Tara Faulmann  00:00

Welcome back, my friends, I have another fabulous guest for you on the podcast today, if you are a woman who has had a baby intends to have a baby or know someone who's gonna have a baby or has just had one, then you're definitely going to want to listen up. Our guest today is my friend and my physical therapist, Sarah Nichols. And I have learned so much from her about my body and how it's supposed to work, and where things might have gone wrong, and how to fix them. If you've been following along. I've been struggling with some lower back problems for a very long time. And she's been helping me basically recover through those, as Sarah was a licensed physical therapy assistant for 13 years. And she just loves to continue to educate and help women get their bodies back by improving their foundation, there are so many things that we're not taught about how to recover from pregnancy so that we don't have problems later, that a lot of the things that most of us are experiencing in our 30s 40s 50s Beyond actually can stem back to what happened to our bodies while we were pregnant, there was a lot going on. And most of us did not have the knowledge or the skills to recover from that properly. We just didn't know we didn't know. So Sara is going to talk to us about kind of getting back to those root cause of problems and what to do about it and how to find help, you're gonna love this interview, and you're gonna love her as much as I do. So let's go

Tara Faulmann  01:36

Welcome back to the no nonsense wellness podcast, the place for women who are trying to do all the things and stay healthy, sane and actually enjoy life in the process. Hey, I'm Tara, a trained therapist, a life coach, a nutrition coach and a fitness instructor. And I'm on a mission to help you take back control of your mind health and life. Each week, I'll be cutting through the nonsense and getting real with you. I'll bring you the insight and information you need to take control of your weight and help find food freedom. And finally break free from the thoughts that are sabotaging you and holding you back. You, my friend are powerful, and the world needs you to start showing up in a bigger way. It's time to get unstuck and start moving forward. So let's pop in those earbuds, tie up their shoes, let's walk and talk.

Tara Faulmann  02:46

Before we get started today, I just want to give you a quick personal message. There's been a lot of change going on around here at no-nonsense Wellness. And one of the changes is the Healthy Mind Healthy Body program. It's still there, it's online at TerraForm and.com, you should definitely check it out. One thing I want you to know is that the program the huge enormous hundreds of videos and worksheets and workbook program is still there. But it is at a very discounted price. Because the coaching piece I'm not doing right now. So if you want to take that program for a crazy deal without the community coaching piece, this is the time to do it. Jump on it summers coming, it's a great time to kind of get a hold of your relationship with food and really start tackling those things. And it's a program that you pay once you get to keep forever you can keep referring back to it as long as you need to. So if you haven't checked it out yet, go check it out. You'll love the price. It's a little ridiculous, but I really want you guys to just have this information. Alright, so check it out at Tara faulmann.com Okay, welcome back, my friends. I'm so happy you're here. I have a fun guest for you today. My physical therapists and good friend Sarah Nichols. Sarah, how are you today?

Sarah Nichols  03:58

I'm good. How are you?

Tara Faulmann  04:00

I am great. We I'm excited to talk to you. Those of you who don't know me personally don't know Sara personally probably either. And I want you to know that she is my physical therapist. So if you've been listening for a while, you know that I dealing with back problems like all the time, hopefully at the time of airing this episode. I'm better. That would be great. Yeah. But there is someone that I have learned so much from about how my body works and or doesn't work as the case may be. And I want you guys to learn from Sarah too, because I just think she's a wealth of knowledge. And just I'll let you introduce yourself in a sec, Sarah, but I have been to a lot of physical therapists in my life. And most of them are just sort of like here, do these five exercises, call me in the morning, right? But one thing that I really appreciate appreciate about you Sarah, is that I learned from you I learn and understand my body and that's a totally different thing. experience. So I like to say in this podcast, right, I'm always trying to teach women about their minds, how does their mind work? How does their body work? Because I can, I can hear all the do this and don't do that. But it doesn't connect unless I understand why. And that's just one thing that I really appreciate about you is that you helped me understand the why.

Sarah Nichols  05:20

Oh, that's perfect. That's all.

