If you are suffering from Leakage, pain, or dysfunction in your pelvic floor then this
video is for you! In today's video I'm going to teach you effective stretches for your
calf muscles which will open up your pelvic floor and give you good results with your
pelvic floor rehabilitation making them function better, let's begin.
You are watching the 10 muscle movement series, this is a series of videos in which we are
going to focus on one muscle at a time which significantly affects your pelvic floor rehabilitation,
the first muscle in this series is the calf muscle. The calf muscle is basically made
up of two different muscles, the Gastrocnemius and Soleus muscle, if you see here the Calf
Muscle is the muscle that sits behind lower leg, the Gastrocnemius muscle and the Soleus
muscle together help you propel your ankle forward and at the same time stabilize your
foot. Now, why are we even talking about this muscle when the problem is up in the pelvis,
you would think, right? Many times, everyone, the calf muscle and the ankle instability
could cause significant issues in Pelvic Floor, that's the reason why we are going to learn
stretches for the calf muscle, so that your pelvic floor rehabilitation can be speeded
up and you can regain your function even before you know.
For today's calf workout, remember everyone, this workout is for everyone, it's all simple
stretches but very effective, and this will help your pelvic floor, feel better very fast.
As I said, in today's workout we are going to stretch out calf muscle, that is out Soleus
and Gastrocnemius muscle, all we need is a simple yoga belt, you could get it on Amazon
I think for $5 or $7 bucks, please get it, because, this is going to be helpful in today's
video. Let's begin. In the first position, remember, in this workout you have to be aware
of your body's position, and you have to make sure that you do all the stretches without
pain, there should be no pain or discomfort when you do these stretches. In the first
exercise, I want you to go in all fours position, now, I want you to observe how my back is,
back is not curved, nor is it hump like that, it has to be straight, neutral, now you are
going to walk both of your palms forward, and you are going to come up on your toes,
so this is kind of a modified downward dog, but not quite, we are going to try and stretch
our calf muscles, so you see how I'm moving my legs, this is how you are going to all
start, by trying to touch your heels down as much as you can, like a warm up exercise,
okay so let's do this ten times, 5, 6, 7 8, 9 and 10. Good, now you are going to pick
up your left foot and put it behind your right leg, try and push your right knee to be locked
straight, and try to keep working the heel, right heel down on the floor, your chest should
try to go as behind as you can get it so that the whole of your calf muscle feels a nice
stretch, hold it there, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and let's switch it. Okay, so the
other foot, again, try to get your chest down, left knee get's straight and hold, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Again, pump your ankle forward and rest your knee down. Sometimes
you will feel a little headrush, so if you do feel it, take a break, take it easy, alright?
Now, in the next exercise I want you to go up, and observe what I'm doing, now I'm going
to get my right leg forward, and the left foot stays up, now what you are going to do
is, you are going to move the right knee forward, try to feel the stretch on the right calf
muscle, okay, go forward, 1, 2, 3, so the goal is to keep your right heel down on the
mat, you are going to hold it there, and we are going to count to ten, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and go back. in the next stretch, let's do it in the other side everyone,
left leg forward, try to stretch your left calf, move forward, hold, so you see how my
right leg is extended back, make sure, it rests on the mat, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, move your
arms forward if you want to get a deeper stretch, 7, 8, 9, and 10. So now, in the next stretch,
I want you to take the right leg forward, and we are going to now sit down on the left
knee, you see how I'm sitting, right? Make sure that the right heel stays in the ground
and your whole calf muscle, that means, your Gastrocnemius muscle and the Soleus muscle
get a really good stretch, so we are going to keep working your way forward, in case
you have knee pain, and you cannot sit down like this, skip this stretch completely, let's
keep working on the calf, 1, 2, 3, this stretch is excellent for anyone who has had a history
of ankle pain or a history of ankle injury, and is also suffering from pelvic issues,
so many times in the clinic, when nothing is working, and these stretches work, that's
why I'm doing this video, okay, 9, and 10. Okay, let's switch, to the other side, let's
sit on the right leg, left ankle forward, try to work on the left ankle mobility, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, good job. So now, in the next stretch we are going to use
the belt that we have, and we are going to hook this belt and start on the right foot,
so keep your left knee bent, like what I'm doing, sit straight from your back, forward
facing the foot, you are going to hook the belt and pull the belt towards you, make sure
this is a non-elastic band so you are able to maintain the stretch, what happens is with
an elastic band the stretch level changes with everytime the band is either stretched
more or less, so you want to make sure the band is non-elastic, that's why I stressed
that you should get a yoga belt. Keep working, and change, switch to the other side, let's
make sure the knee it's bent, pull the belt towards you, keep working, make sure sitting
straight, make sure your toes are pointing up and the belt is holding tension, make sure
you are sitting equally on both sit bones, and your knee is as straight as you can get
it, sometimes, getting this knee straight is difficult, so even if you put your knee
like this slightly bent it's fine, as long as your feet are stretching your calf muscles,
okay so this is the 4th exercise. Let's move on. Now, I want you to hook the belt in the
foot and try to straighten the knee and feel the stretch in the back part of your calf,
what I want you to focus on this exercise, is try to keep your knee as straight as you
can, and you have to make sure that your toes are drawn towards you, you can either do this
exercise with your knee bent or you could do this exercise with your knee straight,
now, today I chose to do it with my knee bent, so I maintain tension in the belt, and slowly
I'm going to try and let the leg go to the right side, feeling the stretch in the calf
muscle, the goal of today's exercise is the calf muscle, so be aware of your calf, very
important muscle to maintain stability, not only of your foot but of your pelvic floor,
so let's move on to the next stretch, in the next stretch we are going to hook the belt
into the right foot, I have it hooked to the right foot, and left foot on the floor and
left knee is bent, pelvis is stable on the floor or yoga mat, don't move your pelvis
forward or back. Okay, we are going to gently raise the leg up make sure you feel the calf
muscle, again it's the muscle right here, make sure you are feeling the tension, and
then slowly, let the leg go out as much as you can tolerate it without pain, that's the
key, hold it there, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, make sure both your sit bones on
the yoga mat, I don't want you to turn like that, okay, on the yoga mat pelvis stable,
your leg out, slowly take it up and relax. Okay, in the next stretch we are going to
keep the belt hook up in the leg, and this time we are going to straighten the knee,
the left knee on the floor, the right knee may or may not be straight depending on the
hamstring flexibility, so you are going to keep the knee a little bent, and slowly take
the calf and the leg out, on towards your left side, hold it there, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, and 10, up, and down.
This is Dr Amruta Inamdar, your Pelvic Rehabilitation specialist, and this channel's name is Pelvic
Rehab Doc, If you like this video, an you feel this information is useful, for you or
your friends please feel free to share, like our video, and please subscribe to our channel,
like always, we upload videos every week, so do follow us and follow the videos to help
you recover from any pelvic floor dysfunction.