Prioritize improving your breathing mechanics if you experience stress incontinence, as poor breathing is consistently observed in all affected individuals.
If conventional methods for stress incontinence have failed, adopt a holistic ’tin can’ approach by coordinating the function of the pelvic floor, abdominal muscles, and breathing diaphragm as a single unit.
Practice breathing in by allowing your diaphragm to descend and your pelvic floor to relax downwards (breathing into your perineum) without forcing it, ensuring the ’tin can’ expands harmoniously.
Once you’ve established full diaphragmatic breathing (e.g., lying prone), consciously connect it with your pelvic floor, aiming for the pelvic floor to descend on inhalation and ascend on exhalation, rewiring this coordination with consistent practice.
If you’re accustomed to Kegel exercises, practice pulling up your pelvic floor on the exhale, then consciously and completely letting go on the inhale to retrain the natural downward movement.
Lie on your tummy and observe your breath, allowing it to fill your lateral and posterior ribs, as this position encourages fuller diaphragmatic breathing by restricting anterior belly swelling.
Avoid habitually holding your belly in, as it restricts breathing and can hinder free, efficient movement, making you faster for less effort.
Consciously position your head correctly, as a forward head posture significantly increases the effective weight your neck supports, reducing movement efficiency and potentially causing pain throughout the body.
Correcting a forward head posture is crucial not only for pain but also because it prevents the squishing of internal organs, thereby improving circulation and their overall health.
To improve head position, intentionally jut your head forward, then slowly bring it back until you find the ‘wibbly wobbliest’ spot where you have maximum rotational movement when looking over each shoulder.
Lie on your back, locate where a necklace would sit at the base of your neck, and gently imagine sending that point down to the bed, allowing your chin to drop and the base of your breastbone to rise, always within a pain-free range.
If your head or rib cage doesn’t move fluidly during the neck-to-bed exercise, gently assist the movement (e.g., with a small head nod) to help rewire the connection, then re-test for smoother motion.
Actively find your head’s freest position and develop awareness of when and why you deviate from it, helping you maintain optimal alignment throughout the day.
Assess your foot freedom by videoing yourself walking, then enhance it through daily foot wiping and rope play to ensure active, symmetrical movement and prevent stiffness.
Record yourself walking barefoot towards a camera to observe how much your feet are moving and identify any asymmetries, as your feet should actively engage their 33 joints during walking.
After foot wiping, spend five minutes playing by walking up and down on a 30-40mm diameter rope, draping your feet in various ways to dynamically improve foot mobility and address tightness.
Develop a deeper awareness and understanding of your feet, recognizing their complex role in movement rather than just as passive structures, as they are crucial extremities often overlooked.
If you experience shin splints or other lower leg pains, focus on improving your foot mobility, as restricted foot movement can be the root cause of issues further up the leg.
Consciously optimize the space between your feet (tracking width) when walking and running, as an ideal width supports pelvic stabilization, efficient weight transfer, and the innate strength of the pelvic floor, preventing lower limb strain.
If you experience chafing when running or stress incontinence, try increasing the space between your feet (tracking width), as this can improve pelvic floor function and reduce related issues.
Adjust your tracking width (space between feet) when moving to gain insight into your pelvic floor function, as its critical role involves stable pelvic stabilization and weight transfer between legs.
Integrate daily walking into your routine, recognizing its fundamental importance for running performance, general health, and the optimal function of your lymphatic and cardiovascular systems.
Engage in regular walking as it’s a whole-body movement practice that internally massages organs and provides beneficial load and impact for joints, bones, and muscles.
Make walking a daily practice, as the action of dropping the heel into the step is the strongest known method for promoting venous return and aiding circulation.
Walk regularly to optimize your lymphatic circulation, which is a vast network responsible for collecting and eliminating metabolic waste and dead cells.
Choose to park further away at places like supermarkets to increase your daily walking, adding significant movement value to your day through whole-body engagement.
Become more aware of your body’s movements and your surroundings, shifting from a ‘heads down, eyes down’ focus to engaging peripheral vision and noticing how you move.
Start to feel and think more about your body and movements, as increased self-awareness is the most important step towards understanding and improving your physical well-being.
Avoid viewing your movement ability solely through the lens of pain; instead, consider its impact on overall efficiency, internal organ health, and general well-being.
Focus on optimizing your diet (whole foods), movement (e.g., 30 mins walking daily), sleep (circadian biology, 6-8 hours), and stress management, as these fundamental pillars can resolve many health issues.
Develop a constant awareness of your balance and posture throughout the day, drawing inspiration from cultures that carry items on their heads, which fosters innate structural alignment.
When working on head position, aim for gradual improvement rather than perfection, as even slight corrections will yield benefits and gains for your entire body system.
Perform movement exercises in short, focused bursts until you feel a slight improvement, then re-test the initial movement as a marker for change, avoiding mental fatigue.
Listen to your body’s innate knowingness and gut feeling; if a health practice doesn’t resonate or yield results, it’s a signal to explore alternative approaches rather than blindly following external advice.
If you experience pain or problems when running, investigate your walking mechanics, as the root cause may lie in restrictions within your walking pattern, which is neurologically more complex.
Instead of adhering to a specific running method, focus on finding the most efficient way for your individual body to move, allowing your body to guide the process.
When experiencing pain on one side of the body, focus on ‘waking up’ and activating the non-painful side, as the symptomatic side may be overloaded from compensating for its less active counterpart.
Start your body improvement journey by performing an ‘MOT’ on your extremities (head, feet, hands/arms), as these areas provide foundational information that influences the entire central axis of your body.
Regularly check your shoulder alignment in a mirror to identify any tilt, as asymmetry indicates a lack of freedom in the shoulder girdle that can affect your entire body’s movement.
If you observe a shoulder girdle tilt, work on improving your head position, as a forward head posture often contributes to shoulder asymmetry, and correcting it can restore balance.
Consider reframing the concept of ’exercise’ as ‘movement’ to help appreciate the value of simple actions like walking.