Tara Faulmann  05:23

Good. Good. So why don't you tell us a little bit about you? How did you get into this?

Sarah Nichols  05:29

Okay, um, so it was a long time ago that I was not happy with my current job working at a bank. And I always felt that I had a purpose in life to help people. And I was injured, actually, I got attacked by a dog and that my hand severed a nerve, I had to have surgery. And then six months later, he attacked me again, and bent into my arm. So I had a lot of nerve pain and muscle weakness, and scar tissue. Can it just brought me to physical therapy for my hand, and I loved the environment, I loved the casualness and the things that I learned from the therapist. And so not being happy with my job, wanting the career, I just wanted to check out physical therapy, went to get my brakes fixed, and I was desperate for a job. The guy's like, well, I call on a physical therapy clinic. So you want to give me your resume. And if it doesn't work out for the front office, we'll call you. So a month later, they called me. Yeah, oh, my god, physical therapy. That sounds amazing. And I remember how my experience was. And so I found a school and signed up to go to a physical therapist assistant school. So I was 27 at the time, and I didn't want to go to school for a length of time to be an actual physical therapist on the PTA program, signed up, never looked back, and just fell in love with it and got into it. And my favorite part about it all was teaching people about their bodies, educating I originally wanted to go to college to be a teacher didn't work out. And so this was not a way for me to reach people. So I knew that the first five years of my career, you're a sponge, you learn as much as you can from everybody else who knows everything, and has been going to school for a long time. And so it was a struggle for me as a woman and as a physical therapist assistant to be respected by male physical therapists specifically. And add clients to that, just that first part, I really had to work hard to gain people's trust. And that is key to helping somebody is educating them to let them know, Hey, you can trust me, and I'm going to help you. So then 13 years into my career, I Well, well, 13 years was total in the clinic. But after about eight years, I started realizing that women specifically needed help, and they weren't getting any information from their doctors. Were coming into PT years after having babies and having all this back pain,

Tara Faulmann  08:04

kind of seeing the same things over and over again and women. Yeah, yes. So back pain, hip pain, knee pain,

Sarah Nichols  08:12

just instability. And the SI joints, which is the sacral iliac joint connects the sacrum and the pelvis bones, and our nerves form. So our spinal cord comes down in it splits and it goes through that junction to innervate, into the muscles into our legs. And that's where a lot of people get sciatic pain, because the instability in the SI joints can impinge on that nerve. And that gives you that pain on your leg, the pain is your first warning that there's a problem, we don't address it, it then becomes numb. And that's really bad. That means full compression on that nerve. Those muscles are not getting the information from the brain through that nerve connection. So I really loved working with women and helping them understand their bodies and what they went through. And I noticed a

Sarah Nichols  09:03

unique situation, right compared to Yes, men.

Sarah Nichols  09:07

Absolutely. Absolutely. And,

Tara Faulmann  09:09

you know, we all know who when we all of us who have had kids, we know the trauma our body goes through, but I don't think we really fully understand it. Yeah. It's not explained to us. Well, the first time you told me that you explained it as trauma. And I had never thought of it that way. But that is exactly what it is the trauma of carrying a child and then the trauma of birthing a child. And if we think about trauma, normally if we were in a car accident and experienced trauma, we would go get help for that trauma. For some reason in childbirth, we experienced trauma and no one helps us and we don't even know that we need it.

Sarah Nichols  09:53

Yeah, exactly. Because especially after we have the babies, we're taking care of them and we just get further and further and further down that ladder of need. So when we get pregnant, there is a hormone that gets released into the bloodstream is called relaxing. It peaks at in the first trimester within 14 weeks, and then at delivery. So what relaxing does is it allows those ligaments to stretch and allow for the expansion of our pelvis and to allow that baby to grow in there. The only thing is that with ligaments, we don't have a blood supply to those ligaments. So once they're stretched, that's kind of it. However, there is a small period of time that relaxes and stays in our body that can help those ligaments to contract like after you give birth. Yes, so it stays in the body up to five months postpartum. Okay. And it can be beneficial to help improve our muscle tone

Tara Faulmann  10:54

and that ligament integrity, but we we don't know. So ideally, you're taking advantage of that five month window to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Sarah Nichols  11:05

Yes, exactly. But there's certain exercises that you do specifically to kind of have that work with that relaxin to get the ligaments and the muscles back to where they were prior to pregnancy.

