Return to running after baby is one of the most searched questions in postpartum recovery, and the guidelines most clinicians use were co written by this week's guest. Grainne Donnelly, Advanced Practice Pelvic Health Physiotherapist, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy and editor of the new Elsevier textbook Sports Medicine and the Pelvic Floor, joins Kristen to talk about leaking during exercise, pelvic floor dysfunction in female athletes and what a decade of new research has changed about postpartum return to sport. From compression shorts and pessaries to the evolutionary reason human pelvic floors work so hard, this is the conversation for anyone who runs, lifts or coaches.
This episode is brought to you by SRC Health. Shop SRC garments at blueberrytherapyshop.ca and use the code SRC15 for 15% off.
In This Episode
- [02:29] The short straw: how a maternity rotation labelled a waste of six months became a career
- [04:57] Nearly half of 325 athletes at the Lima U20 World Championships reported pelvic floor symptoms, and why the research is only catching up now
- [08:55] Assessing a young athlete: history, bladder diary, real time ultrasound and leaking as a warning sign of underfuelling (RED-S)
- [15:44] The 2019 return to running guidelines: why they were written and what they screen for
- [19:56] What changed: the 881 woman study, the three week minimum and why 12 weeks is an average, not a rule
- [24:13] The product menu: pessaries, Uresta, Poise Impressa and the compression shorts her PhD put through gait analysis
- [30:28] Run quieter and lean in: free strategy changes that reduce load on the pelvic floor
- [33:31] The evolutionary chapter: what walking upright cost the pelvic floor, sparked by a chance meeting with Dan Lieberman
- [41:27] Load capacity in practice: the six double unders method
- [44:41] The Chrome browser brain: why understanding a symptom changes the symptom
What You Will Learn
How to tell a load capacity problem from a structural one, what a graded return to running actually looks like, which support products exist and how they work, and why pelvic floor symptoms touch at least one in three women without being anyone's fault.
About Grainne Donnelly
Grainne is an Advanced Practice Pelvic Health Physiotherapist and founder of Absolute Physio in Northern Ireland. She co wrote the returning to running postnatal guidelines (2019) with Tom Goom and Emma Brockwell, is Editor in Chief of JPOGP and edited Sports Medicine and the Pelvic Floor: Science to Practice (Elsevier, 2026). Her PhD research at Cardiff Metropolitan University investigates compression garments for pelvic floor symptoms in runners.
Theme Song: Jump Around by House of Pain and Maniac 2000 by Mark McCabe (she filled in the form twice and we kept both)
Resources and References Mentioned
Keep Listening on The Hole Shebang
Connect with Grainne
Website: absolute.physio
Instagram: @grainnedonnelly_absolutephysio
Our Sponsor: SRC Health
SRC makes medical grade compression garments for pregnancy, bladder leaks and mild pelvic organ prolapse. The Restore short is the one Kristen reaches for most in clinic. It supports your pelvic organs while you and your pelvic floor physiotherapist do the strengthening work.
Blueberry Therapy has carried SRC garments for years. Shop the full range at Blueberry Shop, same price as buying direct and shipped from the clinic in Canada. Use the code SRC15 for 15% off.
Many extended health plans cover compression garments with a prescription, so check your benefits before you assume you are paying out of pocket.
Ready for Support?
Blueberry Therapy offers pelvic health physiotherapy, pessary fittings and return to sport planning in Dundas, Ontario and virtually across the province: blueberrytherapy.ca
Subscribe to The Hole Shebang at podcast.blueberrytherapy.ca, leave a review if this episode helped, and connect with The Hole Shebang on Instagram @blueberrytherapypelvichealth.
