What Counts as Movement in Motherhood with Krystle Howald (E76)

What Counts as Movement in Motherhood with Krystle Howald

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[00:00:00]

If you've ever told yourself, this is the year I finally start moving again, but then you got stuck on how to actually begin, I have an episode for you. Whether you are six weeks postpartum or six years out, movement can feel overwhelming after motherhood changes your body and and your time.

Today we're talking with physical therapist and mom of three Krystle Howald about what counts as movement, why strength training matters now more than ever, and how to start without guilt, shame, or perfectionism. If you've been waiting for the right time to start, this might be your sign.

My name is Krissy Bold. I'm a stay-at-home mom to two little boys, and this is Mom's Guide to Finding Herself. Today we're diving into a topic that comes up every January and honestly, all year long movement, not the pressure filled New year, new you kind of movement, but the kind that helps you reconnect with your body, your strength, and yourself.

I am so excited to have Krystle Howald back on the podcast. If you caught last week's episode, you already know she's a [00:01:00] physical therapist with over 13 years of experience. She's the co-founder of Expecting and Empowered, and a mom of three who's been through it C-sections, identity shifts and all.

But today we're going beyond her story and into what she's learned through years of working with moms, what really holds us back from moving How to rebuild. No matter how long it's been and why, even the tiniest exercise snacks can change everything. If you're trying to make yourself a priority again, or you're just tired of feeling like a stranger in your own body, you're in the right place.

Let's get into it.

Krissy: Krystle, thank you so much for coming back to be with me on the podcast.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Appreciate you having me.

Krissy: Last episode, we talked all about your journey to motherhood and how you switched from being a super ple people pleaser. Pretty like. We're overworking to trying to work on this personal development journey and changing your ideas behind your practice to be more about the [00:02:00] MINDBODY connection. So today I really wanna dive into that.

This is January . When a mom tells you that this is the year that I finally make movement a priority, what are some of the things that you're gonna say to them?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, like a huge applause because I think this time of life getting exercise in or movement, the thought of it can be daunting. But once you like taste the water, like once you. Dip your toes in the water. I feel like once you get rolling and it becomes a habit, it literally like pays dividends.

Krissy: Absolutely. I totally agree. Like you just have to get started. My, my biggest motivator to keep moving, to keep exercising is so that way I don't feel that horrible soreness that you feel whenever you first get started for like four

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Oh, you don't like that? I love that.

Krissy: it's, I like the, like when you're in it, the soreness that like, you can like feel those [00:03:00] muscles like in it, but when you haven't exercised in like a month or two months or whatever it's been, and like you can't walk for days.

I hate that. So that's my main

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Let's, let's reframe that because that is literally your muscles breaking so that they can grow stronger. You're literally getting stronger when you feel that soreness. Like, so what you're doing is working, you don't wanna say sore for too long, and I can, I can see where people don't like that.

Krissy: Right.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Like I do.

I kinda like it almost maybe. 'cause I know the science. You're getting stronger. Keep going

Krissy: I, I get it. I get the mindset and I feel it when I'm, like, when you're in it and you like work harder or push

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : and you can't like sit on the toilet.

Krissy: Right. It's that getting back into it that is like so hard I, that I, I get why people stop because like, oh, like I can't even like, put my pants on right now.

So yeah, once you're in it, once you keep going, once you start, then it's fine. [00:04:00] Now, what are moms often get wrong when they're making their movement goals and their, their decisions to, to get back into a routine?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think what they get wrong is they just try to jump back into like what they used to do. So Amy and I both ran collegiately. Running is tricky. I. During postpartum, like before I had kids, I could like easily jump out the door and run 13 miles, like no problem.

Krissy: yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : then if you really think about it, you then.

And go through pregnancy. Most people don't run during their third trimester. Statistically, a very low percentage actually do so then you've got that three or four months off, plus three more months on the other side. Now you're honestly to square zero. So your expectation to run 13 miles is ridiculous, but human.

