Thousandfold Lotus

Pilates, Pelvic Floor & Women's Health

Pelvic Floor

The Best Exercise for Strengthening Pelvic Floor

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There is ONE exercise that makes an incredible impact on strengthening the pelvic floor, it’s the deep squat.

Think about the last time you got low…like real low. Has it been since the college bar dance floor in your 20’s? Or your cousin’s wedding 10 years ago?

It’s time to get back in the groove! Western civilization is all about sitting in desk chairs, cars, and the recliner. Meanwhile, our muscles and joints are getting stiffer with every seat we take.

The Deep Squat Benefits

Getting low, into a deep squat position, is super beneficial for human body movement and function. Moving this way helps keep our pelvic floor strong & supple, aids in digestion, and strengthens our legs & glutes while providing optimal hip mobility.

In fact, the deep squat is the hottest pre-natal exercise out there because it’s so great for pelvic floor!

Remember as with all exercises, it’s important to first learn to communicate with the pelvic floor using isolated exercises and then integrate the recruitment of the pelvic floor into this deep squat exercise.

How to Deep Squat for Beginners

Deep Squat for Pelvic Floor Strength
Deep Squat for Pelvic Floor Strength

In this image, I am in a deep yoga squat. If this makes you think, “ouch!” rest assure, I’m not “naturally flexible” and I didn’t get here overnight. It took me around 3 whole years of practice to get here, and some days it still won’t happen!

So start gettin’ down with it now! Add these low squats into your daily exercise routine. If you love getting low, get to it! If you’re new to this whole thing.

Here are a few beginner steps:

  • Start with your feet about 2 steps wider than your hips.
  • Turn your feet outward.
  • Squat down slowly, stopping when your body tells you to.
  • You might find it helpful to hold on to something low and sturdy: a doorframe, a tree or a bed post.
  • Keep your heels down on the floor.
  • Try to keep your back straight.
  • If you start to feel low enough, you can press your elbows into your thighs to help lengthen the back and open the chest.
  • Hold the post for 3-5 breaths. 
  • (Learn why you MUST BREATHE in this exercise here.)
  • Stand up & repeat 3 times.

Listen to your body.

Like I said, it took me 3 years to get this low and I’m still working on finding better form. Don’t push past your limits and go where your body is able while while continuing to practice daily.

Enjoy all of the benefits of human movement!

Train your Deep Core by Engaging the Transversus Abdominis

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Ever wonder the secret to training your deep core, having zero low back pain, and the answer to every body problem you’ve ever had? The secret is..firing your transversus abdominis.

I’m not even kidding about the last section, a properly firing transversus can prevent almost any injury! Hip, shoulder, knee, ankle wrist, you name it! All because it plays the most important role in your kinetic chain.

So how many layers of abdominals do you have in your body?  1, 2….not sure? Get ready to learn my friend!

(On a side note, if you’re a fan of video learning, you can always check this lesson out in my Free Foundations Course, sign-up and the videos will magically appear in your inbox!)

Where is the Transversus Abdominis and How do I Turn it ON?

It appears the abdominals are one strong sheet of muscle. However, there are actually 4 layers of abdominals!   

The deep abdominal layers fire best with a “mind-body connection,” where our brain literally communicates with these muscles to fire.

Initially, depending on a students’ mind-body awareness, kinesthetic sense or athleticism, this communication may be easily accessed or may need some extra work.  The communication can easily be compared to as a telephone line going from the brain to specific muscles (or even more specifically, fascial tissue) we want to fire. Thus, the name “mind-body” exercise came about.

Mind-body exercise, such as Pilates, requires these connections and create the mindful movements and quality exercises we perform.

For example: The biceps femoris (bicep muscle- think Popeye), will fire if you simply put a dumbbell in your hand and bend your elbow- no phone lines required.  The transversus abdominis on the other hand, not so much.

Why Transversus Abdominis is SOOO IMPORTANT:

The transversus abdominis (I’ll call the TA for short) is what I like to call your “personal corset.”

