Entries by admin

Hand or Wrist Pain? Here are a few tips.

The incredible complexity and dexterity of our hands allows us to accomplish delicate tasks with a precision we often take for granted. Pain severely limits our ability to do everyday things, yet we continue to do them because, well, we have to!
Click above to watch a video with a few quick fixes for hand and wrist pain, then read below for a little more detail on the common conditions women face and how to combat them.

Pain In The Butt?

Pain in the buttock can indicate many things, from arthritis to a herniated disc. Determining the source of your discomfort is essential before tackling the solution. Read about a few of the most common causes below, then watch my video for some exercises to try!

Is your Treadmill Ripping You Off?

We haven’t gotten many April Showers so far, so I hope everyone is doing their walking and jogging in the beautiful San Diego Sun! For those who prefer the treadmill rain or shine, it is vital to recognize that treadmill walking and running may be missing something that hitting the pavement provides.

Postpartum Day 11: Upper Body and Walking Tips

My 11th Day postpartum I went for another long walk and started some arm strengthening. You’ll need some free weights for these exercises, but if you don’t have any just grab some full 16 oz water bottles, cans of soup, etc for resistance. You’ll want to start with lighter weights than you may be used to – especially if you had a C-section (you should not be lifting more than about 10lbs)! Please join me in toning those arms and preventing shoulder injuries from carrying all that heavy baby equipment!

Postpartum Day 10: Cardio and Core

On my 10th day postpartum I was able to get out for a long walk – close to what I did at 40 weeks pregnant, but not quite! If you are like me you may still feel pretty unstable and fatigue quickly, as well as have significant bleeding, so pace yourself and listen to your body. In terms of the core exercises, I guessed I would be able to do 3 sets of 20, but on the abdominal exercise I found that was a bit ambitious. Remember that the abdominals are affected most by your baby’s presence, so they take longest to rehab. I was limited to about 2-3 sets of 10 for abdominal marches, and for the progression I showed in this video I was only able to do about 5 reps before I felt my diastasis startint to show.

8 Days Postpartum: Self Screening (DRA) and Starting Core Exercise

At 8 days postpartum, I want to be a little more practive about initiating some core rehab exercise. I hope you can and will join me in this! But before we progress we want to assess risk for injury. So we are going to test for diastasis recti, and I want you to carefully assess your pain levels, bleeding, and any leakage of urine or other symptoms. Keep on eye on these as we progress our exercise over the coming weeks.

2 Exercises you should start within a week after childbirth

So, here I am 7 days postpartum, a few days out of the hospital and settling in at home. I am still wearing my abdominal binder – I feel much more secure and strong with it on, and I have a hunch it is continuing to help my belly shrink. In the interest of practicing what I preach, I have started doing 2 things: pelvic floor exercises (because I don’t want incontinence or prolapse!) and transverse abdominis activation

My biggest postpartum surprise…

Well, my long wait is finally over! My sweet baby girl was born Sunday night after laboring for about 2 days, and she was worth every moment! As I journeyed through early labor, active labor, transition, and pushing, there were quite a few hiccups. Like most women things did not go as I’d imagined, and hard decisions had to be made about when and how to stick to my birth plan, and when it was necessary to make adjustments. No matter how prepared we think we are, surprises are a “normal” part of the birth process!

Exercising in the Third Trimester

So here I am, entering my 39th week of pregnancy, and SO ready to be done!! But I wanted to shout a word of encouragement to all you 3rd trimester mommies out there who are, let’s face it, getting a little uncomfortable – especially with exercise! If you’re like me, then you’re still doing okay with slow and controlled things like squats and light weight lifting (more on this in my next post!), but the jostling of jogging, and even a prolonged brisk walk