In this recent podcast episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Erin Farmer, also known as Erin Lee DPT on social media. A physical therapist, fitness coach, and women’s health advocate, Erin’s journey has taken her from owning a CrossFit affiliate for 10+ years and eventually venturing into the field of physical therapy.
During our conversation, Erin shared her passion for women’s health, particularly focusing on pregnancy, postpartum, and pelvic floor health. Her candid discussion shed light on the importance of self-advocacy during these life-changing phases, as well as the critical signs and symptoms that women should not overlook.
The conversation also dived deep into Erin’s private practice and remote fitness coaching, and the challenges she faced when starting an affiliate in Philadelphia.
One significant part of our discussion revolved around pelvic health. Erin emphasized the importance of finding a trauma-informed pelvic health practitioner who considers the body’s movement in various positions. She discussed the necessity of women learning to adapt to various movements post-pregnancy and the importance of advocating for oneself when receiving pre- and post-pregnancy physical therapy.
In the later part of our conversation, Erin highlighted some of the struggles faced by pelvic health providers due to insurance models and the emotional impact of training during pregnancy. Despite these challenges, her vision of creating a safe space for mindfulness and meditation practices shone through, highlighting her commitment to women’s overall well-being.
Erin’s approach to women’s health and fitness is empowering, informative, and necessary. Her experiences underscore the need for women to take control of their health, advocate for themselves, and seek appropriate care during critical stages of their lives.
Stay tuned for more inspiring episodes like this, as we continue to explore and shed light on important topics surrounding health, fitness, and personal empowerment.
TRANSCRIPT:
0:00:08 – Chris Plentus
Hey, what’s up folks. So today on the podcast we have Erin Farmer. She goes by Erin Lee DPT on Instagram. She is a friend from some OG CrossFit days. She started two affiliates, one in New Jersey and then one in Philadelphia, crossfit Center City and ran that for just about a decade before selling it to focus on going back to school to become a physical therapist, and that is what she does now. She focuses mostly on women’s health and specifically pelvic floor health, which does apply to both women and men, as we will discuss in the podcast. And so this is a podcast where we caught up on things from over the years and then also discussed a number of topics as it relates to women’s health, pregnancy, postpartum and pelvic floor health. So if you are interested in any of those topics, stick around. I know you’ll enjoy this episode immensely. She is based out of Philadelphia and does see patients, so if you are interested in her services, you can certainly reach out to her. Just go find her on Instagram. Erin Lee DPT on Instagram. Enjoy the show.
0:01:30 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yes, okay. So what are we going to?
0:01:31 – Chris Plentus
Maybe just for people who are listening and don’t know who you are. Okay, when you give like an elevator pitch as to who you are, okay, and then I have a couple of paths we can go down. You’re mostly chronological.
0:01:45 – Erin Lee, DPT
Okay, yeah, okay. Well, I’m down for anything. You just let me know. So my name is Erin Farmer and that when I first started CrossFit was Erin Davidson, and I started CrossFit in 2007, way back when, and heavily influenced by a friend of mine, basically ended up starting an affiliate in New Jersey before I started an affiliate in Philadelphia. Left the one in New Jersey because I moved to Philly and owned and operated that one for a decade, and that one was CrossFit Center City, which was more or less spaced around 13th and Chestnut. The first space was entirely main site programming, so, for people who don’t know, it used to just be CrossFitcom.
You type in your computer and then you would be like, okay, what weird thing am I doing today? And it would say something mysterious like five by five back squat, and that would be all you would do. Wow, so we started my friend who influenced me into CrossFit in the first place, anyway and I started the gym and we found this space that makes absolutely no sense now, but it had like tile flooring, short ceilings, cinderblock walls and we fabricated like four pull up bar spots.
0:03:26 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, there’s no rogue. Yeah, oh yeah, people don’t get that yeah.
0:03:31 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, you wanted to have a pull up bar. You had to make that yourself with galvanized pipe.
Yes, with some strange man at home Depot who was like, who was this really strange person who wants to pull a pull up bar? So we did that, and then we did everything with sandbags, which I feel like, when I say it now, is crazy. We had 1000 pounds of sand and we had 10 sandbags, I think, and then we had eventually had like one squat rack and, and I think, one barbell. That was how we started and we had small classes.
0:04:08 – Chris Plentus
It’s a functional.
0:04:09 – Erin Lee, DPT
It really was, and we had five to seven people in a class. That’s kind of how it started, and we were next to 12th Street gym in Center City, philly, which is like an institution that has since been torn down, which makes me feel really old.
But it was epic and the people that joined at that time. I mean, think about the type of person that’s going to be like sandbag workouts. Somebody posts them online. You have to run down a series of stairs to get to outside to do your runs. Sign me up. That’s like a really fascinating person, you know.
So some of those people are still my closest friends or people that led me through the next phase of my journey, which basically was the gym grew. It became amazing. We did so many things. We had strongman competitions on streets that we rented in the middle of Philadelphia. We ran. We had a barbell club which is called Liberty Barbell Club, which ended up running meets that had Olympians at them. Like just, there’s so many incredible things that we got to do. There was a nonprofit that eventually ended up being started out of that space as well.
But I sold the gym in order to fulfill a dream that I had before owning the gym, which was going back to school to become a physical therapist, and the real reason for that probably a little bit surrounded like family goals and things like that.
But I love fitness, but I also am, like weirdly attracted to fixing problems that have to do with you know, any kind of movement and I think to a certain extent that is the wheelhouse of a coach.
But I also think that for the most part, I just could not live without knowing more and yeah. So I went to PT school, did a lot of really cool things there and then got out of PT school and worked in a conventional PT practice until, I mean, it did not take long, until I was like this is terrible, just like a real like turn style. Like you know, everyone’s really doing their best, but it’s just the model is just not. It’s not it, and really just had the good fortune of being able to have the space and time to start my own private practice and that’s what I do right now, with the majority of my patients being, I’d say, probably right now I have like a 50% split of people who are pelvic health oriented and orthopedics. On the other side, I also do remote coaching, because I think that’s a really good outgrowth of what PTs do, but I kind of do that To clarify, that’s for fitness.
Yeah, so for fitness, I still do a little bit of weightlifting oriented coaching, which is just like a passion project. I love weightlifting but it’s for all different types of clients and it’s a lot of fun. I do miss coaching, whether it’s like big classes or workshops or whatever, and all of that is really based out of just recently moving to open box athletics, which is at 19th and Washington and Philly, and they’ve been great and super courteous and I love it there and so that’s my non elevator, like if we’re taking a really long elevator.
