Sara Tanza PT, DPT, CFMT

Leaking with downhill running or walking? There are many things that could cause this, but here are two things you can try: 1.). Lean forward a bit more from your ankles and try to have your feet land under your body (instead of in front of you). This lessens the forces traveling up to your pelvic floor! 2.). Soften your tailbone and butt bones! These three bony structures form a triangle around the back half of your pelvic floor. UNCLENCH YOUR ANUS (ready to trademark that phrase and put it on billboards everywhere 😜)! There are many other things that can contribute, so if this is happening to you, reach out to a pelvic PT near you (or reach out and I can help you find one). Here’s to #AllTheTrails this spring and beyond!! #pelvichealth #pelvicfloordysfunction #pelvicfloorphysicaltherapy #runninginjury

Who else absolutely loved our superstar urology colleague @drrachelrubin on @melrobbins podcast?! it is just so refreshing to hear her yell the messages we’ve been spreading for years from the mountain tops. It was only earlier this year that genitourinary syndrome of Lactation was defined in the literature, and I truly believe we are at the tip of the iceberg in treating women postpartum from a hormone perspective. Vaginal estrogen should be the standard of care for ALL people who are lactating (pumping too, obvies!) or for anybody who wants it postpartum. The symptoms are identical that to many that my patient’s face in menopause. I have seen in my own body and with my patients how it can help: ✨Urinary incontinence ✨Vaginal dryness ✨Prolapse ✨Fissures ✨Pain with sex ✨Scar healing It is SAFE and so f$&king effective you should take it home from the hospital Other hormone-based therapies, like progesterone are also being used to treat anxiety too! I think we will see a LOT more from the hormone replacement front in the years to come as well. I’m especially interested in the role of hormones postpartum for musculoskeletal pain and general bone health, but obviously the sky is the limit in things like heart and brain health too! Grateful for my local midwife/OB colleagues who GET IT and are helping so many people, especially my faves at @nurturesantacruz You deserve to feel your best postpartum 🫶

I am endlessly grateful for the incredible mentorship I have had in PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) and always so happy when I have an opportunity to pass it on. Last weekend was my first PNF class for the @ipafmt and we had a blast! Some of the magic of this course includes: ✨Teaching our patient’s shoulder blades to move how they truly were designed to move ✨Integrating the upper and lower body to work together for optimal core function and improved spine mechanics ✨Using the power of the hip muscles to bring on better use of the abdominal, back, diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles ✨Making every part of the gait cycle more efficient (aka: helping people walk/run with more power and less dysfunctional stress on their bodies) ✨ Connecting shoulders to shoulder blades to core muscles AND feet to legs to hips to pelvis to core muscles too! And connecting it all together too of course! ✨Seeing how doing the things lead to increases in range of motion in seemingly unrelated body parts (like increased cervical rotation after using the hips to facilitate the core muscles or increased hip internal rotation after normalizing scapula function👀👀), decreasing neural tension, improving joint mobility and increasing strength I always become a better physical therapist by teaching, and I went back to the clinic this week so fired up. So thankful to all of the incredible physical and occupational therapists who brought so much great energy! Finally, it becomes more apparent to me every time I teach how valuable this work is in the field of pelvic floor physical therapy. I am dreaming of a 2027 class of all pelvic floor therapists… Can we make this happen?! #pelvicfloorphysio #proprioceptiveneuromuscularfacilitation #functionalmanualtherapy #instituteofphysicalart #certifiedfunctionalmanualtherapist

Hard to figure out how to operate your pelvic floor muscles? Try this OCEAN FLOW cue! First, our profession told everyone to do “kegels”. Then, we told you to stop doing kegels and learn to let your pelvic floor muscles relax. What do I think? Pelvic floor muscle awareness, namely being able to BOTH contract and relax different parts of it can help SO many people! Let me know if the 🌊🌊🌊 idea helps! #pelvicfloorphysicaltherapy #pelvicfloorphysio #pelvicpain #pelvichealth #pelvicfloorexercise

20 years ago, my beautiful friend and @ucsbtriathlon teammate Kendra Payne was killed during a training ride in Santa Barbara. This was months before we all were due to graduate, and she was to go onto the Peace Corps. I think a lot about how our world was robbed by what she would’ve done in it. I have promised her parents that we all will carry her energy forward and try to collectively be the good that she would’ve been for this planet. I truly believe that after we die, since our energy can’t be created or destroyed, it changes forms, entering those who loved us. I think that every time I treat a patient, a little bit of her brilliance, deep caring, silliness, commitment to social justice and a unique way of looking at the world is inside me, infusing the work that I do now. Kendra, you were otherworldly AND deeply human. I love you and miss you♥️

In honor of all of the childlike joy that comes out around the holidays, I want to shout from the rooftops that exercise can (should?!) feel like play! I just had the best time doing one of the most novel movement experience I’ve had in a long time at @santacruzmovement taught by @hjouras ! We moved our rib cages, balanced in so many different positions, pushed, pulled, balanced on our hands and laughed a ton. If you are local to Santa Cruz, I highly recommend trying them out. No matter where you are, let this be a reminder to find a way to move that feels like play today♥️

