She covers why pain when opening your bowels isn't always caused by the endometriosis itself, and how constipation and a pelvic floor that won't relax can play a bigger part than many women realise. She explains how the pelvic floor wraps around the rectum and kinks it like a hose, which is why bracing works against you when you're trying to empty. She then talks through a better toilet position, with your knees slightly above your hips, your feet apart on a stool and a lean forward from the hips, and a belly breathing technique you can practise away from the toilet. She also explains what to do when you feel like you can't finish, the daily habits that make bowel movements easier, how to tell if things are improving, and the symptoms that mean you should see your doctor. 

Watch the video version on YouTube, including Céline's demonstrations of the pelvic floor and toilet position: https://youtu.be/Sfo3DDPiqsM 

Chapters 
0:00 Endometriosis and painful bowel movements 
0:37 Why it can hurt to open your bowels 
1:49 What your pelvic floor should do on the toilet 
3:40 The best toilet position 
5:42 How breathing helps 
7:06 When you feel like you can't finish 
8:16 Daily habits that make bowel movements easier 
10:31 How to tell if it's helping 
11:35 When to see your doctor 
Read more about painful bowel movements and endometriosis: https://advantagehealth.net.au/womens-health-physiotherapy/painful-bowel-movements-endometriosis/ 
About Céline: https://advantagehealth.net.au/our-team/celine-van-zyl/ 
Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy, Wynnum, Brisbane 90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178 | 07 3396 7775 https://advantagehealth.net.au/ 

This episode is general information and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. See your GP if you notice blood in your stool, unexplained weight loss or an ongoing change in your bowel habits. Seek urgent care if you have severe abdominal pain or bloating and can't pass stool or wind. 

Show notes

Linda explains why a slightly different version of the same movement can feel completely different, and why a painful movement doesn’t automatically mean you’re damaging something. She talks through how the shoulder, shoulder blade and upper back share the work when reaching overhead, and how the feet, ankles, knees, hips and trunk work together when walking and climbing stairs.

We also cover why pain can return after treatment, including returning to activities before your body is ready, along with the effects of strength, activity levels, sleep and stress. Linda shares practical changes to try when bending, reaching or lifting is uncomfortable, explains why there’s rarely one perfect posture, and discusses what to look at when pain has kept returning for months or years.

In this episode
0:00 Why does one movement hurt but another doesn’t?
0:31 Can pain come from somewhere else in the body?
1:11 How one area affects another
1:59 Why pain comes back after treatment
2:42 What to try when bending, reaching or lifting hurts
3:28 Is there one right way to move?
4:05 When pain has lasted months or years
4:58 One thing to think about differently

About Linda
Linda Gomercic is a Senior Physiotherapist at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy in Wynnum, Brisbane, working in advanced practice with a focus on complex and persistent pain.

Find us
Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy
90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178
https://advantagehealth.net.au/
 

This episode is general information and isn’t a substitute for an individual assessment. If your symptoms are severe, getting worse, or you’ve noticed significant weakness or changes in function, see a health professional.

She explains what to do the moment a dizzy spell starts, and why sitting or lying down somewhere safe comes before anything else. If you feel lightheaded when you get out of bed or stand up from a chair, she covers simple ways to make that move safer, along with the role of drinking enough water, keeping your blood sugar steady and checking your medications with your GP.

Amie also explains BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo), one of the most common causes of spinning when you roll over in bed or lie back. Tiny calcium carbonate crystals in the inner ear can come loose and drift into the semicircular canals, where they tell your brain your head is moving fast when it isn't. She explains why it's worth having an assessment before trying exercises you find online, since the right repositioning technique depends on which canal the crystals have moved into.

The second half she covers changes around the home that lower your risk of a fall, what to take note of when you feel dizzy so your physio or GP can work out what's going on, and the signs that mean you should stop managing it at home and get help.

Timestamps
 0:00 What causes dizziness
 0:34 What to do when you start feeling dizzy
 1:18 Feeling lightheaded when you stand up
 2:12 Spinning when you roll over or lie back (BPPV)
 3:08 Should you try exercises from the internet?
 3:54 Simple changes around the home
 4:54 What to notice when you feel dizzy
 5:50 When to get help

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCi8DIYQT4U
Vestibular physiotherapy at Advantage Healthcare: https://advantagehealth.net.au/vestibular-physiotherapy/

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy
 90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178 | 07 3396 7775
 https://advantagehealth.net.au/

This episode is general information and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. If dizziness comes on suddenly with weakness down one side, trouble speaking or swallowing, chest pain, or you suddenly can't walk, call 000.

Description:

Why can endometriosis be so painful, and what can actually help on a bad day? In this episode, Céline Van Zyl, Senior Pelvic Physiotherapist at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy in Wynnum, Brisbane, explains what drives endometriosis pain and flare-ups, and where physiotherapy fits into endometriosis treatment.

Endometriosis symptoms often go well beyond painful periods. Céline talks through why many women also deal with fatigue, bloating, bladder and bowel symptoms, pain with sex and lower back pain, and why so many are left to manage it on their own after diagnosis.

She explains how repeated inflammation can make the nerve endings in the area more sensitive, so the same hormonal changes produce a much stronger pain response over time. She also covers something many women are surprised to learn: the pelvic floor muscles can tighten to protect a painful area, much like your shoulders hunch up when you wake with a sore neck, and that ongoing tension can add its own pain.