0:07:48 – Chris Plentus
That’s the the Burge and you know wherever it is. Yeah, it’s a big elevator.
0:07:54 – Erin Lee, DPT
It’s a lot to say because it’s been a lot of things, but yeah, so that’s how I got here and when I’m up to.
0:08:00 – Chris Plentus
What did you do for undergrad?
0:08:03 – Erin Lee, DPT
So that’s such a good question for all the Philly owners, I feel like. So my undergrad I was an English language and lit major, a biblical studies major, and I also had a minor in youth ministries.
0:08:18 – Chris Plentus
That’s such a cross out answer. Yeah it’s Everyone’s expecting, like kinesiology and exercise science.
0:08:24 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, english and the way that that eventually became sort of a thing was my. I always thought I was bad at science. To be honest, it’s just sort of like a category I had put myself in when I was younger. But when I went to Gordon College up in Boston and my senior year I took a bio class that was required and I did really well and I was like, oh my gosh, I love this. And so then I ended up doing post back pre med stuff at Harvard because it was close and I was like, well, what am I going to do with these degrees? I have no idea. So that was the beginning of the like. I want to be in medicine, I want to be something along those lines.
0:09:15 – Chris Plentus
And then a big loop. Okay, so it wasn’t going into undergrad that you were on that. No, no, coaching PT. Yeah.
0:09:22 – Erin Lee, DPT
I think I was more of a. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but let’s hope it’s something that helps someone. That’s like really where my head was at.
0:09:29 – Chris Plentus
Yeah at the time. Well, yeah, I mean, you’re a good company.
0:09:32 – Erin Lee, DPT
Greg Everett Kettle, sephotx, english, english, english, yeah I thought that was what it was to yeah, so I feel like that’s why I always love this post. They’re nice and organized.
0:09:43 – Chris Plentus
I agree. That’s what attracted me to him Plus he’s just freaking funny.
0:09:46 – Erin Lee, DPT
Oh, he’s great. Yeah, he’s hilarious.
0:09:48 – Chris Plentus
Well, I think you know if you can clarify your message, if you’re articulate, if you’re, you know someone who can, because I mean, it’s not saying that you want to be reading all day as a profession right. You know absorbing information. It’s regurgitating it yeah other people understand.
0:10:03 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, teaching.
0:10:04 – Chris Plentus
It’s teaching. Yeah, yeah, that’s all it is.
0:10:07 – Erin Lee, DPT
There’s this really cool collective of basically like older female business owners. I really don’t know. It’s such a weird category that I meet with in Philly and it happens every like month or so and the way that they introduce everybody who ends up coming because it’s different people all the time is you’re supposed to say who you are without your profession, so you sit. It’s really difficult, but one of the ways that I always introduce myself one of them a couple little pockets, but one of them is always to say that I feel like I’ve always been a teacher and yeah, so I feel like maybe the English thing kind of comes along with that. Disseminating information.
0:10:55 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, Cool. So in let’s backtrack to Senator City. How long was that decision percolating in terms of selling? Was the purpose of selling to so that you could focus on PT school?
0:11:12 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, I mean, I think there were a lot of things. I think, to be candid, it had been a long time of being in the business of gym ownership and I. One of the things I’m hopeful for in this current venture is I feel like I am now better able to understand my limits, whereas before it would have just been like just pile it all on, let’s surpass every single thing we’ve got. And I do feel like at that point I was pretty burnout, and I had known that for a couple years before I sold. And I had also known that I needed to get the gym to the point where it was sellable from the perspective of being, from the perspective of being a model that could easily be taken over by whoever was gonna buy it Right, and so that took some time.
And then, in addition to that, it was also the drive to go to PT school, because I realized that my work was always gonna feel just a little bit not quite what I wanted to be doing. And yeah, and then at the time, just wanting to start a family was a whole thing. And it’s interesting because if I had stayed in the gym, I’m pretty sure that having a kid would have worked out just fine, but I would not have been able to find a way to do PT school, because I was even doing pre-rex while I was owning the gym and figuring all this stuff out and that alone was like well, oh my gosh, my brain is exploding.
0:12:58 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, so you’re saying things, I mean things. Looking back, you can always make it work in your head. It does sound like preparing to have the business be sellable, doing a pre-rex, getting that already. And then at some point we had two kids, but they came at a time where it made more sense than trying to juggle all three.
0:13:28 – Erin Lee, DPT
I think so, Although having babies at any point in time is basically just a riot Just wrecks your and it’s beautiful, but also wrecks your whole life.
0:13:41 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, it’s controlled and uncontrolled by us.
0:13:43 – Erin Lee, DPT
Exactly yes, but yeah, I would say that’s an accurate read on how that all went down.
0:13:49 – Chris Plentus
Okay. So PT school you went in. Did you know that you wanted to work? You know pelvic floor, prenatal, postpartum, that population, is that something that you went in with a focus that’s such an interesting question.
0:14:05 – Erin Lee, DPT
So I actually, when I first went to PT school, my main focus, the thing that I loved the most, was actually neuro. So working with people who have had traumatic brain injury, stroke, you name it, anything that had to do with nerves, brains, all the things. I had a good friend who was a neurologic PT and I had shadowed her a bunch. And in neuro PT I think one of the really cool things is there’s just this huge emphasis on how you learn, and PT’s in general do learn that. But I think, especially in neuro, because you have so many different limitations that you’re working with and because you often get people who are broken way down to the bare minimum, it’s just fascinating. So that was going into PT school. The only thing that I was like I definitely am interested in this. I weirdly, when I first started, was like I don’t think I would ever want to work like sports, ortho, like that’s not and yeah, that didn’t last too long.
0:15:17 – Chris Plentus
Are you really?
0:15:17 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, I realized like I don’t know, I’m just kind of interested in all of it and I got so lucky with my clinical rotations. My first clinical rotation, I did chop. I was at chop for sports Peds, which was an incredible learning opportunity. I also ended up at a rotation for sports, again at like a more typical clinic, but working with someone who specialized with dancers, which is very much out my wheelhouse. That’s not a thing, but perfect because I don’t know anything about it.
And then I did a rotation at our neuro rehab clinic in New Jersey which was, I mean, everything I had ever wanted. It was like literally the full spectrum of people going through all kinds of things and then just you get to bring intensity to them in any way. And I think one of my favorite things is that everything, just everything, came together. You know, like I, there were times where when I would be working with someone who had some sort of neurologic problem, I would be thinking of like crossfit principles for loading right, or I would be thinking of little things that I had learned from English and even biblical studies, like just like psychologically and socially understanding people.
