One of the many benefits of having 30 years of experience helping people get out of pain is that I have seen many trends pass through. Some have been sticky and based in organic principles so have integrated into our collective understanding and wisdom of how the body works. There are others that are less sticky and don’t quite integrate. Their time, so to speak, hasn’t yet come.
The pelvic floor falls into this latter category, and is now just emerging into I remember when the pelvic floor started to become a focal point in rehabilitation. It was 1995 and right around the same time that the transversus abdomenus came into focus. The idea was there is needs to be a co-contraction between the transversus abs, multifidus and pelvic floor in order to re-create the stability that is vital for managing or overcoming back pain.
This insight and understanding led to a bit of a myopic focus on the pelvic floor. Instruction from a “global focus” of the co-contraction, shifted to lift, engage, and for men, pull “the boys up”.
When this instruction entered into the yoga world, engaging mula bandha became the go-to translation for lifting the pelvic floor. For many people it worked. Their back pain went down.
There was a massive number of people, though, for whom it didn’t work. Their back pain continued to manifest, and in many cases became worse. As time went on, it became clear that more and more yoga, pilates and fitness were over contracting their pelvic floor.
This was leading to orthopaedic issues in the hip, SI joint, back, knees, feet, shoulders, neck and jaw; as well as digestive and sexual health issues.
So what to do with this and how can we improve the health and wellbeing of the pelvic floor?
Exploring the Pelvic Floor.
The Pelvic Floor literally forms the floor of the torso. It also provides for the passage of fluid and matter. It needs to be strong and supple. The orifices need to be able to be to be able to contract and release. We want them to experience “openness”.
One of the most effective ways I have found to help students experience this is the following:
- Lay down on the floor – whether on your back or front – or sit in a chair.
- Feel for your pubic bone, sitting bones and coccyx. They create the boney diamond that outlines the pelvic floor.
- Feel the orifices of your pelvic floor – anus and urethra for men, anus, vagina and urethra for women. Imagine that you can breathe through them. Don’t try to force this nor try to lift on either phase of breath. Just imagine breathing in and out through the pelvic floor. See this link here.
- Let your jaw and mouth relax, let your breathing relax – allow it to lengthen. As this happens, does anything new arise in your pelvic floor awareness? Now relax your glutes, inner thighs, feet. Anything new arise? Next focus on your face…relax there too 🙂
Diaphragmatic and pelvic floor movement for the top and bottom of the inner core container. Both impact the other.
A couple of tips:
- If you find that you are working too hard trying to make this happen, consider sitting on an exercise ball with a heating pad. Sometimes warmth helps.
- Many people over contract when they do this exercise. Think just pelvic floor and easy breathing. No glutes, no adductors, nothing else! 🙂
Have fun exploring,
Susi
