Time flies when you’re training your pelvic floor! My journey to improve that and my general core strength started last year, and I thought I’d share my experience in the hope that it helps others.
First: some background
No, I haven’t had a baby (and I certainly don’t want one!), but this is the first place that everyone goes wrong – whether you have or intend to birth a child or not, everyone, of ALL genders, has a pelvic floor. And we all cause them stress, by virtue of just living our daily lives. They’re the muscle that nobody can be bothered to train, but everyone should.
I had two main reasons to want to improve mine – firstly, to safeguard it against the future (all muscles get weaker and more prone to damage with age); secondly, because my core is notoriously weak, thanks to the double whammy of a spinal fusion surgery when I was 18, and abdominal wall resection when I was 31.
When I had my back surgery, I just continued to bounce through life unaware that rehab was a thing that I should do. As I’ve got older, and changed professions, I’ve learned that I could be doing a lot more to support my body. When it came to having my abs rearranged, I wasn’t given any long-term advice, but I decided that I wanted to see what was possible and how much I could do to get around the issues my new body caused me.
Enter: Complete Core Control
One of my friends (who HAS had children) mentioned that she and her Mum had both had sessions with a local core expert, and that they’d both found these valuable. I got in touch, aware that I was a slightly different project, and went along to a one-to-one session to learn the technique of hypopressives, and be assessed in terms of where my core was at.
Sarah was friendly, kind and patient, and listened to everything I said and was concerned about. And we got to work. She taught me what I needed to know, and followed up thoroughly. As with any time I’ve tried something new, it took me a while to gain confidence, and I had a second one-to-one session to reassure myself, and then I cracked on with practice…
Or not
It turns out, I’m a tricky client! I spend my working life checking in with my clients to see what they’ve accomplished without me… and my own practice took a long time to establish. I’d make excuses and not do my homework and fall out of the habit.
I’d get myself back into it and commit for a few weeks, and then get bored and give up and feel like a failure. Sarah was endlessly encouraging and non-judgmental. She gave me some tips to build the hypopressives into my gym routine, by teaching me some poses which would enable me to run through them whilst stretching at the end of a training session. This was really helpful to me – so many of us trip ourselves up by believing that we don’t have time, so it’s often a case of sliding something new in along with something we already do in order to get the job done.
Better together
During the summer, Sarah started running face-to-face group sessions: her business predates 2020, so they had converted everything to online in order to still run through the pandemic, but with things easing a little and consumer confidence returning, she revived her in person classes and I was delighted to go along.
She factored in time at the end of the first one for us all to sit and chat, sharing our experiences. I learned a lot from the other women who attended, and was able to share my story too – it was great to speak to those who were further along in their journey than I am, and to hear the progress they’ve made. As I write this, I’ve been to two more group classes with a third booked – I’m really pleased to say that they’re proving very popular with other attendees too (you need to have had a one-to-one to learn the technique first) so I’m not alone in recommending them!
So what’s changed in a year?
When you Google “hypopressives”, you find a lot of shit. A lot of “get skinny fast” and “train your waist” videos, which put me right off – I stuck to just learning from the expert I know and trust. I was always in it for the strength gains and, happily, incontinence wasn’t an issue for me, so I can’t report on having fixed that, as there was nothing to fix!
However, I do know that my core is a lot stronger, which is a happy surprise for someone whose core is now half made of plastic! Where my muscle once was, there’s now a piece of mesh and, with the best will in the world, I can’t improve on that specific part – it physically won’t adapt to training. But, we were hopeful from the outset that I COULD adapt the other parts of me, plus the mesh is attached to something, so it’s entirely possible I can work on that adjoining part too.
And sure enough, with dedication (eventually!) and practice, I’m getting there. My core work in the gym (I do a lot of work using an Egyptian chair, a BOSU ball, or even a good old fashioned bench or bodyweight) has absolutely improved – where relevant, I can use heavier weights, and I’m definitely managing a higher number of reps. At my most recent class, Sarah commented that I was pulling off stronger hypopressives than ever as well, so I’m calling this all time well spent.
The moral of the story…
I say this a lot: keep pushing. If there’s something you want to work on, chase it. Unless you are told that something is dangerous for you, try it. The worst that can happen is that you see no change (usually!). If an activity isn’t going to inherently harm you, it’s often worth trying. You’ll certainly learn what doesn’t work!
I know that I’ve accomplished my mission of futureproofing myself, and I’ve made gains that have helped me in the present too. Here’s to the next year of seeing what happens…
You can find out more about Sarah and her business here – I’ve paid for my sessions with her, and you can consider this review an honest and full endorsement of her services