More Pelvic Floor for First-Time and Ever-Curious Students
Torso by my cousin Suzanne Posner Katz
Pelvic Floor Awareness for Balance and Power - Lesson 1 - Tune Into Your Floor
Lift (a Light) Weight, Activate Your Pelvic Floor
Have 2 small weights ready - I like 6oz tuna, but you can use heavier or lighter weights as you like
Why am I circling back to the pelvic floor work? Because it has made a world of difference for me. And because there is so much more to learn, to strengthen, to balance and to enjoy.
The pelvic floor has five major functions:
Movement of the body: legs, hips, trunk
Continence
Sexual function
Prevent prolapse of abdominal organs
Support circulation in the legs
“In Eastern traditions, the pelvic floor is known as the root chakra—it’s where we tend to literally “hold” fears, specifically fears around primary instincts such as our health, our family’s safety, and our financial security. It is a “stress container,” in that it’s where we process the emotion and house our fight or flight reactions.”
Pelvic Diaphragm Muscles image source: goop.com
The pelvic floor also holds tension due to surgery and injury. Tension there can run all the way up to the neck and shoulders. Pregnancy loosens things up.
Restoring the pelvic floor is usually about relaxing, and there are many approaches to restoration: breath, good blood flow, engaging the legs to activate different parts of the floor, and activating trigger points· (there are devices for that but we will not be going there in this class.)
More Pelvic Floor Awareness for Balance and Power incorporates these elements into a program that facilitates sensing the pelvic floor as a muscular system that supports the entire body, and moves onto practical applications. This series, the second developed by PT and Feldenkrais trainer Deborah Bowes, follows a similar path as her earlier series with new variations and insights.
Amanda Olsen also has information about the pelvic wand
Genova Premium Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil, Wild Caught, Solid Light, 5 oz. Can. image source: amazon.com
In this first lesson, a little bit of weight is the ticket to sensing pelvic floor activation. Have a couple of light, easily-held weights at hand. I like tuna cans, but you can use anything with a comfortable amount of heft. Lifting the cans towards the ceiling and then back to the floor activates the pelvic floor and sets up the series. Of course there will be breath connections, and we might do a little sound work from the first series.
If people are interested, I have some science nerd candy ready.
Ever-curious students who have explored the previous series will find this an opportunity to go deeper (bad, bad pun) and and experience more subtle gradations of pelvic floor awareness.
For new students, no better time to start than RIGHT NOW! Your future self is thanking you.
Curriculum includes:
Tune Into Your Floor
Connecting the Skeleton front and back
Balancing the Buttocks
Knees support the spine, spine helps the knees
Tilting the legs with rhythm
Everyday movements of the pelvic floor
How you might feel after this lesson: Tuned into your root chakra/pelvic floor, Connected from pelvis to shoulder blade, with a sense of the analogous structures; New sense of the coordination of breath and pelvic floor contraction and release; Sense of the pelvic floor as a muscle group; Ready to take on the plethora of YouTube Australian fitness instructors teaching kegel repetitions with weights and Yoga asanas.
If you have a Wednesday 9:30 am or 6:30 pm class registration, keep using it. If you were registered for the 12:00 pm Wednesday session, you’ll need to register. Registered, paid students receive the lesson recording link on Thursday. $50/6-lesson series; $15/single lesson. PayPal or Venmo to jackisue@aol.com. Or check to Jacki Katzman, PO Box 116, Bethlehem, NH 03574
For new student registration, Click Here