There’s just so much that goes into treating and so yeah, so when I started PT school, those were the levels of focus that I had. And then I, of course, I started PT school when my first son was three months and that was intense. I have a longstanding history of back pain and it’s seen a lot of M and flow and finally it’s like got to the point where I do feel like I have a grasp on it. But during PT school, with all the stress and the moving and the baby, it was all over the place.
I also ended up taking the boards while 36 weeks pregnant with my second yeah, so pelvic health was a part of my life, whether or not I wanted it to be, you were living it.
Yes, because I was living it and I had a great pelvic floor therapist myself, which I just I mean any experience I’m having I’m learning, that’s just how it is and I learned so much from her and that was really the beginning. And then I discovered, kind of as I was going through PT school, that it was first of all something that I was passionate about, but then also something that people just do not know about, and I do think it’s starting to gain some traction. But even in medical communities I mean, we did this, these like cross-discipline events in PT school where we’d like work with PAs and things like that and people have no idea that there is a therapy for this thing and that so many problems that people who have just given birth are having are oriented to something that could be muscular, you know, or coordination based, like it’s just, it’s just, the only thing they’ve got is creams, yeah, or kegels.
0:18:32 – Chris Plentus
Yeah or kegels.
0:18:33 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, or kegels, and so it’s just. I think I got into pelvic health because I recognized my need and then just this big gap in what goes on in the medical community in general. So, yeah, I love it so much, it’s been fun.
0:18:50 – Chris Plentus
That’s a great entry to a big reason why I wanted to catch up with you Because, the way I see it, podcasts are great to get information like that out there for people who may need it who may need? Information and I like podcasts because it’s like evergreen information, so like even a year from now. Someone’s like searching for something finds this topic right. So what would you want people like? Either because you already worked with them on your current clients, or like what kind of? Or even if you had like a big billboard out there.
like what would you want people to know? Maybe let’s start general and we can get specific about pelvic health, or you can be as broad or specific as you want, but like what would you want people to know that you think the majority of people out there do not know?
0:19:43 – Erin Lee, DPT
Okay, I think the majority, like the number one thing I would say is a lot of people are starting to know that pelvic health exists as a subspecialty for PT, but it is not current practice, is not standard of care for a provider, for an OB for instance, more a guide to prescribe it.
So if you are pregnant, it is my opinion that at some point you should have an appointment with a pelvic floor therapist just to check in and to make sure that you know how to use your pelvic floor, that you do not have any preexisting conditions, any issues with incontinence or pain with sex or any of that stuff. And this is really so that basically what? So that I would like for my patients to not come to me in the way that they typically do, which is they had no prep. Some of them did not even take a birth class, which I think is really interesting. And then they deliver and in six to eight weeks they’ll go back for their first visit. They’re cleared for sexual activity, they’re cleared for lifting or whatever, and they’ve had severe tearing or a caesarean or they have pain and they’re kind of just told like that’s normal, you’ll get over it with time. Go lift your baby that’s now going to become huge, and also your hormones are insane. Like you’re on your own, figure it out like da da, da, da, da da.
0:21:25 – Chris Plentus
Good luck.
0:21:26 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, good luck, more or less, and I think I know that there is a huge problem with how that is going. The biggest thing is I unfortunately, because it’s not standard of care. You have to be an advocate for yourself if you are a birthing human, and so I would love everyone to know that the actual standard of care should be prior to you having a baby. I am positive that at some point you’re going to be like huh, that hurts a little bit. You should probably just go see a PT before anything happens, at least once, and then afterwards schedule your visit. Schedule your visit before you even have your baby, so that you have one on, you know, on deck. The issue is you will have to ask your provider. I’ve never had a provider say no, I’ve never even. I see people who are OBGYNs and they are advocates for this, but you do have to ask because it’s not current standard of care and insurance has issues with that sometimes, so they can’t just willy nilly be giving things out.
But if you think about it, you see your dentist two times a year but you don’t ever see your PT until you’re hurt. And I don’t even have to get into the issues with like carrying basically a bowling ball for nine months and how. That’s weird that nobody thinks that that needs a little bit more love from a physical standpoint. So yeah, so I think that’s like the number one thing is you do have to ask at this point.
0:23:13 – Chris Plentus
What’s the timeline on that? First trimester, second trimester.
0:23:16 – Erin Lee, DPT
I would say like honestly, even before you get pregnant, because we’re probably not going to do an internal public exam in the first trimester just as an extra point of precaution. Third trimester you can definitely do that and third trimester depends, but usually is okay. Birth prep is totally a thing that pelvic health PTs do. That usually happens in the third trimester, but literally as soon as you are thinking about getting pregnant, I think that’s when you should go just to check in to make sure everything’s working properly. Now if you’re not a pregnant individual at all and you do have any kind of symptoms, I think the problem there is that most people don’t know what merits symptoms right, so it’s not normal to be feeling like you have to pee when you’re doing things like double unders or box jumps or running.
0:24:07 – Chris Plentus
Super common.
0:24:09 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, very common in the across the community we always talk about. Things are very common but they’re not normal, and that’s the name of the game in pelvic health. That’s just what it is. It’s not normal to have to, just in case, pee all the time. It’s not normal to have to pee more than one time a night. Zero to one is the norm, and like every two to four hours is the norm during the day. If you’re going any more than that, that’s not normal. It’s not normal to have pain with sex. It’s not normal to have any kind of pelvic pain. I feel like the odd thing is that people just live in with pain. They’re just living with pain.
0:24:54 – Chris Plentus
Why do you think that is?
0:24:56 – Erin Lee, DPT
I think it’s well, because it happens with things like knee pain too. I think it’s just. We get told that it’s normal, and there’s often this message, too, of things being connected to aging. I’ve had a lot of patients who are in their 30s which is not old who will be like is it normal to just wake up in my whole body hurts and I’m like no, I don’t think that’s a function of age, I think that might be something else and yeah, so I think we get busy, we don’t think it matters and it’s unfortunate, but it’s the way that most decisions get made in life is a until something is really screaming at us, we don’t.
0:25:45 – Chris Plentus
Until something’s acute.
0:25:45 – Erin Lee, DPT
Exactly, we don’t stop to look at it, so, but yeah, I would say that those are like the biggest things that I would want people to know.
0:25:55 – Chris Plentus
So if someone’s talking with a PT, first of all, how would someone go about finding Should they be looking for pelvic floor PT, do pelvic floor OTs, are they in that same bunch? And then, when they’re going, what kinds of questions would you want them to be asking, to kind of filter through?
