Pelvic Floor Awareness for Balance and Strength - Lesson 5 - Cheek to Cheek

Women Dancing Image Source: pinterest.com

Women Dancing Image Source: pinterest.com

Pelvic Floor Awareness for Balance And Strength

Session 5:  Cheek to Cheek - Engaging the Glutes for Strength, Dynamic Sitting

The New York Times October 20, 2020 "In Her Words" newsletter entitled "We Don't Have to Put Up With This" featured an interview with Luce Brett, the author of the memoir, “PMSL: Or How I Literally Pissed Myself Laughing and Survived the Last Taboo to Tell the Tale,” exploring her decade-long battle with postpartum incontinence.

From that interview:

Luce: I think that we joke when we are nervous, to make things palatable. It also really helps educate people and break the ice. But incontinence is serious and really does affect lots of people and really isn’t treated with enough seriousness and compassion. And that means people don’t treat themselves with seriousness and compassion. I didn’t treat myself with seriousness and compassion: I made a huge mess of things, got angry, absorbed the stigma, was self-loathing, and I wanted to share that too, even though it no doubt reflects badly at some points in my story. If we just laugh about it, then other people like me just have to laugh too, and I don’t know if that is fair or the best — or only — way to move forward.


We DON'T have to put up with this! There are loads of treatments, and, fortunately, Deborah Bowes, PT, DPT, GCFP, has developed one approach to Pelvic Health and Awareness that is drug-free and available to all.

We are on Lesson 5 of the 6 lesson series. This week we go gross: not disgusting, but inclusive of some of the biggest muscles of the body, the glutes.

Bringing the power of these massive muscles to the overall Pelvic Floor system means more conscious control. Also, adding these muscles to our exploration distinguishes this practice from the Kegel exercises, which simply isolate the genital muscles.

We will link this lesson to practical applications like sitting, driving, skiing, riding, and whatever else pops into mind.

The Curriculum Includes:

  • Lesson 1: Anatomy, Breath and the Pelvic Floor (Floor)

  • Lesson 2: Connecting the Inner Legs to the Pelvic Floor for Side-to-Side Balance (Floor)

  • Lesson 3: Abs to Public Bone Connection for Front-to-Back Balance (Floor)

  • Lesson 4: Deep Muscle Contraction and Release (floor)

  • Lesson 5: Cheek to Cheek - Engaging the Gluteal Muscles for Strength (Seated)

  • Lesson 6: Rocking the Pelvis for Power in Standing, Walking and Posting (Seated

  • Bonus Lesson: The Pelvis and the Eyes

This will be a sitting lesson, which is important as we begin to integrate these lessons into everyday, upright life. You will want a firm-seated chair where your feet comfortably rest under your knees and your thighs are level with the floor.

Please have a small towel - a face or kitchen towel should be about right - to place under your sit bones as we work the butt cheeks left and right.

Jacki Katzman