Oh my goodness this was so interesting! Thank you! That helps so much! I also embarrassingly didn’t know men had them 😆🙈 I just ran downstairs and said to my husband “did you know you’ve got a pelvic floor?!” (He did) 😂
Really helpful. I've learned gradually about the pelvic floor, since diagnosis of a rectocele years ago. I had no idea there were so many different types of prolapse! I've seen pelvic floor specialists and I've improved my pelvic health tho it's a work in progress of course! I was doing endless pelvic strengthening, but not knowing how to relax those muscles - I had crazy tight (hypotonal?) muscles. Learned to love breathing exercises and got a Therawand. Thanks for reminding me how important it is to relax pelvic floor 🙏 As you say, being able to visualise it helps so much 👍
47 years and two children later and I was sure the pelvic floor was some sort of mythical creature like a unicorn or mermaid! So helpful and well-explained Jo x
Would be great to get exercises that help strengthen the Medius (Gluteus medius?) So pelvic floor more suppoted. Would that help sphincter relax more??
What is best way to integrate these muscles.? Exercises?
How does breath work help support in this function?
Yes strengthening the glutes is great for pelvic floor health, this is because one of the functions of the glutes (all of them not just medius) is to keep the pelvis stable. If they are not firing or weak then the pelvic floor will do more work and it can cause tightness. When we strengthen the glutes we allow the muscles to work more effectively together.
There are lots of glute exercises but if you are wanting to specifically work on this function then standing on one leg and supported knee bends are great. As is building the connection with the brain and the feet as our glutes are very connected to the feet.
This is wonderful. I particularly liked the section about posture and balance. I would love to see some exercises that would help. Also you said there are things to do to help the pelvic floor relax. I would like to know what they are. Thank you.
Took me back 5 years ago , when I was pregnant and I had pelvic girdle pain, and it was impossible to stand on one leg without experiencing excruciating pain... And the reason ? A hormone called relaxin, that is supposed to relax ligaments to allow childbirth. Trouble is that this lasted me a good 9 months after birth. And then on top of that I developed weak muscles from the actual childbirth, leading to toilet accidents.. Definitely worth looking after our pelvic floor
A game changer for me was realising how tight my pelvic floor was and releasing it with a tennis ball under each sitz bone for 30s. Damn did it drop and relax! I use the toilet seat down as you need a hard chair for it plus keeping the ball in the bathroom cabinet reminds me. While I always considered my pelvic floor was good, hitting late 40s / early 50s changed that and I've never had kids however I have ridden horses all my life! Releasing my pelvic floor really changed my hips mobility too.
My doctor said never to completely empty the bladder for UTI readons and don't push to empty.
If not feel empty instead of pushing more stand up from seat turn around then sit down again anx naturally let more out so not pushing as it weakens pelvic floor. Also do not sit on toilet a long time. Not sure why this is supposed to weaken pelvic floor.
Can you enlighten us more on these topics?
Any supportive exercises including breath work would help. Thankyou.
Hmm I've never heard to keep a bit of urine in the bladder, that feels counter intuitive as holding onto urine can cause uti and kidney infections.
But maybe they have access to studies or information that I don't have access to.
You should definitely not push or force the urine out and getting up and sitting back down is great advice.
The reason for this is twofold
1) you urinate by relaxing the pelvic floor not forcing so in the long run pushing can cause dysfunction.
2) sitting on the toilet and straining can cause blood to pool in the blood vessels and contribute and cause haemorrhoids which can in turn cause issues.
Oh my goodness this was so interesting! Thank you! That helps so much! I also embarrassingly didn’t know men had them 😆🙈 I just ran downstairs and said to my husband “did you know you’ve got a pelvic floor?!” (He did) 😂
😂😂😂😂 you’re not alone, lots of people don’t realise men have them.
I find it all so interesting. I might make other videos about different parts of the body.
That would be great! I definitely agree it helps with the mind-body connection if we actually understand a bit about it ☺️ x
Thank you. It is very helpful to understand some recent changes in one's anatomy. Aging is such fun!
