Pelvic floor muscles and Yoga
Early in life, we automatically learn to use most of the muscles in our body. We learn to walk and to coordinate the actions of all muscles in our legs and pelvis. There are however some muscle groups that we may never learn to use correctly such as our core muscles, in particular, the M. transversus abdominis, a stabilizer in the abdominal muscles or the pelvic floor muscles.
As a physiotherapist, I have treated many people, especially women over 40, post pregnancy and childbirth or patients with obstipation problems, overweight or those whose professions require heavy lifting, which have a weak pelvic floor. Like all muscles in the body, the pelvic floor requires regularly training in order for it to remain strong.
100 times a day tighten the pelvic floor muscles it`s training !!!
Unfortunately, many people do not know how to engage their pelvic floor muscles and they use their gluteal muscles instead.
For a physiotherapist, it`s difficult to determine whether a patient has activated this muscle group as it cannot be viewed externally. However, simple yoga exercises can help a patient locate their pelvic floor muscles. This can be achieved by lying on one’s belly (Crocodile pose) or sitting down (Sukhasana) and focusing on one’s breathing, as the pelvic floor moves in synchrony with the diaphragm.
Although it takes time to feel this muscle group, there are many yoga poses and variations which strengthen the pelvic floor such as the bridge pose (sethu bandhasana). Essentially, any yoga pose where one sucks in one’s belly such as chair pose, warrior, boat pose, as well as many Pranayamas, activate the pelvic floor.