Like the human brain wants to think it can do exactly what it did. Or if you went to a CrossFit gym [00:05:00] before and then you just hit up CrossFit again, or that's where in a small amount of time I. A large amount of stuff, just like labor and delivery. Some of the worst injuries you see happen during labor and delivery, that's such a short period of time.

Krissy: Yep.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : But if you don't progress back to activities correctly, then that's when a large amount of stuff can happen that takes longer to fix. And let's be serious, moms don't have a long time to fix things.

Krissy: No, they sure don't. Now, a lot of our audience, or most of our audience, I would say, they have slightly older kids. They're out of that postpartum phase. They're not necessarily surviving anymore. They're just kind of like figuring out the chaos. So how do you start jumping back into routine if you've been waiting for maybe months, years past having your kids?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Well, you still do have to have the progression, which again is like the biggest error that I will see. So that's why [00:06:00] Amy and I, when we started expecting and empowered postpartum, it doesn't matter when you actually start postpartum. So some people will start it when they're supposed to. You know, they'll be doing the weeks one through six gentle restorative exercises.

Then right at six weeks they'll start doing their strength. But then there's other moms that are literally like, I had a mom in the clinic that I made her do my program. 'cause I was like, your neck pain will go away if you just do this program. Because she couldn't access her core well. So she was like 45.

But I was like, do this postpartum program and you'll be fine. Like you could either keep paying me to come into the clinic. I'll keep doing the same stuff and it won't stick to the wall, or you could strengthen your body in the way that it's supposed to activate correctly. Your brain likes to do things efficiently.

Your body wants to do things efficiently. Lots of postpartum moms though, they don't slow down enough to heal correctly. So then they learn like [00:07:00] your left hip problem.

Krissy: yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : they learn compensatory strategies, they push their left hip out further. They, you overuse one side versus other. Like you probably had no core strength, um, or very little core strength.

So you then need to do the core strength so that your core activates automatically.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I start working on the periphery. So like your hips, balancing out our hips. A lot of exercise programs have a lot of squats and lunges, but those are only two planes of movement. The hip is a ball and socket joint.

It likes to move around in circles. So doing those things progressively, it's kind of nice 'cause when we did the programming for Expecting and Empowered, all you do is see the worst of the people in the clinic postpartum wise, and you dissect how do you not get to that spot? And then you do, you do exactly that with the progression.

So we put it all in there. People don't even have to think about it. You just hit play and do the exercises. It's [00:08:00] kind of like putting spinach in your smoothie, you know? You get the nutrients in, you don't even know you're doing a pelvic floor exercise sometimes, but it's in there.

Krissy: Amazing. So it's less about healing postpartum and more about just connecting with your body and learning how to use these muscles that are gonna put everything together.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think both.

Krissy: it's

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think. I think both. Like if I were to have my cake and eat it too, it would be both. Like I do think you only have one chance to recover correctly. A lot of people, myself included, like my third, I was so busy 'cause I had three under three. I like messed up my third, my healing, but now I'm paying for it.

'cause I still have to constantly work on my C-section scar. And it's 'cause I overdid that initial period.

Krissy: Mm.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Um, so yeah, both please.

Sometimes that doesn't happen like, like me, you know, like life got too busy, couldn't do my own stuff [00:09:00] sometimes. And then here I am.

Krissy: Right, exactly. I totally understand. Like what are, what about the people who are listening right now who maybe have a 4-year-old who are thinking like, this is the year I'm gonna start moving. I'm gonna start making myself a priority. My kid's a little more independent. I can maybe get to the gym or maybe just lock myself in the room to do a 10 minute workout, whatever it might be. they haven't done anything. Up until this point And are, so you're saying there's a window for healing. What if they're hearing that and stopping themselves from going Because they're worried.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Well, you still wanna like, you gotta start somewhere, right? Like you gotta get yourself out of the starting blocks. Sometimes you have to start somewhere. What you did during your postpartum recovery. Almost like, and instead of beating yourself up for like, I wish I would've done that better. Like for me, I wish I would've done it better. I didn't have the capacity.

