Physical therapist guiding a woman during a movement exercise inside the gym, supporting recovery and confidence.

Understand your body. empower your recovery.

This Education Center supports you whether you're curious about physical therapy, navigating postpartum changes, recovering from a gym injury, or simply looking to move more confidently. Our team writes some resources, and others are written for you, with your lived experience at the center.

Browse articles, FAQs, and downloadable guides designed to help you take charge of your well-being.

Featured articles & resources

EDUCATION CENTER

The Ultimate Guide to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

It might seem scary and daunting to address these sensitive issues, but pelvic floor PT is extremely effective. You don't need to continue to suffer through discomfort, pain, or dysfunction. There are solutions, and we are here to help you find them.

The Resilient Athlete: A Modern Guide to Injury Treatment & Performance Care

Too often athletes are told to rest or avoid activity when it comes to injuries. We are finding out more and more through the most recent research that movement is the key to fast injury recovery.

The Desk Worker's Playbook: A Guide to a Pain-Free Body

Making lifestyle changes is not quick, but there are many techniques and strategies to alleviate your pain. Pain is common but not normal.

The Longevity Blueprint: A Proactive Guide to Healthy Aging

Information is power. There are so many things we could be doing differently to help us stay active and pain-free as we age!

The ultimate guide to pelvic floor physical therapy

Think of your pelvic floor as a strong, muscular sling or hammock stretching across your pelvis' base. This intelligent network of muscles and tissues is one of your body's most vital yet least understood parts. It doesn't work in isolation; it’s a key player in a larger system affecting your well-being. Its most important jobs include:

Organ Support: It holds up your pelvic organs, including the bladder, bowel, and uterus, preventing a feeling of heaviness or prolapse.

Spinal Stability: It works as part of your deep core to support your lower back and stabilize your pelvis, which is essential for pain-free movement.

Continence: It houses the sphincters that give you control over your bladder and bowels, preventing leakage.

Sexual Function: A healthy, coordinated pelvic floor is crucial for sensation, arousal, and orgasm.

More Than Just Muscles: Your Pelvic Floor and Your Breath

One of the biggest misunderstandings about the pelvic floor is that it works alone. In reality, it’s deeply connected to your core and, most importantly, your breath. Imagine your core as a canister. The diaphragm (your primary breathing muscle) is the lid, the pelvic floor is the base, and your deep abdominal and back muscles form the sides. For this system to work correctly, all parts must be coordinated.

When you inhale, your diaphragm lowers, and your pelvic floor should relax and lengthen.

When you exhale, your diaphragm lifts, and your pelvic floor should gently contract and lift.

This rhythm manages the pressure inside your abdomen. When this connection is off, it can affect everything from core strength and bladder control to back pain. Understanding this relationship is often the first step toward true healing.
Because the pelvic floor has so many jobs, dysfunction can show up in a variety of ways. Patients often feel these symptoms but don't realize they are connected to pelvic health or that they are treatable.

Common signs include:

Urinary or Fecal Incontinence: Leaking urine or stool with activity (like coughing, sneezing, or running) or having a sudden, overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom.

Urinary Frequency: Feeling like you have to use the bathroom constantly, even if you just went.

Prolapse: A feeling of heaviness, fullness, or pressure in the vagina, often described as "feeling like something is falling out."

Sexual Dysfunction: This can range from pain with penetrative sex (dyspareunia) to difficulty achieving arousal or orgasm.

Pelvic Pain: This includes a wide range of nerve-related pain described as sharp, stabbing, tingling, or numbness in the pelvic region. It also includes vulvodynia, which is any pain around the vulva.

Lower Back, Hip, or Tailbone Pain: Persistent, unexplained pain in the lower back or hips that hasn't responded to other treatments.

Difficulty Emptying: Trouble starting a stream of urine or feeling like you can't fully empty your bladder or bowels.