Tara Faulmann  11:19

Okay, I can hear the women listening like, crap. No one told me this. Exactly. No one told me this. Why did no one tell me this that I needed to not just figure out how to be a mom, but I need to take care of my body during this time? I was not at all. How does that how does that work? As a C section mom, which I know you are to? How does that work in C section recovery as well. The same, same, it's

Sarah Nichols  11:49

the same. However, with C sections, you know, because those muscles are cut, you got that nerve severed nerves, once they're severed, they do not grow back to each other and reconnect, they branch off to the side to the next AirSTAR which we have nerves everywhere. reconnected there. So we'll have like spots where we'll have numbness and that's going to be forever. Yeah, I do. So because of that numbness, that muscle against not getting that communication from the brain, and so we'll have some weakness that we can't avoid.

Tara Faulmann  12:20

So ideally, there's a five month window after postpartum where you weren't doing specific exercises, working with the relax and in your body. Yes, to what like close things back up, tighten things back up. What's it doing?

Sarah Nichols  12:35

Yep, exactly. So we've expanded, and then when we strengthen those muscles, and which then kind of pulls those ligaments closer together. So it can tracks those ligaments gives that support back to the pelvis. That's the main issue with women. Because we have what's called a QL angle from the hip to the knee or is wider than men so that we bear children. So strengthen those muscles tightens everything up and brings everything cinches it in like a belt that's around your hips. So think about that way, you're just you're squeezing that belt, and it's pulling those pelvis bones back closer together for that support.

Tara Faulmann  13:13

Okay, I know it's hard to talk about, like what an exercise looks like on a podcast. But if ya if someone was like, Oh, I'm about to give birth, I want to know what these things are, where might they find what those exercises are?

Sarah Nichols  13:27

There is a plethora of information out there from physical therapist that do their own websites or podcasts or wherever, and a lot of it comes down to the muscles that surround the pelvis. So you have your glute muscles, you have the gluteus medius muscle, which is along the side of our hips, that is crucial to balance helps us walk. And so we strengthen those that kind of helps to cinch in and compress those SI joints to bring it in. So for instance, you can do clams, anything bringing your leg out to the side, which is called abduction. Raising the hip up, it's called a hip height. So that hiking that hip up just basically what it says. And doing those kinds of things help with that. Also, pelvic floor strengthening. You can do that internally or externally. Internally, a lot of people know it as a key goal. But you can further engage it by squeezing so that you feel like okay, I'm trying not to go to the bathroom, but also squeezing the glutes. And then the core is if you're trying to sit up. So it's a lot of deep, deep muscle strengthening. And but again, if you wanted to get very specific, there are physical therapists that train for Women's Health specifically. And they do that internal and external strengthening so that would be somewhere somebody would want to go. So

Tara Faulmann  14:55

I would just say to if you are out there listening and you know someone who Who is still of the age who is having babies are going to have babies? Send them this podcast so that they can understand that truly treating yourself with physical therapy after pregnancy directly after pregnancy is going to benefit you literally for the rest of your life. If only we would have known that,

Sarah Nichols  15:23

then unfortunately, the way our medical system works, though, they only want to see you if you're having a problem if you have a problem. Yeah, uh huh. They're not looking at preventative, they're looking at, oh, you're having back pain. You're having hip pain? Okay, let's send you to physical therapy.

Tara Faulmann  15:36

After you have a baby. It's like, well, of course, you have a problem. You just had a baby. Like, it's so frustrating.

Sarah Nichols  15:43

Yes, yes. So you know, you might have to tweak a little bit and lie and say I'm having back pain.

Tara Faulmann  15:50

And coverage. We've all done it. Come on.

