168 Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation with Nikki Scott

Join me and Nikki Scott who is a women's health and fitness coach specializing in postnatal recovery and pelvic floor health using hypopressives.   In this conversation we talk about some of the alarming and frankly ineffective treatments prescribed for pelvic floor issues today.  We talk about why hypopressives work and why it’s a gentler approach to pelvic floor rehab.  We chat about why ignoring any kind of pelvic health dysfunction before menopause can be unhelpful and what paying attention to the posterior chain of muscles and fascia can do for your health.

This is an incredibly beneficial conversation for everyone with female sexual organs!

Nikki’s Links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ukhypopressives

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ukhypopressives/

Website: www.ukhypopressives.com

Sally's Links:

[Free] Relaxation Hypnosis Recording:  https://bit.ly/relaxationwithsally

How to Create Phenomenal Self Esteem [£47]:  https://www.sallygarozzo.com/selfesteem

Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127] https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

Cold Water Therapy Practitioner [£127] https://www.sallygarozzo.com/cold

Transformational 30 Day Rewire (Includes RTT) [£447]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Transformational Trauma Informed Coaching [From £197]:  https://www.sallygarozzo.com/transformational-coaching 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a voice clip via What’s App - https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

Transcript

Sally (00:01.357)
So my guest today is Nikki Scott. Nikki is a women's health and fitness coach specializing in postnatal recovery and pelvic floor health using hypo -pressives. Her career began in hairdressing where she discovered her love of helping others improve their image. After having twin boys, she retrained as a personal trainer, setting up her own bootcamp business tailored to new moms.

After struggling with pelvic floor issues, she went on her way... wait.

No. Which went on way past, right? Let me start that again. Okay. Sorry. So my guest today is Nikki Scott. Nikki is a women's health and fitness coach specializing in postnatal recovery and pelvic floor health using hypopressives. Her career began in hairdressing where she discovered her love of helping others improve their self image.

After having twin boys, she retrained as a personal trainer, setting up her own bootcamp business tailored to new moms. After struggling with pelvic floor issues, which went on way past the postnatal phase, she found Hypopressives, a holistic method of pelvic floor rehab. She became one of the first master trainers in the UK and co -founder of UK Hypopressives.

She now offers training for health professionals and the general public advocating for holistic approaches to pelvic floor dysfunction. Beyond fitness, she enjoys cooking, reading and spending time outdoors with her mini bull terrier, Wilson. I love that name, Wilson, so cute. And she's also known for her quirky style and love of shoes. And I love this bit. She has now developed a passion for football.

Sally (01:54.233)
supporting Brentford FC alongside her partner Richard. I love that last bit, Nikki. Nikki, welcome to the podcast. So look, before we dive into pelvic floor, which I'm really interested in, I have to ask about football. When did you start, seriously though, when did you start developing a passion for football? Because I can't imagine that. My husband's really into football and 14 years, I'm like, no, I cannot even go there. So.

Nikki Scott (01:59.95)
Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Nikki Scott (02:08.514)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (02:17.313)
Yes.

Sally (02:23.383)
How did it morph into a passion for you?

Nikki Scott (02:25.716)
Yeah, how? My backstory is that I grew up with a dad who always wanted a boy and that we were two girls and he supported Arsenal and football was life. And so I was completely turned off, I think, in that phase. was quite a girly girl, went into hairdressing. And I think that I just had a brick wall up to football. I just didn't really want to get involved. But when I got together with Richard,

Sally (02:45.049)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (02:55.444)
he very much likes to go and watch live games. And I suppose I went to a live game with him and found it amazing. I loved it. Really enjoyed the atmosphere, really enjoyed the game, really got into it. And yeah, I suppose from there, it's mostly that I really like to go to the live games. So we don't go massive massively often, but when we do, that's my favorite bit. And then obviously I like to follow Brentford.

Sally (03:17.111)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (03:24.67)
because that's his team. Also, I think that, you know, his world is, he loves football and in order for me to be a good partner, I think that it's quite nice to have a common interest, although we've got lots of things in common, it's nice to kind of share what his passion is really.

Sally (03:26.51)
Yeah.

Sally (03:43.097)
I love that. I love that. That's something you're putting me to shame here, you know.

Nikki Scott (03:50.894)
There's quite a lot of people, especially some of my family, that really can't believe that they're like, well hang on, I just pinched myself. I can't believe that you're into football.

Sally (03:51.256)
Sally (04:01.155)
But there is something about the live game. I do understand the live game and the sort of adrenaline and the focus that that sort of gives you. But I think if you don't particularly like crowds, that can be a bit off putting on noise. I'm quite noise sensitive and people sensitive when there's a lot of them. But I guess if you're not like that and you do like that real buzz and that adrenaline and that, it's like being a rock concert, I suppose.

Nikki Scott (04:10.499)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (04:28.97)
Yeah, and I mean, it's kind of led me on to go to some of the local games because I'm in Buckinghamshire and MK Dons is like our local bigger team. so I've been and I mean, you know, there's no crowds there because they don't it's not packed out, but there's still that lovely atmosphere and that kind of camaraderie. And yeah, I just I just kind of really find it good fun.

Sally (04:39.086)
Yeah.

Sally (04:52.249)
that's brilliant, I've loved hearing that thank you. So let's get on to... let's get on to pelvic... yeah there is, there is. You sure it's not just like the men in shorts that you're luring after? just thought I had to ask that. Right okay, pelvic floor. So let's paint the picture and well set the scene rather. Tell us a little bit more about the context of your life.