If you visualize a skeleton for a moment: at the bottom of the ribs, there is a big space, and then the hips begin.  Within that space, there are your spinal vertebra, carefully stacked on one another, with a few squishy disks in between.  Since there are no other bones in that space (besides our vertebra,) we have no structural support. Therefore; our “corset” is crucial for support and better be STRONG!

Why do you think most of the physical injuries and chronic pain are in the lumbar spine (lower back- aka that space I was just talking about.)

This corset, our TA, gets strong by:

  1.  Being able to fire it up with a mind-body connection
  2. Challenging it with resistance.

I created a Pilates video with the resistance band where you can use the straight legs to challenge the TA but have some support from the band as well.

How to Fire up the TA

To turn on the TA, think about gently drawing the belly button towards the spine.  Not in a “hollowing” or a “sucking-in” kind-of-way, but in a tough tightening kind of way (as if you were getting punched in the stomach at the same time). 

My favorite cues for firing up the TA:

  • Imagine you are “zipping” yourself into a pair of pants
  • Imagine cling wrap is tightening across the tummy
  • Imagine I am pulling your corset strings super tight
  • Feel a seat belt tightening across the front of your pelvis
  • Draw your hip bones together on the front of your body
  • Imagine you are drawing your pubic bone up towards your belly button

One thing you will notice with all of these cues, is that the muscle is essentially flattening and tightening. You will be able to see this happening by seeing the abdominal wall or belly button draw slightly closer when the muscle engages.  If you are performing these in front of a mirror you will see wrinkles showing up in the shirt.

You can also see my video demonstration and explanation on this in my free 6-day Foundations Course.

Emergency: When you can see that your TA is NOT ENGAGED!

If you are doing abdominal exercises with the legs out in the air and see the abdominals mounding upward in the center, like a loaf of bread raising- your TA is NOT ENGAGED!!! “Zip” or draw it in closer ASAP! I demonstrate this on video in lesson #2.

If you cannot “zip”, the leg load in the air is too heavy for your TA and you need to shorten the lever by bending your knees (bringing the legs into a 90 degree bend- we call “tabletop.”)  Get the TA stronger there, then move on to straight legs once it is strong enough to be zipped.  This is important to create a quality movement and strengthen the TA appropriately for it’s strength level- all ego aside here folks.

The most important thing to note while doing this TA engagement is that the spine and pelvis do not move- AT ALL!  No tucking your butt or smashing your lower back down! (I don’t care how many times you have heard to do that before abdominal exercises, but we’re trying to re-train the brain now).

This “TA zipping” occurs as the abdominal wall is drawing close to the spine without any boney structure moving. While watching yourself in a mirror, there is no sign of movement except the tissue drawing closer- absolutely nothing else moves.

TA fires under low loads:

An interesting quality about the TA similar to some other local stabilizing muscles is that it prefers light loads.  That’s right all my heavy-lifting, body building, gung-hoe fitness friends- we must use light loads to fire and strengthen this all important TA.  It will completely shut down and turn off if the load is too heavy.

For example, straight legs that are low to the ground and flutter kicking to work your abs and the TA not being able to ‘zip-up’ means the legs are too heavy.  Start small with this muscle. Re-connect if you are already on to heavy weights and have a weak TA. You can accomplish this by bringing the legs to 90 degrees or adding a resistance band to your straight legs.  Your lumbar spine (lower back) will sigh with relief and will thank you later.

Exhale to fire the Transversus Abdominis:

Lastly, the TA engages best when we do a proper exhale.  In Pilates we exhale through pursed lips as if we are blowing out a cake full of 100 candles.  That type of exhale encourages TA engagement. 

In Yoga, the exhale is typically through the nose and I do not find it to be as effective in firing the TA, therefore, if I am doing and abdominal series, plank, or chattaranga, I switch to the “pursed lips exhale”- personal preference based on my research and application 🙂 For a detailed post on the way you should breathe, click here.

