Running to the Core Podcast

Dianne Edmonds, Physiotherapist and founder of The Pregnancy Centre talks to health and fitness professionals who work with pregnant and postnatal women to explore issues that affect postnatal return to fitness and running.

Episode 63: Letting it Go with Pregnancy and Birth Coach Philippa Cox 10/24/2024

Episode 62: Revisiting Breathing as a Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT 09/10/2024

Episode 62: Revisiting Breathing as a Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT In this podcast we revisit talking about Breathing as a Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall, previously a guest in episodes 48 and 50. Carrie highlights the benefits of breathing as an exercise on multiple areas of the body, and runs through some practical ways to firstly become aware of your own breathing pattern, which she gives individual cues to with her clients. She talks through one way to focus on developing your breathing awareness, including the movement of your ribcage, your breathing diaphragm and your pelvic diaphragm (pelvic floor). You can listen to the first of the previous episodes of the podcast About Carrie: Carrie Hall, PT, MHS has been a physical therapist for over 40 years, graduating from St. Louis University in Missouri in 1983. Over the 4 decades as a PT, she has worn the hats of practitioner, educator, author, business owner, and advocate; and has served in numerous state and national leadership roles. Her clinical practice expertise lies in the diagnosis and treatment of movement impairment with a focus on movement pattern recognition of the shoulder, spine, hip, knee, ankle, and foot regions as taught by Shirley Sahrmann, PT, PhD, FAPTA and the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, where she went to graduate school. She also incorporates pain science, manual therapy, motor control training, strength and aerobic fitness prescription, and the role of PT in promoting healthspan over lifespan. Carrie founded her practice, Movement Systems Physical Therapy in 1995 and sold it in 2021. In her “retirement” Carrie formed a new company, “SISU Physical Therapy and Mentoring Services” so she could continue a small clinical practice, teaching, and small business owner mentoring. She is a fierce advocate of the profession and spends much of her time in leadership and advocacy roles, currently running for Secretary of APTA Private Practice. You can connect with Carrie via The link to her article, My Desert Island Exercise by Carrie is available to read . For further information visit /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/32987902

Episode 61: Pregnancy Abdominal Bracing 05/02/2024

Episode 60: Does Your Pelvic Floor Go Up or Down? 03/20/2024

Episode 59: How is your pelvis levelling? 03/07/2024

Episode 58: Preferential Recruitment. What is it? 02/22/2024

Episode 57: Postnatal Tension Releases using a Breathing Out Focus 02/07/2024

Episode 56: How to be a 'cycle breaker' in your parenting with Mindfulness at Play, with Psychologist Angela North 12/21/2023

Episode 56: How to be a 'cycle breaker' in your parenting with Mindfulness at Play, with Psychologist Angela North Angela North joins Dianne for a second podcast about Mindfulness at Play: Parenting healthy, happy children with old wisdom and new science, a book co-written with Dr Stephen McKenzie, published by Exisle Publishing in 2023. With 30 years of experience working with children, adolescents and their families, Angela employs play therapy, and is passionate about sharing strategies with parents, so that they may respond therapeutically to their own children’s needs. We discuss “Our child, our mirror”, which Angela writes about in the book. If we had a difficult time in our childhood, then we might struggle when our child reaches the same age. Developing an awareness of this helps you to become “a cycle breaker”, which is an idea that resonates with a lot of new parents. To assist with this, Angela suggests tools to develop your self-awareness further as you look at some of the events and experiences of your own childhood and reflect on how this may affect your parenting, bringing positive experiences and traits that you have now. We can start by focusing on ourselves, asking questions on where have I come from, what have I experienced, what has this done to my way of relating, and what are the potential hurdles that I might reach at my child’s different ages depending on the kind of care that I received at that time? Angela advises that we can shift our focus on strategies that affect the neural pathways in our brain and reduce the effect of stress hormones in our body, and Mindfulness at Play is all about this. “It is all about shifting stress in our own bodies and how we shift it with our children”. One of her tips is to “Choose a little less structure and a little more silliness, remembering to add in fun, as sometimes we can come to parenting as an extreme sport”. One book she recommends is The Power of Fun by Katherine Price – especially if you can’t remember the last time you just had fun, and laughed your head off. Angela emphasizes the importance of community and support as a parent, and not doing it alone, mentioning the book Radical intimacy by Sophie Rosa, which explores this further. Mindfulness at Play: Parenting healthy, happy children with old wisdom and new science, by Dr Stephen McKenzie and Angela North is available from For more information visit /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/28998093

