Everyone's calling it a 'tight pelvic floor'… but can we actually feel it? — with Gosia Starzec-Proserpio, PhD

Send us Fan MailYou've heard it. Maybe you've said it. "Your pelvic floor is too tight." It's everywhere right now — on the socials, in the clinic, out of the mouths of people who've never assessed a pelvic floor in their life. But here's the question almost nobody stopped to ask: can we actually feel the thing we keep confidently naming?Researcher Gosia Starzec-Proserpio, PT, PhD, just did the work to find out — across 528 women. And her answer is more interesting (and more freeing) than either side of the internet fight wants it to be.I got to sit down with Gosia — 12 weeks postpartum, "just coming out of the darkness into the light," her words — to talk about the study that went a little viral, and what it actually means for the person on your table.🔹 What "tone" even means (and why it meant nothing to her as a new clinician) 🔹 The single biggest mistake we make: treating "pain" and "tight" as the same word 🔹 Palpation vs. ultrasound vs. dynamometry — three tools, three answers, and why that's a feature, not a flaw 🔹 Where our fingers are genuinely good — and where they quietly aren't 🔹 Why you can't get "fixed on the number," even when we love a good number 🔹 The pregnancy nobody warns you about being harder than postpartumThis one's for the clinicians who want to sharpen how they assess and explain tone — and for anyone who's been handed a label they've been carrying ever since. Come nerd out with us.Education, not individualized medical advice — loop in your own pelvic floor PT for what's true for your body.Time Stamps0:00 introduction3:56 quick fire questions9:43 troubles breastfeeding18:55 muscle tone explained21:54 explaining the research25:35 communicating with patients33:51 comparing different measurement modalities45:53 addressing personal biases49:11 changes in clinical practiceCONNECT WITH CARRIEIG: https://www.instagram.com/carriepagliano/Website: https://carriepagliano.comCourse waitlist: https://course.carriepagliano.com/RSAWLCONNECT WITH GOSIA:IG: https://www.instagram.com/starzecproserpio_phd/Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/mstarzecResearch: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malgorzata-Starzec-Proserpio?ev=hdr_xprf The Active Mom Podcast is A Real Moms' Guide to pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause & beyond for active moms & the professionals who help them in their journey.  This show has been a long time in the making!   You can expect conversation with moms and professionals from all aspects of the industry.   If you're like me, you don't have a lot of free time (heck, you're probably listening at 1.5x speed), so theses interviews will be quick hits to get your the pertinent information FAST!  If you love what you hear, share the podcast with a friend and leave us a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review. It helps us become more visible in the search algorithm! (Helps us get seen by more moms that need to hear these stories!!!!)