I didn't do it that way, but I, what are you gonna do? Dwell on it. No, you're gonna start [00:10:00] making forward momentum and forward progress like at the time. I did the best that I could with either A, the information I had or the time that I had. That's what a therapist said on our C-section course. And I love that 'cause I myself like, would beat myself up for having the C-sections in general.

And she was like, you know what? At that time, 'cause like now in the clinic, I ended up with C-sections 'cause I had a breach baby. We flipped last year, eight outta nine in the clinic for moms. We just create space so the baby has room to flip and I'm like, God, if I would've known that, I would've never had these C-sections, but I didn't at the time.

Um. So, you know, like you do the best recovery you could in the initial period, and now that you're ready to hit the gas, congrats, welcome to the club.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : of healing that can happen even if you're, you have a 4-year-old at home and it's so good for them to see you doing it. So I wouldn't even lock yourself in the room [00:11:00] sometimes.

Krissy: Right. I agree totally. Like there are times that my two and a half year old, my 4-year-old will work out with us. We have these 3D printed little, uh, dumbbells that they use 'cause so they weigh like nothing so they can't whack each other on the head with them. Um, but then there's other times where I'm like doing more yoga or down dogs and I'm like, I don't want you on my back right now.

I

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Yes,

Krissy: this. So

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : yes.

Krissy: yeah, I think there's time for both, for sure. So. There's moms out here who are listening that are starting over who don't recognize themselves and they feel behind. You've talked a lot about mindset shifts and, and the vision of the story we're telling themselves ourselves. Can you unpack some of the story that we've built up that we're telling ourselves that are holding us back?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Well, I think a lot of it is mindset, like I think our pre-baby self would think, like for me, going to the gym, doing intense things, lifting [00:12:00] heavy, running fast, it didn't count as a workout if it wasn't over 45 minutes to like an hour, even like an hour and a half, and. When you have kids, that mindset has to change.

Like it has to be something is better than nothing. Moving my body, I think the why becomes really important because it can be a tricky cycle if you're just doing it to try to lose all the baby weight that you have. 'cause our bodies physically do change after having kids. There's no doubt about it. Some of us might get back to where we wanna be, and some of us, that might never happen.

But if you start to shift your mindset of like, why am I doing this? I am doing this to be healthy and strong. I am doing this to play with my kids, get down and play volleyball or run in the yard with them without peeing myself. I'm doing this. We just went on vacation to Vancouver Island and we did some hiking and biking [00:13:00] and.

Even though I met my husband in the gym, that's probably like the last time he was consistently working out, and I just like tore it up. I could surf, I could hike, and my knees didn't hurt, my whatever didn't hurt. And unfortunately too. Like his knees hurt. Um, like he like was sore from doing it and it's like I want to live the highest potential of life for the longest amount of time.

And I think movement, absolutely. Science shows that it's not just like me thinking that

Krissy: Sure.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : shows we have to be moving and active and healthy to feel well be well. Like I just had a neighbor. She lifted her grandkid and she's smart. She's a, she's an ob, GYNA retired one, but she lifted her grandkid out of the crib and she cracked two ribs, so she broke two ribs, lifting the grandkid out of the.

Out of the crib like I we're. Strength training, not just for feeling good [00:14:00] now, but feeling good when we're taking care of our kids' kids. And I know that's so hard to think about when you're not actually like, when you're trying to survive the day by day, like, okay, I am trying to prep you guys some food and I'm trying to like wipe your butts.

But like, I think. I get the pleasure of like almost seeing, predicting what's coming in life. Just so you know, teenagers are kind of a pain in the butt too. My patients will talk about their teenage kids. Um, so I get the pleasure of seeing like what's coming down the road and I just think, wow, if we can move early, treat our bodies, well, it's gonna pay off.