Don't Ignore These Signals

While all of these symptoms deserve attention, you should make it a priority to seek care if you experience leaking of any kind, persistent pain, or a feeling of heaviness or incomplete emptying. These are clear signs from your body that your core system needs support.
It's a common myth that pelvic floor issues are only caused by weakness or are an inevitable part of aging or childbirth. The reality is much more complex. Dysfunction can be triggered by a wide range of factors. The most common causes include:

Pregnancy and childbirth

Surgery (such as hysterectomy or prostatectomy)

Menopause and hormonal changes

Chronic stress

A history of sexual trauma

Limitations in hip or rib mobility

Poor pressure management (e.g., breath-holding during exercise)

Beyond Weakness: When a "Tight" Pelvic Floor Is the Problem

Many people assume that Kegels are the answer to every pelvic floor problem. However, if your dysfunction is caused by tightness, performing Kegels can actually make your symptoms worse.

Your pelvic floor can be in one of two primary states: weak (hypotonic) or overly tight (hypertonic).

Hypertonicity means the muscles are in a state of spasm or high alert. They can't relax fully, which leads to pain, urgency, and sexual dysfunction. This can happen in very strong muscles (like in athletes) or weak muscles working too hard to compensate, leading them to spasm.

A skilled physical therapist can determine the true state of your muscles and create a plan to either strengthen weak muscles or, just as importantly, relax and lengthen tight ones.
Physical therapy is a collaborative journey back to function and confidence. It begins by listening to your personal goals. Whet her you want to jump on a trampoline without leaking, ride a bike without pain, improve your sexual health, or walk a mile without discomfort, we start by understanding what matters most to you.

From there, we build a bridge from your real-life goals to a clinical plan designed for lasting results.

Our Process: From Assessment to Function

Our first step is to perform a comprehensive assessment to understand your unique body. We ask key questions: Is there tightness, pain, or weakness in the pelvic floor? Can you contract your core while breathing correctly? Are there mobility limitations in your hips, ribs, or spine?

We take all of these findings and work on each component individually. As you improve, we begin to build function back into your program. For example, if you leak when you perform kettlebell swings, we don't just tell you to stop. We reintroduce variations of the movement with lighter weight or a modified form, rebuilding your strength and coordination until you can perform that kettlebell swing confidently, without pain or leaking.

Your Treatment Toolbox

To help you achieve your goals, we use a variety of evidence-based techniques tailored to your body's specific needs. These may include:

Trigger Point Release: A manual therapy technique to release tight, painful knots in the pelvic floor muscles, relieving pain and improving function.

Targeted Strengthening (Kegels): We teach you how to properly perform a Kegel in various positions to ensure the muscles are contracting effectively when you need them most.

Functional Relaxation (Bearing Down): Just as important as strengthening, we teach you how to properly relax and lengthen the pelvic floor, which is essential for childbirth and healthy bladder and bowel function.

Pressure Management: We help you master the connection between your diaphragm and core so you can manage internal pressure correctly during exercise and daily life.

A Truly Holistic Approach

The pelvic floor is just one part of a larger, interconnected system. It is deeply affected by stress (through the nervous system), core pressure, and the mobility of your ribs, thoracic spine, and hips.

A truly holistic approach means we can't just focus on the pelvic floor and ignore the rest of the body. Our treatment will address all of these related systems to ensure they are working together in harmony, allowing your pelvic floor to finally do its job correctly.

Your Empowered Role in Your Recovery

Recovery is a partnership. A crucial part of your success will happen through the work you do at home. Your muscles function every day, so they need consistent practice to learn new patterns, build strength, and fully relax.

We empower you by explaining this process and providing a home program that may include self-relaxation techniques, core work, and mobility exercises. We also help you understand the importance of taking time for yourself and your body—an essential, and often overlooked, part of healing.
We understand that seeking help for pelvic health can feel intimidating. Your comfort, safety, and trust are our highest priorities. From the moment you walk in, our goal is to create a supportive environment where you are in complete control of your care.

It Starts with a Conversation

The first part of your appointment is simply a conversation. We’ll start by listening to your story, symptoms, and goals. We will also gently screen for any history of trauma to ensure the entire process feels safe for you. Before any physical assessment begins, we look at the bigger picture, assessing your back, hips, posture, and breathing patterns to get a holistic view of how your body moves.