Episode 55: The first 40 postnatal days impact the next 40 years - with Kate from The Mamas Alchemist 11/23/2023

Episode 54: The Flourishing Woman - A mental health and wellbeing guide with Dr Cate Howell 09/27/2023

Episode 54: The Flourishing Woman - A mental health and wellbeing guide with Dr Cate Howell Dr Cate Howell talks about her new book The Flourishing Woman - A mental health and well being guide, recently published by Exisle Publishing. Dr Cate Howell is a GP, therapist, researcher, educator and author with over 40 years of training and experience in the health sphere. She is passionate about the areas of mental health, wellbeing and counselling and currently, Cate is mostly involved in education and writing related in these areas. She has travelled internationally to present research findings and has been published in a number of academic journals. The author of five books, Cate was awarded a year 2000 Churchill Fellowship related to the study of anxiety and depression, and the Order of Australia Medal in 2012 for services to medicine, particularly mental health, and to professional organisations. In this podcast Cate talks about a range of aspects of mental health and wellbeing for women, which she has written about in her new book. These include: why do we put ourselves last not putting ourselves higher on our 'to do' lists the 'not enough' stories that we tell ourselves the importance of taking small steps to prioritise self care reframing thoughts and noticing 'thinking traps' burnout verses burning out the benefits of knowing your strengths and values how to notice warning signs and signals of stress in your body ways to consider reprioritising and problem solving to reduce what is in your 'stress bucket' the benefits of relaxation to counteract the effects of stress and simple ways to include this into your day vagus nerve hacks to bring more calming effects into your nervous system learning to look at situations and working out what is humanly possible to manage, not what is superhumanly possible to manage learning to give ourselves permission to change, and to use self compassion Tailored for women at every stage of life, The Flourishing Woman will show you how to unlock your full potential and truly flourish! To find out more about your strengths, using the quiz Cate refers to, visit VIA Institute on Character at Visit Dr Cate's website for further resources including free mindfulness recordings at For further information visit The Pregnancy Centre at /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/28144310

Episode 53: Mindfulness at Play with Psychologist Angela North 09/12/2023

Episode 53: Mindfulness at Play with Psychologist Angela North Parenting affects every element of our lives, and in this podcast Psychologist and author Angela North, gives insights into how mindfulness can lighten the load of being a parent. Angela North and Dr Stephen McKenzie have written the book Mindfulness at Play: Parenting healthy, happy children with old wisdom and new science, recently published by Exisle Publishing. With 30 years of experience working with children, adolescents and their families, Angela employs play therapy, and is passionate about sharing strategies with parents, so that they may respond therapeutically to their own children's needs. In this podcast she shares some techniques for learning to use mindfulness that can be applied in moments of your day as a parent. These can be used from when your children are very young through to their teenage years. Angela talks about "choosing your own adventure" which means that you can take one page, a line, one story or a whole chapter, and use the tips that spark your interest and that you have the capacity for, when you read the book. When practicing mindfulness - we can get better at it. Tapping into the tools that you know, can help you to get out of your head and back into your body, which can help to reduce the effect of stress hormones. Using self compassion, you can learn to be less of the critic and more of a coach with the voice in your head, also teaching this to your children. Empathetic reflections is one strategy that Angela talks about in the book and in this podcast and explains how this can contribute to safety elements for your child as they become older. Mindfulness tools can bring us back to the moment where we don't have to do anything except be present. This can take the load off and help parenting to be far less stressful. Infants and children are inherently mindful, as they go from studying their fingers to stones on the ground in great detail. We all have that capacity and are wired that way from birth. Often in the western world we grow them out of mindfulness as we introduce structure very early in our society. With mindful awareness we can help them to retain this inherent mindfulness. Mindfulness at Play is informed by the latest research and is packed full of practical examples, case studies and activities. This is a comprehensive, one stop mindfulness resource for parents. The clear explanation of psychological principles will also help you, the parent, to achieve a happier, healthier, more mindful life. Mindfulness at Play: Parenting healthy, happy children with old wisdom and new science, by Dr Stephen McKenzie and Angela North is available from For more information visit /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/28007601

