Body Aches & Pain - Moving Like A Mother

Exercises to Decrease Pelvic Pain (A Pelvic Reset)

Posted on July 29, 2020May 16, 2023 by Monica

Pelvic pain is unfortunately fairly common in women, especially pregnant or recently pregnant women. But pelvic pain does not discriminate. Men and non-pregnant women can also suffer from pain in the pelvis or sacroiliac (S.I.) joint. There are many possible causes for pelvic pain, but S.I. pain in the non pregnant population is often due to a misalignment of the pelvic joint. This can be caused by muscle imbalances, ligamentous laxity (such as during pregnancy), improper positioning and movement patterns, acute injury or ligamentous sprains. Luckily, there is an easy exercise progression you can do at home to try and “reset” your pelvic alignment. Doing these exercises may help decrease your pelvic pain.

A misalignment of the pelvis is one of the most common musculoskeletal causes of sacroiliac joint (S.I. joint) discomfort. It can be experienced at the front or back of the pelvic joints. Pelvic pain can be very painful and disruptive changing how you walk and move, which can affect more muscles and joints up and down the “chain”. So it is very important to correct a pelvic misalignment to decrease pelvic pain and to prevent further injury.

Exercises to Help Reset Your Pelvis & Decrease Pelvic Pain

These exercises below use your muscles to help pull your pelvis into a proper alignment. Most involve performing an isometric contraction which means squeezing your muscles without your body parts actually moving. Start with the first exercise and move through each one in the following order.

1. Isometric Hip Adduction:

Place your hands on the outside of your knees. Press your knees outwards into your hands. Hold for a count of 6. Repeat 6 times.

2.Isometric Hip Abduction (pillow):

Place a pillow between your knees when sitting or laying down with your knees bent. Squeeze your knees into the pillow. Hold for a count of 6 seconds. Repeat 6 times.

3. Isometric Hip Abduction (fist):

Place a small ball or your fist between your knees. Again perform in a seated or laying down position. Squeeze the ball (or your fist). Hold for a count of 6. Repeat 6 times. You may hear or feel an audible “pop” or click with this exercise. This is a good thing because it means your bones are going back into alignment.

Stretches to Decrease Pelvic Pain

Stretching some of the muscles around your pelvis can also be helpful for reducing pain. Some of the commonly tight muscles are your hip adductors (the muscles on the inside of your thighs). Try these two stretches below for a good adductor stretch:

1. Butterfly stretch:

Seated place your feet together with your knees flaring out. Hold 30 seconds and perform at least twice

2. Laying down butterfly stretch:

Same as above but lay down and perform it. Hold 30 seconds at least twice.

What next for pelvic pain?

The above exercises will aid in realigning your pelvis if you are suffering from misalignment and pelvic pain. There is also a muscle energy technique (MET) that can be used to aid in pulling your pelvis into a proper position but you would need to be appropriately evaluated by a physical therapist to determine the way in which your pelvis is rotated.

But ideally, these exercises will help to decrease your pelvic pain. However, the most important thing you can do to prevent pelvic pain or keep your pelvis from become misaligned again is to strengthen your pelvic stabilizers.

If you are looking for more higher intensity exercise moves to strengthen your inner thigh muscles to aid in pelvic stabilization be sure to try these 8 Moves For Your Inner Thighs.

Activity modification and an S.I. belt can also aid in decreasing pelvic pain if you are suffering from pelvic instability. You can read much more on causes and treatment for pelvic pain on my post What causes pelvic pain.

If you have pelvic pain that doesn’t go away or you are pregnant you should always consult with the appropriate medical professionals. But give these exercises a try if you feel like your pelvis just needs a pause, a breath, and a reset.

–Monica

What causes pelvic pain

Posted on July 27, 2020May 16, 2023 by Monica

Pelvic pain is a common occurrence in women, especially women who are or have been pregnant. But it’s not only pregnant women that suffer from this pelvic discomfort. It can also occur in women who haven’t had children and even men. But what causes pelvic pain? Pain felt in the pelvis region is multi-factoral and there are several reasons you may be experiencing discomfort in this area. Lets chat about the who, what, why and when of pelvic pain.

What does pelvic pain feel like:

We usually categorize pain as pelvic pain when it is felt below the belly button and between the hips. Common areas of pain include near the groin, around the low back/ buttocks region, near the pubic bone, and even felt as pain or pressure in our nether regions. Pelvic pain can be felt as a dull ache, pressure, pulling, or sharp sudden pain.

When does pelvic pain occur:

Pelvic pain in women most often occurs during pregnancy. To think we can lug around a bowling ball for 9 months and it not effect our pelvis is wishful thinking. But women can have pain in their pelvis after pregnancy, even several years later. Pelvic pain occurs when there is extra stress, a misalignment, or some type of muscle imbalance in our pelvic girdle often during or after pregnancy. But it can also occur in non pregnancy related ways from everyday activities that put your pelvis in poor alignment. For example, when men sit on their wallet in their back pocket it can throw their pelvis out of alignment. Surprise, men can have pelvic pain too.

