6 Simple Pelvic Floor Exercises For Women | Yoga Sequence
There’s more to pelvic floor health than “strengthening”!!
Your pelvic floor muscles are the powerhouse beneath your core, supporting your bladder, bowel, uterus, and vagina. They also stabilize your lower back, hips, and spine, impacting everything from sexual function to pregnancy and childbirth.
Understanding your pelvic floor and how to keep it healthy can improve your quality of life at every stage. The good news is you can prevent pelvic floor dysfunction by starting pelvic floor exercises before symptoms arise.
This doesn't just mean Kegels! A well-rounded pelvic floor routine incorporates breathwork, relaxation, and core strengthening exercises. The best part? Pelvic floor exercises are accessible for every woman, regardless of fitness level.
In this post, we'll share a simple pelvic floor exercise routine that combines breathing exercises with basic yoga and pilates moves. It's a perfect way to get started on strengthening your pelvic floor for lifelong wellness!
The answer to pelvic floor health isn’t how long we can tense it for
We often think strengthening the pelvis means holding it tight to prevent leaks and prolapse. However, the real key is finding a balance between contraction and relaxation.
Exercises that focus solely on holding tight can actually worsen pelvic floor issues. Learning to consciously relax and contract these muscles, often with the help of breathwork, is crucial.
Pelvic floor dysfunction often stems from surrounding structures being weak, compromising the pelvic floor itself. This includes weak hips, limited diaphragm expansion, clenched glutes, tight hip flexors, and a weak core.
Many of us underestimate how much the pelvic floor supports throughout our body!
Pelvic Floor Exercises
The Breath-Pelvic Floor Connection: Why Breathing Matters
Establishing a healthy breathing pattern is essential for pelvic floor health. Here's why:
Breathing Mechanics: When you inhale properly, your diaphragm expands downward, creating pressure on the pelvic floor. As you exhale, the diaphragm contracts upward, releasing that pressure. This creates a natural rhythm that supports your spine and organs.
The Core Container: Imagine your core as a container with three sides: the diaphragm (top), pelvic floor (bottom), and core muscles (sides). All work together to maintain pressure and support.
Breathing Issues and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction: Weaknesses in breathing patterns, like overcompensating after childbirth, can lead to unhealthy habits like breath-holding during exercises. This puts excessive pressure on the pelvic floor, potentially causing incontinence or prolapse.
Building a Strong Foundation: The Deep Breath
Before diving into pelvic floor exercises, let's build a strong foundation with deep breathing:
Find Your Comfort Zone: Sit comfortably on the floor, on a cushion, or a chair.
Visualize Expansion: Imagine your belly and ribcage expanding in a 360-degree direction as you inhale, like a balloon inflating.
Engage Your Core: As you exhale, gently contract and draw your core muscles upwards from the bottom.
Feel the Movement: Notice how your breath fills your back and sides. You can place your hands on your ribs to feel the expansion and contraction.
Practice Makes Perfect: Aim for at least 10 rounds of this deep breathing exercise.
Next Steps: The Three-Dimensional Breath
This breathing exercise, Pelvic Floor Exercise #1, will be introduced next. It refines the deep breathing technique, focusing on a full 360-degree expansion.
Introduce pelvic floor contractions with the breath
Once the three-dimensional breathing pattern has been established you can start to bring some movement into the pelvic floor with the breath
As you inhale and fill up the torso, feel the pelvic floor relax and descend
And as you exhale gently contract the pelvic floor and draw it upwards towards the center of the torso
Complete at least 10 rounds of this breathing and pelvic floor pattern.
Pelvic Floor Exercise #2: Cat-Cow with pelvic floor breath
During this exercise, we activate the pelvic floor while moving the spine with the breath.
Come onto all fours, making sure hips are aligned with knees and shoulders aligned with wrists. Fingers are spread and the spine is neutral. You may like to place a folded blanket under the knees.
As you inhale lift the head and tailbone, arch the spine, and gaze up. Maintain a slight contraction in the core muscles. Feel the abdomen stretch and release and relax the pelvic floor. This is the cow.
As you exhale tilt the pelvis down and tuck the tailbone, round the back and hollow the belly. Feel the abdomen lifting up into the body, lifting the pelvic floor as the spine stretches out. This is the cat.
Repeat 10 – 15 rounds of cat-cow.
Pelvic Floor Exercise #3: Dead Bug
Dead bugs are a great exercise to strengthen the core muscles and bring control to the pelvic floor by maintaining the pelvic floor breathing throughout.
Come to lie down on your back. Perhaps place some padding under the head.
Hold the back steady, pressing the lower spine firmly into the ground, slight tuck of the tailbone.
