Is your pelvic floor ready for side slides, side lunges, jumping jacks or other big sideways moves?
Do you feel safe with your legs wider for exercises or do you feel uncomfortable?
This can often be a vulnerable position for postpartum women. Let's take a look at a few exercises to help build trust with your pelvic floor.
With these exercises, I'm assuming you've already got a great base built. Your diaphragm works with your pelvic floor and you have the basics down. These exercises can be a good option to help you progress to the next step of more dynamic movement
Awareness is key! How's your breathing? Do you bear down? Can you stay in control and trust your pelvic floor when moving quickly?
This takes time to build! You have to meet your body where it's at and progress systematically from there. With a little patience and a solid approach, you can do anything you want!!!
Exercise #1:
Wide squats: Inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up. Think about gently pulling your legs together engaging your adductor muscles more. Do this for 5 reps. Then, think about pushing your legs apart and engaging your glutes more for 5 reps. Explore how you can turn on different leg muscles (and your pelvic floor) by how you push and pull on the ground. See how each way feels.
Exercise #2:
Side slide: This is a great way to clean the floor! Be sure to squat keeping your core engaged. Do not tuck your bottom and don't over arch your back. You should feel this in your glutes and adductors. Try to keep your feet as straight as possible with your arch engaged. I've found that when the foot turns out and the arch flattens patients are more likely to kick in their piriformis. The piriformis is one of those deep hip rotators that can influence pelvic floor function.
Exercise #3:
Squat jumps: These are the most advanced of the 3 exercises. You can play around with the breathing and see what works best for you here. Try exhaling on the landing, but you may need to do a short quick exhale at take off as well. Keep your chin tucked and make sure your knees do not collapse in. Keep it as small as you need to to start. (And you don’t have to copy my arm motions. LOL! This is just what felt best at the time.)
Then you’re ready to master those side slides with a pelvic floor that feels amazing!
Want to help others find hope again? The Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist course is a 12-week course that covers posture, pelvic floor dysfunction (tightness, leaks, prolapse), diastasis, lower belly pooch, SI joint pain, back pain and much, much more! It’s a jam-packed course that delivers so much more than the basics.
You’ll take away new inventive exercises and the knowledge to know how to apply them. Start helping people and giving hope today!!
Click here for more info on the PCES program.
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