Sarah Nichols  15:53

Yeah, sometimes you got to do a little white lie to get yourself. That's why you

Tara Faulmann  15:57

got to find a good doctor who will be like, we'll help you out with that, too. Yes,

Sarah Nichols  16:01

exactly. Because then with our system of their medical system, you have to be referred to physical therapy by your doctor. So talk to your gynecologist or your OB and some say, Hey, I would like to go to physical therapy. But I would like to go for somebody who specializes in women's health. Yeah, they don't know that. Then you can just call the clinics and ask him, Sir, you can search it online, too.

Tara Faulmann  16:26

Okay. That's great advice. So what if we are someone who missed the five month relaxing window? Which is most of us listening. What

Sarah Nichols  16:37

that? Yes. Yes, it is possible. Actually, let me

Tara Faulmann  16:41

change that question. If we miss that five months, that five month window, and we are now let's say in our 40s and experiencing problems, is that related? In Yes, yes. Okay.

Sarah Nichols  16:55

Yes. Yes. Of course. Other things just well, depending on are lots of things could have happened. But you know, if you are in sports, car accidents, whatever, but most times it's I found that it. It's centered on that. The birthing and being pregnant. So yes, it is possible, I've treated myself, I've had issues with my sciatic on my son, I had it throughout my pregnancy after my daughter, or with my daughter was fine. And then afterwards that kicked in. And as long as I do the exercises, I don't have problems. So

Tara Faulmann  17:31

and you do them all the time. Like that's a consistent thing for you

Sarah Nichols  17:35

know, not all the time, once you have built a foundation, and everything's feeling good. It's something to use as a tool that like down the road, like, oh, okay, I've not been very active, are starting to have those pains. Again, I need to do those exercises, and then it brings you back.

Sarah Nichols  17:49

Okay. And that's I know, what we are working on with me as well is a lot of those same exercises. A lot of those same spots that weren't rebuilt very well, for me personally. Yeah. So for all of us, we're all having the same problem. Okay. So I think that's such an important point. Because I feel like women, when we get into our like, mid to late 30s 40s 50s, beyond, we start to have this feeling of our body of like, we're broken, we're broken, and we can't be fixed, and it'll never be okay again. And I just, I really like the kind of mindset reframe of, yes, you are a little bit broken, but it's not your fault, and it can be fixed. It's not because there's something wrong with you. It's just because you had a birth experience, no matter what that look like, and your body needs help to fix that.

Sarah Nichols  18:41

Yeah. And majority of us, we go into that mindset of, you know, we don't take care of ourselves, and we're taking care of our children's next child comes, and then the next child comes, and it's just a trickle effect. But you know, I've helped women that have had four children and years later, they're like, I'm having all these problems, and given their exercises, and they're like, oh my gosh, I feel so much better. So our muscles always continue to strengthen till the day we die, we can always strengthen our muscles. And your when you're talking about like feeling broken, it's because our foundation is weak. And that pelvic floor is what is crucial to strengthen to have good pelvic lower back hip and knees, that stability and strength. It's our foundation that we need to build upon. So it can always be built upon.

Tara Faulmann  19:30

I love that. That's such an important point because that's what we talk about right and nutrition and mindset and and getting to health we always talk about building the foundation for us it's sleep and movement and water and stress management. I throw in there that you have to have the foundation but I think when it comes to our physical body and our physical ability, we don't think of the foundation we think of like well, I just should go run three miles, I gotta get my cardio in. I gotta go lift some weights and we bypass the foundational point I for sure that is 100%. Me. I bypass emotional peace. And so just like we do and healthy mind healthy body when it comes to our physical body, we've got to go back to basics. We've got to go back to Foundation.

