Whether you’ve just had a baby, you’re a teen going through rapid body changes or you’re a middle-aged woman who’s been peeing yourself a little for years with every laugh, cough or jump on the trampoline, THIS IS THE POST FOR YOU. Because two of my readers tried the online pelvic floor therapy sessions through Simply Core Fit and, in just three months, found relief. Life-changing relief.
Pelvic floor therapy can be difficult and expensive to access — sometimes much too cost-prohibitive for those without any health insurance and sometimes too geographically challenging if you don’t live near a good pelvic floor therapist. So I’m excited to share two very strongly vetted testimonials below from women who tried Simply Core Fit’s pelvic floor therapy program.
Many of us (especially those of us who have birthed children vaginally) are walking around with pelvic floor issues. And it’s not something we just “have to live with.” Ultimately, once our deep core muscles actually work properly, we end up having much less pain, fewer pelvic dysfunctions, less incontinence, improved bowel health and so much more. Simply Core Fit’s message is simple: a few little moves and some knowledge can make a big difference.
As a kinesiologist, she’s an expert in human movement and someone who specializes specifically in core training. She deals with the pelvic floor — and so much more — assessing what’s going on all around the pelvis. Think of her as a pelvic floor
specialist. Pelvic physical therapy with a physiotherapist can be a long wait and it can be expensive, especially since it’s not always necessary depending on what’s going on. Dawn, and the work she does, bridges to pelvic floor physiotherapists; there are many issues with which she can help with while you wait to see a physio and she will always refer out immediately if she feels your pelvic issues require more than the pelvic floor therapy she offers.
How do you know if you need pelvic floor therapy?
Yeah, yeah — you’ve heard how important it is to “strengthen your core.” It’s been the instruction du jour at most fitness clubs and gyms for several years. But how do you know if your core needs more than what you can get at a gym or from a weekly yoga sesh?
If you experience any of the things on this list, pelvic floor therapy — with a specialized pelvic floor therapist — might be something to consider:
- You recently gave birth and have some post-pregnancy discomfort or you’re healing from a C-section
- You experience any kind of urinary dysfunction (e.g. pain while urinating or when you have a full bladder; leakage when you cough, sneeze, jump or laugh; an inability to empty your bladder, even when it feels full)
- You experience constipation or painful bowel movements
- You have pelvic pain of any kind or the feeling that your pelvic organs are starting to prolapse
- Intercourse hurts, or you have pain after sex
- Vaginal exams hurt
- Using tampons hurts
- You have lower abdominal pain
And it’s important to point out here that pelvic issues (and therefore pelvic floor therapy) may be most common for women, but it’s definitely available to and important for men, too.
Dawn believes that injuries and pain very often come from weak muscles around the pelvis (the centre of your body). By re-patterning these muscles, you can experience better mobility — because it feels better to move well and loading doesn’t hurt anymore — and stability, where the right muscles will work so you can stop using the wrong ones.
This is a good time to note that you should have all medical concerns checked out by your primary health-care provider and check with them before starting therapy of any kind.
Pelvic floor therapy guest reviews
Rachel’s experience with Simply Core Fit
- Name: Rachel
- Age: 40
- Lives in: Bowmanville, Ontario
I live with my husband and our two kids, ages 11 and 9. I own my own business and work from home, even pre-pandemic, which works well for our family.
Other than being a happy little hermit, I do enjoy physical activities like camping, kayaking, hiking and, once upon a time, kickboxing. But most of my activities have been put on hold for a few years now. I had a minor accident about 20 years ago that left me with a hairline fracture in my spine. More recently, I was also diagnosed with arthritis in my neck. These two incidents have challenged my ability to continue the activities that I once enjoyed.
When you add the immobility of the COVID lockdown, I entered 2021 in pain, out of shape, holding onto a few extra pounds, with terrible posture — and not sure where to turn for help. I still wasn’t comfortable entering newly re-opened gym facilities, and didn’t want to simply hop on the treadmill or fudge my way through what I assume is sit-ups (if you saw the “sit-ups” I used to do, you would question them, too).
