Pelvic Floor Feedback

Talk around Pelvic Floor (PF) most often revolves around tightening, but being able to relax is just as important. Chronically tight PF muscles can lead to constipation, painful sex, and difficulty urinating. So how do we know what our PF is doing?

We can do this by getting very intimate with a pillow or other soft surface like a yoga bolster or stability ball.

Pelvic Floor Feedback

Grab your pillow and bunch it up long ways, or your yoga bolster. Kneel with the pillow/bolster between your legs so you are sitting on it. The pillow/bolster should be taking all of your weight. Your legs are not doing any work here. You can use a few pillows if you need more height.

Using your hands, scoop your butt cheeks out of the way, so your sit bones are more firmly nestled into your pillow/bolster. Relax your shoulders, forehead and jaw.

Take a big inhale and a big sigh. Do this a few times to get nice and relaxed.

Start focusing on making your inhale big and expansive. Imagine your breath is traveling all the way down to your PF and your PF is relaxing into the pillow. On your exhale feel your ribs and belly draw in and your PF gently lift away from the pillow. Keep going for a few rounds.

Relax your jaw. Relax the space between your brows.

You can do the same thing on a stability ball, however I prefer kneeling on something soft. You have to use your legs to keep you stable on a stability ball and that can make it difficult to fully relax your PF.

Some Things to Keep in Mind

• You may not feel anything much at all. That’s OK! This is really subtle work and it takes time, exploration and practice

• Notice if you tend to tense up your jaw, shoulders, glutes, or thighs on your exhale. Try to let those relax. We are really focusing on only the PF.

• Relaxing the PF is just as important and toning the PF.

• Kegels are not always the answer.