Sarah Nichols  20:17

Yes, absolutely. And it's because women are meant to multitask and take on so much. We think like, okay, more is better. And I just jump ahead and just yeah, like you said, go for that run I used to run before when I was in my 20s. And I lost weight grade. And you know, yeah, it has to do, right. Yeah, no, you're not. And I always tell people that let's build that foundation, you will get back to those things. But let's build that foundation first, so that we don't have any injuries, because you're going to exacerbate what's already occurring. If you don't build from that foundation, which is the back the pelvis, the hips,

Tara Faulmann  20:57

it's hard. I say a lot. You have to slow down to speed up. Yes, true. And that here's my here's my problem. I know that mentally and I have accepted that for food for mindset for health in general. But for some reason, my body, that's a hard thing for me to, you know, I find it all the time, the idea of having to slow down to speed up. So for me, that's the final frontier, except that for your physical performance, and again, we're not talking about how your body looks, we're talking about how your body performs. Yes. And yes, it's hard to accept, it's hard to grab onto, it's hard to live out, slow down so you can speed up, but it really is key, like you really do have to

Sarah Nichols  21:39

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I saw it, it happens at the young age all the way up, you know, to we get into the geriatric ages, and women are still pushing through the pain, and I gotta do this in that. And if you don't, you will get there, it's gonna take a little bit longer, and you have to have patience, and human beings don't have patience for life. Everything right now, it started with our generation, unfortunately, and I think just talking about listening to this and knowing that it's okay, it's okay, that you're going to have some setbacks to you're gonna, you know, have a couple steps back. And as long as you maintain the course, you'll never get back to that ground zero again, you're never gonna go completely back, you're always going to have something that you built upon, and then just have patience and time, it will get there. And the older we get, the longer it's going to take, which requires more patience, but you will get there, but you have to want it, you have to want it and that pain will go away.

Tara Faulmann  22:39

I know there's a lot of women out there me being one of them. Who wants so badly to believe that the pain will go away. But there's always like this nagging feeling of like, it's just not, it's just not going to win a hug when you're in Yeah, it's so helpful for me to talk to you. Because you do give us a little bit more confidence and belief that yes, this is something that you can conquer to. It doesn't have to be like this. Yes.

Sarah Nichols  23:07

And I've seen it over and over, like I said, 13 years in the clinic, I saw it over and over and over again. And you know, I had women that were so strong, and they would get their knee replacement. And they're used to like BUM BUM BUM BUM running all over the place. And those first couple of weeks, it just tears them down. They're not sleeping and they come in so emotional and just drained and wait till that 30 days, wait two or three days you will then the pain will relax, you're able to sleep you get comfortable in bed and it happens. So in our by human beings, they're consistent. And personalities can't tell you what row that person is going to need to take. And a lot of it is just for us moms. It's just had patients that don't get there.

Tara Faulmann  23:48

Yeah, what, what are the things that you see, most often that you would say our long term effects of pregnancy, back pain anywhere or specific places much

Sarah Nichols  24:03

lower back, it just depends on the person. Women who are still having children and their breastfeeding, a lot of upper back pain. Then once that's done, then they're having neck pain and lower back pain on it's due to the curvature of the spine. When we're breastfeeding, we're hunched over everything is very forward, increasing those curvatures in decreasing curvatures throwing everything off, so and then as time goes on, they're not lifting the child and they're caring and I'm one hit, then we're going to have some hip pain, we're going to have one sided strengthening, the other side is weak. So then it turns into balance, our body's getting out of balance. And so when I would treat people, it's all about putting that body back in balance, what sides weak, what side strong, let's focus on that weak side. So long term if you're maybe like in your 50s or 60s and you're having hit deterioration with As women are getting hip replacements, they're having knee pain, because of that imbalance and it was never corrected. So it just depends on what where you are in your life cycle. But that's,

Tara Faulmann  25:12

I feel like I've seen that pattern. Yeah, millions of times in women.