Lets take it to the streets.  Give this a try:

  1. Lay on the floor with the knees bent and try to turn on the transverses.  Exhale through pursed lips and draw abdominals closer towards your spine (what I call “zipping.”) See how it feels: lay your hand on your tummy for tactile feedback, and feel the abdominals sink towards the floor while your back stays still.
  2. Now, get on all 4’s, hands and knees, with the hands shoulders directly over the hands and hips directly over the knees.  Engage the TA in this position on your exhale. Again, nothing should move except a tiny bit of fleshy tissue at the tummy pulling up towards the ceiling.  No boney movement means your back should not round up like a scared halloween cat. Additionally, the pelvis should not move, as if the tail were tucking under.  Look at your side view in the mirror to ensure your body is doing exactly what you think it is and what I am describing.
  3. To add more resistance, you can lay on the back again and start to engage TA while lifting one leg- or both. Start bent, remember, low loads.  If you feel strong maybe start to straighten the leg, but if the abdominals start mounding up, and you can’t flatten it out- it’s too heavy. If it’s too heavy, back off and stick with bent legs.  There is no shame in backing off, leave the ego aside and respect your body.
  4. I do all of these on video in my foundations course, if you missed it, click here.

Make it a habit:

Keep the TA in mind when you are doing planks and other exercises as well. While performing a traditional plank you can’t see the torso to know if it is “popping up,” but if you get familiar with it, you can apply the “zip up” motion in this orientation to ensure it is engaging.  Starting in a modified plank with the knees bent is a great way to start with a lighter load- which as we discussed- makes the TA happy!

While doing any other resistance training, fire the TA on the exhale 1 second before the actual movement it performed.  You will experience a whole new level of strength and support from your core.

How about a Video:

If you are more of a visual learner like me, I have a video discussing the TA and concepts in this post!  It’s the second lesson video in my Foundations Course, which I linked up below. If you haven’t signed up get, click on the course links in the text or on the form below and you’ll see a video covering the TA concept in the Deep Core lesson 🙂

How to Strengthen the Pelvic Floor and Why it’s so Important

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What is Pelvic Floor?

You hear me talk about pelvic floor quite a bit, and you kinda-sorta know what it is, but you’re a little too embarrassed to figure out the real deal with this muscle group… sound familiar? If so, read on my friend, we are going to get this conversation going and develop some understanding.

I’m going to warn you right now, this conversation might make you blush a bit at first since we’re talking about “down there.”  However, it’s important we start a dialogue about this muscle group because we’ve been a little bit too embarrassed to talk about it for a little bit too long.  Meanwhile, you’re still tinkling in your pants when you’re jumping on the trampoline (not out of excitement).

In fact, 1 in 4 women over the age of 18 experience incontinence. 

I’m here to change all of that and be sure you’re training this muscle group just as often as your biceps 😉 To start, go ahead and claim my free 7-minute pelvic floor workout! By the time you’re done reading this post you’ll be getting it in your inbox.

The pelvic floor refers to all the the muscles that create a hammock shape at the base of the pelvis.  There are lots of muscles here, they run from your pubic bone to tail bone and from sit bone to sit bone.  “Sit bones,” is not an anatomical name for these bones but you can feel them when you sit on the floor, they are the bottom of each ischium, which are your hip bones.   Basically, these muscles encompass your urethra, your vagina, and your anus. Since the muscles encompass these bathroom excretion zones, when these muscles are weak, a little tinkle happens.  The real name for this is stress incontinence. 

What is “incontinence?”

Incontinence means leakage of urine.  There are 3 kinds of incontinence:

  • Urge incontinence: leakage with a strong urge to urinate. (similar to the way it’s hard to urinate after you had to hold it way longer than you wanted to and your bladder has a hard time releasing).
  • Stress incontinence: leakage during physical activity or when involuntary  pressure is put on the bladder such as a cough, sneeze, lift, or laugh.
  • Mixed incontinence: A combo of stress & urge.

