Hey Hey Barrebabes,
I hope this finds everyone well and staying warm. Your newsletter today consists of a super rad announcement & a pelvic floor strength tip. Happy reading!
Fitness Faceoff
I am so pleased to announce that the Barre Program at Chalk Gyms has been nominated for Best Workout Routine in News 12's Fitness Faceoff! As many of you know, I created Barrebod for Chalk almost 7 years ago, and in 2016, I had the privilege of writing the training program for all our amazing barre teachers. I am passionate about helping people connect to their bodies and feel great in their own skin, and developing the Barre Program at Chalk has been my absolute joy! Mad props to our amazing teachers Sarah, Laurence, Julius & Kyla for carrying the torch and and being rad. Voting starts this coming Monday 1/13. Please vote and feel free to share!
Pelvic Floor Video Games
No offense to the gamers out there, but generally video games are not my thing. However, I recently bought a Perifit, which is a cool little device that helps strengthen the deep and superficial pelvic floor muscles (PFM) with little games you play via an app for your phone. The device then measures the force, strength and duration of your contractions and relaxation phases. I've been suspicious of this thing, knowing that PFM strength is more than just Kegel exercises - posture, core control, and overall length and activation of your muscles all play an important role - but as I'm prepping for another baby and it was on sale, I went for it, and in the process I learned an important nuance in working this area of the body that I wanted to share:
Your abs are not your pelvic floor. While it's important these muscles all work together, it's possible & even likely that the transverse abs (the corset of muscles that wrap around your torso, think "flat belly" muscles rather than "6-pack" muscles) are stronger than some part of the 3 layers of PFM. This means that when the abs contract with more force than the PFM lift, they can actually put downward & outward pressure on the pelvic floor, which we don't generally want (unless we're in active childbirth). I learned this because I noticed that the longer I played the Perifit games, the more tired my PFM became. My compensation was to contract harder on my abs, which actually eclipsed my PFM contractions, e.g. nothing down there was actually happening. So...
My practical advice is to isolate PFM without any abs, then use them both together.
1) Start by consciously relaxing glutes & abs, then take a deep inhale and relax PFM as well.
2) On the exhale, contract PFM only, as if trying to lift something up towards the heart with those muscles.
3) After a few reps, place hands on lower abs. Inhale to relax the muscles as before, and exhale to contract them in towards midline and spine, along with the PFM contraction.
4) Try not to cinch in at the waist or move any bones. Engage your transversus like the wall of muscle it is. 5) One last tip is to think of lifting the public bone up towards the rib cage without gripping the glutes.
OK babes, that's it for today. Please remember to vote on Monday via the links above and above all, BREATHE!
With love & planks,
Annie