Enter Dawn and her Core Strength pelvic floor therapy program.
Dawn wasn’t intimidated by my laundry list of injuries and limitations. She started me at the beginning, and told me to forget everything I had learned before.
I admit it: at first, I thought she was crazy. I mean, we’ve been doing sit-ups and push-ups in gym class since the second grade. How do you just unlearn that?
But I gave her my all, and was surprised with how all of the baby steps that she made me take made me grow stronger, while keeping my neck issues and safety in mind. We had weekly check-ins, and on top of checking my form and progress, Dawn was warm, caring, friendly and truly invested in my success in her pelvic floor therapy program at Simply Core Fit.
I felt empowered by every exercise, and as I moved through my personalized program, I also felt challenged by the pelvic floor stretches. In a good way.
At the end of my three-month program, I was stronger, happier, and had more mobility than I thought I would walk away with from such a short program. I’m sleeping better and have the tools I need to exercise with confidence — knowing that I won’t injure myself.
In the end, my experience with this pelvic floor therapy program was literally life-changing. I had never ridden a bike with my kids before because I used to spend days on the couch with a heat pack; after just three months with Dawn, we bought bikes for the whole family and have gone camping and biking and hiking every weekend this fall! This is huge, not just for me but for my entire family.
There isn’t much (or anything really) that I didn’t enjoy about this program. My personalized routine was easily accessible through an easy-to-follow app (so there’s no excuse to miss an exercise day if you’re on the go), and the Core Strong website and videos were fun and straightforward.
I will happily be going back to Dawn for more pelvic floor therapy and would give her, and her program, 5 out of 5 gears.*
*See what “the gears” mean here.
Rebecca’s experience with Simply Core Fit
- Name: Rebecca
- Age: 33
- Lives in: Kingston, Ontario
I’m stay-at-home mom of two boys, ages 8 and 10. They definitely keep me busy, and it gets a little crazy sometimes! Finding time to myself is rare.
During the last couple of years, I began to experience occasional pain in my lower abdomen/hip area — and, at times, it was extreme. I do occasional cleaning jobs and this pain was getting in the way. I suspected it could be ovarian cysts or a hernia, but my doctors found no obvious physical concerns and suggested some pelvic floor exercises to tighten my ligaments.
When I came across Mommy Gearest’s Facebook post looking for guest reviews on the Simply Core Fit pelvic floor therapy and core fitness program, I knew this was what I needed. And yet, there was a big part of me that did not want to commit. Although I responded to the post, I really had no intention of being chosen. Until I was.
Truthfully, I wanted to back out; I wanted to quit before I even started. I’ve never been able to stay accountable to any routine, let alone exercise. That part was a challenge in itself. But I am so glad I saw this through.
After our first consultation, a lot of what Dawn said made sense to me. She said something like “sometimes, it isn’t about strengthening as much as it is about letting go.” And, as we worked through various positions, I really noticed where I needed to unclench and loosen up.
I guess I was hanging onto something I read in a magazine during high school that encouraged a sort of “tighten and flex” posture to make your butt look better. Apparently, that really stayed with me! I found dancing it out was the best way to get those over-active areas to bugger off.
In fact, just teaching myself how to stand properly after all this time felt like a full-time job! I’m still working on that one. Finding the 30 minutes or so each day to do my workouts was, admittedly, hard — especially in the beginning. But it also gave me an excuse to back away from the mom stuff and do some ME stuff. I usually carved out time after dinner, but some nights I was completing my pelvic floor therapy as late as 11 p.m. But here I was — determined to stick with the program.
I found the Trainerize app intimidating in the beginning, but it turned out to be the best way for me to stay organized. I’m not so good at that on my own. Dawn introduced me to a different platform for the last month of my program, and while I did enjoy the videos on the Simply Core Fit website, using the app to keep track of exercise kept me the most accountable.