Nikki Scott (04:55.751)
Sorry. There's hope for everyone.

Nikki Scott (05:05.078)
No, definitely not, definitely not.

Sally (05:21.091)
brought you into the world of the pelvis.

Nikki Scott (05:22.552)
Okay.

Well, I suppose through my hairdressing years, you when I had my first career and before my children, I wasn't really aware of any pelvic floor issues. Although what I would say is that I always really had quite a strong urge to go to the loo, which is great when you've got like seven back to back clients in a day and you're dashing to the loo all the time. But what that meant

then that I probably didn't look after myself very well, so I didn't drink an awful lot throughout the day just so that I wasn't dashing to the loo. It was never really an incontinence issue, but just when I look back now, at the time I didn't think there was any issue. And then I suppose I was more highlighted to it once I had my kids. So I had twins naturally and I was very fit up to that point. I'd been going to the gym through my pregnancy not, through my pregnancy I had to leave it.

because I just didn't feel well enough. But my body was, I felt like my body was in the best place because I was fit and healthy. And I just felt completely broken after having twins, physically and mentally. And...

Sally (06:30.424)
Yeah.

Sally (06:36.184)
Hmm.

Nikki Scott (06:39.916)
And the whole, I just kind of imagined that, you know, over the coming months that things would settle down and I'd be able to start doing things that I was doing before and obviously not to the degree, but there wasn't really kind of any advice for me either. So I just kind of did my own thing. And at that point I hadn't trained as a personal trainer. So I was still, I suppose a little bit lacking in knowledge in that area.

And the years went by and I mean, had had some incontinence issues post natal and they just continued really. They kind of got slightly better to a degree. But then at the point of when my kids were about 10 or 11, I started to notice things were getting worse. Went to the, I'd already been to the GP anyway in previous years, but I went to the GP again and said, look, you know, what is there for me to do? Because I'm doing my pelvic floor squeezes and I've

Sally (07:13.475)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (07:36.46)
I'd been doing everything that I'd been advised to do and by that time I'd retrained as a personal trainer and I had some pre and post natal qualification within that. So I'd been using some of the stuff that I had learned and just nothing was really hitting the spot. In fact, I felt like everything was getting worse. And their only answer was just carry on doing the squeezes and when it gets, you know, if it does get a lot worse and you can't put up with it, then we'll put you on the list for surgery.

Sally (08:05.936)
my gosh.

Nikki Scott (08:06.188)
And I just thought, really, is that the advice you're giving me? Is that the advice that is given out to women? I was quite shocked, really, that that was literally the pathway. So it kind of led me, I suppose, down a bit of a rabbit hole. Sorry, you were going to say.

Sally (08:21.143)
And was it just an incontinence issue or was there other issues going on? Was it painful sex?

Nikki Scott (08:25.65)
The driving force, and I think that that's the thing with women, is that there's usually multiple things going on. But the driving force for me was the fact that I had stress and urge incontinence, which just meant that, you know, wearing pads, wetting myself, smelling horrible, just generally not feeling great about my body, not being able to do anything really high impact. And I was, you know, I was into kind of weights, CrossFit, running.

you know, like heavy stuff. you know, so that really knocked my confidence, made me feel pretty crap about myself. But there was lots of instability within my body. You know, it all, that's what I've learned is that it goes together. You don't just get the one thing, it all goes together. you know, I discovered, when I discovered hyperpresses, I discovered I had a diastasis as well, that I wasn't particularly functional.

Sally (09:18.563)
Can you just explain what diastasis is?

Nikki Scott (09:21.142)
Yeah, it's an abdominal separation. So every woman that becomes pregnant gets a diastasis. Most people completely freak out about it afterwards and they're worried about the size of the gap and what that's going to mean to them and what it looks like. So obviously it can change what it looks like anyway. And the skin afterwards, everything's loose. You have this pooch, this mummy tummy kind of effect. And a lot of people are really obsessed by that. But every woman has an abdominal separation. It's something that has to happen.

allow the baby to grow. But again, all of this information, even from my pre and postnatal qualification, wasn't that clear to me. So if I was a professional with that information, then what hope did the general public have? So what happens when you're pregnant is the rectus abdominis, covered by a nice thick band of fascial sheath, the fascial sheath just stretches and allows growth there. So that's kind of like across the centre line.

And then when you've had your baby, that reduces down and over time, it becomes more functional, but also most women will need some form of rehab to help speed that up so that they can go back and do things in the gym, et cetera. So, you know, I'd obviously been trying going back to exercise, doing a little bit of stuff. And because that wasn't properly healed, I was left with it 12 years and it wasn't particularly functional, which means that

there was a gap and the fascia over the gap, it was quite spongy, meaning that it couldn't handle bouts of high pressure like running and sneezing, coughing, laughing. So again, that was part of the problem. Again, you're not treated as a whole, you're treated as a whole. Your whole is treated, if you see what I mean. It's all focused on the vagina, the pelvic floor. It's not really focused on what's going on everywhere else.

Sally (11:00.779)
Okay.

