A pelvic floor therapist has revealed the simple stretching exercises she recommends to relieve menstrual cramps, and fans who have tried them insist they really work.
Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a doctor of physical therapy from Massachusetts, demonstrated yoga moves in a video shared on her popular @scrambledjam TikTok account.
“Some of my favourites,” he captioned the 30-year-old video, which has been viewed more than 4.1 million times since it was posted earlier this month.
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Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a doctor of physical therapy from Massachusetts, demonstrated her stretching exercises to relieve menstrual cramps in a now-viral TikTok video
Jeffrey-Thomas, who started with child’s pose, recommended doing each of the exercises for a minute or more while focusing on your breath.
Jeffrey-Thomas began with the girl’s pose, showing how she sits on her knees and leans forward, stretching her arms out in front of her.
The physical therapist then brought her left leg forward as if about to step forward and dropped her knee to the floor in pigeon pose. Her left leg remained extended behind her as she stretched.
The next step was the cat-cow pose combined with spinal circles. She was kneeling on all fours as she inhaled and rounded her lower back and raised her head like a ‘cow’. She then arched her spine and lowered her head like a “cat”.
As he alternated between these two positions, he circled his back.
For her final pose, she simply braced her legs on the wall in front of her while lying on her back with her hands on her stomach.
Jeffrey-Thomas recommended doing each of the exercises for a minute or more while focusing on your breath.
She explained that you should inhale through five seconds, ‘letting your lower abdomen swell as if you’ve swallowed a beach ball’, and then exhale for five to seven seconds.
The physical therapist then brought his left leg forward as if about to do a lunge and dropped his knee to the ground in pigeon pose.
Next, I was on all fours doing the cat-cow pose combined with spinal circles.
For her final pose, she simply braced her legs on the wall in front of her while lying on her back with her hands on her stomach.
More than 11,000 TikTok users have commented on the video and several women have shared which poses work best for them.
“Child’s pose is SO DIFFERENT during a bad cramp,” one woman wrote, while another added, “I’ve actually fallen asleep in child’s during bad nighttime cramps.”
“Child and pigeon pose are the best for me,” someone else shared.
Others were surprised that they already knew ‘instinctively’ how to do these stretches when suffering from menstrual cramps.
The video seemed to be an amazing moment for a number of viewers who had just started their periods and were looking for relief.
“It’s the perfect time. I just started my period and I’m in pain,” one TikToker shared.
The video has been viewed more than 4.1 million times, with many fans taking to the comments to share which poses work best for them.
Jeffrey-Thomas also went viral last summer after he warned against peeing in the shower, saying it could possibly lead to “leak problems” in the future.
“Literally just started my period 10 minutes ago,” added another.
‘But how did the algorithm know?’ someone else joked.
Jeffrey-Thomas did Headlines last summer when he warned against urinating in the shower, saying it could possibly lead to “leak problems” in the future.
“If you urinate in the shower or turn on the faucet or turn on the shower and then sit on the toilet to urinate while the water is running, you’re creating an association in your brain between the sound of running water and the need to urinate.” ‘ she told the viewers.
“Combine that with pelvic floor dysfunction, either now or later, and that could lead to some leak issues when you hear the water running out of the shower.”
He added that people born with female anatomy “weren’t designed to urinate standing up,” explaining that the bladder doesn’t empty as it should because the pelvic floor isn’t properly relaxed.
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