Major functions of the Pelvic Floor

Some major functions of the pelvic floor include supporting essential organs in the body and controlling waste excretion from the body. These muscles lay the ground work for a TON of muscular firing throughout the rest of the pelvis and into the deep core.  A strong pelvic floor serves as the true core of the body and will decreases risk of injury, improve biomechanics and help with muscular imbalances.  You can think of the pelvic floor, as literally a floor (or a foundation).  You wouldn’t build a house without a strong foundation…right?

Why, oh why, are these muscles weak?

Here’s a list of some reasons these muscles get weak over time:

  • Sex
  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Eating disorder behaviors
  • Injury or trauma
  • Sedentary lifestyles
  • Natural aging process
  • High intra-abdominal pressure

What else happens when the pelvic floor is weak? Organ prolapse.

Organ prolapse means that organs such as the bladder, uterus, and/or rectum begin to fall out of place.  In some cases, these organs may  begin to fall down the vaginal canal and even protrude out of the body.  If you are experiencing organ prolapse, it is important to communicate that with your female health care provider.

A strong pelvic floor will help prevent common cases of incontinence and organ prolapse, so let’s figure out how to make that muscle group stronger! Click here to receive my 7-minute pelvic floor workout so you can start taking action on strengthening your pelvic floor now!

How do I make this floor stronger?

The pelvic floor muscles can fire up with a “mind-body” connection and it’s super important to make sure you can get that connection going in order to make these muscles stronger (and free yourself to jump on the trampoline again 😉 )

This is where the Kegels comes in! 

The term Kegel refers to an isolated pelvic floor engagement.  So when I say “engage pelvic floor,” or do a “Kegel,” I’m saying the SAME thing! Interchangeable vocabulary. 

This is important:

You should not be working on Kegels if you have any of the following:

  • urge incontinence
  • trouble initiating urinating
  • pain during intercourse
  • pain or tension in the pelvic area 

If you’re experiencing any of the above, you should seek help from a women’s health professional first in order to tackle the issue in proper order.

How To engage the pelvic floor/perform a Kegel:

(This part it really important to read over before partaking in my 7-minute pelvic floor workout)

Lay on the floor and find a neutral pelvis (where the hip bones and pubic bone are on the same plane). NOTE: There should be NO tipping the pelvis forward or backward, we call this a posterior pelvic tilt/anterior pelvic tilt. Additionally, no engaging the gluteus muscles (the butt cheeks) while performing the Kegel either. 

No one should be able to see you doing a Kegel because the pelvis stays still the entire time.

In between each pelvic floor engagement you want to release those muscles all the way! DO NOT maintain the engagement the entire time you are doing pelvic floor exercises.

Every time you perform a Kegel, be sure you lift the pelvic floor on the EXHALE! This balances the intra-abdominal pressure. If you are unclear on the purpose of the breathing and balancing intra-abdominal pressure, read this post.

Imagery for a Kegel:

While performing a Kegel, imagery is the best way to learn how to mind-body connect with these muscles.  Imagery techniques for pelvic floor may make some people blush or feel embarrassed but they are super effective in helping you develop that mind-body connection that is essential for this muscle group!

Here are a few imagery techniques that help women engage the pelvic floor:

  • Imagine that you are stopping the flow of urine and passing gas when you fire up the pelvic floor and then letting everything flow again while resting. 
  • Imagine that you are drawing a marble up the vaginal canal while firing the muscles then allow the marble to roll all of the way out during the resting phase.
  • Imagine the vaginal canal as an elevator.  During engagement the elevator is moving up the shaft and that the elevator moves all of the way down the elevator shaft.

The imagery takes practice to develop the muscle coordination.  Commit 10 minutes of time to lay on the floor and practice using these 3 imagery techniques to see which helps you fire the pelvic floor better.  After you have a better understanding of the proper pelvic floor engagement, be sure to get my 7-minute pelvic floor workout below so you can apply them, it’s free!

How will you know if you are firing the pelvic floor well or not?

There are a number of biofeedback techniques to figure this one out.  These techniques are both tactile (by feel) and visual (by look). 