The Pelvic Exam: You Are Always in Control

The gold standard for assessing pelvic floor muscle function is an internal exam. We want to be completely transparent about what this involves:

For women, the therapist gently palpates the pelvic floor muscles through the vagina to assess for any tension, pain, or weakness. We will also evaluate how the muscles function when you perform a Kegel (a lift) and bear down.

For men, the exam is external. The therapist assesses the pelvic floor function by externally palpating the muscles and looking at core strength and pressure management.

Most importantly, an internal exam is NEVER required on the first day. We will first explain the process to you, using diagrams to help you understand your anatomy. The decision to proceed with an exam is always yours, and it only happens when you feel 100% comfortable and have given your explicit consent.

Leaving with Clarity and a Plan

After your first visit, you will better understand your pelvic floor and the potential factors contributing to your symptoms. You will have clear next steps and, if appropriate, recommendations for tools like a pelvic wand to help you recover at home.

The resilient athlete: A modern guide to injury treatment & performance care.

Too often athletes are told to rest or avoid activity when it comes to injuries. We are finding out more and more through the most recent research that movement is the key to fast injury recovery. -Dr. Julie Auman

If you're an athlete, you've likely heard the same generic advice for an injury: "Just rest and ice it." For anyone driven by goals and a love for their sport, this is one of the most frustrating things to hear. Too often, athletes are told to completely avoid the activities they love, leading to a loss of progress and a growing fear around the injury itself.

Our philosophy is different. We believe that movement is the key to a fast and effective recovery. Musculoskeletal injuries rarely require a full stop; they require intelligent modification. We work with you to keep you moving as much as possible after an injury—whether that means adjusting the time, distance, or load in your running or weightlifting program. This approach delivers targeted blood flow and load to your muscles and tendons, which is essential for healing, while also preventing the fear and avoidance that can hold you back. It’s time to get back on the horse, quickly and safely.

When you inhale, your diaphragm lowers, and your pelvic floor should relax and lengthen.

When you exhale, your diaphragm lifts, and your pelvic floor should gently contract and lift.

This rhythm manages the pressure inside your abdomen. When this connection is off, it can affect everything from core strength and bladder control to back pain. Understanding this relationship is often the first step toward true healing.
A nagging pain is often just a symptom of a deeper issue. To build true resilience, we have to look at the entire body as one interconnected system. When an athlete comes to us, our one-on-one sessions give us the time to uncover the less obvious "root causes" of an injury. This could look like:

Analyzing a runner's arm swing to address a recurring ankle injury.

Identifying an ankle mobility limitation in a lifter who is experiencing hip pain.

Finding a thoracic spine mobility issue in a swimmer with shoulder pain.

We also investigate how other factors are impacting your recovery. Is your spine involved? How are you breathing during your lifts? Are your stress levels, nutrition, sleep, and overall training load appropriate for your goals? By understanding the complete picture, we can move beyond treating the symptom and start solving the real problem.
In a typical busy clinic setting, a physical therapist's attention is often divided among two or three other people at once. Our 1-on-1 model means our focus is entirely on you. We are not distracted, so we can listen intently to your story and have the time to dive deep into a head-to-toe evaluation of your movement patterns.

From Pain to Performance: A Real-World Example

How do we put this into practice? Imagine a runner who comes in with recurrent knee pain after being told by previous providers to stop running for the past year. They are now fearful of their favorite activity. Our first step isn't more rest; it's a test. We assess their pain over a very short distance. If the pain is manageable (less than a 3/10), we immediately begin a return-to-running plan. It might start with just a 1-minute jog followed by a 1-minute walk, repeated for 10 minutes.

This simple step accomplishes three critical things: it gets the athlete back into their sport, it begins to decrease the fear and avoidance they've been experiencing, and it allows us to assess their current capabilities. While we are simultaneously working to build strength and mobility in the clinic, the patient gets to return to running. As they improve, we progressively introduce longer runs and speed work.