Nikki Scott (11:19.032)
So within that, I decided to just kind of do my own research. And actually, it was my partner, Richard, who had been following someone in Spain who was talking a lot about postnatal recovery and the success she'd been having with hyperpressives. And so I started following her like you do and downloading some of her freebies. And it all sounded amazing. And then, of course, came to the UK.

around 12 years ago, think it was, 12 or 13 years ago, and both of us went on that course. And for me, that's when things really started to change. Because I would say within three months of kind of regular practice, which was something daily, I had no stress and urge incontinence. The main driver, the main thing that I was coming to it for was gone. And you know, like I started to test it a little bit with doing a bit more exercise. And yes, I had to be careful because I wasn't.

completely there, but certainly there was an improvement. And when you fast forward to where I am now, I'm 55, I've gone through the menopause and had all the associated problems that you might think you'd get with menopause, which is again, problems with incontinence, problems with lax T, problems with prolapse even, pelvic floor, any sort of form of pelvic floor dysfunction seems to rear its head through the menopausal period.

Sally (12:21.486)
Hmm.

Nikki Scott (12:46.126)
I haven't had any issues with incontinence. So, you know, out the other side of the menopause, this is me now, I feel like I'm in a really good place for the next 10, 20, however many years I'm going to live into my old age. I don't want to be that old lady sitting in the corner wetting herself. You know, I want to not have to wear incontinence knickers and incontinence pads when I'm exercising or even when I'm walking. So, yeah, I think that it's been a bit of a revelation.

Sally (13:12.109)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (13:15.842)
That's kind of my journey with it really.

Sally (13:17.879)
Yeah, it sounds fascinating and we're to dive into what hyperpressives is in a moment. just to give this a little bit of menopause context, you mentioned some of the things that can happen to the vagina and the pelvic area as we go through the menopause. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? just say, say those things again. So prolapse, what happens with the prolapse?

Nikki Scott (13:33.794)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (13:42.38)
Yep. Okay, so because of the shift in hormones, and because of the aging process as well, we start to lose that elasticity that we know that from our you know, we can see it in our arms, we can see it in our face, everything's kind of changing and that includes that area. And so because of that, if there are any underlying issues that maybe...

you've been living with a few little symptoms, like a little bit of leakage. I hear it so much. yeah, you know, of course I've had kids, leak. It's like it's normalized. But if you've been living with a little bit of that leaking, then the chances are that those symptoms are going to massively increase as your hormones go through that change, go through that menopausal phase. you know, what I would say is that it's never too late to be trying to address this.

But don't be thinking that it's normal to have any pelvic floor dysfunction before you hit the menopause, because menopause is only going to amplify and make it worse. So with regards to a prolapse, what that means is one or more of your pelvic organs has moved out of position. Now, I always think that's a bit of a strange description in itself, because anatomically, we don't all look like the textbook. So if you opened up a textbook and looked at that

cross section of the pelvic floor and where all the organs sit. That's just a, you know, someone's drawn that and it's just to give you an idea of what a body may look like. But everyone's different. Everyone's organs sit in different places, roughly in the same. But after you've had a child, you're more likely to, you're probably, most people will live with some form of prolapse without any symptoms. And that's why through that change in the hormones, through that

of laxity, that loss of bounce in all of your tissue, that prolapse will become more prominent. And that's why a lot of women that I see say to me, know, suddenly it happened. Well, it didn't. you know, through menopause, and before you get to menopause, you should be thinking about what can I do that's going to kind of keep everything nice and bouncy and in the best condition that it could be.

Sally (15:48.546)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (16:03.212)
Yeah, so we spend money on our skin and looking good, but that part of our body is like our support system. It's holding stuff up. It's not scaffold because I don't like to think of it as scaffold because that's a solid rigid structure. Whereas this is a lovely pliable, soft structure that moves with us. That, you know, when we breathe properly, it moves our pelvic floor is connected to our diaphragm and it moves with our diaphragm. And so

We want to kind of keep that in the best condition as possible because then that helps negate those awful symptoms that I'm seeing all the time.

Sally (16:40.695)
Yeah. Okay. Thank you for sharing that. That's brilliant. What is the current treatment for women with pelvic floor issues? Go on. Yeah. Okay.

Nikki Scott (16:50.638)
Yeah, don't get me started. So I spoke to my mum about like what she was given because she, I remember her when I was like in my late teens, early twenties and she was like, you know, if ever you have children, you must do your pelvic floors. this is so back when she was being given advice about pelvic floor rehab, she was given pelvic floor squeezes. And when I went to the GP, you know, when I had my children, they're now 23.

That's what I was given and I'm still hearing it. So the general, like if you're going through the normal route to your GP and being referred to a women's health physio, there is only pelvic floor squeezes and a lot of the time, there's no internal examination. So the doctor, if you have a female doctor, you may get an examination. But if with something like a prolapse, gravity is going to play a massive part in your prolapse.

and they do the examination laying down. So you may be told you don't have a prolapse when you're laying down because probably you don't. But when you stand up and you get on with your life and you're busy and you do all those things, you get the symptoms. So it's just, I just feel like current treatment, current women's health treatment at any stage, postnatally there's a massive gap because there's no rehab.

Sally (17:50.797)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (18:15.212)
unless you come with a problem and then you get told to do squeezes. Menopausally, you're almost put on the scrap heap. And you know, it's like, well, can I have look? What do you expect? mean, not for this to be happening. But I just think the general advice is getting better, but the general advice is still to do pelvic floor squeezes. And I've got a big problem with that.

Sally (18:26.946)
Right, right.

Sally (18:38.647)
Yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying. What does a prolapse feel like when you stand up? Do you know?