These techniques discuss the perineum, which is the anatomical term for the muscular section between the vagina and anus.  Just to keep it classy for you, the slang name for this is the “taint.” 😉

  • Visual: Grab a mirror and look! While you perform the Kegel you should see the perineum move upward and inward towards the very center of the trunk. If there is bulging happening during this movement it is being performed incorrectly.
  • Tactile: Place your finger on the perineum (you can even do this with underwear on) and feel the perineum pull upward and inward.
  • Tactile: Place your clean finger into the vaginal canal to feel if the canal is clamping onto your finger. You should feel a distinct contract and relax. 
  • Tactile: The Kegel exercises can also be performed seated on something that touches the pelvic floor.  For example, if you sit on a ball, you will feel the pelvic floor resting on the surface, that way when you engage the pelvic floor you will feel it drawing upward and away from the ball.

Practice this kind of engagement for 10 minutes 2 times a day, such as morning and evening.  First, see if you can actually turn these muscles on, then begin with repetitions of them. 

How many and how often to train the pelvic floor you wonder?

Prescription wise, there are “short” Kegels and “long” Kegels.

  • Short Kegels are about 1-2 seconds long.  
  • Long Kegels are held for about 8-10 seconds.

Performing both will benefit the fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers in the pelvic floor.

Start with 10 short ones, then switch to 3 long ones. Cycle through that series about 3 times total.

Any of my clients will tell you, I’m terrible at counting when I teach, but we do 3 sets of these types of Kegels in my 7-minute pelvic floor workout, so sign up for it now and start taking action on getting your pelvic floor strong the correct way.

If at any point you feel that the muscles tire out, stop the exercises.  Rest the muscles, and come back to them later.  Continue working at it daily until they no longer tire out and you can complete the entire cycle.  Don’t beat yourself up if it’s challenging at first, it takes time to develop a mind-body connection to these muscles and then some time to get them strong once they fire up! 

Pelvic Floor During your Exercise: 

Once you are able to perform the Kegel prescription easily, it’s important to develop the pelvic floor strength with functional training. The pelvic floor will naturally move with large, dynamic movements such as deep squats, lunges, plies, etc.

While performing exercises such as Pilates and yoga, we only want the pelvic floor to engage a little over 10%.  That’s about the effort you would use to pull a tissue out of a box.  Often, the “thought” of pelvic floor during exercise creates enough engagement.

Too much emphasis on pelvic floor, such as the effort you are doing during the isolated engagements, will not allow the kinetic chain to function properly.  The transversus abdominis may even “turn off” if pelvic floor is firing at 100%.

Bring Intention to Your Pelvic Floor Health:

If you to set aside just 5-10 minutes morning and night to focus on pelvic floor exercises, you’ll be out there jumping on the trampoline in no time 😉

To make it really easy on you, I created a quick 7-Minute Pelvic Floor Workout for you to follow, you can find it below. Be sure to have a clear understanding of the proper way to perform the Kegel/Pelvic floor engagement before following the video.  Since this video was made with your busy schedule in mind, I don’t spend time on the biofeedback techniques to be sure you are performing correctly.

How to Properly Breathe in Pilates and any Exericse

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When I tell you to breathe it should be relatively uncomplicated… right?

In Pilates, there is an enormous emphasis on how we breathe during the exercise. The breath is the foundation to all body movements.  Yes, it is important for oxygenation during exercise, which I’m sure you guessed already 😉 However, it is way more beneficial than that!  

In this post, I’ve laid out how to breathe, why to breathe, and when to breathe.

You can also find this lesson on video in my Free Foundations Course, which is the info I usually charge clients $65 for! So sign up now and don’t miss out on that opportunity.

First of all, when we begin our mind-body exercise with intentional breathing, it helps us turn inward and focus on our body movements, making them more efficient. The intentional breath automatically turns our mind away from daily distractions and helps us to focus on our body in the present moment. Once we become “tuned in,” we bring more awareness to our muscle engagements and form during the exercises that ensue.