0:26:15 – Erin Lee, DPT
Okay like this person is more general or this person is yeah, what makes a good pelvic health PT. So pelvic pelvic health PT is its own thing. There’s no equivalent in OT, which is interesting, but yeah. So the way that you would find one, I would hope, is actually when you go to your annual for your OBGYN. So if you’re there and you’re willing to ask, I would start there. There’s a lot, there’s like a huge presence online of all these different types of people now, which is great, but best thing is just go there see where they send you. You can ask your friends because sometimes they will know through experience who they like.
Once you’re there, I will say there is a wide range of experience because the specialty is it’s not new, but it is becoming more well known. So there’s definitely been more of an influx in patients. But the way that you will know if your pelvic health practitioner is starting you out okay, there should be some kind of questions that are directed to you about everything, not just get in here. Let’s do an internal public health exam. I actually usually try, unless there’s some very acute issue, not to do an internal public exam on my first visit with anybody. As you might imagine, it’s not the same thing as me rehabbing a knee, if I touch your knee the first time I meet you, it’s a little more invasive.
It’s a little more invasive, and I think most people who are symptomatic when it comes to public health anyway are people that are dealing with some level of anxiety for whatever reason. So coming into the clinic with that in mind is vital. So most public health practitioners that are doing really well are going to have a very trauma informed approach to what they’re doing. So they will ask for your permission to do lots of different things, and it might get annoying at some point if you don’t really care, but it is important.
The other big thing is if your pelvic health PT only ever talks to you about your range of motion for pelvic floor while you’re on your back. So just like here we are supine. We’re doing these exercises where you’re learning to strengthen and lift and then breathe and relax. Those are all really good parts of the puzzle, but they are not actually the whole, and so if you’re only ever on your back doing exercises in pelvic health, that’s not the whole picture. You should be doing things standing. You should be doing things crawling. You know all different positions, so if you’re not, I would ask about that.
0:29:21 – Chris Plentus
Right yeah, because supine position, it can be a way to eliminate certain hypotheses.
0:29:27 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
0:29:29 – Chris Plentus
So regular PT will get you on your back and look for hip flexion and hamstring whatever.
0:29:35 – Erin Lee, DPT
That’s fine.
0:29:37 – Chris Plentus
But we live in the real world.
0:29:38 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, yeah. And most of people’s symptoms, right, don’t occur while they’re on their back. They occur doing really normal things, you know, like everything from bending over to pick your kid up to like I went for a run you know, so you want to see all of those things.
So your pelvic floor there’s a lot of different models that people will use. People will talk about like a balloon and kind of thinking about your pelvic floor as a part of that pressure management. But one of my favorite analogies for the pelvic floor is that it’s a trampoline, and that basically means that you need this kind of like pliability to everything that you do, and that’s the reason why the pelvic floor will get challenged with variation so running but jumping, but then all of a sudden sneezing or like all of a sudden having to like balance on my leg and then reaching for something, yeah. So everything needs to be played out into actual function and what you really want to do, which is also a very crossfit concept, right, like, if it’s not going to apply to real life, then why are we doing it? Yep. So I’ve always loved that like pairing, yep.
0:30:52 – Chris Plentus
So, okay, they find someone they like, they’re good with that. Should they be doing anything prenatal, you know, before giving birth? Is that a recommendation from you to say, hey, here are some breathing exercises you should be doing to prepare? Is there a consideration for what kinds of exercise they might be doing already, or lack of? Yeah, is there anything that yeah?
0:31:22 – Erin Lee, DPT
absolutely so. This is like my current project right now in my own practice. It’s all very like new, and so I’m still figuring things out. But one of the other little beefs I have with pelvic health is and it’s not really a beef. It’s just like I’ve realized that this is not serving women or people who are birthing as much as it could be, which is there’s this huge emphasis on birth prep, right, and that’s lovely, because, chris, I don’t think you’ve ever pushed a baby out of you, but it’s a wild experience. You know, there are certainly ways that you could learn to tap into your motor control for your pelvic floor. That would allow you to feel more cognizant of the process. That said, birth is wild territory, and especially in this country where most people are birthing in a hospital system. There’s, with a high rate of cesarean. There’s I mean, there’s only so much that you can ask a patient to do in that scenario.
You can tell them like okay, so maybe your nurse will be the good nurse and they’ll come in and they’ll change your positions a bunch of times. Maybe you’ll get the midwife who is totally into letting you labor longer, but there’s no way across the board that you’re going to be able to do that. You can’t choose who you birth with. Okay, it’s just not an option. You can choose what practice you might be in, but you can’t choose who you birth with. So I have no issue with birth prep. I think it can be really important. Women and other people who are birthing are more attracted to that, I think, because there can be these really good benefits. Things like maybe rates of tearing are less or maybe rates of cesarean if that’s something that you’re interested in are less.
If you are someone who has learned to sort of relax and drop your pelvic floor more effectively or understand that your tissues need longer to adapt in labor, great. But most of the time you’re going to go through something insane and beautiful and then you’re going to have this little baby, and sometimes two of them, and you’re going to get on the other side and you’re going to have to lift this being care for, this being breastfeed, this being figure out your own body, which will feel like an alien to you, manage hormones and everything that comes with that, which is completely out of your control to the most I mean for the most part, right. So something that I’m just way more of an advocate for is I would love for people who are birthing I mean, this is a CrossFit community sort of oriented thing but if you are not lifting, you need to lift. It is not an option for you to be a parent and not be strong. Sorry, like.
The rates of injury post birth are very high and a very big reason for that is not just the gap in the care, but also the fact that most people are not strong enough. They’re not strong enough for life and they’re not strong enough to carry around a kid. Baby wearing is great, but when’s the last time that some 20-something-year-old human who’s about to give birth walked around for four hours with a watermelon strap to their front? So that’s my biggest thing is like that. Just that needs to be the baseline. It’s funny because the standard used to be okay, you’re pregnant, don’t lift anything more than 15 pounds hilarious right, because people give birth to 10-pound babies.
0:35:06 – Chris Plentus
Take it easy, yeah take it easy.
0:35:08 – Erin Lee, DPT
You’re about to be carrying a baby all the time.
0:35:10 – Chris Plentus
No.
0:35:11 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, it’s crazy. So I think strengthening is not like a suggestion, it is the bare minimum and you just need to be doing all of those things. Another thing that I think is equally vital is sort of getting your bearings as far as what is provided for you. Lactation consultation is basically because of the Affordable Care Act Now a thing your insurance for the most part should cover that, and that’s a huge mental burden for someone who is thinking about breastfeeding Pelvic floor. Getting that set up before anything else happens, I mean your body is going to hurt. There can be nothing bad that could come from you going to see a PT, even if the PT is like your pelvic floor looks really great and you’re just sitting there hobbling around with basically a broken back and you’re exhausted.
