I Love Anatomy Ezine: The Pelvic Floor Part 2

Anatomy and Asana:
I love Anatomy Ezine

Principles of anatomy for your yoga practice.
Easy to understand. Simple to apply.

By Susi Hately Aldous, Founder
Functional Synergy and Anatomy and Asana

feeling the flow of body, mind and soul
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The Pelvic Floor Part 2

In last month's ezine, I left you with exploring the pelvic floor with your breath. The exercise went like this:

1. Begin by just becoming aware of the pelvic floor. Bring your mind's eye to the muscles and orifices of the pelvic floor between the pubic bone, sitting bones, and coccyx. You may even feel a sense of subtle energy swirling or building as your attention rests here.

2. Breathe. As you breathe, can you feel the pelvic floor movement working with the respiratory diaphragm? Can you feel each orifice? Can you feel the natural spreading and release as you breathe?

Remember that the pelvic floor needs to provide both strength and openness. Quite literally, it is the floor of the pelvis, providing support for the organs above. The pelvic floor also needs to be open, as fluid needs to pass through its orifices. This is a great example of softness and strength, relaxed resilience, strong openness, and open strength.

Let's continue with the following exercises.

3. Come onto your hands and knees. Move into Cat and Cow, where you move your spine into flexion (Cat) and extension (Cow) in unison with your breath (exhaling with flexion, inhaling with extension). After a few repetitions, bring your mind's eye to your pelvic floor. Imagine the movement beginning there - imagine that both the flexion of Cat and the extension of Cow initiate from the pelvic floor. Can you feel the movement of the pelvic bones and the upper part of your femurs? Move slowly and mindfully. (Tip: As you practice this, you may want to move your spine only as much as you feel movement in your pelvic floor. Your range will be smaller, but your connection will be heightened. As you continue, you may find your range improving and discover a whole new experience of your pelvic floor.)

4. This next exercise was taught to me by the physiotherapists at the Pelvic Floor Clinic in Calgary. Do each in sitting, standing, and lying down. Become aware of your breath, and take a moment to settle. Next, begin to contract only your anal orifice. Contract and release. After several repetitions, move forward - women contract and release only your vaginal orifice; men contract and release only your urinary area. Then, women, move forward and contract and release only your urinary muscles. Keep in mind that the urinary orifice is much smaller, so the feeling won't be as great. Nonetheless, notice what it is that you feel. Then switch positions. Don't forget to breathe.

If you are having difficulty isolating each of the orifices, and you are thinking that this is impossible, don't worry. This is subtle movement. Find a time when you feel quiet and still, and try it then. There is much written about the orifices of the pelvic floor in Eastern texts and their relationship with the cultivation of energy in the pelvic floor and the first and second chakras.

As you continue to explore with these four exercises, I encourage you to apply them to the more traditional asanas and notice what you feel. From my experience - both as a teacher and student - the pelvic floor holds a very gentle power that impacts the hips, knees, and feet as well as the SI joints, back, neck, chest, shoulders, and arms. As you explore, please email me with your a-has!

In the May ezine, we'll explore how this relates to SI joint function. However, if you want to explore this topic more now, you can listen to two recent teleclass recordings: "Is Core Training Leading to Injuries" and "The Sacroiliac Joints." To purchase these recordings, you can visit the Functional Synergy e-store at http://www.functionalsynergy.com/qs/category/48/6174/0/0

Wishing you strength, stillness, support, and suppleness.

Happy exploring,
Susi

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