Try this:

Stop what you are doing right now, close your eyes, sit tall, and take an intentional inhale for a slow count of four and exhale for a slow count of four. (Literally count to four in your head while doing this.) Do this inhale and exhale for about 10-15 repetitions. Notice how the mind changes, it’s now ready to focus on a task.

How to breathe:

Next, focus on how you are breathing. In Pilates, we take an intentional breath through the nose, as if you are smelling a bouquet of a dozen roses! When exhaling, you want to exhale through pursed lips as if you are blowing out a cake full of 100 candles. The forced exhale is super important, keep reading and you’ll see why.

After that, focus on where your breath goes.  Place the hands on the side of the ribs, when you inhale feel the ribcage expand into the hands and spreading the seams of your shirt out on the sides. The ribcage should move out and in, laterally, similar to an accordion.

Another way to get tactile feedback, is to wrap an exercise band around the rib cage and focus on expanding into the band, the exercise band should expand and contract with the breath. You’ll see demonstrations of these two techniques in the foundations course.

When to breathe:

Every movement typically gets an inhale or exhale. The simplest rule of thumb is the exhale on the exertion.

During any resistance exercise, we typically exhale on the exertion phase of the exercise.  A simple example would be during a biceps curl, we exhale as the weight comes up towards you.

The exertion phase of the exercise can be a little bit more confusing later when the exercises are full body.  Once you being to practice regularly, you’ll start to get a feel for when the exertion phase is. Worst case scenario, your instructor will usually cue it 😉

Why proper breathing is so important:

Proper Breathing Fires up the Deep Core.

There are muscles I refer to as the, “deep core.”  The deep core muscles include:

Those deep core muscles fire up during an intentional, forced exhale. The stronger the exhale the better.

The deep core muscles are key to pelvic and spinal stability, but only fire under low loads. Once higher loads are placed on the body, without prior gentle strengthening, these muscles cannot sustain their engagement.  It’s important to be patient and to allow these muscles to get strong, even though it doesn’t always feel like very much work. You’ll learn more about this in the transversus abdominis post where I’ll discuss how to fire up the transverses, keep it fired, and make it stronger!

Proper Breathing Balances Intra-abdominal Pressure.

One of the most important benefits of proper breathing during exercise is to maintain intra-abdominal pressure balance. The reason we exhale on exertion is because the diaphragm moves upward in the ribcage as we exhale creating more space in the abdominal cavity for all of the deep core muscles to engage. When the pelvic floor fires it lifts just like our breathing diaphragm. Similarly, when the transversus abdominis engages is flattens and draws closer to the body. Therefore, it’s best to exhale, allowing the diaphragm to lift upward to create space for this muscular engagement.

If you were to do it backwards, and inhale during exertion, we would have the pelvic floor lifting up, the abdominal muscles drawing in, and the diaphragm pushing down (on inhale).  Yikes, there would be a lot of intra-abdominal pressure created there!

I have an awesome demonstration of intra-abdominal pressure in the Foundations Course so sign up now, it’s free!

Basically, don’t be shallow.

Most of us are “shallow-breathers.”

Studies suggest that when the body isn’t receiving enough oxygen, our tissues don’t function properly. Consequently, we feel fatigued, mental fog sets in, and we experience increased stress. 

Additionally, proper oxygenation is the best natural pain management resource. (Why do you think you breath like a maniac when giving birth?) The body functions best with proper breath and manages it’s own pain when breathing is efficient. Let’s end the shallow breathing once and for all and get ourselves some O2!

Now that you know all of the ins and outs of proper breathing, let’s start applying it! Practice this efficient type of breathing and incorporate it in ALL of your exercise endeavors for highest efficiency of movement. The more you practice it, the easier it gets and becomes very natural during all of your exercises.

Want the video on this?

If you’re more of a visual learner like me, a video covering this topic is included in my 6 Day Foundations Course… which by the way, is FREE!!! (And, psst, usually $65.00!) It’s the first lesson video you’ll receive, so if you missed this course, sign up below!