There’s nothing wrong with you just going to a PT, because life will be really hard then. And then the other thing is even just something as simple as knowing how to pick up your kid, put the kid in the crib. There’s this crazy stuff that can happen with your hand strength, even like after you give birth. You can develop nutty things with your ankle that are specific to birth. It’s just being able to anticipate any of that stuff by doing some strengthening and having an appointment set up so that you can just make sure you’re okay is, I think, vital. And then the last little piece is just postpartum depression as a component of what happens to most women and other people who are birthing, but it is usually women.
Just a couple weeks ago, I had put out this big call for resources. I wanted resources on birth prep, on doulas, like any of that stuff in Philadelphia. But I also asked people what are some ways that you chose to support your mental health? And I mean it would be lovely if everybody could have a virtual therapist. That would be incredible, right, but people can’t afford that, right, and people who have just had a baby have difficulty getting to appointments. Right, You’ve got to get childcare or you’ve got to take your baby with you. Physically, that’s very demanding. So I had. One of the responses that I got was from somebody who was like yeah, I went to my GYNA afterwards for my visit and said I’m having these really disturbing thoughts and I don’t know what to do, and was told that I should just sleep more.
0:37:55 – Chris Plentus
Oh geez.
0:37:56 – Erin Lee, DPT
It’s just baffling. You know that’s not an option. That’s not an option and it’s incredibly isolating to feel like in the one place where you are allowed to ask for help, you’re not even being given real options, right, or education right. Maybe you didn’t need a solution, but you needed to know that you were not alone and that this was common and that it would not last and that maybe the prognosis was different.
Yes, some empathy. So I’d love your thoughts on that, if you have anything to say about that. But yeah, I’m really curious about what would be if we were living in an ideal world. What would be the best thing that we could do for people who are postpartum when it comes to mental health? How could we better support that, and really with a graded system, because my goal is to put together all of these resources and any time I get a pregnant patient just be able to say, like, here you go, here’s some options, here’s some things to expect. Plan for that. Even just postpartum psychosis, it’s like a one in one thousand chance that people get it. But if that’s you, that’s terrifying. And I think birth prep is great, but that’s like none of these things.
0:39:20 – Chris Plentus
What’s the timeline on, let’s say, the PT seeing after birth?
0:39:26 – Erin Lee, DPT
So there can be exceptions to this. You can see a PT, especially if you are in real pain, prior to your six week visit. But if you’re going to do that, you will need a script and just like an appointment and that will typically happen. For instance, like if you’re having some trouble with wound healing and you call your guide and you just say this is an issue, they will usually just write you a script right off, but typically at least by six weeks. That’s another gap in what needs to be done, because I will just be 15 In birth prep right, birth prep is great.
Prepare people for birth. I will usually give people like after you have given birth, these are the stretches that you already should be doing. Or these are the breathing exercises, these are the stabilization exercises, not because I want them to have like one more thing on their list, but because I know it’s gonna. It’s gonna be an issue. And for surgeries like an ACL reconstruction, within two days that person is back in the clinic and is being given ice rehab, mobilizations, all different kinds of things, compression For when you get the middle cut out of you, zarian, you’re just sent home to care for your kid and To heal on your own. It’s comical, you know it should not be that way. So I usually just say you know you can’t probably come see me. That’s a little more complicated, but after birth these are some of the things that you could be doing just to preventatively help yourself along. So yeah, that’s the goal is to make that the standard, but it’s not and then what’s your?
0:41:19 – Chris Plentus
what’s your when they ask Okay, well, and even the folks that are seeing you are Filtering themselves to be in a group that’s. Very much the minority in terms of people who are self-advocating and or even have the ability to self-advocate, be educated on this, right, yeah, so take that with a grain of salt, but you know, for the maybe, the maybe to the message of the folks who are like I need to get back to. Orange theory, or you’d like to cross it or whatever like yeah, as soon as possible and maybe even they’re waiting for that.
You know, 12-week doctor kind of yeah right.
0:41:58 – Erin Lee, DPT
There’s a wide range of who recovers how quickly. There’s so many different reasons, you know. You think of these like elite crossfitters, right, who will like have a baby, and then it’s like 10 weeks later they’re walking around. Their abs are right there. Yeah, I, I don’t have any issue with that, because that is that person’s journey and, honestly, some people are just built to Recover better than others, right?
0:42:26 – Chris Plentus
some people probably Professional athletes for a reason yeah exactly.
0:42:30 – Erin Lee, DPT
They are already proving their resilience like throughout their whole life, right? Also, higher strength levels at a baseline. It’s just gonna mean that you have an easier time. You know again, that’s pregnant for strengthening, but you can also have I Mean this is the one of the current cases and I’m dealing with is somebody who had not been doing any activity, was just like really just nice Person who just walks for their fitness, had a baby.
It was pretty traumatic. The delivery was really quick and when she first came to see me she was unable to like lift her leg like at all like she could, like lying on a table. She can’t wiggle it, she can’t move it in and out, she can’t put pull her knee to her chest. She can’t do any of that due to pain but also due to nerve damage, because she was just like I can’t make that thing move and Like that person does not need to be thinking 10 weeks, I’ll be back outside. You know the timeline is gonna be different for everybody there.
Certainly, things that you can do to make your timeline better, but I think that it’s very important to say for most women. Again, going back to the ACL reconstruction ACL reconstruction one ligament taken out of your knee made into something different, right, that recovery, depending on who you see, can take anywhere from six months to at least a year, but it’s recommended that you’re not back to doing anything athletic for a year. It should be that way For when you have a kid. There are general recommendations on when to get pregnant again, and I believe the official recommendation is 18 months between kids, which checks out, because most of the people that I see they really don’t feel fully back to themselves I mean ever but like, but like really even able to sort of start to make some decisions for themselves athletically until 18 months postpartum.
So there, yeah, so it’s a wide variety of what’s going on, but generally knowing Six to eight weeks, that’s how long tissues take to heal, no matter what tensile strength of tissues at like a Microscopic level, right, that’s not back until 12 weeks. So if you think you’re gonna be running out the gate at six to eight weeks, maybe you’re a genetic anomaly and that’s great. But I would say that’s high-risk behavior and If you can do it, if you can hack it, that’s fine. But I would not want anybody to be putting pressure on themselves to be beating that timeline, not to mention the fact that so many things are happening that mean that your recovery is just gonna be crappy. You know you’re not sleeping. You’re giving all of your everything to somebody else Are.
