Movement Science: Lauren Ohayon's Journey from Yoga to Integrated Practice

The Path to Movement Science

Lauren: I was actually living in New York City. And I was working for Channel 13. Not a yogi, not a yoga teacher at the time. And I was doing yoga a lot. And I just thought, you know, just self development. And I did the teacher training program. When I graduated, I didn’t really think about teaching. Although I started teaching to get experience, I lived in a 900 square foot studio. And I would teach classes and send an email out over Channel 13’s email list. And there’d be five spots every week. And every week, five people would show up from the channel. It was awesome. 

And right after, very shortly after I started traveling, and I was in Cambodia, and in Thailand, and I spent months and months traveling, and I would just, every youth hostel I got to, I would do sunrise yoga in the garden. And it just evolved that way. There was no intention ever of being a teacher. I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be you.

Ariana: You think I’m a journalist?

Lauren: I think you wear that hat really well.

Ariana: Oh, well, thank you. I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing half the time. But I appreciate that. Thank you. What teacher training did you do back then? Because there weren’t as many.

Lauren: I don’t want to say. Should I say it?

Ariana: If you don’t want it in, I can take it out.

Lauren: You know, the training, I did my training at the Laughing Lotus. Yeah, I don’t think that’s terrible. I don’t affiliate myself with them in that way. I mean, I wish them lots of light and love and all that yoga bullshit. But it was just a vehicle, basically. It wasn’t… I have to say, yeah, it was just a vehicle.

Ariana: Okay. And did you… So when did you realize it was just a vehicle? What did you pursue after that?

Lauren: The training itself was a little bit challenging. It was a challenging training and throughout the training, I didn’t know if I would continue in the training because it was very challenging.

Ariana: Physically or because of the content?

Lauren: Emotionally, yeah, emotionally. It was the second training that they had done. I think they were in their early stages. It was a hard training. Many of us in the training struggled with it. And when I finished the training, it was like I took my certificate and ran. I mean, I didn’t ever… I had such a bad feeling about it that I didn’t really want to look back. And so, yeah, basically it was when the training ended, I bolted. And when I started teaching yoga, I was living in Israel at the time. 

So after I traveled for many months in Asia, I moved to Israel. And I started teaching yoga in Israel and I taught a very intense power yoga, very kind of that style yoga, vinyasa, but really intense vinyasa. And in Israel, people loved it. They really loved it. I think they’re used to the drill sergeant style and they just loved how hard it was and how demanding. And my own body gave way on me very early on. And I started seeing so many other yoga teacher friends and students. And so my departure from Vinyasa was very early on. I mean, I immediately started examining what was going on, you know, trying to figure out was it me, was it the practice, was it my body, was it… So I think that my departure from that style of yoga, you know, happened early on in my teaching.

Ariana: Would you mind mentioning one of the things that you felt was happening in your body that didn’t feel right because of the practice?

Lauren: Well, my back was always hurting me. My body always felt kind of… I felt spent and exhausted a lot and my body hurt. And then I herniated two discs in my lumbar spine.

Movement Science and Injury Recovery

Ariana: During the practice or did it happen?

Lauren: No, it started… I mean, it was a slow progression. I’m not sure that anyone ever really herniates their disc all in one moment. I think it’s a cumulative experience that you might… the experience of it might be, oh, it just happened, but it’s really cumulative. So for me, like I was feeling my back, yeah, right? I was feeling… there were things I’d always kind of feel my nagging pain and it was nagging and nagging. And then one day I went in for a Shiatsu treatment. You know, I was spot treating it left, right, and center, any spot treatment I could find. 

And whatever happened in that sent me to the emergency room where I did an MRI and I found out that I had herniated two discs. I have to say that I don’t want to blame yoga for it. Do you know what I mean? It’s so much deeper than that. So much more layered and complicated. You know, there’s the fact that my body has inherently tons of flexibility to it, lots of mobility. You know, so there’s a combination of many things going on. But I wasn’t… I have to say that I was never taught to practice in this… what I now see as a mindful, intelligent way.

Ariana: So is that when movement science became part of your practice, like immediately after?

Lauren: Yes. I was laid up in bed. I was told I needed surgery. I was told it was very bad. My dad had had many back surgeries. None of them had really helped. My mother got on a plane in one minute and literally got on a plane the next day and begged me. She was like, don’t have back surgery. Which I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to do anyway. But you know, the pain was excruciating. So she said, just get into bed and stay. 