Why does pelvic pain occur

Ah, the million dollar question. Why does pelvic pain occur? There are several causes for pelvic pain related to musculoskeletal imbalances or a misalignment of the pelvis. However, there can also be other medical causes for pain felt around the pelvis and if you have pelvic pain that doesn’t go away you should always consult your doctor. But lets chat about the common muscle and alignment reasons.

Pelvic pain explained:

Lets have a quick anatomy lesson. The pelvis is composed of two main bones, which you can think of as the “hip bones”. You have a one on the left and one on the right that are joined by the sacrum in the back and joined by your pubic symphysis in the front. Our pelvis is often referred to as the SI joint, or sacroiliac joint. A typical, healthy, pain free pelvis has symmetrical alignment where the two bones line up nicely and each rotate the appropriate amount as you bend over, flex your hip, or generally move about in life. However, sometimes the pelvis can become misaligned where one bone is rotated too far forward or backwards, or one is up too high. This is going to cause pain and pulling of the tissues, muscles, and ligaments that surround your pelvis.

Pregnancy and Pelvic Pain

Pregnancy is also a big contributor to pelvic pain. During pregnancy the hormone relaxin allows your ligaments and muscles to become more lax to allow room for the baby to grow. And as the baby grows it places extra stress and pressure on your pelvis and pelvic floor muscles. All of this together places your pelvis at increased risk for becoming misaligned.

Another cause of pelvic discomfort in pregnancy is pubic symphysis pain. Your two pelvic bones meet together in the middle and form a joint known as the pubic symphysis. It is located right in front of your bladder. I could write a whole additional blog post about pubic symphysis pain but just know that it can become very unstable, irritated, and contribute to pelvic pain during pregnancy.

Pelvic pain can also be related to problems with the muscles of your pelvic floor. Frequently after having a baby our pelvic floor muscles are too tight or too weak. If you feel you are having problems with your pelvic floor you should consult with your doctor and consider a referral for women’s health physical therapy for a complete assessment.

Pelvic pain vs. hip pain vs. back pain

An important fact to remember is the body is a chain. When one body part (or link) is not working properly another link up or down the chain will be effected. And our pelvis is part of our core which is the base of our body. Consequently, pelvic pain or misalignment can also cause pain in our hips and in our lower backs.

Treatment to help pelvic pain

Exercise:

Musculoskeletal imbalances, aka when the muscles surrounding a body part are not working in a balanced manner, is a common contributor to pelvic pain. Tightness of the hip adductors, tightness or weakness of the pelvic floor, weakness of the pelvic stabilizers, and core weakness are usually some of our first suspects when someone has pelvic pain. This can be rectified with strengthening and pelvic stabilization. Check out some quick and easy pelvic stabilization exercises here and basic core stabilization exercises here. Sometime a special muscle energy technique can be used to help “reset” our pelvis. Stay tuned for my next post this week that is all about exercises to help pelvic pain.

SI Belt:

As previously mentioned our pelvis is also referred to as our SI joint. And a very helpful product to provide external stability to our pelvis is an SI belt. An SI belt is useful when the muscles surrounding the pelvis are not yet strong enough and you are experiencing pelvic or back pain due to joint instability. They offer SI belts for both pregnant and non-pregnant people. I wore an SI belt for several weeks while I was pregnant with my son and it provided stability to allow a muscle strain in my lower back to heal.

Position or Activity Modification:

Sometimes pelvic pain is a result of an activity or position we are putting ourselves in everyday. For example activities that require you to stand on one leg (putting on pants, shoes, climbing into bed, etc) can increase your pelvic pain during pregnancy. Instead, try sitting down to put your pants on and off to reduce the stress place on your pelvis.

As I previously mentioned, men often sit on their wallets which places their pelvis in a asymmetrical position. This will lead to tightness and pain in either their pelvis or low backs. Take note of where and how you are sitting and ensure that you are sitting with good symmetrical alignment in the car, on the couch, or in your desk chair.

So what’s next?

There are many possible contributors to musculoskeletal related pelvic pain. Pregnancy, muscle imbalances, and improper positioning are leading causes of pain. Later this week I will post some quick easy exercises to help “reset” your pelvis as well as stretches to aid in prevention of asymmetrical pulling. So be sure to come back and check it out.

-Monica

Why Your Knees Hurt (& 5 stretches to help)

Posted on July 13, 2020May 16, 2023 by Monica

Parenting is extremely physical. As parents we are constantly carrying our kids around, squatting low, standing up, pushing strollers, carrying car seats, running to grab snacks, picking up toys, taking the stairs two at a time to grab a diaper because you just ran out downstairs and your baby is threatening to poop on the carpet at any second. Phew! So it’s no wonder that many of us moms experience knee pain, either in one knee or both knees. There are several different reasons you might have knee pain but luckily many of the ways to treat it are the same.