Nikki Scott (18:48.384)
It's a hard one. I can only give you the words that have been described to me. So people will often feel like a heaviness in their pelvic region, a dragging, a kind of feeling of dragging. And some people, a prolapse can actually be seen. So, you know, if they're looking for it with a mirror, they can actually see the descent of the organ or the bulge in the vaginal wall. So, you know, often people are getting UTIs, they're getting

Sally (18:51.895)
Yeah, yeah.

Nikki Scott (19:18.19)
They're getting soreness, they can't have sex, or they don't want to have sex because they feel so awful about that part of their body. So it has a massive impact. And most people are really shocked. They're like, my God, how did this happen to me? Why have I got this? But if I got a group of women together that had pelvic floor symptoms, you'd probably find that 80 to 90 % of that group would have some form of prolapse.

symptoms and they were unaware of what was causing it. So, you know, it's a difficult subject for a lot of people, but it's one that needs to be talked about really.

Sally (19:48.898)
Mm.

Sally (19:56.853)
Yeah, yeah, I think we do brush it under the carpet and just hope that it's never going to happen to us. But certainly, know as I'm getting older, I'm like, my God, I just peed a bit when I sneezed. OK. You know, and other little bits and bobs going on. OK, this really needs to be looked at. And like I say, it's one of those things where you think, no, that's never going to happen to me. It's such an ignorant way of going through your life thinking that it's.

Nikki Scott (20:04.152)
Yeah.

Sally (20:24.299)
never going to happen to you, but when it does, you're like, OK, I really need to have a look at all of this. And we're going to get to hyperpressives in a minute, as I've said. Mesh, do they still do mesh? OK, good.

Nikki Scott (20:36.366)
they don't at the moment. No. I think that the surgery has been suspended, but there still is operations, repair operations that I believe are using sutures which are still made of the same material as the mesh. I was highlighted to the mesh by someone who contacted me about doing hyperpressives very briefly.

had only had one child and had had quite a bad tear that wasn't repaired properly. That left her with fecal incontinence. And then because it was left so long through the system, she ended up with a small amount of urinary incontinence. So when she finally got to kind of see someone that knew what they were talking about and put her on the right path, they said she would need an operation to repair where it wasn't repaired properly, and that would help with the fecal incontinence. And then a small operation.

for the urinary incontinence. So she thought she was gonna have it all done together. She went in and had the back passage redone. And then when she came out of surgery, they just said, look, we didn't have time, not we didn't have time, sorry, you need time for recovery. So we're gonna see how this recovers and then you're gonna come back and have another operation.

She found a massive improvement. She recovered really well. She went back to the second operation. It was described to her as a small piece of tape was going to be inserted at half an hour operation. I can't remember how long she said, but she was in surgery for a long, long time. When she came out, she was disabled. She lost the use of her left leg. And when I met her, she was in a wheelchair. yeah, and that's just one of many stories about mesh where...

Sally (22:25.383)
god that's devastating!

Nikki Scott (22:32.558)
and for something very unnecessary. Had she had that first repair and then found something holistic like hyperpressive, she would never have needed to go through everything that she has. I'm very glad that mesh has been suspended and that, you know, that people should know now that there are other alternatives. But there is alternative surgery. I mean, I've got a really cynical view on.

mesh surgery anyway, and it was handed out like sweets to people when they didn't need it. But there is alternative surgery to mesh. So if you feel like that's your only option, then you should really push for it because it's not being handed out for sweets like sweets because it takes a long time for them to do the surgery. It's not just a quick in and out, which is was great for them with the mesh is that it was a very quick procedure. So there is this alternative

but it takes longer and you're less likely to be offered it because there isn't that, what do I want to say, kickback with using a pharmaceutical product. And that's where I'm going to stop with that.

Sally (23:41.847)
I see.

What, do you know what it's called, that surgery?

Nikki Scott (23:47.342)
It will be some sort of suspension, culp -culp -culp -suspension, I can't remember the name of it, I'm not very good with the wording on it. So there are returns, I was just talking to someone actually that had had a perineal repair yesterday and she'd had, I was delving into it little bit and I believe they use some of your own tissue and then they use some of your, some sutures which are supposedly dissolvable.

Sally (24:13.911)
Hey.

Nikki Scott (24:16.91)
It's not my specialism, but it does sound better than what was being offered.

Sally (24:17.081)
That sounds better.

Sally (24:23.361)
Yeah, that's really hopeful actually. And if anyone's listening to this thinking, God, I need something, but I don't want mesh, then just pop into Google alternative surgery to mesh and maybe something will come up. Or reach out to Nikki and maybe you can ask your friend again, your colleague again. So yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so hypopressives. What on earth is it?

Nikki Scott (24:29.282)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (24:33.716)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yes.

Nikki Scott (24:45.176)
Mm -hmm.