So I got into bed and I stayed in bed for a really long time. And during that time, friends of mine started sending me books on back pain and recommending back pain books. One of them being John Sarno’s book, which was like, it’s all in your mind. Which really helped actually. And then another one was a very old, well-received book called Back Care Basics. And it really started opening my mind to this concept of, oh, there is this concept of what’s happening in your body is this effect of what you’ve done to it. You know, what you’re experiencing in your body is the experience of being injured is the whole part of you. Does that make sense? As opposed to this thing that’s happening to you that you can just fix by surgery.

Ariana: Yeah. And also like what you were saying before, it’s not just a singular isolated event. It’s an accumulation of how you have been using your body and moving your body. So yeah, any other books that you read during that time that stuck with you?

Understanding Movement Science Fundamentals

Lauren: No. I started looking into Tom Myers’ work even back then. I mean, that was like 15 years ago. But I remember somewhere around there someone passed me on, it was either his work or another book on structural integration. I remember, but I started becoming very interested in learning how the body works. I first started in anatomy, which I then realized really quickly was wrong. I wasn’t interested in knowing how your biceps contract and what they attach to. I was more interested in understanding the bigger picture of how things work. 

So I think I started first with anatomy and then quickly realized I don’t want to be studying anatomy. I want to be studying how things work in your body. Your body is a machine. I want to know. I want to understand the machine. I don’t remember specifically what books. It’s funny, I should remember. At this moment now, I can’t remember. But I can say that the course that changed my life at that moment was that when I moved back to the States a few years later, I started doing Leslie Kamenoff’s course at The Breathing Project. 

I mean, up until then, I did a lot of amazing workshops, but I was living in Israel and there wasn’t that much, but I was doing what I could. But when I moved to the States, I really started studying much deeper into movement science and anatomy and movement. And I studied with Leslie and Amy Matthews a lot.

Ariana: And I’ve taken one or two courses with each of them. I haven’t done an intensive or a full course with either of them. But it’s interesting what you said before that you realized the anatomy wasn’t what you were looking for. Because for me, I felt that that was a good stepping stone for me to learn those isolated parts and then move on to the bigger picture. So what was it about the way that Leslie and Amy teach that gave you that whole… started to give you the bigger picture?

Lauren: Well, I will say, I will go back to it for a second. I did Pilates. So one of the things that got me out of pain really, I felt like was huge for me, was Pilates. So when I was laid up and my back was in a lot of pain and I stopped doing yoga, I started doing Pilates.

Ariana: What kind of Pilates? What method? I’m just curious.

Lauren: You know, I don’t know. It was in Israel. I trained in Stat, but the place I went to was not Stat. It was like its own… I don’t know, things are done so differently over there. I’m not really sure, but whatever it was, it was magical for me. It was like all about stabilization, which my body had none of. I’d been a dancer and a gymnast my whole life. So for me it was all about how groovy I could be with my body. And Pilates was so much more about how you can be more clear on what you’re doing with your body when you’re doing it. And so I did a Pilates training, but when we did the anatomy portion, I just remembered that I had to sit and memorize so much. 

And it just didn’t make sense to me. It was like why… I don’t know. Anatomy was a great stepping stone, like you said, but it felt to me like it was too much about memorizing where something was attached and where it was inserted. So then when I went to Amy and Leslie, what was very different about that is Leslie barely talks about the only muscle he ever mentions by name practically is the diaphragm. And he doesn’t… I mean, he does talk about muscles, but he’s more about how things work and how you can see people and how you can see bodies in motion and how you can understand what you’re seeing. 

And Amy is a lot about how you can embody in your own body your structure, as opposed to sometimes you’ll hear people say, you shouldn’t do this and you shouldn’t do that and you shouldn’t do this. You’ll rarely hear Amy Matthews saying, you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that. It’s like, well, how does that feel in your body? Well, when you do that, what is the experience that you’re having? And that was mind-blowing to me. And I loved that experience of there’s no one… there’s no really one right way. There’s many ways. And then you figure out which way will serve you best.

Movement Science Education and Learning

Ariana: Yeah, I find that a useful approach also. Because I think I did for a while get stuck in the, well, this has to work this way and I’m glad that I’ve let go of that kind of rigid approach. So Amy Matthews… and does she still… this is just for… I’m just curious. Well, how long ago was this, did you say?

Lauren: I stopped really studying with them, I would say, like six years ago. But I did, like, let’s say five years with them.

Ariana: And she’s still very much… She comes from the Bonnie Bainbridge approach, correct?

