hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my top 5 pelvic
floor exercises. so let's get started.
So before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on that
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might not see it and if I don't see it how can I respond to it? let's get going.
so all these pelvic floor exercises are gonna be on the floor. if you can't get
on the floor, you can do them on your couch or your bed. so if you can't get
down there, that's okay. just get into a comfortable position lying down with
your knees propped up. so with the pelvic floor exercises, a lot of times there's
not a lot of movement because you're using those pelvic floor muscles. and so
those are the smaller inner muscles and so you're not gonna have to see big
movements, you just have to make sure you're doing the exercises correctly. so
the first one is just going to be a pelvic tilt. and this is really just to
kind of get things moving and get them going a little bit. but pelvic tilts
really have to be done correctly or you're not really getting the exercise
you need. a lot of times with pelvic tilts, people want to push with their
legs and push down into the floor and that's not really getting the public
floor muscles working. what you want to do is it's just like it sounds, It's a
pelvic tilt. you're tilting your pelvis back. so your back goes flat into the
floor, but you're not using your leg muscles. so if you feel these muscles
contracting, you're not doing it right. so a lot of times people say imagine that
you're taking your belly button and pushing it into the floor. I like to just
say imagine this someone's hand is underneath or you can even put your
hands underneath the curve of your back, and what you want to do is use these
core muscles these pelvic floor muscles to rotate back to where you're
flattening your back. so you should be able to see that a little bit it's not a
huge movement, but I'm flattening everything out and not using my legs. so
you want to hold that for about three to five seconds and then relax. so you can
see that movement, but again not a huge movement. I'm breathing I'm just talking
normally. I'm not holding my breath. make sure you're not holding your breath and
then holding that for again three to five seconds just to get that movement
in there. and again if you're doing it correctly you
should feel these muscles in here working, not your leg muscles. so maybe
just start off with five or ten, you can do them a couple times a day just to get
going. so then the next one is going to be a pelvic tilt clocks. and so clocks
make it a little more difficult with the pelvic tilt, but then it's really
starting to focus on specific muscles in making you activate specific muscles. so
look down at your your belly and imagine that there's a clock sitting on top. so
12 is coming up towards me and six is going down towards my legs. and then just
kind of imagine then the clock going that way. so first you just want to start
off with going 12 to 6 so this is more now a continuous movement, so if I was
going down to 6 I'm actually arching my back up a little bit and then I'm coming
up to 12 and flattening everything out. but again not using my legs using those
pelvic muscles, those core muscles, if you want to call them that, to get that
movement. so now I'm really arching up and I'm really coming down to 12 and 6
and then you can start doing maybe like a 5 to 7. so this time I'm going down in
an angle and pushing it one side and so this one sometimes might be a little
hard to see, I've had people that have a really hard time doing it because if
you're weak on one side, you'll feel that maybe you can go down a little bit
easier on one side. come back up to the middle each time going down. and so you
have one side that's a little bit harder. my left side is a little bit harder
because that's where I've had my most recent surgery. you can focus on that one
a little bit more, but I would alternate back and forth. and then you can do you
know something like a 2 and 11 so now I'm coming up where I'm kind of
flattening out over here, and then alternating to the other side. so you see
then you're going at angles, but always start with the up and down because
that's usually the easiest one, the 12 to 6 to get down so you're figuring that
out, and then kind of start going at angles to find out where your weaknesses
are. so again just start off with 5 or 10 of these. you don't necessarily have to
hold these unless you want to. you you can do maybe like a three-second hold
really just to activate those muscles, but you're doing more then you think
you are, so if you need pelvic floor exercise if you know you're weak, don't
go and do a whole lot just because they feel easy at the time because you might
end up feeling a whole lot later afterwards. so just start off with a
little bit a couple times a day and then you can build up from there. so the next
one's going to get a little bit tougher. this one is going to be using the ball
to squeeze. so you can use either if you have a soccer ball like me, you can use
a basketball. if you don't have a ball, if you have a yoga block those work well,
but what you want is you don't want it to be too small and you don't want it to
be too big, you want your knees to still be about hip width apart. if it's too
much or too little then you're not quite getting the work that you need. so when
you squeeze into the ball, you're activating some of those muscles, and so
this one's going to be a pretty complicated or multi exercise movement.