Inhale fully and as you exhale contract the core and floor and bring both legs up to 90 degrees with the knees bent and chins parallel with the floor. Float the arms up towards the sky, palms facing one another.
Exhale and contract the core to stabilize the hips, making sure the lower spine is still pressed into the ground. Inhale and maintain the engagement of the core.
With the next exhale straighten one leg and lower it down towards the floor. At the same time move the opposite arm down and back towards the ground over the head. As you exhale tighten the pelvic floor.
Inhale and bend the knee back to 90 degrees and bring the opposite arm back up. As you inhale soften the pelvic floor while maintaining a contraction of the core.
Switch to the other side and continue to move the arms and legs in synchrony with the pelvic floor breath.
Continue this exercise until you feel the core start to fatigue
Pelvic Floor Exercise #4: Bear Crawl
Come onto hands and knees, placing some padding under your knees. Curl the toes under. Knees are hip distance apart, or knees together and arms are shoulder-width apart.
Inhale, relax the core and pelvic floor and
As you exhale knit the abs in, lift the pelvic floor and simultaneously lift the knees slightly off the floor. Take a few breaths with the knees hovering above the floor, maintaining the deep core engagement.
Maintain a neutral spine and hips stay level with the spine and head.
Lower the knees down with control, releasing the core and floor engagement.
Pelvic Floor Exercise #5: Supported Squat
With the exercise, we bring core work into motion!
Start standing tall with the feet hip distance apart. The knees are soft and the spine is neutral.
Align the ribcage over the pelvis without swaying the back or tucking the tail under.
As you inhale bend the knees and start to squat down sending the hips back. Soften and widen the pelvic floor.
As you exhale, start to contract the pelvic floor up and in, returning to standing. Root down through the feet activate the glutes and lift up through the whole core.
To support the knees you can hold onto something that won’t move as you squat down like a pole or a door jam.
Pelvic Floor Exercise #6: Reclining heart opener
This is a restorative backbend for the mid-back to release the spine and cool down.
Grab a towel and roll it up. Place the rolled-up towel sideways on your mat to go right beneath the shoulder blades.
Lie down on the rolled-up towel, placing it directly beneath the shoulder blades. You could also use a yoga block here.
Bend the knees, perhaps bringing the feet wider than the hips and allowing the knees to fall into each other. Feel the shoulder opening towards the mat.
Relax the face and jaw as you feel a gentle stretch across the chest, shoulders, and back. Arms can be by the sides palms facing up or stretched out above the head for a deeper heart opening.
Breathe deeply into the back body, sternum, and ribs.
Rest here for at least two minutes.
When you’re done, move the towel off to the side and hug the knees into the chest for a few breaths.
BONUS Pelvic Floor Exercise #7: Savasana
We finish this pelvic floor sequence with constructive rest in savasana.
Come to lie down on your mat, you can rest your legs over a bolster or chair or even place your legs up a wall
Notice the physical sensations in the body, the breath and watch your thoughts as you integrate all of the amazing pelvic floor work you just did!
Stay here for at least 5 minutes
Don’t skip this exercise as it is the most important part!
Go through this sequence at least once a week!
There are many ways to help support your pelvic floor
Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor Beyond Exercise:
While pelvic floor exercises are crucial, a holistic approach is key. Here's how to support your pelvic floor throughout your life:
Maintain a Healthy Weight: Excess weight can strain your pelvic floor. Aim for a weight that feels good for your body.
Boost Your Fiber Intake: Fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and water help prevent constipation, which can stress your pelvic floor.
Silence That Cough: Chronic coughing puts undue pressure on your pelvic floor. Seek treatment to quiet it down.
Ready to take charge of your pelvic floor health? Flourish's Core & Floor workshop can help!
Over 100 women have transformed their pelvic health with this self-paced online program. You'll learn:
Pelvic Floor Fundamentals: Understand how your pelvic floor works and the importance of balance.
Common Issues Addressed: Discover solutions for pelvic floor dysfunction and improve overall well-being.
Beyond Kegels: Explore a variety of breathing and yoga exercises to strengthen and support your pelvic floor.
Detailed Anatomy: Gain a deeper understanding of your pelvic floor with clear explanations.
There's so much more to pelvic health than Kegels! Core & Floor empowers you to create a personalized routine for lifelong wellness.
Receive access to all of this for 90 days for just $225:
Two 90-minute workshops on anatomy, breathwork & simple techniques to improve function
Four Home Practice Exercises from Sessions 1 and 2: a comprehensive handout plus several short & full-length videos
Breathwork, meditation and more bonus videos of Core & Floor exercises
You’ll have access to these videos for 90 days after purchase with the ability to download the 2 workshop recordings