Lauren: She’s very… yes. Her approach is very, I feel like, holistic and embodied and kinesthetic. It’s so much more about sensing and feeling rather than doing and knowing. I mean, the knowing comes from the sensing and feeling.

Ariana: And so what are some of your other… who are some of your other influences these days?

Lauren: Well, I then learned about Katie Bowman’s work. Katie Bowman is a biomechanical scientist who teaches movement, but she’s very big… you know, she’s really big on natural movement and removing the barriers that prevent you from living in a way that’s more in line with how our bodies are designed to be used. So… and I discovered her about three years ago, maybe a little longer, and I really loved what she was saying. 

And so I did her certification and I’m certified to teach… It was called Restorative Exercise. They are changing the name to Nutritious Movement. And so I am certified there. That’s a big… that’s a… my community of people is more around there than Leslie and Amy at this point. I’m just more enmeshed in that community. There’s a Facebook forum and groups and… yeah. But I kind of… yeah. Katie, I would say that that’s a big part of my life right now.

Ariana: I’ve had Katie on the show a few times and we’ve talked a little bit about furniture, which I know you just went furniture-free with your move to Miami, which… You know, I understand where it comes from and I can imagine the benefits. And I’m just so not there. I don’t really want… I spend more time on the floor, for sure, purposely, but I’m not interested in getting rid of my furniture.

Lauren: That’s amazing. How amazing for you that you know that about yourself, right?

Ariana: How’s that going for you?

Lauren: It’s going great. You know, I was never that attached to furniture. And I have three children, three girls, and they were not wild about… They didn’t care about giving up the couch because we never really used it anyway. But when we got rid of their beds, that was like… they were not happy. But they got over it. I mean, kids are so present and then they forget. Do you know what I mean? It’s so intense and then it’s done.

Ariana: And they’re resilient too.

Lauren: Miami now. And we went to the Keys and my daughter came into my room that we were sleeping in and slept on my floor. A sheet on the hard floor because they were like, the bed is awful. We can’t sleep on that. That was interesting.

Ariana: So what do they actually sleep on at home?

Lauren: We sleep on wool toppers. I mean, they’re wool, but then they’re covered in cotton. They’re like these organic wool. They’re like, I think, two and a half inches each, maybe, or two? One and a half inches. And so they’re really thin and we’ve, every morning, just fold them up so that they don’t collect dust. I was going to put them on some sort of a low platform, but we never got to it. We all sleep on the same thing. Yeah, there was this big sale on wool toppers last year and we got a bunch.

Ariana: And so how was it transitioning to that? Did you go through some aches and pains along the way?

Lauren: No. No, it was really?

Ariana: Oh, good.

Lauren: No. But like I said, I didn’t sleep on, like, I’m not that attached to furniture and I didn’t sleep on some big comfy…

Ariana: A squishy bed.

Lauren: No, and I slept my whole life until I moved out of my parents’ house. I feel like I slept on their floor because I was scared of the dark. So I’m probably used to sleeping on the floor because I did it so much as a kid.

Ariana: Anatomy in motion. So you just did that course with Gary.

Lauren: Yeah. That was amazing. That was a great course.

Ariana: That’s something I have been wanting to do for a while. So would you mind sharing maybe one thing that take away from that or something that you’re applying in your work now that you appreciate from that course?

Lauren: Well, what I appreciate about Gary and Chris, it’s funny because people always talk about Gary, but I feel like Chris, who is co-teacher with him, he’s just as incredible. He’s phenomenal. They both are very, it’s funny, they’re very holistic about it actually. They’re like these chaps from England and they call everyone else chaps. And they, you know, but their approach is what are you experiencing and what’s missing in your body and what’s missing from the equation. When you look at someone move, what’s missing? Their approach is not fix, fix, fix. Make it better. Fix it. 

So I loved how they taught, how they teach looking at the body and analyzing movement. It was incredible. It just gives a different framework to how you see every, how you see bodies moving. And again, what’s missing and what can make that person feel a little bit more centered and grounded and bring them back into balance. As opposed to like you have to make that person perfect. I feel like so many healing modalities are like I’m here to fix you and make you perfect again. 

And Anatomy in Motion was more about going, you know, you’re giving yourself and your clients the experience of something different. So if you see someone comes into your clinic and they’re all, they’re in a lot of pain and you can see that they’re maybe rotated to the left and shifted to the right. And their neck is going one way and their hips are going the other way and their feet are very disorganized. It just gives you a context to start to organize them so that they can go beyond this journey towards center as opposed to, you know.