Yes, exactly. What is it? I like to think about it as a holistic approach to pelvic floor rehab. That doesn't mean you need pelvic floor rehab when you've just had a baby. I think that it's just generally pelvic floor rehab. So for a woman at any stage where she's got pelvic floor dysfunction. And the way that it differs, a good way to look at it and to understand it is the way that it differs from conventional treatment. So conventional treatment, if you have

pelvic floor dysfunction or a weak core or weak pelvic floor, which is what you're being told, is to do pelvic floor squeezes or traditional kind of abdominal training, Pilates -type training. I'm not dissing any of these, by the way, but I just want to explain what the difference is. So with things like pelvic floor, traditional pelvic floor training, we're very much just working on one area of the body. OK?

quite an archaic way of looking at the body in that that's the bit where the problem is, so that's what we're going to treat. That bit that you're treating, the pelvic floor, is best friends, should be best friends with the diaphragm. So they love each other, they move together, they go everywhere together. So when one is working properly, the other one works really well with it. So they mirror what each other does. So when we just give pelvic floor squeezes, for example, it's madness.

because they're best friends being completely left out. Yeah, so with hyperpressives, we work very much on everything that's affecting the pelvic floor, not just the pelvic floor, because often where the symptoms are, where the problems are, isn't where it all came from in the first place. And I think people are so honed in on the world, I've had babies, so that's what's caused it. But in being pregnant and giving birth multiple times,

Sally (26:19.886)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (26:43.842)
your body's gone through masses of trauma, your whole body, not just your pelvic floor. So we need to look at the body as a whole. And that's where hyperpressives comes in. The breathing gets that relationship back, gets the diaphragm and the pelvic floor talking and communicating and loving life again. And then all of those, because that's, they don't just work in isolation, there's lots of deep connections from deep core muscles and all of the rest of the web of our body.

Sally (27:01.879)
Hehehe.

Nikki Scott (27:12.8)
everything starts to work better with just doing that breathing method. And then we bring in those postures that we do with the, so it's breathing and postures. When we're breathing in the postures, the postures are working on postural tension. So unwanted things that cause back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, wherever you get areas of tension, we want to get those to be released because those muscles are working too hard and often have kind of gone into

It's a locked up mode and you know, aren't really serving you properly. then most of the muscles that are the problem are in our posterior chain, the back of our body. So we want to get much more tension and life and activation into those muscles so that they work to stabilize us. They work to hold us up instead of working against us and pulling us forward where the tension is. A lot of that is due to not just due to having children, but also generally people's posture for their jobs.

their hobbies, whatever it is they're doing on a regular basis for a long period of time. So if we're sitting down a lot, our posture needs looking out because our body will adapt to that position and we'll get areas of tension in things like shoulders, that's the massive area of tension for most people here in the front. And then in older age, we get frozen shoulder, that's the thing, where people just can't move their arm. And that's just because the joint has been in

such a compromised position for so long that it can't move properly. It's in like trauma. Yes, it does. Yeah, so it's so beneficial for everything. One thing that we always find with people is their posture improves. So it's really great when someone's starting with their pelvic floor rehab journey to take some snapshot photos of what they look like just standing, because there's always a shift.

Sally (28:46.849)
It gets stuck in that position.

Nikki Scott (29:11.052)
And it's almost like a bit of an aha moment for someone to start to join the dots of like, actually, it's not just about my pelvic floor. It's about all of me. Yeah, so that's it in a nutshell. that... good.

Sally (29:23.129)
so much has come up for me as you've been speaking. It's really good. Yeah, it's really good. So this idea of the posterior chain, know whenever I've had a massage, she's been like, my God, your posterior chain is so tight. I mean, I do a lot of weightlifting and recently actually noticing that it's, whilst it's really good for my mental health and I love having like muscles and stuff, I am noticing that there's something not quite.

Nikki Scott (29:32.323)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (29:36.93)
Yes.

Sally (29:52.695)
right in my body and I really do feel that this could be like a real unlock for me. So now the word hypo means to lower doesn't it? I'm yeah so I'm getting the sense right that's what it means hypo -pressives lower the pressure.

Nikki Scott (30:02.242)
Yes, low. Yes, so low pressure. That's the word.

Nikki Scott (30:12.16)
low pressure. Well, low pressure, yeah.

Sally (30:14.807)
Low pressure, yeah, okay. So yeah, because I interviewed, do you know Michelle Lyons? Yeah.

Nikki Scott (30:20.034)
Yes, well I've heard of her, I don't know her personally. I feel like I know her because I see her on Facebook and social media.

Sally (30:27.745)
Yeah, she's brilliant and she's really passionate about the pelvic floor and I trained with her many years ago and she's a big advocate for this idea of not squeezing the pelvis but actually releasing the pelvic bowl area and I experience something similar. I'm going to be really honest here. I know it's all coming out but my listeners all know me that yeah I'm quiet, I do wear my heart on my sleeve.

Nikki Scott (30:39.191)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (30:46.286)
It's all coming out.

Sally (30:56.925)
I have had problems with really painful sex and like kind of like being quite locked up. I do use the vaginal oestrogen but actually I went to see a friend of mine, I don't know if I've shared this, an old friend I haven't seen in ages and she's very quirky, very out there, she's a singer and I was telling her about this problem, she's in like in her 60s I think and she said to me, darling you just need to open it up, just open it up.

she's going and I'm like okay now from a hypnotherapist point of view I'm like yeah obviously it's like we know all this stuff but sometimes we don't do the work on ourselves because we're busy doing other kind of work on ourselves you know so I'm like of course so for like a couple of weeks I was like really opening up the sort of mind body connection I was like right just tune into your vagina and just open it up like a rose just open it up I know it's like a really kind of

Nikki Scott (31:27.362)
haha

Sally (31:55.875)
Horrid cliche. But I tell you what, it works. It works. And yeah, Graham is loving it. you know, the... But it wasn't just the vagina, it was like the nervous system. You know, it was like my solar plexus, my shoulders. I was just able to put my mind into my body and really use that intention of releasing, like you say, lowering the pressure and opening up.