Reasons your knees hurt

Extra Weight :

Extra weight places extra pressure on the bones and ligaments of your knees. And a quick weight gain (such as during pregnancy) causes increased wear and tear on the cartilage of your knees. However, extra weight might not be from actual weight gain but from carrying your kids (plus all their stuff) around all day. Carrying your 10lb or 30lb toddler up the stairs every night is placing a lot of stress on your knees. It has been said the stress placed on your knees is 1.5 times your body weight. So just an extra ten pounds of weight is quiet a bit of extra pressure on your knees. Ouch!

Bad Alignment:

The way your legs are aligned is very important. Ideally, if you draw a line from the hip down to the knee, down to the ankle it should be a relatively straight line. Unfortunately, for us women with our wonderfully wider, childbearing hips this “line” is often not straight. Without getting too “physical therapy-ish” on you there is something called a Q-angle that goes from the outside of your hip to your knee and then from your knee down to the middle of your shin. If that angle is too high it can cause your muscles to pull awkwardly on your knee cap leading to inflammation and pain usually under and around the knee cap. Long story short, often the wider your pelvis is the more at risk you are for a bad Q-angle and potential knee pain.

Weak muscles and tight muscles

The knee can be a very picky joint. It bears much of our weight and takes a lot of stress from our body when we stand up, walk, squat, do stairs, run, and jump. And the knee needs to have sufficient amounts of strength and stability from the muscles around it as well as good flexibility. If either the strength or flexibility conditions are not met your knee is going to let you know it’s not happy. And if you start a new activity or exercise and your muscles are not strong or flexible enough your knee is going to get real ticked off. Pain most commonly occurs when our hips or quadriceps aren’t strong enough and when the muscles on the outside (IT band), inside (your VMO), the top (quadricep), or the back (hamstring) are too tight.

How To Fix Knee Pain

Ok, great. So now we know why your knees might hurt but the burning question is “how do we make them feel better?!” Obviously, it’s hard to know why specifically your knees hurt without formally assessing what is tight, what is weak, and what your alignment looks like. However, below are some general tips and stretches that can likely help to relieve your knee pain.

Activity modification

It may be necessary to change how you are moving to allow your knees a chance to heal. For example, if you recently started a new exercise program you may want to rest or modify the exercises (such as limiting jumping or squats). Also you may want to avoid squatting too low when interacting with your kids or having your partner do more of the heavy carrying. Butttt…I’m a realist and know this is often not possible. So what’s next.

Knee brace or shoe inserts

If you think you might have bad alignment it may be helpful to try out shoe inserts that provide support to the arches of your feet. This can help improve your alignment and reduce the pressure placed on the middle part of your knee. You can find inexpensive, over the counter ones that work great.

A soft knee brace can also provide some external support and help keep your knee cap in a good alignment. A brace is helpful during times when you are more active such as when you are exercising or on a long walk.

Ice

If you are having pain under or around your knee cap you may have some inflammation of your ligaments. Try applying an ice pack at night on your knees for 10-15 minutes to reduce pain and inflammation.

Strength

Having good muscle strength is honestly one of the best ways to prevent or treat knee pain. As I mentioned earlier, your knees take a lot of stress and those suckers need to be strong and stable to prevent wear and tear on the ligaments and cartilage. These pelvic stabilization exercises can be helpful. Other exercises include quadricep strengthening, any and all gluteal (butt) strengthening, and calf strengthening.

Stretching

Stretching our muscles is very underrated. I myself often neglect stretching my muscles. Below you can see several basic stretches that are great for stretching the muscles around your knee that may be pulling on the joint and causing pain.

Stretches to Fix Knee Pain:

Hold all stretches for 30 seconds and perform 2 sets. Aim to stretch daily. With stretching… the more the better.

1. Hamstring Stretch

Place legs out straight in front and reach towards toes. Should feel a stretch in back of legs.

2.Quadricep Stretch

Grab your foot with one hand and pull your knee back. Try to keep your knee perpendicular to the floor. Should feel a stretch along the front of your thigh.

3.Butterfly Stretch

Sit with your feet together and knees flaring out. Should feel a stretch along the mid tight and into your groin.

4. Hip Flexor Stretch

Perform a deep lunge forward with the tight leg backwards. Press forward the hip of the leg that’s extended backwards. Should feel a stretch in the front hip of the leg that is back.

5. IT Band Stretch

Stand upright and cross the leg you are stretching behind the other leg. Pop the hip outwards on the tight leg and lean your trunk away from that hip. For a deeper stretch you can reach forwards towards your front foot.

