Your pelvic floor plays an important role not only in bladder, bowel, reproduction and sexual function, but also in hip function, breathing, core strategies, standing balance and more. The pelvic floor is also known to be intimately connected to the feet and the floor of the mouth. Pelvic health issues related to these many roles are commonly poorly addressed or often left untreated in both women and men.

Join Shelly Prosko, PT, C-IAYT, CPI, physical therapist and yoga therapist, for her 20 hour, Live In-Person, yoga therapy course focusing on pelvic floor health that offers a combination of inspiring, empowering, educational and valuable theory and practice. This course explores the evidence surrounding the biopsychosocial factors that influence pelvic floor function and integrates this evidence with yoga practices and philosophy that can be safely and effectively used to address and maintain optimal pelvic floor health in both men and women in an accessible way. Read more →

Well folks, I get up close and personal with Diane Lee, one of the world’s most influential physiotherapy educators. In this W.O.W. Chat episode, I ask Diane a personal question and she graciously accepts the invite and shares her story of struggle and how yoga (including the meditation aspect of yoga) has been instrumental on her healing journey and helped her reconnect with her Essence. She realized that she could still be well, even with a physical injury. She discusses the irony of a physiotherapist such as herself experiencing what it’s like to have unexplained pain and how it helped her be more empathetic towards her patients. This was a great chat filled with insights and inspiration.

Watch the 10 minute W.O.W. Chat HERE or read the full transcript below: Read more →

Yoga for Ankylosing Spondylitis

Shelly Prosko, PT, PYT, CPI

I recently had a physical therapist colleague ask me for advice about some ‘yoga poses’ that may help her client who has ankylosing spondylitis (AS).  I explained that there are certainly some poses I would share with her that could potentially address some of the ‘general’ commonalities of the symptoms of AS and how people with AS may present in similar ways, but I also explained I thought it was important for her and her client to understand that:

1) therapeutic yoga is so much more than prescribing ‘poses’ for a particular dysfunction or special population

and

2) the statement, “yoga for ankylosing spondylitis” (or any diagnosis) tends to suggest (in my opinion) that we are using a reductionist approach and falling into the trap of treating/addressing a diagnosis instead of a person who is a living, breathing, moving, thinking, feeling and reacting being that is connected to and affected by the surrounding environment.  A being that consists of complex systems and layers: each one influencing the other; including the nervous systems, digestive system, musculoskeletal system, hormonal system, immune system, integumentary system, emotional, social and spiritual layers, just to name a few.

That being said, there are certainly some common physiotherapy exercises + yoga methods that can be used for people looking to optimize spinal and rib mobility and alignment, maximize breath pattern, improve pain management, and/or calm the nervous system.  But I suppose that would be a really long title for this article. Read more →