Pelvic Floor Exercises

The Levator Ani aka pelvic floor consists of the Puborectalis , Iliococcygeus , Pubococcygeus and the Coccygeus . Like a hammock supporting the all the lovely innards above , I wouldn't exclude its vital role when accessing a woman's kyphotic curve and her personal sense of self. Strengthening the posterior chain , opening up the front line along with those hip flexors are great but working the pie completes the picture !

Activate the bottom quadrants

Lying down , face up , flatten your lower back into the ground , bite the left butt cheek into the ground , the right knee will elevate slightly off the ground. 

Repeat with other cheek , check for difference in strength or recruitment ability.

Activate the upper quadrants

Lie down , face up , close your eyes , gently look to the left without turning your head , with mental focus , clench the top left quadrant close to the pubic mound. Repeat on the other side. You might feel your hips twisting to the quadrant you are activating and that is okay. Learn to minimize that as you get stronger.

To work all 4 quadrants

Or use it as a whole . Imagine holding a cherry by the stem with the pelvic floor on the inhale, picking it up on the exhale , feel the lift of the pelvic floor .. Holding the clench with a lift of the pelvic floor on the exhale is one option , the other involves holding it up along with the breath on the inhale and only releasing ( both pelvic floor and breath ) on the exhale. As you get familiar , it is now time to breath in and out smoothly with maintaining the lifted hold of the pelvic floor.

Combining pelvic floor work with dynamic movement works too , especially back bridges with hips thrusting off the ground with entire pelvic floor braced. I have tried this with squats , pullups , chin ups . Its all good and I enjoy trying to recruit those muscles after a prolonged periods of sitting. 

Release methods

If there is ever an overt tightness of the posterior pelvic floor , you can try these methods that have worked for me. However , there are cases of the pelvic floor being too tight , accessing if it is too high or low is beyond the scope of this article and seeking a Rolfer who does body reading could help.

Use the vertical seam as a guideline. Place the therapy ball between the anal opening and the sitz bones , rest into it.

Here I use a foam roller , sitting on the edge brings the opposite end up , I push it down with the hand to increase the point of contact where the arrow on the roller is .

Here we can see Acro Yoga practitioners Brenda and Dek in the throne pose. 

Here the weight of Brenda's body travels down and Dek's feet works as the resisting force pushing upwards just as the methods above. The position of his heels could alter the intensity of the stretch in the External Anal Spinector. A firm grip from the toes as a pivot and a slight rotation of the heels away from EAS does that.

References & further reading

Atlas Of Human Anatomy - Frank H. Netter - Plate 338

The Fine Art Of Pompoir : The ultimate guide to pelvic floor fitness - D.A. Da Costa

Balancing The Pelvis DVD Series - Anatomy trains , Tom Myers

The Pregnancy Survival Guide - Bellies Inc

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