“I stopped training around my pelvic floor dysfunction and started training for it”—a 40-year-old doctor of physical therapy and mom-of-three shares her typical weekly workout routine

Dr Caroline Packard is a doctor of physical therapy with more than 15 years of clinical experience and a specialism in pelvic floor health.

A certified yoga instructor and lifelong athlete, it’s a topic she cares passionately about, having gone from patient to pelvic floor advocate since the birth of her first child.

“That’s where my own story started, with leaking and prolapse after my first pregnancy,” the mother-of-three tells Fit&Well.

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Stress incontinence and prolapse are often a consequence of pelvic floor dysfunction, when the supportive muscles and ligaments spanning the base of the pelvis become too weak, tight or uncoordinated.

These symptoms can occur after pregnancy and in the postpartum years, she explains, “when your body is managing huge changes in load and pressure”.

However, pelvic floor dysfunction can also affect women during perimenopause and menopause too, as tissue and hormones shift, as well as men recovering from prostate surgery.

It can also affect younger men, accompanied by side-effects that are “less talked about”, such as urinary urgency, erectile dysfunction and pelvic pain.

“[The loss of pelvic floor function] is not just an aging issue. Heavier lifting demands can play a role at any age,” she says, and symptoms can be exacerbated by exercise.

For Packard, that resulted in the workouts she had long relied on to manage stress suddenly “making everything worse”.

Rejecting surgery, the young mother discovered a kinder solution through advanced pelvic floor rehabilitation techniques combined with strength training, yoga and breathwork.

“I stopped training around my pelvic floor dysfunction and started training for it—and that shift changed everything,” she says.

Having navigated her own experience, Packard went on to build Connect Pelvic Floor Fitness to help women understand the root cause of their pelvic floor symptoms and how to manage them with exercise.

Caroline Packard’s weekly workout routine

Today, Packard tends to work out six days a week, with each session lasting between 30 minutes and an hour. She integrates exercises that rebuild and maintain pelvic floor function with activities she’s always loved.

“As a pelvic floor physical therapist and someone who lives with dysfunction myself, I don’t just treat this condition, I train with it,” she says.

“Every workout I program for myself is intentional: built around optimizing strength, stability and rotation as an integrated system, not isolating muscles or avoiding the hard stuff.”

As a result, she’s able to manage symptoms while continuing to run, practice yoga and keep up with her three young children.

“I’m 40, a mom of three, a triathlete and a runner. My week is full. So the way I train has to work—not just for my fitness goals but for my body to function well long term.”

Monday
Lower-body unilateral strength, involving single-leg squats with hip stability and glute loading to directly support pelvic floor function.

Tuesday
30-45min run at an easy to moderate effort. “Running isn’t separate from my pelvic floor training, it’s an expression of it,” says Packard.

Wednesday
Upper-body unilateral strength, complementing Monday’s workout, and keeping the ribcage moving.

Thursday
30-60min run or active recovery with walking or yoga, depending on how her body feels. “Recovery is training too,” she says.

Friday
A third unilateral session targeting the lower-body hinge pattern, adding in lateral and rotational loading, which Packard says most programs skip entirely.

Saturday
Final strength day of the week built around upper-body overhead pressing. “By now my body knows what to do, so these sessions feel strong, efficient and purposeful.”

Sunday
Rest. Something Packard describes as non-negotiable.

Caroline Packard’s advice on how to build your own pelvic floor plan

1. Pick two days a week to exercise and never skip them

Whether managing symptoms or looking to maintain pelvic floor function to head them off, Packard recommends committing to two exercise days a week to build consistency.

“Choose two days you will absolutely not miss—no matter what—and anchor your week around those,” she says.

“Consistency will always beat optimization. The perfect program you skip is worthless. The imperfect one you show up for every week? That’s the one that changes your body.”

2. Train unilaterally before you go heavy bilaterally

We often perform exercises that work both sides of our bodies at the same time, like squats and overhead presses, then progress to single-side work.

That’s the wrong way round, according to Packard.

“Single-leg and single-arm work reveal imbalances that lead to injury, leaking, prolapse symptoms and pain,” she says.

Unilateral exercises are “more functional than almost anything else you can do”.

“If your goal is a body that performs and functions well, unilateral training is essential.”

3. Stop training your core separately

Don’t think of your abs as an afterthought.

“Every strength session is a core session when you're breathing correctly and loading with intention,” she says, pointing to a three-minute breathing drill she uses to restore good pelvic floor foundations.

“That’s the root-cause approach—and it’s exactly why isolation abs work isn’t in my program,” adds Packard.

“The pelvic floor doesn't work in isolation. Neither should your training.”