
Episode #36
The Most Common Pelvic Floor Fix Is Making It Worse
A tight pelvic floor is not a weak one. If yours is already tight, a hundred more Kegels can make your symptoms worse. Ember Smith, PT, DPT of Well Balanced Physical Therapy in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was a gymnast who leaked through high school and never told anyone. She now treats the problem she had. Host Melissa Goodwin asks what the pelvic floor is, whether Kegels work, how to tell tight from weak, what diastasis recti really means, and whether a weighted vest builds bone. No referral needed in South Dakota. Direct access. In this episode What the pelvic floor is, and why the hips, core and abdominals share its wall Why some women doing Kegels push down and out, the exact opposite of the movement Why a tight muscle is not a strong one, and why more contractions make it worse That her own trimester handout from a large health system told her to do Kegels What EMG studies show: squats and glute bridges can recruit the pelvic floor harder than a Kegel The two and a half finger rule for diastasis recti, and the depth nobody measures Why the old advice to avoid crunches after pregnancy was backwards Pressure management, and the pop can model of your core Whether a weighted vest builds bone density Why common is not the same as normal, and why it is never too late Chapters 0:00 Kegels are not the answer 0:55 Welcome to Dialed In Health 1:32 Why she went into pelvic health 2:27 Her two pelvic health certifications 3:14 Why she evaluates women standing up 3:51 Leaking as a high school gymnast 5:22 What is the pelvic floor? 6:33 The townhouse: why it is never just the pelvic floor 7:56 Who walks through her door 8:55 Hormones or pelvic floor? How to tell 9:28 The Kegel chairs and machines 10:09 What a Kegel is, and who it was named after 10:50 Doing it backwards: pushing down and out 11:30 A tight pelvic floor needs lengthening, not squeezing 11:51 The trimester handout that is still wrong 12:13 No symptoms? Then you do not need Kegels 13:05 Stay active, and find the right stimulus 13:59 What women are most embarrassed to say out loud 14:27 What changes at each stage of life 15:27 Liner to pads to UTIs to falls: how it compounds 16:25 Diastasis recti, explained properly 17:41 The two and a half finger rule 18:17 The depth measurement nobody talks about 18:54 How diastasis connects to the pelvic floor 19:59 Crunches narrow the gap. The old advice was backwards 20:49 Pressure management 21:10 The pop can model of your core 22:01 What men run into 22:45 Weight gain, beer belly, and diastasis 23:19 GLP-1 weight loss and the gap underneath 24:47 Why she rarely starts with a Kegel 25:05 What EMG studies actually show 26:22 The weighted vest craze 26:50 Weighted vests do not build bone. Impact and lifting do 27:49 Zone two, walking, and running 28:47 Strength or cardio, if you had to pick one 30:07 Sweating is not the measure of a workout 31:08 What to do in your 20s and 30s 31:44 The worst advice on social media 32:28 No referral needed in South Dakota 32:46 What an evaluation looks like 33:42 The longevity clinic 34:31 The billboard answer 35:30 Where to find Well Balanced About the guest Ember Smith, PT, DPT, Well Balanced Physical Therapy, 7000 S Lyncrest Place, Floor 1, Sioux Falls, SD 57108. Call or text 605-610-8220. wellbalancedphysicaltherapy.com Listen and watch Watch on YouTube. Full transcript and chapters at dialedin.health . Find a vetted provider at the directory . Follow Follow Dialed In Health so you do not miss an episode, and please rate and review. It is the single biggest thing that helps another woman find this one. Educational and informational only. Not medical advice and not a substitute for evaluation, diagnosis or treatment by a licensed provider.