Ariana: Yeah. Did you learn anything about yourself? Like how you were, did you discover that you were a little bit off center or maybe…

Lauren: We all are, right? We’re all so off center. You know, to be honest, I’ve been working on, this sounds crazy. I’m going to sound like a lunatic. I’ve been working on myself for so many years. I mean, since my back injury, I’ve been really… When I had my three kids and I would look at how I held them and was I cock-eyeing my spine and was I lifting my hip? And then doing all the work with Katie Bowman, which can be very like, look at how you’re doing this and there’s a right way and a wrong way. 

I feel like, you know, so I’ve done a lot of analyzation. I didn’t uncover, there weren’t major aha moments for what I’m going, in my body. But there were a lot of aha moments for everything else. It was like, oh my God, this is amazing. What your talus bone is doing is going to affect your knee and your knee is going to rotate like your talus and it’s going to rotate like your hip. But I didn’t uncover those patterns in myself, also because I haven’t taken the time since the program. 

I’ve been so busy to really practice and see what are they doing in my body, what is happening in my body. I need more time than just, it was a week and it was very intense. I need like a year to sit with this stuff to start to see what comes up. In a week, I’m like overwhelmed. There’s too much information. I’m still on like step one and they’ve now gone to step ten. Do you know what I mean? So part of it was like I was just catching up and then part of it was I know what is wrong with my body, what’s wrong. I know what’s happening in my body and so it was confirmed that I’m perfect.

Ariana: Yeah, we all are.

Lauren: I’m perfectly asymmetric.

Movement Science Research and Influence

Ariana: Yes, that’s what the body is designed to do, I guess. But there were people there at Anatomy in Motion who had like these incredibly groundbreaking moments about their body. It’s like, oh my God, really?

Ariana: Yeah, I’ve met people who’ve had that kind of experience. So what kind of yoga would you say you teach now?

Lauren: That’s funny. It doesn’t even look like yoga half the time. It’s such a blend of yoga and movement and a little bit of things that I took from Pilates and restorative exercise. It’s a real mash up. If anything, I would say it’s a very slow flow because I do like movement, right? 

So I found for me restorative exercise or nutritious movement to be a little bit too static for my body. A lot of the correctives that are taught in restorative exercise can be kind of static. I don’t know if you’ve done it. My body craves movement. It craves flow. It craves something more dynamic. And so what I teach is very dynamic, but it’s not dynamic in the way that vinyasa is dynamic. It’s much more slow flow and it’s much more about just sensing, feeling, and uncovering. I really take from everything I’ve picked up from the amazing teachers I’ve been with. 

Yeah, it’s a lot about just finding stability, right? Because my body lacks so much stability. Finding stability, exploring how you get in and out of a position, exploring where you tend to want to fall into a position, exploring how you can lift up out of your positions. It’s hard to say what kind of yoga that is.

Ariana: Yeah, I struggle with that also. What do you say you teach?

Lauren: Well, it’s so hard. I started, I feel like things have to have a name these days. So when I teach at a yoga studio, I call it integrated yoga. So I’m trying to use the, I like the buzzword of, you know, integrated movement. So I call it that sometimes. And then I feel like I have this urge to move away from yoga in the sense of what it means mainstream today. Because I want to explore outside of a lot of what I see in mainstream yoga and how I was teaching before. 

And I want to bring in more movement and more strength work into how I practice and how I teach. So I also created a class called Foundations of Movement where you’re like, you’re doing the things that we usually don’t have time for to improve things like shoulder mobility, hip mobility, your core activation, your breathing, you know, all that stuff. So that’s what I’m calling it now. And we’ll see where that takes me.

Ariana: Yeah, we’ll see where that takes me. Well, and it’s interesting because if people who are yogis come into my class, they might be like, WTF.

Lauren: No, I get that. I get that. I often find people who are like, I came here for yoga but this is so much better. You know what I mean? But then on the other hand, if you call it, you know, it’s hard to find a name. I’ve called my classes Essential Strength.

Ariana: I like that. That’s the name of one of my programs. You know, it’s very challenging. Because I think in essence the spirit of yoga is… I really love the spirit of yoga.

Ariana: Me too. That’s my thing. I don’t want to give up on that spirit.

Lauren: Yeah, I agree. I keep clinging to that too. Because I am still trying to find this, you know, a quieter, more mindful inside experience rather than the loud hyperstimulation, faster is better experience.