so if you just want to start off in stages that's fine. so just doing the
ball squeeze might be enough for you and then maybe do that three to five seconds.
but if you can go into the pelvic tilt first and so you want to hold that
pelvic tilt the whole time and sometimes that's a little hard, and then do the
squeeze. so again just starting off with three to five seconds holding that
pelvic tilt holding that squeeze and then relaxing. if that becomes easy, then
you're going to go one step further so you're going to do the pelvic tilt, do
the ball squeeze, and bring your hips and your knees to about 90 degrees. but try
and hold everything. so if you're coming out of your pelvic tilt, if you feel like
your back is coming off the floor, you're probably not ready for that stage yet
because you really want to keep that back flat into that pelvic tilt. so again
if all that becomes easy flattening out the back, doing the ball squeeze, bringing
it up to about 90 90, then put your hands on your thighs on your the front of your
thighs and push into your hands, so you're activating your hip flexors. so
this one even though I'm trying to make it look easy, you might be able to
see me shaking a little bit. it's tough. and if you're again, if you're doing it
correctly, it's harder than it looks. but anytime you feel like you're coming out
of that pelvic tilt, that probably means your muscles aren't quite ready for that
one. so that one's probably a lot of big steps there. so again if you're not ready
for it, just do the first steps of it and then slowly build your way up to doing
the next ones. so then the next two exercises are going to really be
focusing on the pelvic floor muscle called the obturator internus. and so
this one is a really big one in the pelvic floor, and when it's not doing
what it's supposed to do, sometimes you can have hip pain, you can have groin
pain, you can have that internal pain. so this one's a really good one to work on.
especially like for me, if I've had a labral repair and I'm still not quite
strong in there because that that obturator internus helps keep that the
head of the femur or the hip joint stable. so again you're gonna have the
ball or the block or something in between. if you don't have any of those,
you can take a pillow and fold up the pillow so you have something to squeeze
in to. so this time I'm going to squeeze in, holding that squeeze, and now what I'm
gonna try and do or imagine that I'm doing, you're not gonna see the movement,
but at my feet they're gonna stay in one spot, but I'm gonna be pushing them out
like I'm trying to get my feet to the edge of the mat, or I'm just pushing
those out. so it's it's an isometric movement I'm contracting the muscles, but
I'm not moving, but I'm squeezing in up at my knees, and I'm pushing out at my
feet. so squeezing in, and then pushing out, and you should feel that on your on
the inside those inner thighs down by the groin area. so squeezing in, and I'm
pushing my feet out towards the edge of the mat. and so that's gonna activate
that muscle. so again maybe just if you can hold it about three seconds maybe
work your way up to three to five and do about five or ten of those. but again
this is working muscles that maybe you haven't really been working. maybe
because of an an injury or something else going on. so I would just start off with
five, maybe ten, do a couple a day and then go from there. so the last one is
still working on that obturator internus, but now I'm gonna roll
over onto my tummy and use a belt or a strap or something solid. so not like a
resistive band, but something that's not going to give because this is going to
be again kind of an isometric exercise, where you're activating the muscle, but
you're not making a big movement. so what I want to do is I'm going to take the
loop, and I'm going to put it around my ankles. and so when I go over onto my
tummy, I'm gonna bring my knees up and I'm going to kind of put my knees
together, my feet together. make sure you get comfortable. you don't want to be
uncomfortable while you're doing this. and so now all I'm doing is I'm pushing
my ankles out into the belt each way like I'm trying to separate my feet. so
as I'm pushing out, I'm squeezing in my core or the pelvic floor kind of almost
trying to tuck my tailbone in. so I'm tucking my tailbone and squeezing and
then pushing out at the same time. so again that's a three to five second hold,
doing those five to ten seconds, or I'm sorry five to ten times, three to five
seconds a couple times throughout the day. so since there's really working on
all those public floors, if you just want to try the first couple ones, those
pelvic tilts, the pelvic clocks, see how you feel and then start working on the
others because the other ones are a little bit harder and they're working
muscles that you might not have worked in a while. so there you have it, those
were my top five pelvic floor exercises. if you'd like to help support my channel,
make sure and click on the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe by
clicking down there. and remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.