Yoga for the pelvic floor muscles
Your body is your temple. Take care of it and it will take care of you.
The pelvic floor is considered the root of the physical body—both metaphorically as well as physically. The pelvic floor muscles are crucial in our overall wellness and physical and emotional health. These muscles affect several day-to-day aspects of life, including urination, defecation, menstruation, and sexual health. The pelvic floor muscles, together with the tissues surrounding them like a net, are crucial for supporting organs like the bladder, reproductive organs, and large intestine in our bodies. The sacrum or the flat bone at the end of our spine, is another important element of the pelvic floor, one that comes in contact with the ground whenever we are seated and from where the movement of tilting the pelvis into a neutral position comes. The pelvic floor muscles may seem to be small and invisible, but they are true multitaskers when it comes to protecting other body parts. Think about the pelvis as your central hub, where everything is connected on a physical level, all the processes, but also where stress and emotional baggage accumulate over time. Over time, the buildup of this stress can lead to physical symptoms, especially when the body is overextended due to factors like stress, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition or restricted movement.
Female pelvic floor dysfunction disease is an important health issue that affects women's physical and mental health and quality of life. Dysfunction of the pelvic floor can lead to a wide range of symptoms or conditions, depending on whether these muscles are underactive or overactive, unable to relax. Possible symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction are a sudden urgency of using the toilet, urinary incontinence when running, jumping, or coughing, constipation, pain during intercourse or during everyday life in the whole pelvic region.
Several exercises are designed to work the pelvic floor more in isolation–for example, Kegel exercises. But also research shows that Yoga has tremendous benefits for the pelvic floor and for the overall body’s health and wellbeing. Yoga has a unique approach, mixing strength and flexibility work with breathing and meditation. Not only that Yoga is a powerful practice to help release the tight grip of the pelvic muscles, but also Yoga can help strengthen and stabilize these muscles; there are many benefits for strengthening the pelvic floor muscles such as a reduced pelvic floor pain, reduced period cramps, more control over the bladder function, recovery from childbirth, better sex and an overall better mobility and core stability for good posture and spinal movement. There are a lot of specific Yoga practices that empower women by addressing common pelvic floor issues and enhancing overall health and wellness, but also helping create more self-awareness.
There is no need for a very lengthy or complex practice; there are a few simple Yogic practices that can target the pelvic floor health and help to alleviate discomfort, tightness, and pain. The first one is a breathing exercise, the diaphragmatic breath, that can be incorporated easily 5 or 10 minutes before any Yoga practice or independently throughout the day. What happens is that the diaphragm and the pelvic floor are connected to each other during breathing. Essentially, with each breath, the movement of the diaphragm (downward during inhalation and upward during exhalation) creates pressure changes in the abdomen that affect the pelvic floor muscles. This interaction is beneficial because it provides both a stretching and strengthening effect on the pelvic floor muscles. Deep breathing exercises can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation, reducing tension in the pelvic floor and helping maintain both physical and mental health.
Another practice that helps with pelvic floor health is tapping into Mula bandha, or root lock, a bandha or technique that is held throughout the duration of a Yoga practice, which helps with softening and releasing an over-contracted pelvic floor.
There are countless relaxing Yoga postures that can help with chronically tight pelvic floor muscles, but also for women whose pelvic health can be profoundly affected by childbirth or various gynecological conditions such as endometriosis. In the case of pregnant women, the enlargement of the uterus and the secretion of the hormone relaxin will affect the pelvic floor muscles during the nine months, despite the pelvis having a certain degree of elasticity. The weight and the duration will weaken this elasticity of the pelvic floor muscle and change its structure and strength level. Some examples of Yoga postures that help with these conditions and while also targeting a relaxation of the nervous system are: Malasana, Balasana, happy baby, bridge pose, reclined bound angle pose, twists, locust pose and so on.
The pelvic floor health is not just about strength but about creating a well-functioning, flexible system within the body. The pelvis is influenced by early life experiences and movement patterns and all of this can manifest in other parts of the body as well, the pelvis being an integral part of our whole body. Ultimately, Yoga complements pelvic physical therapy or other physical exercises by offering a long-term approach to pelvic health. By suggesting modifications to Yoga poses, teachers and therapists can minimize any physical limitations or discomfort, making the practice more accessible and beneficial, as well as offering supportive ergonomic adjustments to reduce any strain on the pelvic floor and ensure a smoother and safer experience.
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