Krissy: I love how you talked about at the, the beginning of that, of uh, how your workouts didn't count. If they weren't a certain way. If they weren't a certain thing. Can we talk about what counts?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Anything moving, I call 'em like exercise snacks. We intentionally inside the app, so we have strength and conditioning, [00:15:00] yoga, return to running program. What else is in there? There's a lot of stuff in there. Um, but the, the strengthening is what most people use consistently. That's like the biggest draw, and we intentionally made those workouts.

I love working out long and so the original program, like the OGs that had the book, those were like 45 to 55 to an hour workouts. I was like, what is your problem? I love this. Other people were like, you're literally crazy. I don't have time for this. So we intentionally made them shorter. They're like 25 to 30 minutes now.

'cause we know that's totally doable and it feels like a huge win for people. I. And you're still doing such great things for your body, your, your joint health. But two, even if you can't do that, I like to call 'em exercise snacks. I snack a lot during the day on these exercise snacks. So I'm like the weird person at Target when I'm waiting for the checkout and I'm working on my hip extension, just like [00:16:00] tapping my foot behind me.

It's fine. People have like attention deficit disorder and things. They just think that you can't sit still and that's fine. Um. And then at the park with the kids, I'm like hanging on the monkey bar, stretching out my rib cage and trying to breathe into different areas. I might put a few pushups in there, or I might intentionally like do a game at the park with the kids where I'm chasing them.

Like it's actually kind of hard for me to do so that like, it's just a snacky, an exercise snack, get it in, feels better than nothing.

Krissy: I love how you're saying the snacks because I think that's. Like such a great way to, to think about it. But you're not saying like, I do like 50 or I do 10 squats. You're saying things like, I stretch my body, I go for a walk like movement. Doesn't have to be this. I got out my dumbbells and I have this dedicated time to do this specific workout video. Like it, it can just be [00:17:00] literally going for a walk or literally stretching, however feels good.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Yes, absolutely, and research does show you should get that strength in two to three times a week.

Krissy: Yes. I think it's, IM, yes, we know that that's a

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I feel like

Krissy: like, yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : like sometimes so soft and then I'm such a realist. Like, okay, and, and too, one thing that I recently did was I love being at the gym. Like I was a gym rat growing up. I just like love a gym workout.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I am I, now that I have kids, I. Maybe go to the gym once every other week, which sounds like in my old brain, pathetic.

But it's actually like I enjoy it

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : and that's all that I can actually get to do. I try to like go back to the gym and like successfully go like W one to two times per week and I was like. I just have to do at home workouts. Like, this is what works for me right now in this season. [00:18:00] Maybe when my kids get a little bit older, I can consistently come here and do things.

But I actually tried to like actively get there and it just like with my busy schedule, the kids busy schedule, I was like, I am setting myself up for actual failure with this.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : So, so I'm gonna reframe and I'm gonna say. I am consistently gonna keep doing my at-home workouts, and I'm gonna get here one or two times every other week, and that's gonna be okay for me for right now.

Krissy: And that's just because you wanted to, because you, you like it. You don't have to go to a gym to get the benefits of strength workouts,

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Yeah. Yeah. I think that reframe though, I even had to do it with the gym thing.

Krissy: yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : just have to constantly like, what can I handle? What is gonna keep me active? What can I implement that's in that strict, rigid period where I know like, okay, non-negotiable. And for me it's waking up before the kids, but I also don't have any kids that wake up at night, [00:19:00] you know?

Krissy: Oh

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think that's important too.

Krissy: Find the time that works for you. So let's talk a little bit about that strength training that you said was so important. Um, based on all the research, we know that this is great for your cardiovascular and as women, our bone health, it's really important to do that. So what counts? I love hearing, talking about that.

What counts as a strength workout? Does it have to be using a 10 pound dumbbell or can you use your body weight?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : You can definitely use your body weight, and sometimes that's a great place to start. But to get a lot of the benefit, you do have to apply resistance, you know? So even with body weight, we can make it harder. So for example, like in the guide, when you first get back to doing a pushup. It's an elevated pushup, so we're actually using gravity so that you're not cheating during it.

