Ah, the snowfall. The essence of a Canadian winter. The first symbol of holiday cheer.  

And…

Shoveling. Lots and lots of shoveling.

With shoveling, may come some pain in the pelvic floor ass. If you have a prolapse, you know exactly what I mean.

Shoveling, believe it or not is high-impact and explosive. This may bring on some of your prolapse symptoms like bulging in your vagina, unintentionally peeing yourself, or even pelvic girdle pain.

Such a downer, right?

Shoveling is unavoidable in the winter months for us northerners. You may not be able to escape symptoms with a snowblower either. Those things are heavy and you have to put your entire body to push them.

So how do you manage your symptoms when during the winter months if you have to shovel your way out of the driveway?

I have a few suggestions.

• Keep breathing and add in a kegel on your exhale as you push, lift and toss the snow. The kegel will provide extra support to your pelvic organs, and helps to better manage intraabdominal pressure as your exerting force like shoveling. Additionally, it’ll save your lower back.

• Like your workout, spend some time cooling down after the job is done. Do some light stretching, foam roll, and follow up with some diaphragmatic breathing on your back. Imagine your vagina opening as you breathe. This will help your pelvic floor relax.

• Spread the load. Instead of having one muscle group doing the work, you can spread the load throughout your entire body, taking the work away from your pelvic floor.

• Tension to task. When activating your muscles to do the work, use the appropriate amount of tension to perform the task. You’re not going to use the same amount of tension to lift a snowflake as you are with a snow bank.

• Strength train. The only way to train your body to handle the impact of shoveling is to build full body strength. You are using every muscle in your body and snow can get heavy

Shoveling snow doesn’t have to be problematic. Using the strategies I outline above will take the pressure off and turn you into a snow shoveling machine.

Or…

You can send your partner out there because staying warm, sipping on hot chocolate is more fun.

You can train to manage your pelvic health symptoms so you can do everyday activities without being concerned about what may be happening with your vagina. Seeing a pelvic floor PT to get a professional assessment and training with a coach who has experience in working in the pelvic health field will get you there.

Strength And Lady Parts  a 12-week strength and conditioning program will prepare you for the long, snowy winter we have in store. If you’ve recently given birth or dealing with pelvic health symptoms life pelvic organ prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, or hip/ lower back pain and want to get back into high-intensity training, click here to learn more. 

Ciao for now,

Terrell

Ready to maximize your  performance? Get my favourite strategies in Fitness For Lady Parts You will learn to minimize pelvic floor dysfunctions and improve your overall power you can use on and off the gym floor.