Nikki Scott (31:56.984)
I love it, I love it.

Yes.

Nikki Scott (32:24.684)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sally (32:25.217)
and it's worked for, you know, some joint pain that I've had, it's been working jaw tension, headaches, it's like, as you say, the whole body, the holistic approach, everything, yeah. I feel like I deserve a little gold star for that. Thank you.

Nikki Scott (32:37.866)
is connected. Yeah. I think, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just give you a little round of applause. Amazing. So I think that when we think about what we're being told is that what we're being told is our pelvic floor is weak and we need to strengthen it. So in our mind, we think about, you know, weight training, don't we? So it's weight training for the vagina. Yeah. Let's get our vagina really strong.

So that way it's going to really like, the pelvic floor is going to be really like, grrr, hench. when you, yeah, when you look at like, so look at a bodybuilder and like actually how much mobility and movement and flexibility does that bodybuilder have? That's the same as your vagina. If it's super strong, it doesn't mean to say it can move well. It doesn't mean to say it can support, it can contract and release those muscles when they need to.

Sally (33:09.751)
It's cause, it's cause such a patriarchal thing that hasn't it.

Nikki Scott (33:34.434)
to stop you from wetting yourself, to make you have a great sex, to whatever. If it's tense, it's not a great thing because it's one thing or another. you don't really want, you want it to be, to back off when it needs to, to open out and release and chill out when it needs to. And you want it to be a force of strength when you're doing a heavy deadlift. Yeah, so that's what you need from your pelvic floor. You don't need...

one or the other. unfortunately, the language that I hear from my ladies that I see is that they've been told their pelvic floor is weak and they need to make it stronger. And they're so scared to let go of clenching their vagina and clenching their abdominals. So, you know, again, it's that whole brace your core, pull your core in, hold it in, you know, embrace your abdominals. When you brace your core, actually makes, I mean, I'm doing it now and I'm pulling my shoulders forward.

So actually your abdominals should be there to support you in a really good posture. They should naturally engage to hold you up, not contract like mass. None of us have, mean, yes, I'm sure there'll be some of your listeners that are wanting a six pack, but I don't really want a six pack. I just want my body to be functional. You know, I want my muscles to work in the way that they need to, when they need to. And that is the difference with

Sally (34:55.149)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (35:00.206)
what we're currently treating women with. And it's a brilliant analogy from you to kind of say about that letting go, because often people have a massive shift and they're like, my God, I was holding on so tightly to everything. Now, the other thing we haven't talked about is scars. know, majority of women that have had children will have some sort of scar, like a birth tear or an episiotomy. And scars never heal back to where you were before.

and they have to be treated as well. So even now, like at 55 that I am, I still know when I need to work on my scar because it becomes a little bit painful. But up until like five years ago, I was unaware of that. And so that means if I'm unaware and I'm super aware of things, the general public, the general consensus will be they never knew that stuff and they had no idea that they could be.

Sally (35:46.166)
Hmm.

Nikki Scott (35:56.45)
doing a little bit of tiny few minutes of massage of their scar in the morning in the shower and it would make everything feel a bit looser and a bit more able to work against that tension. So yeah.

Sally (36:06.955)
Yeah, I think it's really indicative of the culture scape that we live in, actually, and this whole sort of grow, grow, grow, push, push, push, do, do, do, which is the prevailing paradigm, isn't it, of the world that we live in, basically. And for our vagina and pelvic health, we need the opposite of that. So no wonder it's kind of getting worse for women in a way, because it's counter to what they actually need, which is this letting go.

Nikki Scott (36:12.311)
It is.

Nikki Scott (36:20.419)
Yeah.

Sally (36:36.671)
opening up, releasing, resting, nurturing, yeah, wrapping it up in love.

Nikki Scott (36:39.722)
Allowing the body to heal, yes. When you think about tribeswomen all those years ago when they had babies, all the women came together and looked after you. I know it's very different and we couldn't do that now, but why not? Why can't we have our own like sisterhood where we give out the right information? That might not be a financial benefit to me because I might be referring someone out to someone else, but why can't we be

going away from it and people saying, look, you know, we know that this is outdated. Your GP is likely to be telling you this, but it's quite an outdated way of thinking. So really, if you want to see a change, if you want to see some, you know, some really nice holistic changes in your body, then these are the steps that you can take. We can all come together with all of our skills. You know, I'm not skilled in scar release work. I'm not skilled in being a women's health physio. I don't have an in -depth knowledge of certain things, but

I know hyperpressiveness had almost like a miracle effect on some people with multiple prolapses. So why can't we take all of that and say to people, look, this is a much better way of dealing with your body. You need to take time, work out what's right for you, and then go do those things on a regular basis.

Sally (37:58.647)
Yeah I completely agree, I completely agree. What does your, what's your business model like? So how, how can people work with you?

Nikki Scott (38:08.174)
So they can work with me one -to -one. I do that either on Zoom or in person. So if anybody wants to travel to Buckinghamshire, I can do it. This is my room in my house where I train people. And when you train one -to -one, you probably need three to six sessions. It's not a big chunk of your time or your finances. So you do your three to six. I say three to six because obviously, as you know, when you're dealing with people, sometimes people pick it up a lot quicker than others.