And then we're slowly bringing the pushup down to the ground. That's more resistance, right? So then it's an actual pushup on the ground, [00:20:00] um, versus things that you load. You can make it more intense, less intense, with like, obviously an increased load. It is good to load things though. Um, like that's where sometimes too.

Yay for working out. Yay for body weight and yay, yay, yay for load. Sometimes

Krissy: Awesome. So if somebody is

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I.

Krissy: advantage of the New Year's sales right now and getting like going to Walmart and getting their dumbbells, what is a good like starter kit to have for, for weights?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think those ones that honestly come with like 5, 10, 15, 20, like they're racks. You can get 'em on Amazon. We have 'em linked. We could link 'em in the show notes too.

Krissy: Sure.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : ones are pretty cheap. And then that way too, you can adjust like as you go, you know, like then you have a set of, in the guide we say you need a set of lighter weights, so like fives.

It's like fives, eights, and then you [00:21:00] need a set of heavy weights, so like twenties to do squats with. But then too, getting those like little racks gives you a little variety so that as the programming changes, you can change your load

Krissy: Yeah. Now Krystle, I'm not gonna lie to you. My lightweight is the two and three pounds.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : and that's okay.

Krissy: especially with shoulder work like it, it adds up to me real fast. So I go there with lightweights and I feel good about it.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Yes. Love it so well, resistance is better than nothing.

Krissy: Yes, exactly. I think that's my mindset and my goal is of course to move, move more. But you know, if this is where I am, I feel like I'm, I'm doing my body

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : would rather have somebody do that and do it correctly than overload and not do it correctly.

Krissy: yes. I see myself very quickly, like going into a hunchback and like

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : That's like a super common air, and I like. You know, of course I can't help myself. All I do is look at people [00:22:00] all day long at the grocery store. I could be like, that person has jaw pain. Or like, when I watch people work out, I'm like, oh God, you need to go down in weight

Krissy: I am so fascinated by this. So can you tell me some of the things that you've noticed in your patients or other people about, um, like accessory pain? I think you might have called it that, like other things that you're noticing people have pain in, but it's coming from maybe their pelvic floor or maybe something else in their body.

What are some of the things that you see?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Well, I think that a lot of women, so. A lot of women like myself are people pleasers, and what I see clinically is their thoracic spines. So that's like by your braw line, your rib cage area. This area gets stuck on us bad, and it's your liver because the liver is a filter. So the liver, if you are not speaking your truth.

So [00:23:00] sometimes when I be like my anal retentive husband, you're. Annoy me. I just wanna have fun with the kids. I don't wanna stop and make everything look perfect,

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : know, like, um, so when you don't speak your truth, like people aren't taught how to communicate properly with each other. So I think a lot of us.

Stuff. It,

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : like instead of getting in a disagreement, we're being nice and you stuff it, it actually is stuck in your thoracic spine though. But our thoracic spine for moms innervates our abs. Those abs. And your pelvic floor is byed by your lower back. So those areas get shut down. And it's not just because we had a baby.

A lot of it is physically, you know, like the rib cage gets messed up 'cause a baby pushes upwards. It. Span. So for some women they might have a bigger bra circum conference after having kids, 'cause their ribs are stuck. They need to [00:24:00] inhale and then fully exhale them all the way out. So our breath gets messed up.

But then energetically. Some of us are just saying yes to bringing X, Y, and Z to a party, or we're trying to make everything fit in, or we're doing the like CrossFit workout three times a week. But that doesn't actually work for us because we don't have the time for it, for the commute there back doing the thing.

I'm not saying for everybody that doesn't work, but you're overscheduling and not setting your standards and then that's when it becomes hard. To get this area moving because this energetically stores like love and balance speaking our truth. Um, so, and the guide, we put a lot of thoracic mobility in it, like, 'cause that's what's gonna get your abs back.

