zoewood.movement

No kegels here - just some specific breathing drills to unwind, open space and allow the body to reorganise.

The photo on the left is from our first assessment session two weeks ago.
The second photo is from today.

This amazing woman is doing the work!! She does her breathing drills every day and every session we makes tweaks to stay on track.

Next we'll be moving up off the floor to make these changes stick with strength work

This client is 7 months postpartum, has prolapse and a lot of tension down her whole left side.

Two weeks ago before our assessment she was still struggling to feel any sensation in her pelvic floor and couldn't engage her low abs.

We did a lot of work in the first session on pelvic positioning (tucking/untucking + releasing the sacrum) and coordinating the breath - and she's now able to feel her anterior and posterior pelvic floor AND engage her low abs.

I LOVE helping women reconnect with their bodies in this way.

If you're struggling with your pelvic floor and feeling like nothing is changing despite doing all the "right things" please just reach out.
I'd love to support you too.

Yes, I am available online 👋

Merry happy holiday times.

So grateful to my little Island community.

The only before and afters I feel the need to share are ones like this!

This is Hannah. She's been coming to my small group training for about 1 year and I am SO proud of her and all the work she has put in to move and feel better in her body.

She has CRPS in both hands/arms but she would come and see me every single week and she'd happily do all the breathing, lower body and core alternatives I'd give her. And she's now using hand weights!

She's gotten so much stronger, but she's also moving so much better.

Today she reminded me of this toe touch from our first
assessment which was exactly one year ago yesterday - so we obviously had to retest to see where she's at!

How amazing is this change!

Go Hannah. So proud of you for putting in the work and showing up for yourself! 😍

𝗦𝗵𝗲’𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝘆𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲.

Rows of machines. Loud music. Big classes.
Everyone doing the same workout but no time to ask questions, no space to move at her own pace.

It felt impersonal. Intimidating.
“Just push through” and give it a go didn’t feel good - and her body let her know with low back niggles, pelvic floor symptoms and frustrating set-backs.

She didn’t want to be another body in a class.
She wanted someone to see her body -
to understand what it had been through,
and how to help it feel strong again.

What she needed was a small, supportive, women-only space to learn the basics - push, squat, hinge, pull, rotate, and how to reconnect with her core and pelvic floor through it all.

She needed 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

Weekly on Monday at 10.30am in Cowes.

✨ Build strength and mobility to make everyday movement feel easier
🌿 Reconnect with your pelvic floor and core
💛 Understand how your body moves, and what it needs to feel better
💪 Build confidence to start running, jumping and playing

This is strength training where women feel seen, supported, and capable. The small wins are celebrated and the "I'm feeling run down and need a slower pace" days are honoured.

𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟲-𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿
$180 for the full cycle
Mondays at 10.30am
Only 2 spaces remaining

𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗺, 𝟲𝟬+ 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸.

Send a message to book your spot. We’d love to have you join us.

Really cool to see these changes in one session with Monica.

Monica booked a movement assessment with me to go over proper core activation, breathing and pelvic floor connection. She's been working on her diastasis but struggling to close it.

We worked on her breathing and made some tweaks to her bottom up exhale - but what was most effective was showing her how to create space in her back body (back ribs) so that she could breathe without pushing so much pressure forward.

Sometimes it's just the small tweaks to your training that can have the biggest impact.

If you feel like you have a weak core or you struggle with pelvic floor symptoms, it's not always a core problem. It's often a ribcage problem.

So we worked on Monica's ribcage in a few different positions and the results speak for themselves.

We're going to continue tweaking her training to help her get more back body expansion, release the pelvic floor and ease up compressed areas like her low and mid back.

Looking forward to working more with Monica and seeing her progress!

I get asked about bottom up breathing so often, so here's a few videos demonstrating the differences between "belly breathing & pushing pressure down", "bottom up exhale", and then "maintaining pressure".

I usually teach people a bottom up exhale because it generally makes sense - the squeezing toothpaste out from the bottom up is a helpful visual.

But after years of doing this myself and not managing to address my massive rib flare, I'm now working on this "maintaining pressure" throughout the inhale and exhale. Its SO hard!
But I've made some progress in the last month of practising.

What I'm doing in the last video is starting with a full "bottom up exhale" to set the position first (think a brace like you're about to get punched in the belly) and then I'm trying to maintain that brace (aka pressure) as I inhale.
I'm aiming to keep my low abs and upper abs at the same level throughout the inhale and exhale.
My internal and external obliques are absolutely burning! I can only do 3 or 4 breaths like this before I need to take a break.
It's really challenging!

This has had a huge impact on my core strength already. So grateful to Jennah Jacobs for her help with this!

If you're struggling with a big ribcage flare and not sure if you have the breathing figured out, I'm just here to let you know this has taken me years!

I still practice this stuff every day.