So, and some people like a little bit more support and help than others. three to six one hour sessions. And what I normally do is space them a week, two weeks apart, depending on the person. So we can do that on Zoom. And then that's always backed up with lots of homework and lots of support. So little short videos that people get to be able to do their practice. But I also have completely online courses. So if someone feels that they want to do it and they don't want to

Sally (39:01.678)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (39:07.662)
spend out on the one -to -one stuff, then they could just plug into an online course, which will take them step by step through all of what they need to know. So yeah, that's kind of general public stuff. I'm very much my big drive at the moment is to get more people, health and fitness professionals trained in hyperpressive so they can go and use it on their clients too, whatever warp of life they're in. So osteopaths, chiropractors, physios,

Sally (39:17.519)
All of the exercises, yeah.

Sally (39:30.702)
I think.

Yeah.

Nikki Scott (39:37.196)
fitness people like myself, you personal trainers, they're a big one that there's a massive gap in that knowledge. I know I went through the training course and they're pretty much the same. You have to kind of go outside and find good course providers to be able to get your knowledge up to a really good level. So that's really my passion is to get more people talking about it and doing it with their clients so that more people can get results.

Sally (40:02.017)
Yeah, and taking this holistic approach, because I know that so many trainers are all about the kind of muscle and the grr and the fitness and that harder is better. But actually, it's not, is it? You know, I think...

Nikki Scott (40:04.589)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (40:11.67)
Yeah, it's understanding the person in front of you really. There's a lot to do with the person in front of you. Talking to someone yesterday who she was getting married six weeks after she gave birth, so she got a personal trainer and she said, you know, she had her on a trampette, on a little trampette thing, jumping up and down on a trampette six weeks after having her child.

Sally (40:16.567)
Yeah.

Sally (40:37.17)
my god, yeah. So sorry, there you are.

Nikki Scott (40:39.02)
Yeah, exactly. there's a, you know, that's not that person. It is slightly the personal trainer's fault, but in a way it's not. Having done that journey myself, I didn't know what I didn't know. So to her, training that lady, she thought she was doing the right thing, but she's not doing the right thing. So, you know, it's having that understanding, it's having that knowledge, it's getting more people like that that don't know what they don't know onto the courses.

that are gonna help their clients because then they'll be an expert. Imagine like everyone wants to come to you because they know they're not gonna make things worse for them. They're gonna be able to get back to the training they love at some point by doing this great bit of rehab.

Sally (41:22.061)
Yeah, I suppose it's about understanding the nuances so that you can understand the person in front of you and what they might be struggling with. And how, cause I've always been told, just do your pelvic floor exercises. You know, just squeeze whenever you're in the queue, just squeeze. But actually now I'm like, I feel like I want to do the opposite. I feel like I want to like completely let go of all, all the tension I'm holding in my back and, and, know, just sort of open up and this

Nikki Scott (41:27.47)
Absolutely.

Sally (41:51.063)
What I'm craving actually is laying on my back with a block under my mid spine to really open up the diaphragm, legs are Kimbo, you know, on the floor, soles of the feet touching and just breathing and just kind of like letting everything flow and feel open. That's sort of what my body feels like it wants to do every day. So I'm gonna listen to that now. Now I've spoken to you.

Nikki Scott (42:02.882)
Yep.

Nikki Scott (42:09.869)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (42:15.182)
Amazing, amazing. Well, if you want to start learning proper diaphragmatic breathing, then that's absolutely what I do.

Sally (42:23.319)
Yeah, perfect. That sounds really good. So just to wrap things up, what other forms of treatment are helpful when we're treating the pelvic floor? I know we might have touched on some of this, is there anything more general? You speak about the holistic approach to the pelvic floor. So what are the things?

Nikki Scott (42:33.89)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (42:42.242)
So other things that I mean, Pilates and yoga. So yoga is fantastic one for kind of mindfulness and letting go and releasing. And I know there's specific things in yoga which work on pelvic floor release because I was talking to someone who was telling me all about what she'd been doing with yoga. So that's something that is really, really helpful. Again, with Pilates, if you're someone that really, really loves Pilates, although I mentioned it as one of the things that kind of

encourages that tension in the core. It can also be really, really beneficial alongside hyperpressives, but it's like any form of training. You can go to the gym with pelvic floor dysfunction. You just have to know the correct path to take. you know, you need to be going to someone that understands that you've got pelvic floor dysfunction, that understands the right things to be doing with you. So again, things like swimming.

Sally (43:36.141)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (43:38.434)
generally walking is okay, but I know with a lot of my clients, even that is a struggle. But you should be looking, if you've got birth scars, there needs to be some sort of release work done. So you may have to go to a specialist first that can help with that, that they can give you some guidance on what to do yourself, or you may just get that information from YouTube videos, which often I do share with people if they can't find someone that specializes in that.

But there'll be things like CBD, what's the word? Cognitive, that's it, there'll be that because the diaphragm is a muscle of emotion. And if someone's gone through lots of trauma and maybe abuse and that's contributing to the pelvic floor being locked up, then things like that emotional stuff, releasing the emotions is gonna be a really key thing. So.

Sally (44:13.849)
Cognitive behavioural therapy?

Nikki Scott (44:35.852)
Yeah, there's so many different things. It just depends on who you've got in front of you and asking the right questions to that person so you can work it out with them.

Sally (44:38.381)
Yeah.