Episode 52: Untethered with Nathan James Thomas 09/08/2023

Episode 52: Untethered with Nathan James Thomas This is a podcast that takes a deviation from our usual focus, and explores the book Untethered, Living the digital nomad life in an uncertain world, as Dianne talks to the author Nathan James Thomas. Untethered was published earlier this year, by Exisle Publishing. Nathan James Thomas bought a ticket for 20,000 kilometres on the Greyhound Bus network in Australia when he was seventeen years old. Over the next decade, he lived in China, Spain, Poland and Hungary, visiting and experiencing dozens of other countries along the way. In 2014, Nathan founded the digital travel magazine Intrepid Times as a vehicle for sharing stories from the road and as an excuse to meet and interview his favourite writers. It has since grown into a thriving global community of thousands of writers and travellers. His own travel writing has been published in places like Lonely Planet, Roads and Kingdoms and Outpost Magazine. With his two previous books, Fearless Footsteps and Travel Your Way, both published by Exisle Publishing, Nathan presents a vision of travel that is both challenging and humbling, an experience not of finding yourself, but of losing yourself. Nathan talks about what Untethered means to him, where travel becomes not a break from life but the life itself, and the way that the digital nomad does their everyday life. The drive to travel, and being overwhelmingly curious means that if that is the kind of person you are, a digital nomad is compelled to discover the next place. Nathan talks about the benefits he has found in building relationships over time with clients, aiming to help others learn from his experiences of being a digital nomad for nine to ten years now. In Untethered, Nathan enables you to peak behind the curtain at the real face of the digital nomad lifestyle, having interviewed a range of people for this book. He also talks about the challenges faced by the digital nomad, and talks on the podcast about some issues that contribute to digital nomad burnout. This book can help answer questions for those needing more guidance and insights into the digital nomad life. Untethered is available from Exisle Publishing at , from your local and online bookstores and from The Intrepid Times at /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/27976962

Episode 51: Posture and Your Voice with Dr Abby Halpin, PT 08/31/2023

Episode 50: Breathing as My Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT, Part 2 of 2 07/31/2023

Episode 50: Breathing as My Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT, Part 2 of 2 In this Part 2 of the podcast with Carrie Hall, Carrie goes through the breathing cycle of inspiration and expiration, and how you can become aware of feeling your rib expansion in 360 degrees directions, to the front, sides and back parts of your ribs. She explains how the diaphragm moves downwards, and when the pelvic floor is functioning normally it also moves downwards with inspiration and then upwards with expiration, during the breathing cycle. About Carrie: Carrie Hall has been a physical therapist since 1983, earning her undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University and graduate degree from Washington University in Saint Louis (WUSTL). Carrie’s philosophical approach toward physical therapy is founded in the movement system approach as developed by Shirley Sahrmann, PT, PhD, FAPTA, integrated with manual therapy and pain science. She has had the roles of clinical instructor and assisting teaching continuing education courses related to the movement system with Dr Sahrmann and fellow colleagues. She was co-author of Therapeutic Exercise: Moving Toward Function, now in its 4th edition. Carrie founded Movement Systems Physical Therapy in 1995, in Seattle, Washington which she sold after 27 years. She is now founder and owner of Sisu Physical Therapy and Mentoring Services, providing mobile PT and mobile/virtual clinical and business mentoring services. Carrie is also a longtime advocate for physical therapy with past APTA Washington Board and Committee positions as well as current Chair of Nominating Committee for APTA Private Practice. Carrie talks about the parallels she sees between a postnatal mum and a new born baby – who takes a full year to get up and walking, developing trunk, abdominal and neck muscle strength during this time as they move from lying to rolling to sitting and crawling, then move into standing. Mums who have just given birth have a stretched and lengthened abdominal wall and need to rebuild their core strength, and Carrie explains that using support garments or belts can help their diaphragm to work more effectively as a postural muscle. As you regain postural and movement awareness, consider moving through the developmental sequences with your baby. When you are on the floor on your hands and knees, pelvic rocking and the cat/cow exercises help to open up your ribcage, and allow expansion again, as this can be restricted during pregnancy. We take a step back to talk about the benefits of the hands and knees position for exercise during pregnancy especially in the later stages, to keep the abdominals, pelvic floor and intercostal muscles functioning well. Ideally this will make your postnatal recovery easier. Carrie also explains how the vagus nerve runs through the right side of the diaphragm and gets stimulated or ‘massaged’ during breathing when the diaphragm is moving up and down, which helps to stimulate more of the calming responses in your body, through the parasympathetic nervous system. Mindful breathing into the back waist area of your ribs, especially into the right side, helps gain the calming benefits from vagus nerve stimulation. Carrie highlights how this takes time and practice, using the building blocks of awareness and practice. This can in turn help improve your Heart Rate Variability, which helps your body respond in a more regulated way to life’s stressors. There is also a lifelong benefit to ensuring that your breathing muscles are functioning to their fullest potential, as with aging, having an effective cough is essential in the case of any respiratory infections. Regular exercise to use the respiratory muscles throughout your life is a key aspect of this. Carrie talks about incremental building up of exercise and mindful breathing and says “We can do anything incrementally, it just takes persistence”. Her final words of advice are “find exercise that you enjoy and enjoy it. Get out there and keep moving. And with your breathing, don’t bypass the ribs and go straight into belly breathing. Expand your ribs and include your pelvic floor in your mindful breathing patterns, to help your movement systems and all of the systems of your body to come together”. Carrie's work encompasses the power of her new business name SISU, empowering her students and clients through "Gentle power coming together". You can connect with Carrie via The link to her article, My Desert Island Exercise is available to read on For the link to Mary Massery's interview: Therapeutic Exercise: Moving Toward Function is available here For The Posture Restoration Institute (PRI): To learn more about the movement system: To listen to the podcast with Kelly Dean To find out more about Heart Math, mentioned in the podcast, visit For further information visit /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/27609996