Isn’t it just! Glad you found it useful x
Really helpful. I've learned gradually about the pelvic floor, since diagnosis of a rectocele years ago. I had no idea there were so many different types of prolapse! I've seen pelvic floor specialists and I've improved my pelvic health tho it's a work in progress of course! I was doing endless pelvic strengthening, but not knowing how to relax those muscles - I had crazy tight (hypotonal?) muscles. Learned to love breathing exercises and got a Therawand. Thanks for reminding me how important it is to relax pelvic floor 🙏 As you say, being able to visualise it helps so much 👍
It’s definitely a work in progress.
So glad you were able to work on it. I think a lot of people just brush it under the carpet! x
Thank you that was so eye opening! As an extremely anxious person I never realized it has such an impact on my pelvic floor and body functions!
It is all linked! And it works the other way too like a feedback loop xx
47 years and two children later and I was sure the pelvic floor was some sort of mythical creature like a unicorn or mermaid! So helpful and well-explained Jo x
Super helpful and presented in a way that’s easily digestible! Well done, Jo!
Would be great to get exercises that help strengthen the Medius (Gluteus medius?) So pelvic floor more suppoted. Would that help sphincter relax more??
What is best way to integrate these muscles.? Exercises?
How does breath work help support in this function?
More detail re fascia would be great.
Thanks for this video.
Yes strengthening the glutes is great for pelvic floor health, this is because one of the functions of the glutes (all of them not just medius) is to keep the pelvis stable. If they are not firing or weak then the pelvic floor will do more work and it can cause tightness. When we strengthen the glutes we allow the muscles to work more effectively together.
There are lots of glute exercises but if you are wanting to specifically work on this function then standing on one leg and supported knee bends are great. As is building the connection with the brain and the feet as our glutes are very connected to the feet.
You might like this post
https://happyyoga.substack.com/p/yoga-for-feet-calfs-and-lower-legs?r=1oswzk
I have plans to make a glute specific session that you can do on a chair as it's requested a lot.
Fascia could be a whole post in itself lol. What specific things would you like to more about fascia?
Jo
This is wonderful. I particularly liked the section about posture and balance. I would love to see some exercises that would help. Also you said there are things to do to help the pelvic floor relax. I would like to know what they are. Thank you.
Hi Marylin, this might be helpful for you, I also have a little restorative sequence for the pelvic floor that I’ll be posting next week
https://open.substack.com/pub/happyyoga/p/unclench-your-bits-how-your-breath?r=1oswzk&utm_medium=ios
Took me back 5 years ago , when I was pregnant and I had pelvic girdle pain, and it was impossible to stand on one leg without experiencing excruciating pain... And the reason ? A hormone called relaxin, that is supposed to relax ligaments to allow childbirth. Trouble is that this lasted me a good 9 months after birth. And then on top of that I developed weak muscles from the actual childbirth, leading to toilet accidents.. Definitely worth looking after our pelvic floor
A game changer for me was realising how tight my pelvic floor was and releasing it with a tennis ball under each sitz bone for 30s. Damn did it drop and relax! I use the toilet seat down as you need a hard chair for it plus keeping the ball in the bathroom cabinet reminds me. While I always considered my pelvic floor was good, hitting late 40s / early 50s changed that and I've never had kids however I have ridden horses all my life! Releasing my pelvic floor really changed my hips mobility too.
My doctor said never to completely empty the bladder for UTI readons and don't push to empty.
If not feel empty instead of pushing more stand up from seat turn around then sit down again anx naturally let more out so not pushing as it weakens pelvic floor. Also do not sit on toilet a long time. Not sure why this is supposed to weaken pelvic floor.
Can you enlighten us more on these topics?
Any supportive exercises including breath work would help. Thankyou.
Hmm I've never heard to keep a bit of urine in the bladder, that feels counter intuitive as holding onto urine can cause uti and kidney infections.
But maybe they have access to studies or information that I don't have access to.
You should definitely not push or force the urine out and getting up and sitting back down is great advice.
The reason for this is twofold
1) you urinate by relaxing the pelvic floor not forcing so in the long run pushing can cause dysfunction.
2) sitting on the toilet and straining can cause blood to pool in the blood vessels and contribute and cause haemorrhoids which can in turn cause issues.
You might like this post about using the breath
https://open.substack.com/pub/happyyoga/p/unclench-your-bits-how-your-breath?r=1oswzk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web