Pelvic Floor health is necessary for overall health balance, for maintaining urinary and bowel continence, and for sexual health and well-being. You can strengthen the pelvic floor through pelvic floor exercise. Integrating pelvic floor exercise into a comprehensive yoga program offers further support. View this great resource on pelvic floor health and yoga, from YogaUOnline. Read more »
Squatting is helpful for developing pelvic strength and control. In cultures where people regularly squat, they have stronger legs and healthier bowels. Squatting provides lower back support, massages abdominal muscles and organs, facilitates circulation, and prevents constipation.
The pelvic floor tends to hold residual tension on a regular basis. This residual tension prevents you from relaxing the pelvic muscles, which makes them more prone to fatigue. When your pelvic muscles are fatigued, you are more likely to experience problems with incontinence. When pelvic muscles are “too tired,” it becomes difficult to hold Read more »
Pelvic Floor Exercise: Cat-Cow Contract-Release Because your pelvis tilts as you lift back and forth, the Cat-Cow pose is an effective posture to flow with Contract-Releases. Cat-Cow is good for opening up the bones of the pelvis and loosening tightness in the pelvic region. In the Cat-Cow pose, the shoulders roll back and the chest Read more »
Pelvic Floor Health is an issue of importance to both men and women. Men can experience issue of both urinary and fecal incontinence due to age, injury, or prostate-related health conditions. Men dealing with pelvic floor issues should consult a urologist and may find that physical therapy and regular pelvic floor exercise can help improve Read more »
If you are dealing with incontinence or other issues related to the pelvic floor, a good physical therapist can be a vital part of your recovery. Learning to find and isolate your pelvic floor is challenging, and working with a physical therapist trained in pelvic floor health can help to ensure that the time and Read more »
The pelvic floor tends to hold residual tension on a regular basis. This residual tension prevents you from relaxing the pelvic muscles, which makes them more prone to fatigue. When your pelvic muscles are fatigued, you are more likely to experience problems with incontinence. When pelvic muscles are “too tired,” it becomes difficult to hold Read more »
Pelvic Floor Contraction: Elevators The Elevator is another variation on Pelvic Floor Contraction. This is a great way to further challenge yourself and build Pelvic Floor Strength. Imagine your pelvis has four floors. To begin: • Contract, pulling your pelvic muscles up gently to floor one. This is a very minimal level of pelvic floor Read more »
Pelvic Floor Contractions: Long Holds If Quick-Flicks are a Pelvic Floor Sprint, then Long Holds are a Pelvic Floor Marathon. Long Holds are the most important exercise for building and maintaining pelvic floor strength. To perform this exercise: • Tighten your pelvic floor, pulling up and in. • Hold for at least eight to ten Read more »
Once you’ve learned how to isolate your pelvic floor muscles and do a basic pelvic floor contraction, it’s helpful to learn some additional exercises. These variations on the pelvic floor contraction are a great way to build pelvic floor strength and endurance. One variation on pelvic floor contraction is the Quick-Flick. Quick-Flicks are like a Read more »