Pelvic Floor Fundamentals For Runners
Support your pelvic floor through a whole-body approach so that you can run freely in just 30 minutes a week!
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Pelvic Floor Fundamentals is an effective supplement to any training program for female runners who want to enjoy running without worrying about their pelvic floor all the time.
ENROLL NOWRun without worry!
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Pelvic Floor Fundamentals will teach you about your pelvic floor so you never have to think about it while you are running.
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No more rounding to the finish line about eek out that hard fought PR worrying whether or not that final kick is going to make you wet your pants!
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No more pulling back the reins on all the downhills because you are worried about peeing your pants!
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No more always having to plan your runs around bathroom stops!
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No more only wearing black bottoms so no one can tell if you peed or not!
My Struggle, Your Opportunity
After having my first baby over a decade ago, I was so anxious to get back to running. My identity was so wrapped up in “being a runner.” It was my stress relief, my me time, the source of most of my friendships, my main mode of physical fitness…Â
… and in my mind, my ticket back to the “old me.”Â
I started about 7 weeks postpartum and went out for a slow couple of miles. To be honest, I peed my pants A LOT. I accepted it as my new postpartum normal and just kept running.Â
I kept running, added in some non-specific strength training, and by many accounts "bounced back" (I hate the term, but you get the idea) relatively quickly - on the outside. I was running local races and seriously competing in my age bracket, finishing Spartan races with successfully completing all obstacles, and coaching other women to do the same.
...buuuutttt....
I was still regularly peeing with running, jumping, and sneezing - and just living with it.
I had terrible back pain if I wasn’t regularly seeing a chiropractor - the chiropractor helped the symptoms but didn't fix the problem.
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My shoulders and neck were constantly tense - massages barely helped.
It took me 6 years before I finally admitted I had a problem and sought to fix it!Â
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I had been getting back into racing more seriously. My husband and I were running a race competing on a team for his work. We had a goal of being the fastest male and female on his company team (spoiler alert, he hit his goal, I did not).
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It was all going great until the downhills. I could not run downhill without completely peeing myself. And it wasn’t just a little drop, I’m talking soaked pants (good thing they were black - I’d made that mistake before). So, there I was running the flats and the uphills (passing people left and right) and walking downhills only to get passed by all of them and then some.Â
It was so F-ing frustrating.Â
At the end of that race, after asking my husband if he could tell my black shorts were soaked in pee (thankfully no), I vowed to call a pelvic floor physical therapist on Monday.
I started with my pelvic floor physical therapy the very next week. Of course, I LOVED nerding out with her on it! Â I quickly found, I needed to learn more. What we did helped but something was missing. I was still occasionally leaking on my runs, especially on harder efforts.
To say that sent me down a rabbit hole of continuing education and drastically changed the way I coach women would be an understatement!
Over the past 5 years I’ve been putting the puzzle pieces together with a whole body, integrated approach. I’ve worked with hundreds of runners, refining my system, the 7 Fundamentals of a Responsive Pelvic Floor, while getting them real results!
The 7 Fundamentals of a Responsive Pelvic Floor
What’s a responsive pelvic floor? One that works naturally so that you don’t have to worry about it at all on your runs.
Each of these fundamentals focus on integrating the pelvic floor with movement and the rest of the body.Â
This program does not include a lot of low level pelvic floor isolation exercises because the pelvic floor does not work in isolation.
You are going to connect the dots throughout your whole body to support your pelvic floor.
You are going to be moving, squatting, hinging and jumping!
Pelvic Floor Fundamental is designed to be a supplement to any training program you are following.
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Each fundamental is broken out into a separate module including education and immediate, specific action.
Each module will include a short educational video (15 minutes or less) to help you understand the importance of that fundamental and a short series of exercises for you to practice that fundamental in your body (2x per week, 15 minutes per session).
Each module will build on the next so that you can master one fundamental at a time, building towards a strong and responsive pelvic floor that you don’t ever have to worry about while you run!
Alison Marie Helms, PhD.
Women's Running and Strength Coach
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​I'm a PhD engineer, teacher, NASM certified personal trainer, UESCA certified running coach, self-proclaimed running nerd, and creator of the Women's Running Academy.
I’ve been a runner for 30 years and started my professional career in the industry over a decade ago through my own search for answers when my body felt like garbage after having my first baby.
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The little aches and pains from my running past turned into bigger aches and pains, sidelining injuries, and the need to always wear black shorts to races (if you know what I mean).
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Having babies brought to light some biomechanical inefficiencies. I firmly believe these inefficiencies were holding me back from reaching my full potential well before my childbearing years. For many women like myself the stress of pregnancy simply reveals the “invisible ink” that was there all along. Addressing those inefficiencies not only eliminated my symptoms, it made me a stronger, more efficient, and more powerful runner overall.
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Since then I’ve helped many women just like you run freely without having to worry about their pelvic floor AND improve their overall running efficiency in the process.
