Who Else Wants To Know The Mystery Behind Pelvic Floor’

How often do you talk about down there‘ 😳 How often do you have concerns about down there but they are dismissed by doctors or it’s something you just don’t want to confront’  It’s time we tackle pelvic floor issues head on because YOU ARE NOT ALONE and there are so many more women going through issues with their pelvic floor than you can even imagine!  Just ask Tetyana Boyeva who becomes a pelvic health trainer after her own personal issues with her pelvic floor and she is just so freaking fabulous at what she does!  Her true passion lies in making sure she is educating as many women (and some men) as possible about pelvic floor health and how they can begin to reverse anything that may be going down there!

When you think of your pelvic floor, most people immediately think of KEGELS!  (And it’s pronounce like Bagels but with a K! lol)  Many of you have been told that in order to fix your pelvic floor issues you must do as many Kegels as possible. Tetyana knows that many women don’t even know if they are doing them right, or they do them for a week and they don’t see any results so they stop!  BUT what women don’t know is that not all pelvic floor issues can be fixed with Kegels!  There are actually times where Kegels can make it worse, but let’s get to that later in the blog.  But what I am trying to say right now, is it is so important to have someone like Tetyana so that she can not only educate you on the problem but give you the RIGHT regime to help to correct the issue.

Tetyana established Everbalance Yoga Barre Pilates at the age of 26 and has a huge passion for women’s health and fitness. She has been in the fitness industry for over 10 years now, and after experiencing issues with her own pelvic health she started specializing her practice to serve women who are experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction. She was trained under Dr. Tamara Rial, a co-founder of Low Pressure Fitness (a leading program in the industry based on hypopressive, myofascial and neurodynamic techniques) as well as Dr. Bruce Crawford, obstetrics and gynecology surgeon, M.D., founder of PFilates (a pelvic floor fitness program that incorporates advanced Kegels and Pilates).  So Magic Makers, if this sounds like something you need to learn more about, or prepare for in the future, or you are planning on having kids, then read on my love because I am telling you, Tetyana knows her SHIT!!

When we bring up the Pelvic Floor, what exactly does that mean”

The pelvic floor is made up of muscles located at the bottom of your pelvis that forms a dome/hammock shape that creates your “Core”.  And when you hear strengthen your core, you think your abs right’  Well not entirely!  If you are told you need to strengthen or engage your core, they are really saying you need to strengthen your pelvic floor, our multifidus, which is the deep spinal muscle and your transverse abdominals, which is the deepest abdominal muscles. So, there is a lot more to it than just your “abs”.  The Core is considered to be the deepest part of your trunk and the pelvic floor is the floor of the CORE,  and all of this is an extremely important muscle group.  So next time you hear  “engage your core.” your doctor really is saying you have to strengthen the deep part of your trunk, not the abs.

How do we get there’  How do we get to engaging that core and strengthening those muscles’ What are the steps and things needed to move towards a stronger pelvic floor and core’

It first starts with breath work.  Tetyana helps clients to relearn their breathing patterns and get in tune with their breath.  Are you a belly breather’  That’s not good… Are you breathing high up in your chest’ No good either… So, she teaches people the best way to breathe which is UP into your RIBS.  Which is called Lateral Coastal Breathing which is moving that breath into the ribs and expanding them as you breath.  This breathing will be brought into Kegels as well.  You will be presenting that breath pattern as part of engaging the muscles during Kegels which will help you know if you are doing them right and get those actual contractions.

Clients also will keep a bladder diary throughout the process so that she can look at the beginning and end of the work she does with them.  This will help her to see tangible improvements & results as well as score them on all of their things, incontinence, prolapse, etc.  And I know this seems a bit much, but it is the SMALL things, so just trust the work!

She will also look at the issues you are having and figure out the best pelvic workouts to do to help strengthen them. You may be part of the 10% of the people with incontinence that has a hypertonic pelvic floor.  This means the Pelvic floor is too tense. The muscles are way too tight and not functioning properly.

Tight muscles do not mean a strong muscle, but actually makes the muscles really weak. If you have a hypertonic pelvic floor, you should not do Kegels and if you are, you need to stop it and down train that pelvic floor.  You will need to relax and release, relax and release, and relax. And release the tension!  Also, when you have hypertonic pelvic floor you will have pain with sex.  So if there is pelvic pain, no Kegel but instead you would work on a Yin Yoni practice that she loves.

Now if you do not have a hypertonic pelvic floor, then you would most likely be in the category of greater incontinence, going to the bathroom more than average, getting up 3 times or more a night and leaking often.  If there is no pain, then you will want to do Kegels with pro-activating those muscles. Contracting glutes and contract abs and presenting a breathing pattern that is going to be helpful to engage and make those Kegels most effective.  You really need to engage those muscles and really feel that contraction.

Another thing about Kegels, is it’s important to practice a method called Philates (pelvic floor Pilates) created by a Doctor Bruce Crawford. It is the way of training your pelvic floor with  Kegels and a combination of Pilates.  You are going to be moving and contracting your glutes, inner thighs and deep abs in conjunction with Kegels, and when people do this, they can contract up to 70% more than just doing a normal Kegel!! But if you feel like you aren’t doing it right, or you have lost a lot of sensation down there and you don’t even think you are “Kegeling” then this is something Tetyana or a Pelvic Physical Therapist would most definitely help you with!

