More Pelvic Floor - Lesson 2 - Balance From the Floor, Up and Down
Child Cloud Gazing - source: https:::www.fluidphysio.com.au
Pelvic Floor Awareness for Balance and Power - Lesson 2- Balance from the Floor, Up and Down
Finding the Pelvic Floor with the Breath, with A Little Help From the Legs and Abs
Working muscles without understanding the overall structure they fit into can be an exercise in amplifying pre-existing bad habits and imbalances. That’s what Kegels did for Deborah Bowes and the reason she sought to develop a balanced and strong pelvic floor.
Last week’s lesson used weight in the arms to spotlight the sensation of the pelvic floor activation. This week’s teaching tools are the breath, abs and legs. We (optionally) begin and end standing, the better to sense your balance. From there, it’s an on-your-back lesson that moves from breathing and sound to feeling into the the abs to differentiating the left and right sides of the pelvic floor. I might throw in some healing sound breath work too. The voila moment comes when you stand back up with a new sense of deep balance.
Awareness Through Movement® doesn’t typically address the musculature, as our approach is about aligning the skeleton and letting the muscles naturally adjust. However, with this week’s focus on abs and inner side muscles, I found myself thinking musculature. When I roll my leg inward, I find a ‘space’ for the pelvic floor to contract into. Might my observation have some anatomical basis?
Things have changed since the coloring books of my college anatomy class. For this week’s science candy, check out these animated 3D build-ups of the abdominal and pelvic floor system musculature:
Ilio-psoas Muscle (a short build up of the pelvis-knee connection)
The female pelvic organs: the muscles of the pelvic floor, the inner walls of the pelvic cavity (a 7 minute exploration of all the bones, muscles and organs that layer up to create the pelvic floor system)
Abdominal Muscles (little dough boy builds up the abdominal anatomy - see sidebar)
How Abdominal Muscles Work (Little dough boy orchestrates sit ups - see sidebar)
Hanging Leg-Hip Raise | Muscle & Motion (little dough boy orchestrates pelvic tilt)
Pelvic floor balance is critical to overall balance in standing and sitting. Now is the perfect time to start improving your balance. Your future self is thanking you.
Curriculum includes:
Tune Into Your Floor
Balance from the Floor - Up and Down
8-15 Seconds - The Taboo Topic of Pee
Balancing the Buttocks
Knees support the spine, spine helps the knees
Tilting the legs with rhythm
How you might feel after this lesson: Tuned into your root chakra/pelvic floor, Clear on the connection from the abs to the back; Tuned into your particular preferences and how they affect your pelvic floor; Sensitive to the pelvic floor’s role in balance in sitting and standing.
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
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