A pelvic wand is a tool I love to recommend to the patients and athletes I treat. Pelvic floor muscle release can be so helpful for not only pelvic pain, but hip pain, back pain, hamstring pain, and groin/adductor pain. I can’t tell you how many patients with acute back pain of mine that have been significantly helped by pelvic floor muscle release! Let’s help transform your pelvic floor muscles from 🪵🪵🪵 into something softer! So many people are used to using pelvic wands while lying on their backs, but as my mentor @thegreggjohnson from @ipafmt says, in order to really treat something you must do so in many different positions. I think about this like vacuuming your living room and having to move the couch a bench in order for it really to be “clean”. To use your pelvic wand, insert it vaginally or rectally using lots of lubricant. Once you find a tight spot, apply gentle pressure and breathe into the area, thinking about letting go of your butt bones, low belly, pelvic bones, external genitalia structures, armpits, jaw, and hips. You can move around inside your pelvis at varying depths. Make sure to check all around it as if you were marking off all of the numbers on a clock. One position I did not show here but also works well as standing with one foot up on a step. If you don’t have a pelvic wand, fingers work really well too! If you were an athlete with any of the musculoskeletal problems I described above or a person suffering from pelvic pain, try this out… You’ll be surprised what you find and how relieving it can be! #Pelvicpain #pelvichealth #pelvicfloorphysicaltherapy #pelvicfloordysfunction

Today I am 42 and Pelvic Potential is 7! When I think about seven years old, I think about that time when kids are at that beautiful place of child like enthusiasm, but on the verge of really growing up. With my seven-year-old specifically, it’s that beautiful mix of equally loving stuffies and Kendrick Lamar songs. That’s what I’m seeing for this next year of Pelvic Potential: holding on to the magic of new eyes while moving forward into what I’m becoming. I am more passionate than ever about bridging the worlds of pelvic health and orthopedics in professional sports, supporting people through pregnancy/postpartum/perimenopause/menopause, helping people navigate recovery through gender affirming surgeries and educating all of the next amazing clinicians to come! I am more honored than ever to be a part of my patient’s health journeys (which really are life journeys♥️) and will never stop being grateful for their trust. I’m also so grateful for all of my colleagues, both in person and in the IG world for everything they’re doing to move the needle in this arena….I hope to hug more of you in real life this year! I will never forget my college triathlon teammate Joey who we lost to cancer in her early 30s talking about how jealous she was that she was never going to get wrinkles… I will never stop feeling grateful for all of these wrinkles and gray hairs. What an incredible gift it is to be on the planet at this time♥️

What an honor to meet the legendary heartfelt hero @kathrineswitzer ; the first woman to attempt and complete a marathon road race, co-founder of @nyrmini10k , winner of the New York City Marathon in 1974, instrumental in getting the women’s marathon as an Olympic sport, co founder of @261fearless and so much more! Katherine‘s message is loud and clear, be fearless and bring others along with you💕 It was the cherry on top to meet so many other incredible women in sport of the past and present . Absolute queen @teglaloroupe peace, advocate, and first African woman to win @nycmarathon . With all of her winnings, she has used it to create a foundation to promote education, coexistence, and conflict resolution through sport – the Telga Laroupe Foundation and Peace Run-and her school The Telga Loroupe Peace Academy. The fierce and adorable @onepeloton instructors @rebeccakennedynyc , @la_tiamariana , and her beautiful mom. So many incredible women were honored, including @jessiezapo and @girlsrunnyc , @mollybarkerspeaks founder of @girlsontheruninternational , @runhongkong @drstacysims @getrunningmate and the Olympic Queen @jjoynerkersee . A huge shout out to the kindest man Walter Burch, who invited us to this awesome event by @261fearless ❤️ Cheers to elevating women in sports and women’s running across the globe. Here’s to educating women, cheering them on, and bringing more people into the sunlight to shine. 🗽❤️

Some of the strongest people I ever met have walked through the doors of my office. I tell every patient that if they have anything they want to get rid of, it flows out when the door opens. I also tell them that they always leave a little bit of their love and support for others that will walk into this room too. Their stories of resilience, joy, the deepest pain, parenting struggles, the worst traumas, the biggest victories and all of the mundane “life” stuff too. I truly believe that my office feels like a huge hug from the amazing humans who have been in it. Their energy has added up, like a well seasoned cast-iron pan, holding every person who walks inside. So lucky to have the most amazing patients that have honored me with being part of their journey! I pinch myself every day! To my Pelvic PT’s out there: I KNOW you all feel the same..we are the luckiest🙏 #pelvichealth #pelvicfloorphysicaltherapy #pelvicpain #pelvicfloorphysio #pelvicfloorpt #postpartumfitness #postpartumfitnessjourney #postpartummentalhealth #pelvicpotential

If you have had a C-section or are a practioner who treats people with C-section scars, this video is for you! There are a gazillion more things I could add, but here are three good ones many people don’t know about! #csectionrecovery #pelvicfloorphysicaltherapy #caesariansection ##postpartumfitnessjourney #pelvicfloorphysio #csectionmom #csectionscar #csectionscarmassage #pelvicpotential

Every so often, this lady has to get away from it all and see her own untapped potential! Timberline trail with the most epic crew☑️ 🏃‍♀️: @kmoondog @monikamccullough5 @jecaristotleballou @mel.mcconville @carotie and Liz!! #timberlinetrail #trailrunningviews