0:45:26 – Chris Plentus
Your nutrients are going out. Yeah, all your nutrients are going out. Eating enough.
0:45:29 – Erin Lee, DPT
Oh, yeah, and there’d be all kinds of issues, yeah, and then the baby’s sleep will change. So every time, every time you remember, every time you’re like, oh, this is totally, we’re in a group, we’re in a group, no, we’re not in a group, it’s a lie, it’s all a lie. So, yeah, so I do think there’s plenty of people can be doing, but I also think it’s important to be really gracious with yourself and let your body tell you what the timeline is.
0:45:53 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, I tell our new moms, especially if it’s their first expectation, expectation wise obviously everybody’s gonna be different, but expectation for fitness Nine months in or whatever, that is nine months out, yeah. Oh my gosh, okay, tation yeah it’s not to say you can’t start your fitness back up, oh yeah but like don’t expect to be back to any sort of weights you were doing before.
0:46:15 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, intensity yeah like Just move. Right, your body allows it, yeah.
0:46:23 – Chris Plentus
Go for walks when you, when your body allows it, yeah, and have no expectation to be back back to where I was. That. I use those quotes, because that’s kind of their thought process. Exactly at least until however long you were pregnant?
0:46:37 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, past and I think, um, one of the things that’s been more empowering for me, I think, as a provider, is having had kids. I Now have this experience. Both of my deliveries were emergency cesareans, after like vaginal labor, which is super fun, but but I’ve had this experience that a lot of my patients will express to me, which is like after you have a kid, no matter how athletic you were to begin with, there’s this. There’s just this bizarre feeling of just like being empty and not really like. You’re just like a Like a series of arms sitting on top of legs, just like wobbling around. And I remember the first athlete that I coached that had had a baby and been like very athletic, and I remember her kind of just like breaking down the first time she came back into the gym because she was like I can’t even like roll myself up to like get off the ground.
And Again, that’s an argument for preparing people not for like the worst, but just like. This is pretty much the norm is that you’re gonna have to recreate some of these Connections and your motor control will be lacking. If people have never felt that, it can feel like you know you’re broken, you have had a stroke or something you can’t make your foot move when you’re looking at it. You know like it’s a bizarre feeling, but I do think that that’s a great start is just providing women with the perception like nine months in nine months.
0:48:17 – Chris Plentus
I’m just setting expectations, yeah yeah, and also not feel like they’re Failing or behind if things do take longer.
0:48:28 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yes because I think, especially with some things on social media or whatnot, or even just their own expectations or kind of comparison trap of like I’m behind or I’m not I’m not recovering the way this person I see on social is or Whatever right and even to the like, the more specific extent of like thinking of the, the PR’s and the records that you’ve had before and not losing them. You’re gonna keep them in mind, even if I tell you to forget them, but thinking about this as your current journey and Remaining devoted to the presentness of that, I think. So. One of the other weird parts of my history is that for like the three years that I wasn’t owning the gym, I or like between PT school that I took I was studying mindfulness, meditation and then also teaching it a little bit, and I feel like that has been so perfect as a compliment to my current practice because, again, with the whole anxiety thing, but one of the central principles that comes from that field of thinking is this idea of maintaining an attitude of curiosity, and it’s really Lovely but hard to do.
You know, instead of thinking postpartum, here’s the goal that I subject myself to. It’s a really different Perception to come into the gym and just think like, well, let me just be curious about where my abilities are, where I could be, whether it’s your first kid or your fourth kid, like who knows, because every single Version of you is gonna be different, but curiosity will get you so much farther, I think, than this like gritted teeth attitude of like Chasing the thing that you want to demand from yourself right. Um, just a really different vibe.
0:50:23 – Chris Plentus
Well, it’s also like and this is a maybe a tough message for some, but like those who have the mindset of like getting my body back, yeah it’s not the same body.
0:50:32 – Erin Lee, DPT
It’s not like. Bird, the human, or two or three or yeah, like tissue stretched to lengths that are not.
0:50:41 – Chris Plentus
It’s just not the same like take, I mean even using like a more, like a knee replacement or a hip replacement.
0:50:47 – Erin Lee, DPT
An analogy like yeah, it’s just not the same. You will never be that’s okay, you will be great. You will be able to do a lot of things that you wanted to do right, but it will never be the same.
0:50:55 – Chris Plentus
Yeah or um. You know we don’t recommend our, our pregos, to Go for maxes when they’re pregnant because of the laxin, relaxin and and what not, but because their hormones are so all over the place they Theoretically they could have the the biggest PRs they’ve ever had in their life. Yeah, when they’re pregnant, oh yeah, and we’ve seen it in the past plenty of times, especially old-school right like hitting crazy deadlifts and squabs.
0:51:25 – Erin Lee, DPT
Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:51:27 – Chris Plentus
So we don’t recommend it here. But, understandably, they might have those numbers in mind and they’re like man like I can hit that again.
0:51:35 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah.
0:51:35 – Chris Plentus
I gotta get back to that, but it’s just yeah, and I mean it’s.
0:51:40 – Erin Lee, DPT
It’s interesting because how people are approaching training around pregnancy is it’s? It’s changed, you know, and I don’t. I was never, for instance, one of those people who was like I’m gonna snatch around my belly until Week 38 it just wasn’t worth it to me Because there was nothing in snatching in week 34 that Would I would be really missing. You know, like if I didn’t do it, um, I.
0:52:10 – Chris Plentus
Changing motor patterns to? Yeah, I mean, I mean give me started.
0:52:14 – Erin Lee, DPT
That’s like that’s a big concern that I have. But again, I I love to champion movement. I’m not gonna tell someone they can’t do something unless it’s really important that they don’t. But yeah, I mean I I think that that’s Shifted a bit but really unfortunately it’s a. If you are somebody who’s been able to lift at a very high level of your max and you’re someone who’s been lifting for a while and you don’t get hurt throughout pregnancy, I mean like you should go buy a lottery ticket because you are a very lucky person. Those people exist, they really do. I mean, I’ve seen them and they’re great.
But the majority of people unfortunately see something like that go do something. That’s probably not the best idea. I hurt themselves. Now you’re pregnant, now you’re nauseous and you’re hurt and like it’s just not, it’s just not a great journey. But yeah, I, I hung on really long pun intended to pull-ups for all of my pregnancies, so just like really wanting to do pull-ups as long as I could and the fateful day would come, you know, sometime in the week 30, something where it just wouldn’t be happening anymore, mm-hmm, and admittedly it’s a little sad. It’s a little bit like okay, well, there goes that again. But I Mean your body is resilient. A lot can happen with time, but it is tough. I totally understand why, why people end up going right a little nuts.