Episode 49: Returning to Running for Postnatal Mums with Physiotherapist Rebecca Sabine 07/13/2023

Episode 49: Returning to Running for Postnatal Mums with Physiotherapist Rebecca Sabine In this podcast Physiotherapist Rebecca Sabine talks about issues affecting postnatal return to running and how having a plan that targets the specific needs of your body helps as you return to running and exercise after having a baby or children. Rebecca (Beck) is a Women’s, Men’s and Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist (APA titled) with a special interest in recreational running. She is a Director of Vital Core Physiotherapy in the heart of Adelaide’s Eastern Suburbs, which has been established for 20 years this year, with her business partner Tory Toogood. Beck is a runner herself, having run park runs, marathons and ultra marathons. She is planning to do a half marathon at the end of this year. In her running group there are a wide range of ages up to sixty, seventy and eighty, which highlights the perspective of the longevity of running over your lifespan, as you take time to return to running postnatally. Whether your baby is 4 to 6 weeks old, 12 months, or 2, 5 or 10 years old, Rebecca encourages you to seek specific support from a women’s and pelvic health physiotherapist and ask the questions about “What will it take to get me back to running or playing sport”. Ideally when you are pregnant is a great time to make a plan with your physiotherapist for your postnatal recovery, but It’s never too late to get you back to a level of exercise if your children are older and you are now getting time for yourself. In this podcast Beck talks about the 6 R’s which are guidelines for the readiness to run and return to sport, including the review of your running as you improve, and how being aware of the specific needs of your body allows you to target the areas that are the most important for you. During pregnancy your shape changes, with the gluts, which are critical for running, often being weaker, and your abdominal wall and pelvic floor have also changed. Specific strengthening and training will help to reduce hip, back and lower limb problems as you return to running. Postnatal issues including reduced sleep, stress, your nutrition, and pregnancy and breastfeeding altering your hormonal state, all impact your ability to build muscle and gain strength. Beck highlights that “If you are not sleeping, you are not going to build muscle or perform as well, be it in running or in your chosen sport, and your body can’t heal let alone build if you are not fuelling it properly, which can be really hard to do in the early postnatal months when time for yourself is limited”. So, it is recommended that you build yourself up slowly as you return to running and use the support available from your Physiotherapist, who will take these issues into consideration. For more information visit: Vital Core Physiotherapy at on Instagram on Vital Core Physiotherapy on To find out more about the 6 R's - For an introduction to mSwing listen to For more information visit The Pregnancy Centre at /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/27453999

