The Refine Blog

NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. I was first introduced to NEAT &the importance of it in decreasing stress from @fatlosslifestyleschool. Ever since I have been working at implementing this into my lifestyle b/c I’ve seen how effective it is!! I learned a lot about what nutrition serves my body best from them, but this […]

Pain with sex is never normal. Common? Yes. In fact, over 85% of women will struggle with painful sex postpartum, but lest you think this is just an issue with vaginal birth, you’d be mistaken. I’ve seen women who’ve never had babies, and women who’ve had all c-sections, and though it’s more common if you’ve […]

Have you ever been in a group of moms laughing about not being able to jump on the trampoline anymore? Or about how they have to wear black leggings to the exercise class? Or how they need to run out of the room as soon as they start jumping jacks? I have. Numerous times. And […]

Phrases commonly used when instructing others on how to activate the inner core: Pull the belly button to spine Suck In Tighten your abs This actually can increase pressure and turn off the deep core I know so many of you have heard, used, or taught these cues to encourage core activation during workouts. So […]

We’re not simply training strength…we’re training your brain A couple of weeks ago I filmed these exercise for you in a reel, but what you DIDN’T see was that I STRUGGLED my first couple of reps! I wasn’t automatically perfect at it (which is a good lesson in and of itself), but what I want […]

Have you ever wished in hindsight that you would have talked to your provider about something before it happened, or found out you had options but you weren’t aware of them? Over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of postpartum women and heard their birth stories. I’m also trained in intrapartum care, so I have the […]

Here are a few of my favorite FUNCTIONAL exercises to add to your workouts: D2 flexion with squat – such a technical name but I wasn’t sure what else to call this – the seatbelt exercise? Keys: start w/ your thumb pointing back & finish w/ your thumb pointing back so you get some nice […]

Shop My Picks Here Last year we shared with you a fall shoe round-up of my favs, and it was such a hit, we thought it would be fun to do with you again! So let’s go – here are my favorite picks this year – most of them are also fair trade! You’ll find […]

Have you had this experience: You’re told you have diastasis, given a brace to wear, and then instructed never to do sit-ups or planks again? Unfortunately, this is all too common, and I’ve had several patients with this exact story. There’s a LOT of noise around diastasis and what you can and can’t do. And […]