We had a check-in every two weeks or so to discuss how I was doing, and Dawn would change up the routines accordingly. I had stretches and warm-ups, along with a daily “bare-minimum” (so, if I didn’t do anything else, I had to do at least that). Then came an assortment of exercises; most days, the full routine would take me between 30 to 45 minutes to complete. This included rests, and some repeated attempts to ensure I was doing things properly. I often used a large mirror, a dowel, or sometimes the wall, to maintain proper form.
Remember: this was all new to me! Dawn was very understanding of both my physical limitations and mental/emotional hesitations. About a month in, I started to struggle and had a Friends-esque “I wanna quit the gym” moment. On one check-in chat, we discussed WHY I hated exercise so much. I really wanted to feel inspired, but I just didn’t. It had been several weeks and I thought forcing myself to do this program would help me learn to love exercise, and when it didn’t, that struggle was real.
Dawn patiently delved into some of my history, body image and good ol’ high school gym class, which we discovered had given me a negative mindset toward exercise that I was still holding onto. Dawn suggested I start associating my workouts with something positive — even just the little things like time to myself, the quiet, the sound of the air conditioner or even the occasional treat! — it became a lot easier to accomplish my goals.
I had a couple of physical setbacks during our time together and Dawn gave me the time I needed to get back on track with our pelvic floor therapy, without making me feel guilty or judged. When we discovered some movements were causing discomfort, she was quick to change things up.
Over the three-month program, I went from a nearly sedentary lifestyle to full-body workouts. I’ll be honest: I still don’t love fitness, but I did learn to like doing the short routines each day. Most important, I am now pain-free!
Strengthening those muscles and learning where to loosen up in the first month of training was exactly what I needed to do. I am happy to say it’s now been more than two months since I finished my initial pelvic floor therapy program with Simply Core Fit and that hip/side pain I complained about before is totally GONE. I will continue the core-strengthening stretches and exercises I learned moving forward, as my own bare minimum — even if I don’t do anything else.
In the end, it’s really neat that my body was able to “fix” itself. I had pain, I got stronger, learned to listen to my body and — with guidance — made the pain better. It really blows my mind when I think about it! I would never have done this without Dawn. The timing for us to e-meet really was fate.
Not that I have a lot to compare to, but there wasn’t much I didn’t like about this program. Most of my issues were personal, like finding time and space, motivating myself and so on. Some weeks I felt like the exercise plans were suddenly too hard, but in the end I did enjoy (and meet) the challenge.
I’m sure if I had spoken up, we could have changed things up earlier. Looking back, though, I’m glad I stuck with the hard weeks. We had some technical difficulties when it came to our check-ins, but that was no one’s fault and does not reflect on the program or Dawn. I am an Android user, and could not FaceTime, so we used Facebook Messenger to communicate, but that posed some issues when Facebook decided to hide messages on us! I thought the Trainerize app sent too many notifications, so I turned that off, but that also turned off my message notifications, so our conversation messages in the app didn’t come through unless I opened it and checked proactively.
Dawn recently started a new 30-day program that looks great and is the perfect place for you to start. If you want to feel stronger, if you want to try to fix some odd pains or if you just want to change up your routine — whatever it is — give Simply Core Fit a shot. It’s worth your time! I can move forward without pain and without worrying that those twinges were something serious. I can even cough or sneeze without feeling like my insides are exploding. This has really given me a new quality of life.
I definitely think the Simply Core Fit pelvic floor therapy program deserves a 5/5 gear rating.
How much does this pelvic floor therapy cost?
Simply Core Fit offers monthly programming for as little as $35, but the blended program that both Rachel and Rebecca described above is $540 plus tax. This is a mix of 1:1 private time with Dawn and online sessions during a three-month period. It starts with a real- time assessment, then Dawn customizes a program that is then delivered by video in the app. Clients have biweekly online check-ins (through FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.) where Dawn can assess progress and adjust programs as necessary. Programs are typically modified every few weeks to keep clients progressing.
Visit Simply Core Fit for more.
DISCLAIMER: this is not a sponsored post. I volunteered my time, blog space and social channels because I know how many people struggle with pelvic issues and can’t afford or can’t get into see a pelvic floor physiotherapist in person.
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