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
Sent to a global audience every month.
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The SI Joints and the Pelvic Floor
This SI joint ezine continues the exploration I began two months ago with the pelvic floor. In the previous ezines, the pelvic floor has been explored with the following exercises:
1. Become aware of the pelvic floor, its muscles, its orifices, and possibly the 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?
3. Move into Cat and Cow, focusing on the pelvic floor. What do you feel as you move from extension to flexion?
4. Isolate orifice contractions in sitting, standing, and lying down (on your back and front). Notice what it is that you feel.
With this ezine we'll take it a bit deeper as we delve into the impact of the pelvic floor on the sacroiliac joints.
To begin, we need to understand sacroiliac joint function. Specifically:
- The structural and muscular connection between the sacrum and the ilia
- What stability means in the context of SI joint function
- How the pelvic floor contributes to this context
Structural and Muscular Connection between the Sacrum and Ilia:
The sacrum and ilia are connected via their bone formation and ligamentous support (form closure) and the power of muscle stabilization (force closure) of the transversus abdominis, multifidi, pelvic floor, and respiratory diaphragm.
What Stability Means in the Context of SI Joint Function:
Stability essentially means effective load transfer from the upper to the lower body, and from the lower to the upper body. If form or force closure are not effective, if there is emotional overload, or if the motor patterns are inadequate, effective load transfer will not occur, and pain or poor function can result.
How the Pelvic floor Contributes to This Context:
Here are a couple of ways the pelvic floor contributes:
- The pelvic floor connects the base of the pelvis – pubic bone, coccyx, sitting bones – forming a diamond shape. In combination with the other inner core muscles, it contributes to a foundational stability. Without this foundational stability, strengthening outer core and other more superficial muscles may not have as positive an impact as is desired.
- If the posterior side of the pelvic floor is tight – this often happens with butt or anal sphincter gripping – a pulling down of the sacrum can occur, which can contribute to SI joint issues. If you think of releasing the posterior side of the pelvic floor, in combination with basic core stabilizing techniques and grounding through the feet, the gripping sensation can release and the posterior pelvic floor can become more functional.
Next Steps
These past few ezines have offered some ideas of how to bring your awareness to your pelvic floor and its impact on your body and movement. I encourage you to explore these exercises and see what happens to your practice. What you may find is that the experience is very quieting. You may even experience boredom. If you keep with it the quietness will expand, the boredom will fade, and you will feel more lightness and ease. In time, this practice will make way for an amazingly gentle power that pervades both on and off the mat.
If you would like more, there are three recordings that may interest you – "Is Core Training Leading to Injuries?"; "The Sacroiliac Joints"; and "Exploration of the Spine." All three are phone recordings that are accessed online. To listen to these, you can go directly to 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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