Enjoy and happy stretching.

–Monica

Motherhood & low back pain

Posted on July 10, 2020May 16, 2023 by Monica

Low back pain. Good ol’ LBP. Probably one of the most common complaints I see in both the clinical setting and in my personal life. It is estimated that 80% of people have low back pain at some point in their lives. Yikes! And I don’t know any formal statistics on this, but based on personal experience I would guess that even a higher percentage of mothers experience some form or intensity of low back pain in motherhood. What with the enormous (no pun intended) body changes pregnancy brings and the everyday wear and tear of motherhood, I bet most mamas have (or will) experience low back pain. There are numerous causes for low back pain before or during motherhood. But luckily, there are several easy everyday stretches you can do to ease the symptoms when that dirty devil LBP shows up.

Common causes of low back pain

Repetitive motions

It is often repetitive low load, long duration activities that bring pain upon the muscles of our body. And the constant and repeated use of our low back muscles when lifting, carrying, and reaching for our children are prime examples of repetitive motions that can cause low back pain. Not to mention the cooking, sweeping, desk sitting, vacuuming, toilet scrubbing, lawn mowing, grocery carrying, gardening activities that also wreck havoc on our low backs

Acute injury

Sometimes back pain arises from a sudden wrong movement or other type of mechanical issue. This is what is commonly thought of as a sprain, strain, or “muscle pull”. Sudden muscle strains can come from car accidents, falls, or may come from performing an exercise or activity in an improper or “unfamiliar” way causing your low back muscles to spasm. This spasm commonly feels like a cramping, tightness, or a pulling sensation with lingering pain with activity. If you suffered an acute low back injury that does not subside with time, rest, ice, or simple stretches you should consult with your doctor about other treatment options, such as a physical therapy evaluation.

A sudden change in your body weight, strength, or laxity of your ligaments (i.e. pregnancy)

A sudden weight gain (as in what happens during pregnancy) can place added stress on your joints and ligaments as your body does not have sufficient time to acclimate to the quick additional pounds. Your body needs sufficient muscle strength to hold itself up and the more weight there is the more muscle strength you need. Additionally, when you are pregnant your body releases a hormone called relaxin which allows the body to grow and expand to make room for the baby. However, as your ligaments become more lax there is less stability surrounding your core and pelvis placing you at increased risk for low back pain.

Musculoskeletal imbalances

Muscle imbalances?…what does this mean? This means one part of your body is too tight, while the opposing side is too loose; or one muscle group is doing too much work while the opposing (but complimentary) muscle group is not doing enough. Think of your body as a teeter-totter and all the muscles need to work in good balance for your body to function properly. Common causes of muscle imbalance related to low back pain include tight hamstrings, weak core muscles, weak glutes, and tight hip flexors.

Treatment

As promised there are several easy stretches you can do at home to ease the symptoms of low back pain. These can be done with no equipment (mostly…see photo of me using my son’s toy slide) and can easily be worked into your busy day. So whether it’s done laying in bed in the early morning or laying on your living room floor while catching up on the Bachelor, try out some of these low back stretches to ease your LBP.

6 Easy at home stretches to ease low back pain:

1. Single Knee To Chest

Gentle pull one knee up towards your chest using your arms. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other leg. You should feel a pull or stretch in low back and into buttocks. Perform 2 sets.

2. Double Knee to Chest

Gentle pull both knees up towards your chest using your arms. Hold for 30 seconds and breath letting your low back relax into the mat. You should feel a stretch in low back and into buttocks. Perform 2 sets

3. Low Trunk Rotations

Gently let your knee rock to the side while your shoulders remain flat on the mat. You should feel a stretch along your low back and into the side of the hip. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat to the other side. Repeat 3 sets to each side.

4. Cat/Cow

Begin on hands and knees. Slowly let your stomach fall and your back arch downwards. Lift your head and neck upwards. Hold 5 seconds and then slowly arch your back upwards (like a scared Halloween cat) Tuck your head and neck and lengthen your spine. Hold for 5 seconds and then then return initial position. Repeat for 10 repetitions

5. Lateral trunk stretch

Standing straight reach one arm up and overhead and to the side. You should feel a stretch along the side of your body and into your lower back. Hold 15-30 seconds and repeat on other side. Perform 2 sets.

6. Hamstring Stretch

Standing with both your hips facing forward lift one leg up onto a slight raised surface (a step, stool, chair, or kiddie slide). Keeping both legs straight gentle reach forward as though trying to touch your toe. You should feel a stretch down the back of your leg. Hold for 30 seconds and then repeat on the opposite leg. Perform 2 sets.

Again, you should always consult with your doctor if you are experiencing intense or persistent back pain or back pain in pregnancy. But for the common, everyday back pain motherhood can bring these stretches can provide some much needed relief. Enjoy and happy stretching!