Sally (44:45.387)
Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned that last point because as a hypnotherapist that helps people deal with trauma, I have also helped people with this kind of locked up muscle tension and tightness, which really is a reflection of a tight mind and a mental thinking pattern that is holding all of the time. So if you're waking up in the middle of the night and your kind of jaw is locked, that is probably linked to the pelvis as well. I've heard that the jaw and the vagina are kind of

Nikki Scott (44:50.71)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (45:00.269)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (45:04.099)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (45:15.158)
Yes, absolutely. But everything, you just got to imagine this web, this web of, and that's your body, your muscles, your fascia, your bones, your ligaments, everything intertwined. Yeah, not this, not like the anatomical drawing you imagine. And, you know, one little thing can affect so many parts. And so, you know, it's actually so individual what you find that helps you along your journey.

Sally (45:15.318)
linked. There's going to be some kind of

Sally (45:23.811)
Mmm.

Sally (45:30.328)
Yeah.

Sally (45:44.814)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (45:44.909)
But certainly I would say pelvic floor squeezes on their own are just so outdated that they can be quite unhelpful to a lot of women. I mean, I'm quite biased in my dislike for traditional pelvic floor work because it didn't work for me. And I would say 100 % of the people that have come to me, it didn't work for them either. So I'm sure there are lots of people out there listening to this where they would go, well, that's not fair because I've...

Sally (46:00.717)
You

Nikki Scott (46:14.476)
I get benefits from doing them. Good. I'm not telling you to stop them. I'm just saying for those that feel like it's an inadequate treatment, there are so many other things that can help and hyperpressives might just be one of those.

Sally (46:27.115)
Yeah, yeah, good caveat there. Let's end on a really positive, inspiring message. What positive, empowering messages do you think all of this has for women? Because obviously, you know, we're we're through this pelvic floor journey. We're actually helping women, I feel, to come home or you are helping women to come home to a gentler

kinder part of themselves. So it's not just about the problem. In the solution, we're finding a positive, empowering message. Would you agree?

Nikki Scott (47:07.854)
Absolutely, because a lot of women are very locked up in that it's almost like you described with hypnosis in that, you know, that the pelvic floor dysfunction affects so many other parts of their body and so much of how they're living on a daily basis. So in being able to kind of empower them to do something for themselves and actually find something that does work and that does sort out their issues.

will help with so many other things. As I said, that diaphragm being the muscle of emotion, if you're actually getting your diaphragm to work properly and open properly and you're fully using it, then you're going to release so much that's been holding you back.

Sally (47:50.701)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (47:52.236)
And women should know that there's hope for any age. So, you know, I talked about postnatal rehab. The reason I say that is because there's a massive gap. We don't give women any postnatal rehab really unless they come with a problem. But every woman should be having some form of rehab because your body's been through massive trauma. So there should be a package of rehab. But equally, and then that will stand you on a really good path as you get older because it will be something that you can use elements of.

Sally (48:19.747)
Yeah.

Nikki Scott (48:22.178)
and then add your own in as you go through the menopause. But just because you might be listening to this and thinking, I'm older than you and I'm past my cell by day, et cetera, you're not. There's always something you can do about it. I've trained women that are like in their 80s, early 80s to do hyperpressives and they've been amazed at kind of the changes they've got in their body. I mean, they're not gonna go back to like being in their 30s, but they certainly feel and move a lot better than they did. We might not come.

eradicate pelvic floor dysfunction in them, but we lessen the symptoms. And that empowers them to just think, well, anything's possible. I can still do all of this when I'm in this older age. So whatever age you are, there's room for some really magical moments.

Sally (48:56.875)
Hmm.

Sally (49:08.767)
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing all of that. There's been some real penny drop moments for me and I hope there has been for the listeners as well, especially this idea of the diaphragm being an organ of emotion and you know really learning to release the diaphragm, the holding, releasing trauma. I know for me when I have been through an emotional episode or I've let go, I've had a bit of an emotional meltdown and I love having a meltdown.

Nikki Scott (49:14.99)
Excellent.

Nikki Scott (49:20.941)
Yeah.

Sally (49:36.215)
and I just let it all go, I let rip, let it all go and my body actually feels much better. You know, my joints ache less, my muscles ache less and so I think part of the problem of the body tension is the held trauma, you know.

Nikki Scott (49:38.476)
Yes.

Nikki Scott (49:52.266)
Yes, it's a massive relief, isn't it? It's like, thank goodness for this. Yeah, I mean, like I didn't want to be like this. You don't realize you didn't want to be holding it all. But when you don't anymore, it's it's an amazing feeling. Let it go. Yeah, I'll burst into song in a minute. You haven't heard my voice.

Sally (49:57.912)
Yeah.

Sally (50:08.481)
yeah it really is and it's so... let it go as the song goes

Please do. well, look, thank you so much, Nikki. Where are you most active on social media?

Nikki Scott (50:28.846)
I would imagine Facebook and Instagram, I'm pretty much everywhere, I try and get everywhere really, I do a little bit, Instagram and social media just at UK hyperpressives or Nicky Scott, look me up on Facebook, Nicky Scott, I share some of my business stuff there in my life with my beautiful dog.

Sally (50:45.657)
Wilson. I love that. I love dogs so much. Cool. All right. Thank you, Nikki. And have a gorgeous day.

Nikki Scott (50:47.544)
Wilson. Yeah, I him.

Nikki Scott (50:55.022)
Thank you. And you, it's been lovely to talk to you, Sally.