Lauren: Well, yeah. And I know for me my biggest transformations and breakthroughs have been in yoga. Like practicing, like you just said, quiet, mindful, moving my body in a quiet, mindful way, rolling around the floor like I’ve had these massive aha experiences. I don’t want to give that up.

Ariana: Yeah, me neither. So let’s not give that up.

Lauren: No.

Ariana: So let’s talk about your online programs which you’ve started to create. You’ve got a lot. What is called the Exercise KickStarter. You’ve got the Essential Strength Series. Do you want to talk about either of those?

Lauren: Yeah, I mean, all of my programs, my newest program is the one I would love to spend more time. My newest program is called Restore Your Core®. And when I started putting myself out online, which was just a few years ago, you know, so I thought let me create some programs. And so Essential Strength and Exercise KickStarter were born out of that desire to bring my teachings online and show, you know, kind of help people. 

Exercise KickStarter is for people who I see all the time. This is very… people who can’t get up and down off the floor easily. People who haven’t exercised in years and don’t know where to start. People who are terrified of getting injured. They’ve done it. They’ve been there. It’s for probably a bit of an older crowd. But it’s really… you know, so it’s not for like a young 20-year-old. It’s more for like the mature, wise, 45-year-old and higher. And people who have done it love it. It’s just given them back. It’s a six-week program. It’s given them back so much of what’s missing in their bodies. And it’s a stepping stone onto more movement, right? 

And so I created these two programs. Essential Strength is really just eight yoga videos that you can do like maintenance. People who are already pretty physical in their bodies. It’s just healthy maintenance. You know you won’t most likely get injured in these classes. There are no headstands, handstands, no cartwheels, you know, none of that. No fancy stuff. And then what started happening was that in my private practice, I started… I’ve always worked with women and I’ve always worked with postpartum women. I’m even trained as a childbirth educator. And I started just seeing so much more prolapse and pelvic floor dysfunction and painful sex and diastasis recti. And I was getting all of this in my clinic. 

And I just thought, I need to come out with a program for all these women and some men to really help restore their core. It’s really a whole body approach though, right? So you’ll find very little… it’s not like 13 weeks of just core. It’s a whole body approach. And I really… it was to fill a need. And when I started thinking about doing it and I was, you know, I’m part of all these groups and I make Facebook videos. 

And when I started honing in on these problems that I’m seeing in my clinic every day, it was crazy. My videos got shared many times and I got multiple emails every day. So that’s when I was like, okay, I need to make the program. I need to make a program so that not everybody needs these private sessions with me. I need information out there. And there seemed to be a need for it. I looked for a program similar and I didn’t find one so I thought I’m going to create one.

Movement Science and Core Function

Ariana: So how do you… what are some hallmarks of a healthy core?

Lauren: Well, a healthy core is really dependent on the container that it lives within which is a healthy body. So it’s funny, even though I use the core all the time, your core is only as strong as the environment in which it exists. So when I’m thinking about the hallmarks of a healthy core, I’m also thinking about the hallmarks of a healthy body. And those hallmarks are that balance between length and strength and stability and mobility and a spine that can move and a spine that can… a core that can react where things are more reflexive in your body. 

And a big part of that is also your alignment and your posture and how you hold your body all day long and your repetitive habits and your blind spots. So having a healthy core is so much more about this muscle better be activating or you should be able to do a sit-up. It’s so not about that and so much more about how are you getting all of your activities done. How are you moving? What is the quality of your movement? And going back to that word integrated that you used before, can you do an activity without compromising your structure while you’re doing it? 

We rob Peter to pay Paul all day long in our movements. Or not all of us, but many of us, because we haven’t been given this manual to our body. We haven’t been taught how to breathe well. We don’t have an effective core because most of us went to school when we were five and sat on our asses and lost that. We sit all day long which compromises our body. We wear shoes that destroy our feet and the rest of our structure. 

My program looks up all of that. And when I’m looking at clients, I’m looking at all of that. I’m looking at how their feet are functioning, how are their legs functioning, what is the relationship between their pelvis and their spine, what’s going on in their breath, how do their arms move relative to the rest of their body. Just looking at the core is outdated in my opinion. It’s really outdated.

Ariana: It’s funny though, core is still, in that concept of having a strong core, is still very much the vernacular.

Lauren: Totally. And people relate to that and respond to it. So even though it’s not what I subscribe to, maybe in the way it used to be used, I still use the term a lot.

