There once was a green Ford Explorer driving the streets of Gainesville Florida with a bumper sticker that read “HONK IF YOU KEGEL”.  You’d see it around town and every now and then you’d hear someone lay on their horn in response to the question.  Other times people would roll down their windows and ask questions like “Is that a dance?” or “Is that the muscle that only women have?”

You might wonder what kind of loon would drive around with a bumper sticker like this.  Well, I must admit the driver happened to be one of my nearest and dearest friends in the world, Vicki Lukert. I say “was” not because Vicki is no longer with us, it’s simply because she finally sold that car on the last day of the Cash for Clunkers program.  When she traded it in for brand new Honda Accord, she cried—that car (and its message on the bumper) had become a part of her.

Vicki is a dynamic Physical Therapist from New Zealand who has specialized in Pelvic Health for the past 13 years.  And since there’s not a shy bone in her body, she’s always ready to share the benefits of pelvic floor strengthening.  She’s been known to meet complete strangers (including men) in parking lots and start teaching (or better said—preaching) the importance of Kegels.  For those of you not familiar with this term, “Kegels” are short for pelvic floor strenghening exercises.  They were named after Dr. Arnold Kegel–the gynecologist who invented the exercises.

Lucky for us, Vicki about to tell us EVERYTHING we ever wanted to know about our pelvic floors (but were afraid to ask).

Vicki:  “Would you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles if you knew that it would not only stop you from peeing your pants when your friend said something incredibly funny, but it would also help ease back pain issues, stop your organs from falling down around your knees (oh, now that would be a bad day), AND it would enhance you sexually?  Yes that’s right.  For women, kegels help increase your level of orgasm and also make it easier to reach an orgasm.  For men, strengthening their pelvic floor muscles will help improve the ability to prolong their erections and prevent premature ejaculation.   AND if they get these muscles really strong, it will improve their ability to have multiple orgasms.”

“So how do we strengthen these fascinating muscles?  First of all, you have to find it.  These muscles make up the sling (or hammock) of muscles that sit in the base of your pelvis.  These muscles will stop you from urinating or from passing gas when you are about to meet the queen.  One of my colleagues instructs her patients to imagine they are picking up a marble with their vagina or rectum and pulling it up and inside (now that’s a visual for you!).   Once you have found the muscle, you’ll need to strengthen both the fast twitch and slow twitch fibers.  Most people can do a quick flick (contraction) but find it difficult to hold the contraction for 10 seconds.   An important benefit from any exercise program is to build endurance so it’s important to learn how to hold the contraction for 10 seconds.”

To get started, Vicki recommends performing the following exercises 3 times per day:

• Perform 10 contractions—holding for 10 seconds each time (slow twitch)
• Perform 10 contractions—hold for 2 seconds each time (fast twitch)

“Once you are strong (and continent if that is an issue for you) the maintenance program requires only 10 contractions of each exercise per day.

Even better, there are vaginal and rectal weights which can be used to build super duper strong pelvic floor muscles.”

“Some doctors, bless their cotton picking hearts,recommend women stop their urine flow 7 times every time they go to the toilet.   I am adamant that you should NEVER do that as an exercise.  It is a great way to find the muscles but if you perform it as an exercise it will interrupt the normal voiding mechanism.”

Thanks to Vicki for this great information—it is helpful for BOTH men and women!  So the next time you see a brand new silver Honda Accord Coupe with a crazy Kiwi driving it, HONK IF YOU KEGEL!

Smile and Kegel (no one will know),

Molly (and Vicki)

Some things are just meant to be.  My husband Frank and I were taking a beautiful walk down the beach in Amelia Island with our two dogs (Stella and Jessie) when we ran into a lovely couple out for a stroll.  The dogs ran wildly to greet them as if they were old friends they hadn’t seen in years.  After spending a few minutes chatting with them, we felt like we had known each other our entire lives.

When something like this happens to you, you really need to pay attention.  It’s not often you meet people you have this connection with, but when you do, you need to open your heart and go for it.  Simply put, we were fortunate to meet new “Real Friends” on that beautiful, sunny day—Dick and Tina Devoe.  Today’s article is about Tina but I promise to tell you all about Dick (who is incredibly interesting) in a future blog entry!

While getting to know them better, we found out that Christine “Tina” is a retired nurse who is both a practitioner and certified instructor in Health Touch Therapy.  She draws from her 20 years of maternal child health experience as a labor and delivery nurse and patient educator for high-risk pregnancies.  As a member of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Calvert Memorial Hospital, she pioneered the practice of Healing Touch and Massage.

With my background in the health and fitness industry, I was intrigued by this and wanted to learn more.  I booked an appointment with Tina so I could experience this type of therapy first-hand.  I purposely did not do any research on Healing Touch before my appointment so I wouldn’t know what to expect.

The goal of Healing Touch is to restore harmony and balance in the human energy system.  Of course we all know our bodies are made of energy.  Albert Einstein taught us that.  What I didn’t know was that our energy fields could get all bollixed up—much like a traffic jam on the highway.  You must clear the jam to allow the energy (or traffic) to move freely again.

Upon arrival at her home, Tina let me know she was treating me as a client (not as a friend).  She wanted me to fully understand the professionalism associated with the Healing Touch process and to see what a real session was like.   This was good because it kept me focused on the experience.  Normally, I am an incessant chit-chatter so I kept my mouth shut and my mind open to what was going on.

