Can Exercise Cause or Fix Pelvic Floor Issues? with Dr. Sabine Vesting
0Your pelvic floor and core go through huge changes postpartum—but what actually happens when you start exercising again? 💥
In this episode, I chat with Dr. Sabine Vesting (@uottawa, @mfm_lab), a pelvic health physiotherapist and Post Doctoral researcher whose cutting-edge work explores how exercise impacts the pelvic floor, diastasis recti, and urinary incontinence in female runners. Her studies include the use of intravaginal devices for running-induced leakage, postpartum muscle recovery, and how moms regain confidence in movement.
We break down:
🔹 Does diastasis really matter for postpartum exercise?
🔹 Coning and doming explained (and when to care)
🔹 Pelvic floor strength, leakage & incontinence solutions
🔹 Intravaginal devices to understand the pelvic floor in sport and running
🔹 Why finding exercise you enjoy matters most
Perfect for: new moms, postpartum runners, physical therapists, coaches, and anyone navigating postpartum fitness.
📚 Featured research:
🔹 The Impact of Exercising on Pelvic Symptom Severity, Pelvic Floor Muscle Strength, and Diastasis Recti Abdominis After Pregnancy: A Longitudinal Prospective Cohort Study. Phys Ther. 2024.
🔹 Educating women to prevent and treat low back and pelvic girdle pain during and after pregnancy: a systematized narrative review. Ann Med 2025
🔹 Intravaginal devices for running-induced urinary incontinence symptoms in females: a study protocol. BJU Int 2025
🔹 Pelvic Floor Muscle Strength and Bothersome Urinary Incontinence After Pregnancy: A Cohort Study. Int Urogynecol J. 2025.
👉 Moms, runners, and clinicians: what’s been your biggest surprise about the postpartum body? Comment below—I’d love to hear your story!
Time Stamps
1:00 Introduction
6:05 work as a PhD
10:40 does diastasis even matter?
16:24 pelvic girdle pain after pregnancy
21:00 changes over the last 15 years
28:58 being comfortable with activity postpartum
34:21 looking at pain and causes
40:18 getting better measurements
51:42 intra-abdominal pressure
55:32 doing what works with patients
58:28 rapid fire questions
CONNECT WITH CARRIE
IG: https://www.instagram.com/carriepagliano/
Website: https://carriepagliano.com/
CONNECT WITH SABINE:
Website: https://mfmlab.ca/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabine-vesting-aa4317135/?originalSubdomain=se
We are currently recruiting participants for our RCT, aimed at evaluating whether readily available intravaginal devices, such as off-the-shelf pessaries or tampons, can effectively reduce or eliminate urine leakage during running, enabling active women to remain physically engaged. The study offers a remote option and welcomes female runners from all of North America who experience urine leakage while running.
https://mfmlab.ca/portfolio-items/running-induced-urinary-incontinence-rct/
The Active Mom Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause & beyond for active moms & the professionals who help them in their journey. This show has been a long time in the making! You can expect conversation with moms and professionals from all aspects of the industry. If you're like me, you don't have a lot of free time (heck, you're probably listening at 1.5x speed), so theses interviews will be quick hits to get your the pertinent information FAST! If you love what you hear, share the podcast with a friend and leave us a 5 start rating and review. It helps us become more visible in the search algorithm! (Helps us get seen by more moms that need to hear these stories!!!!)