Ariana: Of course. So you mentioned some of your videos that get shared. One of them is a core do’s and don’ts video. So what’s an example of a don’t when it comes to your core?

Lauren: Well, what I see a lot of people doing is, for example, like rib lifting, rib thrusting. It’s taught a lot in yoga, like to stand up tall and lift up your chest and thrust your ribs. So that’s a core don’t because when you’re in that position, it’s really hard to have a reflexive core. Just because of the musculature, we don’t have to get all geeky here. We can if you want, I mean. We can, of course. But your spine, if you’re looking again at what are the larger ramifications when you’re lifting up your chest like that, you’re bringing your spine out of its natural curves. 

So you can’t have both a strong core and a spine that’s not in alignment at the same time. They have to go hand in hand. So one big core wouldn’t be how you hold your body all day long. Keeping your spine rigid all day long is not going to give you a healthy core. I can’t remember what else I said in that video.

Ariana: Those are good examples. I think those are useful. So you mentioned diastasis recti. You pronounce it diastasis?

Lauren: I don’t know how I go back and forth. I’m not sure, yeah.

Ariana: How did the scientists say it?

Lauren: I don’t know. I think everybody says it differently.

Ariana: So what is it and who gets it?

Lauren: DR, those six-pack muscles are not knit together in the front. They’re not coming together in the front. They’re very much separated. Even to the point where you can find those muscles have translated to the sides of someone’s abdomen. When somebody has a DR, the gap can vary. We measure it in fingers. So one finger, two finger, three finger, four finger, six finger is enormous. It’s when it’s really wide, but what ends up happening is that your abdominal contents will kind of protrude forward into the wall. 

You don’t have that powerful wall there anymore, which keeps your organs in place. So the sensation of someone with a DR can be that it feels like their abdominal contents are constantly spilling forward or spilling out. Other people just say they have a mommy tummy and mama pooch. I’ve also met many women who had no idea they had it. I’ve seen clients who had their babies like 20 years ago and they didn’t know they had a DR. They just thought that their stomach was like that because that’s what happens when you have a baby. 

And then they discover they have a DR and it’s like, oh, well that makes sense with everything else going on in their body. And it can be a relief for them to realize that because then there’s this path forward. So yeah, that’s a DR. It’s a separation of the abdominal muscles from the center line.

Ariana: Do you have more women that get it than men?

Lauren: Yes, but I’ve seen both and I don’t know if I have more women just because more women come to me. Men don’t often seek treatment. Have you noticed that? So many of my clients want to send their husbands and they’re not interested. And they’re like, oh my God, my husband’s falling apart, his shoulder and his neck and his knee and his foot. And the husband is like, no, no. But I have seen it numerous times. I see more women with it. I think also because more women know that that’s my thing and I’ve had great success with helping women deal with it. So they know they’re coming looking for help.

Ariana: And with organ prolapse, how do you help people with that?

Lauren: Well, diastasis recti and organ prolapse are really symptoms. Once again, they’re not like the thing. I mean we can call them a thing. But they’re symptoms of many other factors at play. And they are symptoms of things that have been going on cumulatively. So when I’m looking at someone who has diastasis or prolapse, I’m really looking for all the same things. I’m looking at what’s going on in their whole body and how they’re using their bodies all day long. 

It’s a big one. Most people are very out of alignment in their bodies. And both of those issues are issues of too much abdominal pressure, like a lot of intra-abdominal pressure. So I’m looking at what are the forces in their body that’s creating all of that pressure. What’s going on in their breathing, what’s going on in the abdominal muscles, the tension, the resting tension. What’s going on in their spine, what is the health of their feet. 

All of this will affect whether you have a functional pelvic floor. Because ultimately, a prolapse is the sign of a dysfunctional pelvic floor. But I don’t always go straight to the pelvic floor. And I have another video on my website, and I can’t remember what it’s called. Can you believe me? But something to do with crazy, stupid things people say about vaginas. And I wrote that because I saw an article on this male yoga teacher’s blog about loose vaginas. 

I know, I know. I need to send it to him. I haven’t yet. Because I’m debating on whether that’s, you know, why do I even care. But the whole article was so stupid, and it was written so poorly, and it was so sensational, and so clickbait-ish. And it was like, I’m here to tell you why you have a loose vagina. And it’s because you don’t do Uddiyana Bandha and Mula Bandha, which are in yoga to basically kegels, and I don’t even know, like tightening your abdominals. 

And he was like, what you need to do if you have a loose vagina is a lot of kegels and a lot of Uddiyana Bandha. And then he proceeded to show handstands. And I was like, really? Why? 