I did my best to answer a series of questions about old injuries and what I would like to accomplish from the session.  We proceeded to the treatment table where I rested comfortably (face up thankfully).  After I chose music over silence, Tina began with a fascinating brown pendulum “thing”.  She held it over different areas of my body.  If it circled around the area, that meant the energy was flowing like it should.  If it remained still, the energy was blocked.  The funny thing is this:  I forgot to tell her about some old injuries (and ones that still hurt a lot).  When she came to those areas, the pendulum just hung there—like it was dead.  She asked me if anything had happened to the joint (or area) and sure enough, she was right.

She informed me that the goal of the treatment was to open up all energy channels in my body.  After seeing the “dead pendulum” hanging over different parts of my body, I was excited to see if and how it worked.

Healing Touch uses gentle, light touch to balance, clear and support the energy system in your body.  The main focus is to remove energy congestion that forms in our energy centers (chakras) and energy fields (also known as aura).  By opening up this flow of energy, it reconnects and rebalances the human energy system.

Most of the time Tina’s hands were placed gently on 2 different parts of my body.  Other times, her hands hovered over my body—without actually touching it—yet I could still “feel” it.  Interestingly, the areas where I had been experiencing significant pain got very HOT during this process.  The “healthy” parts of my body remained cool during the entire session.

After my session, I was instructed to drink a lot of water and pay attention to how I felt.  I went back home, and must admit, I had an incredibly relaxing night.  It was if someone slipped a Valium in my drink—I felt very mellow.  I didn’t have a significant reduction in pain overall, but my left knee has been feeling better since the treatment two weeks ago.  I plan on scheduling another visit when Tina comes home from teaching her Healing Touch course up in Maine.  I will keep you posted!

Healing Touch is an accepted and validated form of therapy that is utilized in hospitals, long term care facilities, health clinics, hospice, private practices, and integrative health centers.  For more information or to locate a Healing Touch Practitioner in your area, please go to www. HealingTouchProgram.com.

If you would like to read Tina’s article “Lisa Oz, East Meets West” (wife of the super famous Dr. Oz) and see Tina’s beautiful watercolor journal, please visit http://www.energymagazineonline.com/energey_archived_issues/july2009.pdf.

Stay well and smile,

Molly

If you’re reading this and you have NOT experienced neck and/or shoulder pain, congratulations!   It’s no surprise that neck and shoulder pain are two of the main complaints seen in physical therapy clinics today.  The number of hours spent at our computers seems to grow every year and if your job is strictly computer-based, you really need to be proactive in the fight against the proverbial PAIN IN THE NECK.

While visiting Gainesville this spring, I paid a visit to Marty Huegel, Director of ReQuest Physical Therapy.  Marty is not only an excellent physical therapist, he’s also been a great friend of mine for many years.  Marty is well known in the athletic community as well—he’s been the Director of Rehabilitation for the University of Florida athletic teams for over 30 years.  Go Gators!

Why Neck Pain? 

The problem is positional—the way we hold our neck while working on our computers.   Long periods of uninterrupted time go by and we don’t realize how long we’ve been in a “harmful” position.  Often times, up to 2-3 hours in poor posture can go by unnoticed.  Staying in this unhealthy position (head forward, shoulders forward) is the culprit that commonly causes neck and shoulder pain.  It can get so bad that it even cause pain to radiate into your arms. 

Regular exercise, including strength training (at home or in the gym) can be very helpful but often is not be enough to overcome the problems caused by this constant forward head position. Basic gym exercises you should perform in your weekly routine include:

1. Upright Row
2. Pull Down
3. Shoulder Shrugs
4. Reverse Fly 

Basically any pain-free exercise that strengthens the shoulders is helpful.  Focus on exercises that REVERSE this unhealthy position. 

Besides exercise, you need to create a healthy work environment for yourself. 

• Make sure you have a good chair with adequate lumbar support.  If your company won’t supply one for you, ask if you can bring your own.  It is definitely worth it.
• Make sure the keyboard and monitor are in the right position.  When typing, your forearms should be parallel to the floor (or tilted slightly upward).  Position your monitor so that you’re looking directly at the screen.  Your head should be in a position that you could balance a glass of water on top of it. 
• REVERSE your position every 15 minutes for approximately 10 seconds.  Now this may sound hard to do but it’s not.  But the problem is this:  you WON’T do it unless you have a prompt.  Even if you have the best intentions, it would be hard to remember to do it 4 times per hour.  The good news is this:  if you use Outlook at work, you can schedule a recurring 15 minute appointment as a reminder.    Here’s how you do it:
  • Open Microsoft Outlook
  • Click on “Tasks” (bottom left corner)
  • Click on “New” (top left corner)
  • In the subject line type “Stretch”
  • Set today’s date in the due date and  start date box
  • Set the reminder for an hour ahead
  • When the reminder comes up in an hour, hit the “Snooze” and set for 15 minute reminders

To reverse your position, squeeze your shoulder blades together (which means sticking your chest out), and sliding your head straight back.  If you’re doing it correctly, you will definitely feel it because those muscles get very tight.

Schedule this REVERSE stretch into your day and get to the gym to strengthen your neck and shoulders.  Prevention is the key!  Do NOT want to let neck and shoulder pain get the best of you.  Do it for 2 weeks and let me know how much it helps.

Stretch, Strengthen and Sit Up Straight,

Molly