An inside look into how I choose continuing education courses and my recommendations for the best pre and postnatal fitness certification courses on the market. When I became pregnant with my first babe, I was the most athletic I had ever been in my life. I was running half-marathons, entering triathlons and hitting the gym several times a week. In 2015 I became pregnant with my first child. I didn’t want to slow down just because I was having a baby. And at that time, there was very little support to guide me  through the active pregnancy I wanted to experience. I did the best I cou ..read more

I sat on the exam table. A ball of nerves as my surgeon described the port-o-cath she would be implanting under my skin to facilitate my chemotherapy infusions. It would be in my body for at least a year. “It’s important to stay active during treatment,” she said. “Just don’t lift weights. You can run, for example.” My heart sank. I’m a personal trainer. And avid weight lifter. And prior to my breast cancer diagnosis, an endurance runner. And the first signal to me that something was wrong, was that I couldn’t run. In the span of days, I had already had so much taken from me- now she was t ..read more

Reconnect with your lower abs after pregnancy for a strong core and a stronger postpartum recovery. Jump to: ◾️ Why Should You Care About Your Low Abs? ◾️ Your Deep Core Is A Pressure System ◾️ Why Is It Hard To “Connect” With Your Low Abs?  ◾️ Effective Strategies To Reconnect To Lower Abs ◾️ The Low Abs, Adductors and Pelvic Floor Connection ◾️ 3 Exercises to Strengthen Your Lower Abs ◾️ Helpful Cues During postpartum fitness evaluations, I often run into a couple of recurring patterns: Scenario 1: A client is lying on their back, with knees slightly bent, and I ask them to inhale ..read more

When it comes to strength training, how “heavy” is your “heavy”? Jump to: ◾️ The Aging Process and Its Impact ◾️ A Strategic Approach To Workouts ◾️ How To Define “Heavy Lifting” ◾️ How Heavy Should You Lift To Build Muscle? ◾️ How Heavy Should You Lift To Build Bone Density ◾️ What’s Your “Heavy”? ◾️ Tips For Injury-Free, Muscle- and Bone-Boosting Workouts  Here’s a question I hear a lot from my clients: “How heavy do I need to lift?” And the answer? It depends. It depends on your goals and it depends on your current baseline. Regarding goals, here I want to chat about goals for gen ..read more

Explore 6 ways to advance your pelvic floor exercises as you bridge rehab and sport. Jump to: ◾️ What Does It Mean To Have A Strong Pelvic Floor? ◾️ Pelvic Floor Foundations: The Connection Breath ◾️ 6 Ways To Advance Your Pelvic Floor Exercises ◾️ The Role Of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy ◾️ Bridging The Gap Between Pelvic Floor Rehab And Performance If you’re recovering from birth, no doubt, you’ve encountered kegels. And if you’re trying to return to higher level fitness or sport, perhaps you’ve realized this: There’s a miles-wide gap between kegel exercises and the stuff you WANT to b ..read more

Are physical therapy and personal training redundant? Short answer: Of course they’re not. Physical therapy and personal training have different goals and approaches. Physical Therapy Is Healthcare Physical therapy is a type of healthcare that is performed by licensed physical therapists. Physical therapists are medical professionals. The goal of physical therapy is to help folks recover from injury, reduce pain and improve function, and prevent future injury or disability. PTs use a variety of techniques such as exercise, manual therapy, and other modalities to help their patients reach t ..read more

When it comes to running and your pelvic floor, leave your brain out of it. What we’re going to cover: ◾️ What I Want You To Know About Running And Your Pelvic Floor ◾️ What Should Your Pelvic Floor Do While You Run? ◾️ How Does Running Affect The Pelvic Floor? ◾️ Pelvic Floor Activity During Strength Training Versus Running ◾️ Signs of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction in Runners ◾️ What Do You Do If You’re Having Pelvic Floor Symptoms When You Run?◾️ Pelvic Floor Exercises For Runners The beautiful Columbia Gorge Half-Marathon had been on my bucket list for ages. And, finally ready to run ..read more

Postpartum low back pain is one of the most common physical complaints I encounter during new client intakes. While there are a LOT of possible causes for low back pain postpartum, by teaching folks to breathe differently and move in new ways- we often see improvement in symptoms. A lot of low back pain after pregnancy is rooted in core strength and/or biomechanics (how you move and how you stand). In these cases, exercise training can make a really big impact. What we’ll cover: ◾️ Why Does My Back Hurt So Much Postpartum? ◾️ How Long Does Postpartum Back Pain Last? ◾️ How To Relieve Postp ..read more

I’ve always been an A+ student. A perfectionist. An over-achiever.⁠ And I work with a lot of people like me. ⁠ I work with folks who in their careers or in their parenting want to absolutely knock it out of the park.⁠ Every time.⁠ Even when it comes to self-care:⁠ They envision the perfect nutrition plan, exercise routine, sleep schedule.⁠ And they go into their postpartum recovery with the expectation that they’ll be able to ACHIEVE great nutrition, consistent exercise and good sleep- because they’ve always been able to.⁠ And then it’s a real mind fuck when we find out we can’t, through s ..read more

Pregnancy impacts the pelvis in ways that fundamentally shift pelvic range of motion and impact our mobility in the long-term. The hip shift exercise is a simple and effective tool to help regain the range of motion and mobility lost during pregnancy. It helps restore “internal rotation” to a pelvis that becomes “externally” rotated as the pelvic inlet opens wider under the load of the growing fetus. Access to internal rotation of the hip and pelvic bones is a cornerstone of human movement. ➡️ Internal rotation of the pelvic bones and the femurs (thigh bones) is critical to taking a ste ..read more