0:53:49 – Chris Plentus
I know the answer to this, but let’s you know, for our folks who, let’s say, their kids, are more grown, they’re not in their first year of postpartum but they’re still having symptoms. We get plenty of of ladies who run off to the bathroom before a double under workout.
0:54:10 – Erin Lee, DPT
That’s what I should do. I should post up on a double under day.
0:54:13 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, it literally. Yeah, I mean, it happens right. The just in case peas, right. So what would what would your recommendation be for them, should they see a PT? Yeah, is it? Basically, I think the question that some some might have is like is it too late to?
0:54:33 – Erin Lee, DPT
yeah.
0:54:35 – Chris Plentus
Fix or yeah, I don’t want to say fix like a hundred percent, but work.
0:54:38 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, to get better. Yeah, it’s a great question Because, you’re right, it’s really a popular problem. So we like to say in the world of pelvic health that the postpartum period never ends because you’re always. Because you’re always postpartum, that’s a good birth and you’re always affected by all of this.
I mean the other population that I see.
It’s like the cutest thing If I’m not seeing people who are young, postpartum or having some kind of pain with sex, that kind of situation. I’m seeing these people who are like in their 70s, who are having issues within continents, and the lovely thing is that’s usually a pretty easy solution. But the reason that they will I will always ask them about their births even then, because it does matter and so, absolutely, you can seek out pelvic health at any stage of life for any problem. Often, back pain of any kind is something that is tied into that. So just a hot tip for people that have had back pain for years um, and the thing that I would be thinking, especially if this is like a lingering problem, especially if you’re having incontinence issues is again, with that whole concept of making sure that you see somebody who is going to give you standing up pelvic health Maybe not the first or second visit if you’ve got some pretty severe problems, but at some point someone’s going to need to teach you how to move in a way that doesn’t have this happened.
0:56:13 – Chris Plentus
Gotcha. So that’s going back to your point of not always being on the table.
0:56:16 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, not just like passive pelvic health. The other thing I should say, probably just as a general tip, is there’s been this mass exodus of pelvic health providers from conventional PT practices. This is because maybe some of your listeners will know, but insurance models make it so that bigger PT companies can only profit if they are seeing upwards of two patients an hour. There used to be people in this general area who providers, who were committed to at least two patients an hour. So it’s so. It’s no more than that right, and for pelvic health the standard has always been one on one care for an hour. Unfortunately, that’s not lucrative enough for some of these businesses, and this is the majority I’m going to say, like this is every single PT practice that I know of that is a larger company.
right now, I left my company along with the entire pelvic health staff of that company. Left the company because they changed the standard of care. They said you need to see two patients an hour for pelvic health, which, frankly, someone comes in from having a baby and they’re going to take a half hour to even tell you what happened, because that’s how it goes. Not to mention the fact that most people who are seeing us have been through some kind of trauma. Most people who are seeing us are going to merit some kind of internal pelvic work somewhere along the way. And we used to joke like well, I don’t know what we should do, one finger on each side, and then here’s the screen in the middle. I don’t know how to make this okay.
The entire pelvic health community. There’s been this mass exodus from conventional PT care, which is really unfortunate because that’s how people are going to get care. But they’ve moved into this cash pay model which, I should mention, can be really daunting from the perspective of the patient, but I would encourage patients to seek out cash based PTs. Cash based PTs are cash based PTs because they know that they can get better results and because they’re going to give you an hour of their time. You will never be in there with three other people lying on a mat doing your same old, same old exercises for the next like 12 weeks.
It is abominable that that’s basically what PT has become in some places. So I got really excited about that. But I think that’s a good place to start. If you’re thinking, if your problems haven’t been resolved, you’ve been to pelvic health care before or something like that. I would not stop with just one provider, because there are a lot of people who are not informed. I think properly in the way, that you can actually treat a lot of these issues with more than just internal care.
0:59:41 – Chris Plentus
I know it’s going to vary person to person, but what are some ballpark lengths of engagement? How often are you seeing someone weekly? How much homework do they have versus in person? And then how many weeks slash months and I know that’s totally different across the board depending on the person’s situation no, but it’s such a good question because that’s one of the more encouraging parts of things, I think.
1:00:13 – Erin Lee, DPT
Okay, so I’ll try to break it down into a couple of different examples. Like I said, anybody who’s dealing with incontinence issues, especially that comes from something that’s like I just hear running water and then I want to pee that person, I will say honestly one or two visits I’ve had it last longer.
1:00:33 – Chris Plentus
I think that would be surprising to a lot of people.
1:00:35 – Erin Lee, DPT
That’s what I’m saying and it’s like how wonderful is that? One of the first patients I ever saw who was an older patient, who was having all these issues and I actually saw her two times and she was floored. She was like I cannot believe I’ve been living like this for so long. She could not leave her house for fear of like wetting herself. So, yeah, so that’s like one category of a person I would highly recommend reaching out. But the other category is I’ve had people who have had pain with sex, who we’ve been able to resolve this in one to two visits. I got really lucky. One of my first patients was like that and it was very deceiving. But I will say it’s not that many visits. I don’t have a lot of people who I think that takes more than four to six visits and many of them can be less, and it obviously varies, like you said, and it depends.
One of the other populations that we do tend to see a lot in pelvic health is chronic pain, because if your pelvic floor is off, it does affect literally every part of your body. Right, it’s going to make your knee hurt, it’s going to make your toe feel weird, it’s going to make your shoulders do a thing. So I will say that that is the population that is the longest. So those are the people that I actually really love to say. Maybe you’re going to need to come in for some hands-on manual stuff or one-on-one coaching. But my biggest goal with a person who has had chronic pain, at that point your pain is no longer tissue-based and this is a really hard concept to teach but basically six to eight weeks, if something’s torn, it’s healed, it’s fine. So your issue now is that your brain has decided the initial acute phase of whatever went on with your pain. Your brain turned an alarm on and left the alarm on and nobody has gone in and just said, like actually this is fine and turned the alarm off. So you still have this like blaring signal right. The longer that goes on, the more that that gets harder to break and it’s something called cortical sensitization, basically the same reason why, like if you were ever in a car accident and you had a really bad injury, and every time you hear screeching tires, like all of a sudden your whole body gets flinchy and tight. It’s the same thing.
