A pelvic floor therapist has revealed the simple stretching exercises he recommends to relieve menstrual cramps, and fans who have tried them insist they really work.
Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a Massachusetts-based doctor of physical therapy, demonstrates yoga movements in a video shared on her popular @scrambledjam TikTok account.
“Some of my favorite things,” signed the 30-year-old, which has been viewed more than 4.1 million times since it was released earlier this month.
Scroll down for video
Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a Massachusetts-based physiotherapist, demonstrates her “best” stretching exercises to relieve menstrual cramps in an already viral video on TikTok
Jeffrey-Thomas, who started with the child’s posture, recommended doing each of the exercises for a minute or more, focusing on breathing
Stretch the pain! The best movements to relieve menstrual cramps
- Children’s pose
- pigeon
- Cat / cow
- Spinal circles
- Raised legs on the wall
Hold each for one minute while inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for five seconds
Jeffrey-Thomas began with the child’s posture, showing her sitting on her knees and leaning forward, arms outstretched in front of her.
The physiotherapist then brought her left leg forward, as if about to make a leg, and dropped her knee to the floor in a pigeon position. Her left leg remained outstretched behind her as she stretched.
Next was the cat-cow pose, combined with spinal circles. She was on her knees on all fours as she inhaled and twisted her waist and raised her head like a cow. Then she twisted her spine and bowed her head like a cat.
As she alternated between these two positions, she made circles with her back.
For her last pose, she simply leaned her feet against the wall in front of her as she lay on her back with her hands on her stomach.
Jeffrey-Thomas recommends doing each of the exercises for a minute or more, focusing on breathing.
She explained that you should inhale for five seconds, “leaving your lower abdomen to swell as if you had swallowed a beach ball,” and then exhale for five to seven seconds.
The physiotherapist then brought her left leg forward, as if about to step, and dropped her knee to the floor in a pigeon pose.
She was then on all fours, doing the cat-cow pose combined with spinal circles.
For her last pose, she simply rests with her feet 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 a number of women have shared which poses are best for them.
“The child’s posture is SO DIFFERENT during bad cramps,” one woman wrote, and another added, “I actually fell asleep in a child’s posture during bad night cramps.”
“The child’s posture and the pigeon are the best for me,” said someone else.
Others were surprised that they already “instinctively” knew how to do these stretches when suffering from menstrual pain.
The video seemed like an incredible moment for a number of viewers who had just started menstruating and were looking for relief.
“Perfect time when I just started my cycle and it hurts,” said one TikToker.
The video has been viewed more than 4.1 million times and many fans have joined in the comments to share which poses are best for them.
Jeffrey-Thomas also went viral last summer after she warned you not to pee in the shower, saying it could lead to “leak problems” in the future.
“I literally started my period 10 minutes ago,” added another.
“But how does the algorithm know?” someone else is joking.
Jeffrey-Thomas did titles last summer, when she warned you not to pee in the shower, saying it could lead to “leak problems” in the future.
“If you pee in the shower or turn on the tap or take a shower and then sit on the toilet to pee while the water is flowing, you create an association in your brain between the sound of running water and the need to pee,” she told viewers.
“We combine this with pelvic floor dysfunction – either now or down – then this will potentially lead to some leak problems when you hear running water outside the shower.”
She added that people born with a female anatomy were “not designed to urinate upright”, explaining that the bladder would not empty properly because the pelvic floor was not relaxed properly.