Pelvic Floor Exercises, But Not As you Know Them

Pelvic floor exercises. You know you’re supposed to do them… you’re possibly reminded you really should be doing them when you laugh, sneeze, cough or try to run. But how do you do pelvic floor exercises? Is it just squeezing??

Actually no, & to really tone your undercarriage, we need to move onwards from pelvic floor exercises consisting only of static Kegels.

I recently  blogged about Yoga for your Pelvic Floor, about how you need to lift, not just squeeze & how your pelvic floor is part of your system of core muscles, including your transverse abdominis. These muscles don’t act alone, & so nor should they be only be exercised alone.

My dear friend & one of  our Master Trainers, Jenny Burrell  (she keeps the MuTu team at the top of their game!)  has scientifically tested (you don’t need to know how, just be glad she did it for you ) the effectiveness of various types of pelvic floor exercises. A typical Kegel, & the traditional pelvic floor exercise we’re all told to do – ‘squeeze as if you’re trying not to urinate’ – works… pretty well.

But to really find & work your pelvic floor muscles  you need to ‘connect’ with them. You can’t just go through the motions, you have to focus. There’s a front to your pelvic floor (where you squeeze to stop yourself urinating) but there’s also a back (where you stop yourself from passing gas), and lo and behold (you got pregnant & possibly had your baby using it, so I’m hoping you’re aware of it) there is also a middle.

Find all 3 places (you’ll have to focus!), and then imagine ‘picking up’ a cherry tomato with each orifice, individually. Now imagine it’s a raisin. Grain of rice? NOW you’re working your pelvic floor!

Now I say, imagine, I’m not suggesting you actually try it, although could be a novel way to spend the afternoon…

And do you know what REALLY works your pelvic floor muscles? Moving, jumping & turning. These real, everyday, functional movements make your pelvic floor muscles contract involuntarily. They have to, because you’re surprising them, stretching them and making them work to do their job (which is to support your organs: bladder, uterus & bowel).

Instability & vibration work too… (I was actually thinking swiss ball, bosu, power plates, flexi bars and other exercise equipment, but you know… whatever you’ve got to hand ) Bored housewives have been sitting on the washing machine for years, & now you actually have an excuse…

There’s a lot more to this, where specific exercise movements have been proven to stimulate the pelvic floor muscles many, many times more effectively than standard kegels. Training with a MuTu System trainer or following the MuTu System programme means you’ll have all these principles applied to your postnatal exercise regime in the most effective way.

But this is with my compliments:

If you’ve had babies (by whatever birth method) & you don’t exercise your pelvic floor, you risk prolapse, pelvic instability & leakage, if not now, then as you age.

FIND & CONNECT with your pelvic floor – all of it, not just the front – and then EXERCISE it.

And MOVE! Our bodies are designed to move – to squat, jump, pull, push, lunge & rotate – your pelvic floor will work harder, the harder you work the rest of your body & core, so shift yourselves Ladies!

You may also notice a rather miraculous change in the shape of your tummy when you do… And feel free to share your novel ideas for incorporating these ideas into your day