Sarah Nichols  25:19

Yes. Yeah. Everybody can relate. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And if we don't think about, we're like, well, I need to be able to use my right hand and hold this child on my left hip. So that's usually a consistent thing. Whatever dominant hand you are your babies on the other side. You know, they have those carriers. But sometimes, you know, the baby doesn't want to be in it. And caring is just the way to go. So yeah,

Tara Faulmann  25:40

yeah. Okay. Any tips that you would give women who are there, they're listening, and they're like, oh, my gosh, this is me. This is totally me. Where would you tell them to start,

Sarah Nichols  25:51

you want to go to your doctor first. Because in order to get to physical therapy, you need to be referred by your physician. So start there, stop, start with a female doctor. I don't recommend a male doctor because they don't understand they didn't go through it. You know, they know objectively what you're going through, but they can't truly understand. So I would recommend a female and then asked, Hey, I, I want to go to physical therapy. But I want to see somebody who deals with women's health specifically, might be able to help you with that. But like I said earlier, you can also find them online, just type in physical therapy, women's health. I don't know what credentials would list to show you that it's for women's health, but they should make it pretty clear in the website.

Tara Faulmann  26:36

That that's like a specialty of theirs. Yes, yes. Is there a special training that they get? Or is it just sort of experience working with women who have the same problems over and over and over again?

Sarah Nichols  26:48

It's a certification. It's a certification. It's okay. Yes. So physical therapists, there they are doctorates. So they go leave their schooling is seven years long. And once you get either, then you can specialize in different areas, and then those are certifications, so they will be a certified women's health. Okay.

Tara Faulmann  27:08

Honestly, I didn't even know that existed. Oh, great. I've always gone for like the Sports Physical Therapy situation, right? Yes. Because that's what I want to do. I want to work out again. So I go to the Sports Physical Therapy person. Yeah. Not understanding that the underlying problem was the women stuff. Yes. I was exacerbating it in lots of ways by doing the sports I was doing, but the women's stuff was the root cause.

Sarah Nichols  27:38

And there's some women that need internal strengthening, so they have tools that they can use to work on the internal pelvic floor muscles, which can be uncomfortable for some women. But I think after we've had so many kids like, Yeah, whatever, you know, everyone, everything everywhere. Anyway,

Tara Faulmann  27:56

yeah. When you're when you're pregnant, that's like public property down there.

Sarah Nichols  28:01

Exactly. But there's a lot of women that don't know that as well. They don't understand. They're like, Oh, that exists as well. It's like, no, it's it's not always just the outside. It's the internal and they have tools that you can give for electrical stimulation to wake those muscles up. Because sometimes externally, we can't get to them. So they have that as well. Yeah.

Tara Faulmann  28:25

You just reminded me to have another conversation that we've had that was kind of a mind shift for me. And that was the idea of strengthening versus stretching. Because whenever we're feeling pain, our first inclination is to stretch it. Yes. And that's not usually the correct thing to do. No, no. So

Sarah Nichols  28:45

yeah, I do say that a tight muscle is a weak muscle. When our muscles are tight, when they're weak, they will tighten up so they can still perform their function. So if we stretch, it gives us that temporary relief of like, oh, okay, that goes so much better. However, we're just further weakening that muscle. By lengthening it when it doesn't have the strength to be in that lengthened position. It wants to go back into that shortened position. So when we strengthen the muscle, it gains flexibility. So I've actually been experiencing this myself, I've been dealing with an issue that I'm resolving. And I've been mainly just focusing on strengthening and getting my balance correct. In my legs, and the tightness feeling is going away. When we feel tight, we can overstretch and so if you're pregnant, do not stretch and stretch, don't like oh, I need to go to yoga. I just need to stretch everything out. You're already stretched. You need to shorten you need to strengthen. So you should go immediately to glute strengthening. Hip Flexors strengthening hamstring strengthening, core strengthening, you can still do core strengthening while you're pregnant. It's not going to hurt you or the baby's going to actually help you in the long term. Help You Get Back fast stir so we can strengthen during pregnancy we'll bounce back quicker at the end because we got that relaxed and going through our body.

Tara Faulmann  30:07

Again, totally opposite, right? There's probably women in their 50s and 60s listening to this right now. And they're like, What is the opposite of what they told me to do when I was pregnant? Like, take it easy and don't do anything and gentle this and gentle that. And then now you see women like deadlifting and doing all this stuff while they're pregnant. You're like, Wait a second. Yeah, I've been strong, because I you just I intuitively, I think we all know, strong going in strong coming out. Yes. And that's not what they told us.

