Are you sure you are engaging your pelvic floor properly?
Throughout my 10 years of teaching I’ve had a number of clients(men and women) ask me, “how do I squeeze my pelvic floor?”
I love being asked this questions because this usually means clients are paying attention.
But pelvic floor convos are not exactly your everyday topic unless you’re post-natal or experiencing continence issues for whatever reason.
So in case you’re still confused on what the pelvic floor is and how to engage this group of muscles, below I share a very simple and straight forward explanation of what this muscle is as explained by the Continence Foundation of Australia.
I am also sharing with you an exercise that I learned from a pelvic floor workshop years ago and which I now share with my private clientele who is looking to strengthen this incredible functional muscle.
WHAT IS THE PELVIC FLOOR?
“The pelvic floor muscles give you the ability to control the release of urine, faeces(poop) and flatus (wind).
When you contract the pelvic floor muscles, they lift the internal organs of the pelvis and tighten the openings of the vagina, anus and urethra. Relaxing the pelvic floor allows passage of urine and faeces.
This function is especially important if your urethral or anal muscles do not work normally, as may be the case after giving birth or after prostate surgery.
Pelvic floor muscles are also important for sexual function in both men and women. In men, it is important for erectile function and ejaculation. In women, voluntary contractions (squeezing) of the pelvic floor contribute to sexual sensation and arousal.
The pelvic floor muscles in women also provide support for the baby during pregnancy and need to be relaxed during the birthing process.”
So now that you know what the pelvic floor is, let’s talk about how to engage this muscle as often cued during abdominal work.
Imagine your pelvic floor as having a front(anterior) and a back(posterior/rear) section.
Anterior Pelvic Floor: For women, your vagina and urethra are the front part of your pelvic floor. So imagine you’re having to hold your pee or even keep your tampon from sliding out when running or jumping(this happens with a weakened pelvic floor).
For men, this is similar but thinking more in terms of controlling the need to ejaculate or holding the urge to urinate, as well.
Rear Pelvic Floor: Imagine you have to hold a fart when doing ab work in a pilates class? That’s the rear part of your pelvic floor(aka “anus”).
So when looking to engage your pelvic floor, you want to activate both, your anterior and posterior pelvic floor sections. If need to, use one of the imageries from above to help you do this.
This is also how you engage your pelvic floor while doing abdominal work which you will often hear me cue during my workouts. Pelvic floor engagement is especially important to help us tap into our transverse abdominals(deepest ab muscle). It is also how I personally like to activate my low abs.
Your pelvic floor should be constantly engaging when doing ab work!
Below is a Pelvic Floor exercise you can practice at home if you don’t have kegels and are looking to strengthen this muscle and tap into your low abs more efficiently.
Keep in mind that while doing pelvic floor exercises you should keep your hips, inner thighs, and glutes relaxed. This is really really important as I’ve often come across the misconception that we should engage our inner thighs while doing pelvic floor work which is not entirely correct. While there’s a close connection between these two muscle groups, in order to properly strengthen our pelvic floor, we must learn to isolate it first.
PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISE:
Imagine your pelvic floor as an elevator going up. Begin by squeezing in and focusing on this elevator going up to the first floor then slowly start going up to the second floor, third, fourth, all the way up to the fifth floor.
This is where you will squeeze the highest and deepest part of your pelvic floor (front and rear pelvic floor squeeze). This is also where part of your low abs can begin contracting when doing abdominal work. I often cue “squeeze your pelvic floor in and up”.
Once you’ve managed to find your tightest and strongest squeeze, hold that elevator up in the 5th floor for 10 seconds then slowly start going back down to the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, until you arrive back at the 1st floor. Make sure to do this slowly and with CONTROL.
Going down is just as important as going up so take your time! Allow yourself to fully release the engagement before going back up.
Do this for at least 5-10 minutes one-three times a day to help strengthen and re-align your pelvic floor.
This is going to help so much with core work and make sex so much better?
For women it helps with having better orgasms and not peeing our pants when jumping or running. For men, it will help with lasting longer during sex?. So, both men and women need to have a strong pelvic floor and can benefit from this exercise equally.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or requests; please feel free to reach out.
xo,
Vilmaliz
#VBMETHOD
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