Too often, fear and avoidance are the biggest limiting factors for an athlete. Our goal is to reassure you that just because you have pain, it doesn't mean you have to stop exercising (unless, of course, a serious issue like a stress fracture is involved).
To get you back to your sport quickly and safely, we use a variety of highly effective techniques tailored to your specific needs.

Dry Needling: This is a very effective technique for moving past nagging muscular pain and improving muscle function. It’s a powerful tool for providing pain relief that allows you to progress in your rehab.

Proper Loading & Strength Training: Strength training is essential for recovering from almost any injury. The key is understanding the proper load your body can handle at each stage of recovery. We are experts at finding that sweet spot to build strength without flaring up your symptoms.
Our partnership doesn't end when the pain is gone. We are here to help you bridge the critical gap between being "pain-free" and returning to your sport at full capacity.

Bridging the Gap

We create a detailed plan for progressive, graded loading and exposure to sport-specific tasks. With a full gym at each of our locations, we can mimic a wide variety of sporting activities—from squatting and jumping to throwing—to ensure you are truly prepared for the real deal. We are experts at coaching you through and around pain, so any hang-ups you may have in returning to your sport are covered.

Ongoing "Performance Care"

For the athlete who isn't injured but wants to optimize their body and prevent future issues, we offer ongoing performance care. This involves assessing your body for any mobility or strength limitations that may be hindering your performance. We then address these deficits by training each joint for the specific demands of your sport, adding in functional drills to make sure you are primed and ready to perform at your best.

The desk worker's playbook: A guide to a pain-free body

Making lifestyle changes is not quick, but there are many techniques and strategies to alleviate your pain. Pain is common but not normal. - Dr. Julie Auman

If you work at a desk, you’re likely familiar with the creeping neck stiffness, tension headaches, and nagging lower back ache that builds throughout the day. Many professionals in demanding fields come to believe that these pains are a "normal" or unavoidable price to pay for their career.

Our core philosophy is simple:

Pain is common, but it is not normal. You do not have to "get used to" feeling uncomfortable. At Movement Evolution, we know there are effective techniques and strategies to change your pain. We start by addressing the root causes, from your desk setup to the underlying muscle imbalances, to help you feel better not just for an hour, but for your entire work life.
We all know that "slouching" isn't good for us, but the reasons why prolonged sitting leads to chronic pain are more complex than just poor posture.

Increased Spinal Pressure: Slouchy sitting can increase the pressure on your spine by as much as 30% compared to an upright posture. This constant, low-level strain is a primary driver of both neck and back pain.

Weakened Core & Postural Muscles: When you sit for hours, especially in a slouched position, your deep core and postural muscles become underused and weak. This forces other muscles to overcompensate, leading to strain, fatigue, and pain.

Poor Pressure Management: Slouching increases pressure inside your abdomen, which pushes down on your bladder and compromises the ability of your pelvic floor muscles to provide support.

A Sedentary Lifestyle: A sedentary job can make it difficult to meet the CDC's recommendations for daily exercise (30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 5x a week, with 2 days of strength training). Over time, this lack of activity contributes significantly to pain and stiffness.
Many people invest in expensive ergonomic chairs hoping for relief, and while they can be very helpful, they are often not a complete solution. Pain often persists because the true root cause hasn't been addressed.

A Holistic Workspace Assessment

An ergonomic chair is only one piece of a complex puzzle. Our assessment looks at your entire desk setup, including the height of your computer screen, the type of desk, keyboard position, and armrest length. We also consider other factors like your stress levels, work fatigue, and opportunities for rest breaks.

Your Personalized Assessment

Instead of just giving generic advice like "sit up straight," our one-on-one sessions allow us to identify your specific pattern of strain. We perform a head-to-toe assessment of your posture and identify any mobility or strength limitations that are unique to you. We also take the time to discuss your work stress, nutrition, and weekly exercise routine to build a complete picture of your health.
For a patient with chronic neck, shoulder, and upper back tension from hours of computer work, we use a combination of effective techniques to provide both immediate relief and long-term function. Your personalized plan may include:

A Custom Mobility Routine: Targeted exercises to release stiffness in key areas like the hips and thoracic spine.