So it prompted me to make this video, and I pulled like five quotes from his article and just kind of knocked them down. I actually wrote him a very long comment on his blog, and he never published it. And then I went to his Facebook page, which has 50,000 followers, all of them paid and bought. And you can tell because they’re all people in the Middle East and India and Pakistan. And so I was like, how legit is this person? I mean, why am I spending my time trying to educate someone who is buying likes, writing silly articles, but he’s also disseminating really stupid information. 

And so there’s this concept, there’s a myth out there that if you have problems in your pelvic floor, you should do kegels. And there’s not a lot of truth to that. It could be true for certain people, absolutely. But you have to get assessed. I mean, you have to look at the resting tone and figure out if that’s…

Movement Science Solutions

Ariana: Absolutely. I mean, I had a client this morning who couldn’t do a kegel to save her life. And basically found that her pelvic floor muscles were way too tight. So she was already in a kegel.

Lauren: Well, if you’re already in a kegel, you can’t do more. But most people would look at her and say, oh, she can’t do a kegel. She must have really tight, really loose… I can’t believe I’m using that word. She must have very weak pelvic floor muscles. Let’s give her kegels. She was stuck in a kegel. The last thing she needed was more of that. She needed to learn how to let that go. 

So, you know, when I’m looking at people with prolapse or diastasis recti, what I’m really looking at is how are they using their whole body. And in the program that I created, it’s not so much here’s how I’m going to fix your DR. It’s here are all the things that contribute to a DR. Let’s unravel these relationships and create more beneficial patterns and relationships and muscle and muscle tone.

Ariana: I want to talk about leaking also because I have many friends. All of them actually have had children, now that I think about it, all female, who just think that this is normal. They have to wear a pad all the time because if they sneeze or laugh a little bit too hard, it’s just that this is life now. And that’s okay.

Lauren: Right. So, leak pee is another symptom, right? It’s another symptom that we… and I think it’s like certain things that just get accepted as, well, you’ve had a baby and this is your payoff. You’ve got a baby and now you have a leaking vagina too. And I’ve treated many, many women who leak pee and then it goes away. 

So it’s really possible. You don’t have to live with that. But I think a lot of people don’t know what steps do they need to take to reverse that. And I think for some people it’s also terrifying when you start talking about the steps. It can be like, oh my god, I have to change that many things in my life. It’s not that many things at all. It’s just a few little things that seem kind of big. But leaking is reversible. It doesn’t have to be… 

And the thing about leaking is it can get worse and worse and worse, right? So it can be like leaking one day and 20 years later, you’re now in prolapse. It’s a red flag that your pelvic floor is not functioning the way it should be. But a lot of people had the leaking before they had the baby. But they weren’t experiencing leaking. So again, cumulative. The stage was set and then the pregnancy creates so much extra load. And you’re adding load to a structure that can’t bear any more load. Because it’s not balanced. And so it was doing okay before you added the pregnancy, even though it wasn’t balanced. And then you add the pregnancy and it all falls apart. 

It’s more than likely that that scenario and that setup was there way before they had a baby. But the baby was like the straw that broke the camel’s back. The pregnancy, right? So I think when you’re talking to your friends who have that problem, you can let them know that they probably had that problem before they had a baby. And it’s also reversible. It’s not related to the pregnancy. It’s only related to the pregnancy because the pregnancy was extra load. And your body couldn’t handle that load. It didn’t know how to respond. Because what’s a healthy body? A healthy body is a body that knows how to adapt and respond to load appropriately. If you’re leaking, your body is not responding appropriately to load.

Ariana: So you mentioned some of the changes that you recommend to clients and some of them get overwhelmed with… Oh, I have to make that many changes in my life? What’s a big one that you recommend to those clients?

Lauren: Well, if you have a prolapse or you’re leaking, you definitely want to look at your shoe choices, for sure. A big one. And here in Miami, where I live, I’ve got so many clients with pelvic floor dysfunction. It’s amazing. And they wear so many crazy heels here. I mean, they come in in these wild shoes.

Ariana: In New York City… We have… Yeah, I’m sure you remember.

Lauren: Well, yeah, but it’s just a little bit more understated.

Ariana: Oh, really? Okay.

Lauren: Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Come visit and you’ll see. People here wear crazy shoes that are very high heels. And when you put a heel under your… When you put a heel under your heel, when you put a heel under your foot, it shifts your body. It goes forward just a little bit to get that heel on. And then in order to not be about to face plant position, you have to move your body back over your base of support, right? Because you’re not walking at an angle. 

