The Refine Blog

Mom #1 has her first baby. She’s always been super active and pretty fit. But she ties much of her identity to her fitness, body, and what she can accomplish. She believes a GOOD workout is at least 45 min long, and she’d honestly rather do a bunch of hard cardio than strength train because […]

Hot take: if it’s free advice, it will probably not fix your issues…You need to STOP trusting your pelvic floor rehab to someone who’s never actually worked with vaginas. Would you trust your ACL rehab to some online “expert” who’s never rehabbed a knee? When you finished with surgery, how would you feel if the […]

What matters most when it comes to movement? How often you move? What you do for movement? How long you move? These are all great questions, and to some extent, they all matter or can make a difference in how your body responds to movement. But when I’m working with women, I find that this […]

POV you walk into PT feeling frazzled. Running to the bathroom every hour at work. Getting up 3x a night to pee. Wearing a pad every day becuase you leak. Feeling overwhelmed. But after just THREE appointments: TRUE story. This patient is real, and her results are NOT unusual.This is, in fact, something I see […]

The FEAR you have over making a “mistake” with diastasis is actually keeping you from healing. I get it because I work with SO many women who are scared they’ll do something wrong and make their diastasis worse. They’re afraid to lift, exercise, and even do daily tasks like picking up their toddlers or bathing […]

You’ve probably heard these diastasis ‘rules’—but are they true? Let’s find out! 🤔 1. Planks and crunches are always bad – FALSE. I give crunches and planks to my diastasis patients all the time. The KEY is working with someone who is trained and can show you how to do them well! When they are […]

“My Dr. made me scared that I couldn’t do core work after my c-section. I’m 6 months postpartum, and I’m afraid to move. When am I okay to begin core work?” This is a question I received this week from an online client. It seems that advice on postpartum exercise often falls into two camps: […]

I’ve worked with pregnant women for over 17 years and here’s one thing I tell every one of them: In Labor and Delivery, you’re not just a patient you’re a customer. Truth: Many of my patients have at least some ideas of what they want their L&D experience to look like, but when it comes […]

On Instagram, I shared my 3 ways to stay active through the cold winter months and one of them is appropriate gear! There’s an old saying that goes, “There’s no bad weather, just bad clothing.” Christmas is almost here and it’s a great gift idea to ask for (or get someone) some quality cold-weather gear. […]