For flare-ups, Céline uses a bucket analogy to explain why stress, poor sleep and fatigue can mean a small trigger tips you over, and why a flare-up doesn't mean you've done something wrong or that the endometriosis has progressed. She finishes with how slow breathing with a longer exhale can help settle the nervous system, and how to approach exercise when it tends to make your symptoms worse.

Chapters
 0:00 What is endometriosis and its symptoms
 1:19 Why endometriosis can be painful
 2:43 Pelvic floor tension and lower back pain
 4:03 What is an endometriosis flare-up
 5:32 What to do during a flare-up
 7:26 Exercise with endometriosis
 8:55 Where physio fits in endometriosis treatment

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ritHSok5gUU

Pelvic floor and women's health physiotherapy at Advantage Healthcare: https://advantagehealth.net.au/womens-health-physiotherapy/

About Pelvic Floor Dysfunction:
https://advantagehealth.net.au/womens-health-physiotherapy/pelvic-floor-dysfunction/

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy, Wynnum, Brisbane
90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178 | 07 3396 7775
https://advantagehealth.net.au/

This episode is general information and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. If your pain is new, severe or different from your usual pattern, see your GP. Seek urgent care for sudden severe pelvic or abdominal pain.

Charles talks through why pain can carry on after the original injury has healed, how a movement can hurt without causing harm, and why a flare-up after going back to something you've been avoiding doesn't automatically mean you've reinjured yourself. He makes the point that symptoms are better judged by how they behave than by how intense they feel, and explains which changes are worth getting assessed. 

He also covers why "push through the pain" is usually poor advice, even though avoiding every uncomfortable movement tends to hold people back as well, and how a physio works out whether a painful movement is appropriate for you. He finishes with a simple way to trial an activity at home and read how your body responds over the following day, building capacity gradually rather than testing your limit every time. If you missed episode 1, it covers what chronic pain actually is and whether it's permanent, and it's the best place to start the series. Charles sees people with persistent and complex pain at our physio clinic in Wynnum on Brisbane's bayside. 

If your pain hasn't settled and you'd like it properly assessed, you can find out more or book online. 
Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy | Physio Wynnum 
https://advantagehealth.net.au/ 

Physiotherapy at our Wynnum clinic https://advantagehealth.net.au/physiotherapy/ 
90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178 

Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:12 Does ongoing pain always mean ongoing damage? 
1:02 Why pain can continue after the tissue has healed 
1:53 Can a movement hurt without causing injury? 
2:38 Does a flare-up mean you've injured yourself again? 
3:32 Should you push through the pain? 
4:18 How a physio decides if a painful movement is OK 
5:19 What to watch for when returning to activity on your own 
6:21 One safe self-management step to try This episode is general information only and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. 

In this first episode, Charles Colen, Senior Physiotherapist at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy in Wynnum, Brisbane, explains how physiotherapists think about chronic or persistent pain.

The episode covers:

• What chronic pain means and how it differs from acute pain
• Why persistent pain does not always begin with a clear injury
• How longer-term pain can affect movement, strength and physical capacity
• Common activity patterns, including avoidance and the boom-and-bust cycle
• What a physiotherapist assesses when pain has continued for months or years
• Why chronic pain does not necessarily mean someone cannot improve
• A simple way to identify a meaningful activity and establish a realistic starting point

Charles also explains why rehabilitation for persistent pain needs to consider what a person can currently do, what matters to them, and how their physical capacity has changed over time, rather than focusing only on pain intensity.

This is Episode 1 of our chronic pain and persistent pain series. Later episodes will cover pacing, flare-ups, gradual progression and rebuilding activity.

Learn more about physiotherapy at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy:
https://advantagehealth.net.au/physiotherapy/

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy
90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178
https://advantagehealth.net.au/

• (00:00) - What is chronic pain?
• (00:36) - Does chronic pain always start with an injury?
• (01:22) - How is chronic pain different from a new injury?
• (02:22) - How does long-term pain change the body?
• (03:15) - What activity patterns are common with chronic pain?
• (04:22) - What does a physio assess for chronic pain?
• (05:25) - Is chronic pain permanent?
• (06:20) - How can you start managing chronic pain yourself?

In this episode, Dimity Weaver, senior physiotherapist and pelvic floor physiotherapist at Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy in Wynnum, explains how the pelvic floor works, what a pelvic floor contraction should feel like, common mistakes to avoid, and why relaxation is just as important as contraction.

Dimity also guides you through a pelvic floor activation exercise and explains when individual assessment may be useful.

More information:
https://advantagehealth.net.au/womens-health-physiotherapy/

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy
90 Tingal Rd, Wynnum QLD 4178
https://advantagehealth.net.au/

We discuss some of the common reasons people see a pelvic floor physiotherapist, including bladder and bowel symptoms, pelvic pain, prolapse, pregnancy and postnatal concerns.

Dimity also explains what happens during a women's health/pelvic floor physiotherapy assessment, how treatment is tailored to the individual, and why an internal examination can be useful but is not always required.

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy provides pelvic floor and women’s health physiotherapy in Wynnum, Brisbane Bayside.

Learn more about pelvic floor physiotherapy:
https://advantagehealth.net.au/womens-health-physiotherapy/

Advantage Healthcare & Physiotherapy:
https://advantagehealth.net.au/