Episode 48: Breathing as My Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT, Part 1 of 2. 06/27/2023

Episode 48: Breathing as My Desert Island Exercise with Carrie Hall PT, Part 1 of 2. Carrie Hall has been a physical therapist since 1983, earning her undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University and graduate degree from Washington University in Saint Louis. Her philosophical approach toward physical therapy is founded in the movement system approach as developed by Dr Shirley Sahrmann, Pt, PhD, who became Carrie's long time mentor. Carrie integrates this approach with manual therapy and pain science. She has had the roles of clinical instructor at several university settings and assisted teaching continuing education courses related to the movement system as developed by Dr Sahrmann and fellow colleagues. She is co-author of Therapeutic Exercise: Moving Toward Function, now in its 4th edition. Carrie was a presenter at the annual online Birth Healing Summit in 2023 with Lynne Schulte, PT, Founder of the Institute for Birth Healing. After 40 years of working as a Physical Therapist in the US, why does Carrie Hall call Breathing her Desert Island Exercise? This is the question that Dianne asked Carrie, that expanded into a long discussion where Carrie explains how breathing impacts the systems of the body, including the digestive, musculoskeletal and nervous systems. She talks about the benefits of mindful breathing practices that include expansion of the ribs, and outlines how the diaphragm moves in synchrony with the pelvic floor in normal rhythmical breathing. Often belly breathing bypasses the ribs to use the diaphragm, and Carrie outlines with detail how the ribs expand and how the muscles between each rib contribute to this. We need expansion of the ribs to be at the front, sides and the back, and often this is missed, so Carrie teaches how to include this in everyday life activities, so that it is not just one more thing on your "to do list". Breathing affects pelvic floor control, and practicing throughout pregnancy means that you can access this awareness both for during labour, and for afterwards when feeding and caring for your baby. Both relaxation and contraction of the pelvic floor are needed for it to work smoothly, coordinating with your breathing. An advocate of Physical Therapy Carrie outlines the benefits of getting a customised program to help you to focus your attention on the aspects of your breathing where you are having the biggest challenges. This can also be done when working with other health and fitness professionals with expertise in the area. Carrie's work encompasses the power of her new business name SISU, empowering her students and clients through "Gentle power coming together". She recommends this video of the breathing diaphragm and the pelvic floor working together, (it is in French) You can connect with Carrie via The link to her article, My Desert Island Exercise by Carrie is available to read . Therapeutic Exercise: Moving Toward Function is available here To find out more about Heart Math, mentioned in the podcast, visit For further information visit /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/27043575

Episode 47: UP Mums Holistic Postnatal Program with Paula Hindle 05/25/2023

Episode 46: Pregnancy and Postnatal Core Rehab with Kelly Dean from The Tummy Team 05/11/2023

Episode 46: Pregnancy and Postnatal Core Rehab with Kelly Dean from The Tummy Team Kelly Dean is the founder of The Tummy Team and a Physical Therapist with over 25 years of experience. Through finding out how to heal and recover from her own 6 finger diastasis (abdominal muscle separation), Kelly created functional core rehab programs as well as having one to one client appointments that are available internationally. In this podcast Kelly talks about how when postnatal mums can focus on core training and posture during daily activities, it is much easier for this to be sustainable in the recovery journey, which takes time. She and her team work with mums during pregnancy and after birth to help them set up their environment, including setting up their “feeding throne” for healthy alignment. When a mum is sitting to feed her baby every day for hours, her posture matters. It is like work, and if you were in a workplace, you would have an ergonomic set up, so taking time to set up your postnatal environment makes a difference to your early and ongoing recovery. Kelly explains how it is necessary to build your capacity, and not just power through, ignoring the warning signs your body is giving you at your current stage of recovery. This is also important for health and fitness professionals working with postnatal mums, to help find the right amount to “put on a mum’s plate”. Core rehab can help to build your emotional capacity as well as physical capacity and Kelly shares some of her insights in this area, including a story about a mum she saw early in the life of The Tummy Team. She has created a number of free videos to help mums see the difference in how to move well, and not so well, and has a podcast that includes stories of women on their journey of recovery, through working with The Tummy Team. For more information visit The Tummy Team website at Podcast by The Pregnancy Centre at /episode/index/show/thepregnancycentre/id/26809974