A lot of women also experience a prolapse at some point in their life.  Whether it is a prolapse of the uterus, rectum or bladder, 40% of all women will experience some type of prolapse in their body in their lifetime.  And the older you get, it’s upwards of 80%.  A what a prolapse is, is when the facial lining or connective tissue isn’t holding the proper way and the organs are becoming weighed down and not in place where they should be.

So how to tell if you have experienced a prolapse’   This would most likely start with vaginal heaviness.  As a woman we definitely feel connected to our bodies and you just know when something doesn’t feel right.  So if you have any heaviness or a weighing down feeling in your pelvis, or you feel like something is hanging in the way and just doesn’t feel right.  When this happens, you need to seek immediate help and not let it go on for any longer.

For a prolapse, the work is going to be a little different.  For this Tetyana will have you doing something called hypopressive fitness which is low pressure fitness.  It involves this ancient practice that is over 4000 years old and consists of you basically making your stomach this vacuum and by doing that it helps to vacuum your lower organs back up into your body.  Almost like a plunger bringing them back up, so with that method you can plunge your bladder, uterus or rectum back into your body and back into place.

A lot of these issues will arise after having children, but of course you most certainly do not have to HAVE a child in order to have these things happen to you.  They can really happen in anyone.  But if you think about it, the pelvic area is like the body’s heart and soul of the body. I mean, this is where you grow life!! But you don’t realize until you look into that pelvic area how many freaking organs collide in this spot.  And we are trying to keep it all together.  And you think about birth as being this natural thing, but birth disrupts that whole area! It’s like a tractor trailer coming through a forest!!! 

And Dr. Crawford defines that a birthing experience as actually an injury!  We have injuries that are down there, and unlike normal injuries that get physical therapy.  Birth isn’t prescribed PT and it should be! But birth is SOOO normal, that this part of it is completely overlooked.  So if you feel like something is wrong, then something is wrong to you and don’t take no for an answer from any doctor! Keep trying to get answers and don’t let any discomfort or pain after childbirth go untreated.  Because it could lead to bigger issues down the road with incontinence and prolapse.

For Tetyana, this is what she lives for.  She wants to help as many women as she can, and for a lot of people it requires consistency and accountability, so she wants to be that accountability partner for you to help you do the exercises and the work so that you can get your life back.  But this will not take 2 weeks, this is an ongoing practice to get those tangible results.

This is her passion because

1. A) this happened to her and she was able to overcome it and
2. B) she sees it all the time and we all go through this! And she sees how many people are not aware of these issues or potential issues we can have. So, she wants to inform and educate people of the things that can happen and let them know there is so much help out there!

Healing in general is not linear and it’s not this straight line. It’s not just physical. It is also emotional, mental and social. So Tetyana’s approach to working with clients is a biopsychosocial approach. Body, mind and soul. To help get them back into our feminine and out of masculine. Trust your body.  How do you express yourself’ How do you show up’  How do you show up in your relationship’  And don’t give yourself a timetable…  You WILL get to where you want to be where you feel comfortable and happy and not worried about this thing that is going on inside of you that you PHYSICALLY did not do a thing to cause.  BUT YOU CAN do something to improve it and feel better about yourself.

If you have some stuff going on down there and you need to talk to someone, I highly suggest reaching out to Tetyana!  The one good thing about COVID is she is working with patients all over the globe!  So look her up on IG and reach out to her!  You can find her at @theflowerbalance or email her at info@myeverbalance.com!  She has a 6-week course that covers everythingggg we talked about today in the blog. All into energy work, breathing techniques, meditation, etc! All of this is together in 1 method for 6 weeks intensively and after the 6 weeks you would just continue the practice with Tetyana or on your own!  It’s a way to kickstart you into this healing process of your pelvic floor!

What makes you feel magical’

“I feel magical because of my spiritual connection.  I am not religious however I believe there are so many ways we can worship the divine.  So the magic that I feel every single day is the connection to the greater power and the divine and how I practice that and it’s through my work of course. It is through just being and falling back into my feminine and admiring the masculine. My recent observation of the world and allowing of myself to be the feminine and work with that energy and this field with this woman.

The most important thing I want to say is feeling that magical gratitude and just connection and satisfaction with just stopping and watching the sunset.  It’s part of getting older… we are just able to stop and smell the roses.  That ability and that connection makes me feel absolutely magical. “ – Tetyana Boyeva

LINKS

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

Tetyana Boyeva

RYT 200, Pilates, Barre Master Trainer, Hypopressive Fitness and PFilates for Pelvic Health Trainer.

Tetyana established Everbalance Yoga Barre Pilates at the age of 26 and has a huge passion for women’s health and fitness. She has been in fitness industry for over 10 years and after experiencing issues with her own pelvic health she started specializing her practice to serve women who are experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction. She was trained under Dr. Tamara Rial, a co-founder of Low Pressure Fitness (a leading program in the industry based on hypopressive, myofascial and neurodynamic techniques); as well as Dr. Bruce Crawford, obstetrics and gynecology surgeon, M.D., founder of PFilates (a pelvic floor fitness program that incorporates advanced kegels and pilates).

Instagram @theflowerbalance