A Supportive Strength & Cardio Routine: A plan to address weakness in the core, periscapular (upper back), and deep neck flexor muscles, and to ensure you are meeting healthy guidelines for activity.

Breathing Exercises: Techniques to retrain proper breathing mechanics, which can reduce stress and release tension in the neck and shoulders.

Dry Needling: A highly effective technique to release stubborn muscle knots and trigger points that contribute to chronic pain and tension.
Once you are out of acute pain, our focus shifts to empowerment. We work with you to build daily habits and strategies to prevent pain from returning.

This includes establishing daily breathing exercises, a consistent mobility routine, and ensuring you are exercising appropriately. We help you explore ways to implement small changes, like standing rest breaks or prioritizing your well-being with firm boundaries around work. Our process is Socratic; we ask questions to help you discover what limits you and how you can best implement these changes for yourself. This is a safe space, free of shame or guilt around your past habits. We know that lifestyle change is not quick, and our goal is to help you move in the right direction, at your own pace.

The Mind-Body Connection in a Demanding City

In a city with a demanding work culture like Washington, DC, many people view their drive and long hours as a positive trait, often to the point of neglecting their physical bodies. We address the role that work-related stress plays in creating pain by teaching you to become more in tune with your body. We remind patients that prioritizing their physical selves first actually allows for higher quality work and greater mental clarity.

The longevity blueprint: A proactive guide to healthy aging

Information is power. There are so many things we could be doing differently to help us stay active and pain-free as we age! - Dr. Julie Auman

It's a common belief in our society that getting older inevitably means becoming weaker, stiffer, and more prone to falls. We see it in our families and hear it from friends, and many of us come to accept it as a simple fact of life.

Our core philosophy challenges this belief. While our bodies certainly change, a life of increasing pain and decreasing function is not a foregone conclusion. The truth is that most people lack access to accurate information about what healthy aging can look like. With a proactive approach and the proper guidance, you can maintain your strength, independence, and vitality for years to come.
From our clinical experience, a long, active, and independent life is built on three critical physical pillars. Focusing on maintaining these qualities is the most effective way to invest in your future self.

Balance: Your ability to control your body's position, whether stationary or moving, is a key indicator of longevity. Good balance is a skill that can be trained and improved at any age, and it is your primary defense against falls.
Muscle Mass: After age 30, we naturally begin to lose muscle mass. Actively working to preserve and build strength through resistance training is one of the most powerful things you can do to maintain your metabolism, protect your joints, and ensure you can continue to perform daily tasks with ease, from carrying groceries to getting up from the floor.
Joint Mobility: "Motion is lotion" for your joints. Maintaining good mobility, especially in key areas like the hips and spine, is crucial for pain-free movement and preventing the stiffness that many people associate with aging.
For a client whose goal is to prevent falls and maintain strength well into their 70s and 80s, we focus on exercises that are both highly effective and safe. Your personalized plan will be unique, but it will be built from a toolbox that includes:

Resistance Training: Using weights, bands, or your own bodyweight to build and maintain crucial muscle mass.
Balance Drills: Specific exercises designed to challenge and improve your stability in a safe, controlled environment.
Mobility Work: Targeted stretches and movements to preserve and enhance the range of motion in your joints. Cardiovascular Exercise: Activities like brisk walking, swimming, or cycling to maintain heart health and endurance.
The key to longevity is consistency. We know that building lasting health habits can be challenging, so our approach focuses on making it manageable and motivating.

Making It Stick

Instead of overwhelming you with a long list of exercises, we help you find ways to integrate small, effective movements into your daily life. It could be a simple balance exercise while you brush your teeth or a mobility routine you can do while watching TV. We work with you to discover what feels good for your body and fits realistically into your schedule.

Your Mindset for Success

The most important mindset shift you can make is to view exercise and movement not as a chore, but as a privilege and a form of self-care. It's an investment in your future independence. We help you find activities you genuinely enjoy, because the most effective exercise program is the one you'll stick with for the long run.