Those patients are the ones that take the longest. The best thing for them is maybe this sometimes manual work, but then the coaching model is the reason that I love what I do, because they just need to move, they need to encounter their own resilience, they need to encounter their own fear, they need to build courage by literally doing the thing that scares them. It helps a lot doing that under the umbrella of PT because it means that you always feel like, okay, well, if I have a minor freak out or if maybe I do a new thing and my thumb feels weird, I’m not going to die, I’m here, I can have somebody who can just look at that and make sure I’m okay. So I do have patients who see me through an insurance model two times a week for mostly coaching, because what we’re working on is that resilience is returning to this feeling of being empowered to move in their own bodies and to know that they can heal themselves Right.
So, yeah, so those are the main. I think that those are generally the main categories and that’s the timeline. It can be complicated, but if you’ve never been examined, I feel like most of the time in that first visit someone can kind of give you a sense. First or second visit you’re going to know how long is this really going to take us?
1:04:36 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, I think I’m surprised by that and I’m sure a lot of other people would be that and again, ever in situations different but, some of those situations, some of the scenarios, are really not that much.
1:04:49 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, I know, and it’s mind blowing, but a little goes a long way. And especially when you’re seeing someone one-on-one again. You can do a lot with an hour, you know.
1:05:03 – Chris Plentus
For sure. That’s what we say for our personal training clients. Absolutely yeah, hours, a long time.
1:05:07 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, it’s a really long time and there’s so much more that goes into that. I think I’m doing a bunch of a series of posts on basically just a case study of taking somebody from birth and then all the way to recovery, and in the first visit even I was like I wrote it all out and I was just like this is insane, we covered so many things and just so many different pockets of what this person needed.
It’s worth it. It’s definitely worth it, and that’s my hope anyway and my goal in any visit, but yeah, that’s cool.
1:05:44 – Chris Plentus
Is there anything? I’m sure there’s so much that we could talk about, but is there anything pressing in your mind that really you would like to get out to the public, anything that we haven’t discussed, that people should or be aware of?
1:06:10 – Erin Lee, DPT
I think my mind just drifts to the whole postpartum depression thing, because I do know that it is being talked about more, but I feel like for the most part, people who are postpartum are scrambling and it is really difficult to know what resources might be available. So I feel like that’s probably I mean, really it’s the number. One thing is just recognizing that maybe things will go very easy for you and you will never have any problems with any of this. But the norm is that it’s just very common to have a lot go on when you couple that with pain. I mean I’ve had people who come in and they’re just like crying. You know, like they’re crying, they’re in pain, they’ve got this like- They’ve also had to go back to work.
Yeah, and then they have to go back to work. It’s just a lot, and so I feel like I want to normalize talking about that, and I also want to say that this I’m an advocate for PTs not being there to support your mental health, but every time you go to a visit with, like, a pediatric visit, you will typically get a little questionnaire that checks in with your health.
1:07:43 – Chris Plentus
Yeah, screening.
1:07:43 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yeah, so it’s now standard of practice, but that’s at a physician’s office where you’re seen for maybe 20 minutes. Your PT sees you for an hour. That’s so much time to be able to just care for someone and kind of nodding. Back to the reference that I made about who you are, without talking about your job title, I do think that who I am as a provider is a healer and I take that very seriously. I think mental health care from an actual certified professional is vital, if you can get it.
But in the meantime, setting yourself up for success means, postpartum, just anticipating some of this and calling your friends and speaking with your spouse ahead of time about what would be ideal Not fair Ideal because everyone’s going to be stressed. I think it’s just good to have those conversations before there’s like a wonderful little being in the room who’s demanding all of your attention and puking all over you and puking all over you. So I feel like that’s probably the biggest thing is that if you have any questions about this, get in touch with me. But I just want to normalize that and want to put that out there, that I think parents are doing hugely heroic work, but we don’t want them to have to be. It should be the norm to take care of yourself, whether it’s pelvic health or just pain in general. We do not need to be living like this and if you’re not getting better, don’t stay.
Good providers discharge people if they’re not helping. Right. If I see you for six visits and you’re not better, I’m not the one for you, and there’s a humility in that that I think is more needed in our community. So I feel like that’s probably it. I don’t know if I have any other big thing.
1:09:58 – Chris Plentus
What does it look like for you working with people? Are you going to them? Are you? Is it outpatient, inpatient? Do you have an office that people go to?
1:10:06 – Erin Lee, DPT
So my current, so right now, at OpenBox Athletics, I have this space that is up above the gym. Like you can hear the gym, it’s like very loud and it’s sort of semi private. This is because I’m having like a legitimate office built next door. I will be in that office in December, which will be really great, but yeah. So what that looks like for me is I like to check in with people’s mental health. I like to take my time in asking them how they are. I like to give people exercises that are perfect for them, everything you need and nothing more. Minimum effective dose is something that I’m like obsessed with. I like to be checking in with people and kind of seeing what are your actual goals, which every PT should be asking you, and then are we getting there? Is this happening, you know? Because if not, then why are you here?
The goal of the space itself that is in my mind because, like I’ve said, I have this whole background in mindfulness.
I can’t really do it right now, but in my previous space, which was private, there were times where we ended either a coaching session or a session, an actual visit, with meditation and it sounds like how’s that going to solve anything. But I’m telling you these people, you get them quiet for five minutes and you just put them in a room and give them that right and people come out of there like that was the greatest thing, and it’s so good to just remind people, like you could come here for that. You could also get that for yourself. That refreshment and that feeling of coming home is always with you. So big goal of the space that I’m creating is to come forward with that, to create a safe space still work in progress for sure, because right now there’s just, like you know, system of a down bumping in the background, so nothing against system of a down, but it’s like it’s a lot right now, so really hopeful for what it will become.
So cool. Yeah.
1:12:30 – Chris Plentus
And if people want to get in touch with you.
1:12:32 – Erin Lee, DPT
So right now I’m very unofficial. I am I’m Erin Lee Erin E-R-I-N-L-E-E-D-P-T. Doctor of physical therapy. Erin Lee D-P-T. On Instagram. I have a lot of work to do on my website, so don’t look too closely at that, but if you do have any questions, I’m happy to field any of that or just get to know you Would love any of your help or ideas. About resources, as I’ve kind of already talked about, you can DM me right there and I’ll usually see DMs before I see emails, because email’s insane. So yeah, Love it.
1:13:06 – Chris Plentus
So Erin Lee D-P-T on Instagram is the best way to get in touch.
1:13:09 – Erin Lee, DPT
Yes, please, all right, Thank you.
1:13:12 – Chris Plentus
So if you’re listening and need to get in touch, go DM her. Thank you.