbacks. One common concern post-c-section is umbilical hernia postpartum. A hernia can develop when weakened abdominal tissues allow a small bulge near the belly button to form. Some umbilical hernias postpartum resolve on their own with proper core rehab. If you notice persistent bulging, pressure, or discomfort, check with your doctor to determine if rehab or additional support is needed. Strengthening the deep core through breathwork and gradual ab exercises after cesarean can help prevent hernias from worsening. Mom Truth: Motherhood is hard on your body.  Daily mom’ing left me tight and achy for years.  This is why moving every day - even for 10 Min. - makes a huge difference in your recovery.  Every time you take a deep breath, open up your shoulders or roll out your feet on the ball, you are reducing the build of stress  and allowing your muscles to move better, heal faster and get stronger in the applied athleticism of your daily mom-life.  Then, on days when you have a little more time, you do a longer sequence of deep core, glutes, upper body or back work.  Your workouts should be progressive - meaning push you a little beyond what you can fully do comfortably.  But, they should also teach you how to identify your edges so that you can push right up to your strength capacity (which changes daily) safely and with confidence.   Emotional Check-In: It’s scary to have your body be so compromised, just when you need it to be strong and care for your baby. The fear and fatigue you feel is completely normal, but it doesn’t have to restrict you. Go slowly, listen to your body and your daily physical practice becomes the fear-disruption you need. Instead of all the “can’ts” you begin to focus on the “cans” as you feel and witness your incremental healing and increased strength every day. Birth is a powerful gateway to motherhood—the pull between anticipation, preparing for the unexpected, and letting go with resilience and a friendly pivot…it never stops. There is so much value in preparing your body, mind, and spirit for giving birth. But, when the moment arrives, both trust and surrender are needed—trusting yourself and your body, surrendering to a force that is much bigger than the confines of your physical body, and expecting that the unexpected will definitely occur.   And, so, for whatever journey you have had or are about to embark upon, I’m so happy you’re here and am thrilled to guide and support you.