Quicker. You know, like people think like, and then I cannot stand the stupid Instagram trends as, sorry, Instagram [00:25:00] don't blacklist us, but like when people are like, don't do crunches, guess what you do when you get outta better off the toilet? Like a crunch. You have to do those sometimes, you know, like exercise stuff when it trends just.

Kills me because like clamshells aren't bad for you. Your hip needs to rotate, but you know, like one exercise will get villainized and it's just like more. Where you put them. You know, like there's actually crunches in the expecting and empowered guides, but they're not till later. 'cause first we get this upper back moving.

This is why moms have neck pain all the time. Like moms are always cracking their necks.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : And like rolling their shoulders out. 'cause their necks are so tense. It's 'cause your thoracic spine doesn't move. Um,

Krissy: Wow.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : we do that first. Then we get the abs kicked back on by doing isolated ab exercises. Then we do do crunches.

They're not bad. You do 'em when getting out of bed.

Krissy: Krystle, you need to do more behind the [00:26:00] scenes about this kind of stuff because it's just like so fascinating, like

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : getting in trouble on Instagram. I, I already like, have enough trouble. Amy is like, kind of like, instead of like, what would Jesus think? It's like when I make stuff, I gotta go. What would Amy think? Because, you know, you, you can't go off the rails too much. She keeps us, um, from not getting canceled.

Krissy: Okay.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : She does a, she does a brilliant job at that.

Krissy: Oh, that, yeah, you have like a really amazing Instagram account. If you haven't followed Expecting and Empowered, please do. Because I mean, just seeing Krystles and costumes and like outfits,

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I don't even like Halloween. Isn't that funny that I do the costumes? I just sometimes like people's attention span is like negative five seconds, so you gotta do something to get their attention. So we do have a costume closet here.

Krissy: Amazing. Well, you are so good at getting people's attention, so that's the best. So let's wrap this part of the conversation up today with [00:27:00] saying, for all the moms who are trying to prioritize movement this year, what is the one reframe that might be the most powerful for them as they start their 30 day challenges or whatever the thing that they're doing right now?

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I think just committing like we're gonna run a challenge on the New Year's sale. Just committing to like, I'm gonna do this challenge. I feel like sometimes when a community of moms is doing it together, it will push. We've had thousands of moms finish challenges. Even myself, I'm like, this week. I didn't get all three strength training in and it like pushes me on a Sunday night just to do the last one to say I can do the challenge.

So sometimes doing it with other moms in community and just committing to it like you are a non-negotiable. Making time for yourself, like you talk about it all the time. If you wanna read, if you wanna crochet. This is like becomes a non-negotiable. One of the things that I love on the [00:28:00] challenge is, and this has helped me so much because I thought too before, like I'm consistently working out, so that was my quote unquote self-care.

And I like thought that anything above and beyond. Honestly, too, this is my own problem, but I thought it was like I'm already being selfish by working out, and I know that's not true,

Krissy: I

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : but I'm already doing that, so I don't need to do other things. But one thing that we have on the challenge that has completely changed my own life

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : there's a self-care section.

So every week of the challenge you have to read. Your book or do a crochet or like go get your nails done if that's what you wanna do. But it could be so simple too, like five minutes of silence. That might be your self-care mom moment of the week. But you're worthy of taking the time to like make your body move.

It pays dividends for your family. Like if I don't work out, I'm so much shorter with my kids. I don't show up as my best self. For my patients, [00:29:00] I don't feel as good. And if I work out, I just like feel so full of life. So full of energy

Krissy: yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : It literally is a fire. The embers keep going. So join the challenge.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : on in. We do have a code too for the listeners, for um, the, the app if they wanna join. So that's moms with an S on that guide pod, and we'll leave that in the show notes, but we'd love to have you.

Krissy: I can speak to the expecting empowered apps. I, I recommend it to any mom who is going back into exercise, whether it's immediately postpartum p or during pregnancy even. Um, and beyond. I used it throughout my pregnancies and my labors. I felt more powerful. I. During them, I felt like I could actually have more control over my body through that.

