042 Ashley Nowe - Pelvic Floor Health, Mobility & Returning to Running Postpartum

Ashley Nowe is a pregnancy and postpartum fitness specialist, nutritionist, fitness coach, and the Founder of Get Mom Strong, an organization that offers at-home fitness programs for moms. In 2022, Ashley created an app called SLAM (Strong Like A Mother), which combines science-backed pelvic floor and core exercises with sweat-inducing workouts. Ashley is on a mission to ensure that as many women as possible go through pregnancy and postpartum feeling empowered and informed.

Today, Whitney and Ashley discuss the critical role your pelvic floor plays in running, exercises you can do to strengthen your pelvic floor, and how to get back into running postpartum.

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Key Takeaways

01:00 – Whitney Heins welcomes Ashley Nowe to the show to share her struggles with diastasis recti while pregnant, her decision to become a pelvic floor physical therapist and the role the pelvic floor plays in running

14:48 – Tips and moves for working out your pelvic floor

16:39 – Signs that you may have a tight or weak pelvic floor

18:48 – Advice Ashley would give to runners looking to return to running postpartum

22:01 – Why men should also take care of their pelvic floors

23:08 – Spontaneous healing postpartum

26:07 – What it looks like to learn how to breathe properly

30:27 – The inspiration to launch the SLAM app

35:47 – Ashley speaks to the importance of mobility

37:07 – Whitney thanks Ashely for joining the show and for the work she’s doing

Tweetable Quotes

“I found a magical occupation called pelvic floor physical therapy, and it changed my whole life. I learned everything I wish I had learned - everything women deserve to have learned even before we have kids. I learned how to breathe, how to engage my core, how to utilize my pelvic floor, and it was life changing.” (06:20) (Ashley)

“As a runner, fitness is an outlet. And when somebody takes that from you and your body’s not functioning as it should, it’s a loss of identity and it’s a loss of your outlet.” (07:52) (Ashley)

“Just going back to all of these basics that you probably have never even thought about or been taught can really change the way your body functions. It’s particularly important if you’re a runner because that breath is everything, right? And if your body is in a better position, you’re gonna be able to run further, faster, harder, and without issues.” (11:16) (Ashley)

“Your pelvic floor is meant to be reflexive. It’s meant to be almost like a trampoline. As you’re impacting, as you’re hitting the ground in your stride, you want that pelvic floor to gently lengthen and contract, and lengthen and contract. It shouldn’t be something you even have to think about. Your pelvic floor should just know, ‘This is what I have to do.’” (13:12) (Ashley)

“One thing I want to address because I feel like it’s a really important topic is if you’re newly postpartum - prior to twelve weeks postpartum - really legitimately take it easy and build strength before you run. You can save yourself a lot of heartache if you work on that rehab during that twelve weeks. But if you’re past that twelve week mark, and you didn’t do the pelvic floor rehab, and you went out for a run and are experiencing issues, it’s never too late. That’s the other piece of it. It’s never too late to heal.” (19:19) (Ashley)

“There was just such a need. And I felt like the real need was for the athlete population. There is nothing to rehab your core and pelvic floor that’s not boring. I want to sweat. I want endorphins.” (31:12) (Ashley)