Sarah Nichols  30:40

Doctors aren't I was told my first pregnancy, my doctor said don't do anything. She didn't want me. I was told many times, like don't go on the elliptical do on the treadmill. And on skinny off, you know, she didn't want me to do anything. And that was to my detriment, and which is why I had a lot of back pain. And I did not bounce back at the end or afterwards, with my daughter. I knew better. So I was more active. And I had a better pregnancy. Yeah, if you

Tara Faulmann  31:06

write a book, I want it to be about this. I'll just make a list all the things Tara

Sarah Nichols  31:11

wishes she knew. I love it. That's so helpful for me. Thank you.

Tara Faulmann  31:16

Yeah, I'll look forward to that. For me, I have to fix all the broken stuff. But Sarah is going to help you keep it from getting broken in the first year. Oh, that's so good. And that was such a shift for me to hear that. Because that is my first reaction. Oh, it hurts stretch it out. Oh, it hurts stretch it out. But not understanding like, oh, it hurts. It's because you're weak, you got to strengthen that specific spot. So then my first thought is like the big movers, right? And go do some squats, go do some. That's not the thing you need to strengthen. You need to strengthen the little guys that are doing all the holding you together?

Sarah Nichols  31:50

Yes, absolutely. And the one thing that sticks out in my mind is the shoulder, the rotator cuff muscles. They're there. They're big, but they're small compared to all the other ones. They're just the most to assist the humerus for moving. That's how it is everywhere else. Every joint, we have small muscles, the piriformis muscle that is in the back that and our glutes behind our glutes and the very bottom and a get tight and they get overworked because the glutes are weak. And so those small, stabilizing muscles are so important to keep strong. And then go strengthen the big ones. Always start with your foundation, strengthen that first and then go into the bigger muscle groups because then you'll be working then isolating.

Tara Faulmann  32:35

Yeah, turning them on, as they say, right. Yeah, exactly. Just such a wealth of knowledge there. I'm just so appreciative of you all, thank

Sarah Nichols  32:44

you so much,

Tara Faulmann  32:45

if someone wants to So Sarah is local to me, up here in the Northwest. But if you are listening somewhere else, how could someone get a hold of you? What should they do?

Sarah Nichols  32:55

You know, when this is posted, I'll have an email that you can email me and if you have any questions, or we could do a consult, you know that a lot of times, we just need to talk about it, we need to have somebody who has answers. And we don't want to have to make an appointment, pay a copay, you know, in somebody's like little console. And then if there's a true issue that I can help with, and we can discuss how we can how I can further help. I love it. So I will link there's email in the show notes. So you can grab it there. Or you can always just contact me and I can forward you information as well. So any last thoughts, anything that we didn't talk about that you

Tara Faulmann  33:29

want to make sure we get in before we sign off

Sarah Nichols  33:32

foundation, foundation foundation. That is a key string, foundation. If you have a problem, don't let it go and go, Oh, those just get better? I promise you it won't. It won't attack it while it's fresh. And it's just now happening. It's your body's way of saying hey, there's a problem. You never want to get to numbness. You always want to have that pain, because that's telling you things are still alive, things are still working. And don't let it go and get into the doctor and get in to see a physical therapist because they're gonna have the time to sit and listen and figure out the cause to your problem

Tara Faulmann  34:11

to get to that root cause so you can work on the foundation foundation foundation. Yes. Perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much. There's a lot more I think we could talk about

Sarah Nichols  34:23

Oh, yeah. And I'm excited. I love talking about this. It's a passion of mine. So thank you for having me

Tara Faulmann  34:37

friends, thanks so much for being here. If you found value in today's episode, will you do me a favor and head over to iTunes? Find the no nonsense wellness podcast and subscribe and leave me a review. It would mean the world to me and help other people find the show. And I'd love to connect with you more. So find me on Instagram. I'm @tarafaulmann. Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your stories and tag me. I'll see you over there