And then in the recovery when I went, this is I, I sent this to your account one point. This is the best compliment I think I could have possibly gotten my, in my pelvic floor [00:30:00] postpartum. Um, pelvic, my pelvic floor is when I went to pelvic floor physical therapy, therapist said to me, wow, your diaphragm is really great.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I love that. See, I told you there's a lot of thoracic stuff in there, but yeah, we get so many compliments from doctors, nurses, they're like, what have you done to prep for labor and delivery? Like we've never seen moms so in control. And then on the flip side, like we have competitors obviously in town of physical therapists that we work with so well with, and they're like.

When your people come in from expecting and empowered, like their stuff looks so good. And I'm like, that's a competitor. Literally telling us that they used our guides and their bodies look that good. It like just 'cause I see it all the time, but like when somebody else tells you it, it does bring the warm and fuzzy and it's so amazing.

'cause it's like the reach that it helps [00:31:00] people is just so, so nice. I love it.

Krissy: And the return to running program, I mean, it was so good 'cause it helped me even reframe just who I was as a runner. Like before I would just kind of go out, but now I'm like, I. Building in sprints and things like that. So it's like, it's just a whole different mindset. It's like a real running training program.

And it might sound like, um, this is a full advertisement for it, but I am like in no way getting paid, empowered for this. This is just truly from my heart of, I, I think it's a great program and it's worth exploring whatever part of your journey that you're in.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, our, actually, you know what a fun fact is? Um, our high school cross country coach, we won like three state champions. Like I said, me and Amy both ran collegiately

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : I. Um, our high school cross country coach wrote that program and then of course the investigator in me though was like, I'm gonna check this before we actually put it to pen, to paper.

And, [00:32:00] um, I put it to this acute to chronic workload ratio, which is basically just like you have to slowly take things up so you don't get injured. And it's just a smart way of returning.

Krissy: Yeah.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : The thing was spot on. Like I literally changed one thing in the whole Return to Run program. So I think that's so fun.

He's so talented. We just pull talented people and like Jacqueline Brennan does core, she trains like pr, like honestly, um, stars in Chicago. She's brilliantly smart. So like one of the smartest people I've seen with movement, like you just surround yourself with good people. So the all that's in there, but thank you so much for saying that.

That's so kind.

Krissy: So good. So tell us where we can find you.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : We're out expecting and empowered on everything. So expecting and empowered on Instagram give us a follow. We try to share, even if you don't do the challenge and everything like. One of the things that I'm so passionate about, I actually never intended on treating vaginas to be honest. [00:33:00] But what happened to me is I took a course in PT school and that course every day, I was like, women need to know this so that they can make their own informed decisions about their body.

But if you don't know, you like can't do that. So on Instagram, we're. Always giving free information. So that's expecting an empowered tons of resources on there for everything. Incontinence, prolapse, round, ligament pain, everything. How to sleep during pregnancy. So give us a follow there. And then two, expecting an empowered.com is our website if you want to join in the app.

Krissy: Well definitely go and check those out because it really is a wealth of information. Whether or not you download the Expecting Empowered app or not, it will change your life with how you look at movement and how you look at your body. Thank you so much for being with us here today, Krystle.

Krystle Howald, PT, DPT : Oh, thank you for having me.

If you had some aha moments in this episode, go ahead and let me know by tagging me on Instagram at Mom Identity project or leave it in the [00:34:00] reviews. While you're there, make sure you're following the show, and leave a five star rating so we can help find other moms just like you. And if you have a friend that could use this perspective, go ahead and share the link with them too.

If this season has you feeling off, you know, extra tired, a little snappy, or like you've misplaced your spark, you are not alone. Next week we're digging into why winter can feel so heavy for moms and what you can actually do about it.

We'll talk about the science, the emotional load, and some small but powerful ways to reset. When everything feels blah, you won't wanna miss it.