So you adjust your body. And those tiny adjustments that you make to be able to wear the heel in your body have a huge ramification on your resting muscle tone. So you have to tighten up a whole bunch of stuff. A whole bunch of stuff has to kind of functionally get longer. All these little… It seems little, but it’s actually all these little things create big, huge effects in your body.

Ariana: So do you have clients that have been willing to let go of their shoes?

Lauren: Oh, yeah. People, when they’re leaking, are willing to let go of anything, basically, except the pee.

Ariana: Yeah, well, I have clients who are like, never.

Lauren: Really?

Ariana: Yeah, just like not… They’ll deal with anything.

Lauren: Yeah, it’s crazy. I know. I know. No, I did. I saw a woman the other day who has severe… I mean, you name it, she’s had it. Everything replaced and massive scoliosis. And she wasn’t. She was like, you know, looking good is more important to me. And I was like, okay. You know, we were having this very open conversation, which I have with all my clients. I mean, trying to find out what are your goals. 

And she was very clear that she wants to look good. And would like to feel good too, but her number one priority is looking hot. And I was like, okay. Let me see if I can meet you over there. You know, it’s… there are some, but most people are very willing to make those changes. Most people don’t know. I think the holy shift thing is, holy shift, I had no idea that my shoe choices could have such an effect on my body. I had no idea.

Ariana: Well, I’m excited about your Restore Your Core^® program. And it’s actually out now, yes?

Lauren: Yes, it’s available now. It’s right now on presale, but that will end in a few weeks.

Ariana: Okay. So the presale ends January 1st?

Lauren: The presale ends January, yep.

Ariana: Okay. All right. It’s normally $197, and it’s now on presale for $147. And how many weeks is the program?

Lauren: It’s a 13-week program. And in addition to the… so it’s 13 weeks because week one is kind of… is an educational week. And then you start in week two. So it’s really 12 weeks of exercise. I’m calling it exercise, but it is exercise. And then one week of… there’s a lot of support video. So there’s a video called Know Your Breath, which is all about breathing mechanics. 

Know Your Pelvis, which is all about your pelvis. One is called Know Your Spine, which is spine mechanics. There’s another one called Alignment 101. So there’s a lot of different components that make up… because it’s not… I mean, it’s not just an exercise, right? Restoring your body is not just about the exercises, about unraveling your patterns.

Ariana: Absolutely. Well, that’s exciting. Are there any other upcoming events or programs you’ve got coming up that you wanted to mention?

Lauren: Well, I do… you know, I do a monthly class online. Every month I teach a free online class, which is, you know, my signature yoga mashup blend class.

Ariana: I like that you call it that, a yoga mashup blend. That’s cool. So if people want to find that, where would they find that?

Lauren: Everything’s on my website, restoreyourcore.com. And I teach retreats.

Ariana: Where’s your next retreat going to be?

Lauren: My next retreat is Colombia, and that retreat is sold out. And then one after that is Portugal.

Ariana: Yeah. Where in Colombia will you be?

Lauren: In… I bet. It’s near this park called Parque Terrona. It’s in the northeast part of the country, not far from Cartagena, about four hours from Cartagena.

Ariana: Lovely. I’m super excited. Have you been to Colombia?

Lauren: I haven’t, but my father-in-law was in the Peace Corps in Colombia. He was in Bogota, and he’s been back a few times, and I hear I want to go with him sometime.

Lauren: Yeah. It’s apparently… my own husband last night told me that he saw it on a list last night. One of the most popular travel destinations right now is Colombia and Portugal. I was like, oh, yeah, I chose so well.

Ariana: Yes, you did. Cool. Yeah. I’m excited about that. Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time to share so much about your programming and everything. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

Lauren: Yeah, I love talking to another conscious yogi.

Ariana: Yeah, it’s fun. So thank you for joining us today.

Lauren: Thank you so much.

Ariana: So that was Lauren Ohayon of restoreyourcore.com. You can find more information about her on my show notes page, arianayoga.com/holy-shift. That’s S-H-I-F-T. You can also reach out to me on my Facebook page, arianayoga/healthy-living. Thank you for listening to Yoga and Beyond. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s topic. And if you’d like to continue the conversation or if you have a subject you’d like me to explore on a future episode, please visit my website at arianayoga.com. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter as well as iTunes where I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show. My name is Ariana Rabinovich. And until next time, move well and be well.