So we hear a lot about the benefits of correct breathing for sports and exercise, I wonder
if there's any breathing tips or techniques we should be using when we're doing our pelvic
floor exercising that would either get us better results or that is pelvic floor friendly.
That's a really good question, I think breathing is really important. You get those two types
of exercises that you're told to practice, the quick ones and the slow ones. Now the
quick ones you don't really need to worry about the breathing, that's just tighten up best
you can let go, and we use that if we are going to cough or sneeze or pick up something
heavy that just takes a moment. But that other exercise, the slow ones where they tell you
to hold your muscles and count to 10 or count your breaths, that we use a lot more in every
day life. That's what we're doing when we're at play group and we've got a toddler on our
arm and we're trying to chat to a friend. We want our muscles to hold us up and we want
to be able to speak and chat at the same time and also that's what we're doing if your bladders
being annoying. So if you're bladders going, do you want to go for a wee, you know, go for a wee,
go for a wee and you're like no, not now. When the bladders doing that, what we want to be
able to do is come with our muscles from underneath, tighten them up, and have a little competition
between the muscles underneath and the bladder and the muscles underneath are going, no you
can't go yet, the bladders going I want to go, I want to go, no, yes and it's holding
for about 20 seconds and still breathing that you need to be able to do to calm your bladder
down. So when you're practicing that second type of exercise, the slow ones where you
hold and count, hold and breathe, it's really important that you are truly breathing and
I have to say quite a lot of people will go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten and that doesn't really count. So I like to get you thinking about the anatomy
of the breathing to help improve the quality of that breath when you're doing your exercises.
So I've bought along my hoberman sphere, which is this lovely toy that moves. But it shows
beautifully how things open and close as we breathe, so if I put it up here by my lungs,
when we breathe in our lungs expand and fill up with air, as we breathe out our lungs contract
and expel the air and it's not a big movement but it pushes air, it brings air in and pushes
air out. If I bring it down where my abdomen is the same thing happens in the lower half
of our body. Think of this as the abdomen at the front and this is the pelvic floor,
as we breathe in everything expands, your waist gets a bit wider, your pelvic floor
comes down. As you breathe out there's a natural instinct for the muscles to contract in and
we want to make the most of this. We also want to be able to come from a relaxed position,
no support bit sloppy not really very helpful, draw the muscles in to give some support and
then carry on breathing when we are in that new position. What we don't want to do is
come all the way in like this, gripping like mad because then we can't breathe properly, we're
breathing like this. So what we get people to think about, is breathe in let your
muscles swell, do you want try it, just breathe in let your tummy swell, let your pelvic floor
relax, as you breathe out think of the pelvic floor lifting up underneath, hold it there
and breathe over the top. And we will just try three breaths, and then let go and when
you let go you should feel it all drop away. If it didn't drop away it had already gone.
Yeah, so then we will do it again, breathe in let everything swell and be relaxed, as
you breathe out focus on the pelvic floor - the back, the front, the sides, draw it
up and underneath and then go on breathing over the top. And don't worry if you can only
breathe two or three times at first and then let go. And this is really important to practice,
you can really feel it, yeah, yeah, really important to practice, your goal is to be
able to do ten but for most people that isn't your starting point. You're doing really well
if you can just do three, so try to keep that in mind, the feeling of your lungs expanding
and contracting, the abdomen and pelvic floor expanding and contracting and if I put it
to the side, if we just do it in our heads like it would be in one of the booklets, we
would say breathe in to get ready, as you breathe out, draw your muscles up underneath,
the back, the front, the sides and go on breathing over the top, trying to look natural and then
let go and that's what we mean by using your breath to help your pelvic floor along
and we're going to do that a lot in our exercises.