Lots of ladies notice that when they are starting to struggle with their pelvic floor or bladder
symptoms they've also notice that their abdominal muscles are not as good as they used to be
anymore and I think those two things are connected and they want to improve their abdominals
muscles for cosmetic reasons, but I want them to improve their abdominal muscles to help
to give more support to the organs from the front and to keep those pressures from getting
too low in the pelvis. So I'm a Pilates instructor as well as a Physiotherapist and I'm going to
show you a few of my favorite Pilates exercises to get at that lower bit of your tummy, this
bit we can do later it's this bit you need to prioritise too. So my favourite position
is to lie on your side, because when you lie on your side, I'm sorry but your tummy hangs
out more. Can you feel it? Don't lie like this in a bikini! but it means that you can
really feel the difference between your upper abdominals and your lower abdominals. We want
to get our brains tuning back in to what's going
on low down here. At the bottom here the muscles don't run up and down the front so much as
side to side, so if you can use these muscles they're going to pull you in like a good pair
of pants, but if you're not using them, your going to have a sagging out tummy at the front
and a sagging out pelvic floor underneath. So find your tummy muscles with your finger
tips and let them hang out. And then we are going to do that same breath. We are going
to say breathe in to get ready and your tummy will swell a bit, as you breath out draw the
lower belly in towards you, just half of what you could do and make sure you can breathe.
It won't feel like you are doing anything very exciting, just breathe, but when you
let go it's going to fall away. Yes, you can feel that quite deeply. So same again, find
your tummy muscles with your fingertips, let them hang out on purpose. Breath in gently,
let them swell a bit. As you breath out draw the lower belly in towards you like putting
on good pants, hold and breathe and breathe and then when you let go it will fall away,
lovely. Right, now this time we are going to get you to draw your pelvic floor muscles
up at the same time but I will queue you. So let your abdominal muscle hang out completely,
breath in first let them swell, as you breathe out draw the lower abdominals in - nice knickers
at the front and do your lift and tuck of the pelvic floor underneath back, front and
sides and now hold them both and breathe. And it won't feel very interesting, but when
you let go you're going to get the abdominals and the pelvic floor relaxing. So you've already
got the skill. Yes, yes. Now in real life you need to be able to hold those muscles
in all day as part of your posture. Not tight, tight , tight so just a little bit of posture
at the front and underneath to give some support. But in real life we can't just breathe you've
got to be able to move. So think how many times a day you would move your arm, like
loads, lifting things, putting things away, closing your car boot, but you could move your
arm up and down while doing absolutely nothing with your middle if you wanted to. Yes, oh
yeah. And that's the habit a lot of people have got in to but we've got to break that
habit. So what we are going to say is leave your arm up there, let your tummy muscles
hang out, breathe in gently let them swell a bit. As you breathe out, draw the lower
abdominal muscles in towards you, light lift of your pelvic floor and breathe. Now keep
that feeling and lift your arm right up overhead and back down again. Have a little breath
if you're short on breath, keep your tummy, lift up, and back down. Check on the pelvic
floor muscles, stretch up and down and one more. Lift up and down, now anybody looking
thinks it's an arm exercise but if you let your abdominals go, it's an abdominal exercise
and a pelvic floor exercise as well. Yeah, and you can feel that quite deeply. But it
takes a lot of thinking to do, this this this and that. Yes. Now to make it more real I
find it helps to have something in your hand. It doesn't have to be heavy but it could be
and you will just find it keeps your elbows straighter and it works your arms. I'm just
kind of a multi task kind of girl, so we are going to do it now and we are going to bring
in the breathing exercises as you move as well. So let everything hang out, breathe
in gently let it swell, as you breathe out think lower abdominals in at the front, light
lift of the pelvic floor like a gusset underneath and breathe. And then ideally you are going
to go out when you lift and you will always breathe in again as you come back down. So
on the way up think, abdominals in, pelvic floor and now keep them as you come back down.
Blow out to lift and you will always breathe in again, just think tummy pelvic floor. One
more, back down and then it's only when you stop and you let go that you realise that
you've been working what we call the core as well. And it doesn't need to be more exciting
than that because in real life you don't want to feel you are doing it, your just wanting
to do it in the background. So make yourself practice a few times with your arm until you've
got the hang of it and then a little bit trickier is to move your leg. So if I take the ball,
you can now feel your tummy muscles with your own hand, which is quite nice and we are going
to use the leg as the weight. So if you keep your feet together but lift your knee, that's
a nice few kilograms lifting up and down there. And again you could happily move your leg
up and down while doing very little here if you wanted to or we're now going to train
it all to work together. Start with your knees together, let your tummy muscles hang out
and you are going to think to yourself, breathe in first, let everything swell. And as you
breathe out think lower abdominlas, light lift of the pelvic floor, make sure you can
breathe. Now say to yourself it doesn't matter what my leg does I'm keeping my core. So good
knickers, lift your knee up and now this is the trickiest keep the abs but put your knee
down. It takes a bit of thinking. Pause, lift your knee up, think abdominals, lift your
pelvic floor and knee down and then ideally your going to blow out when you lift, and
you will always breathe in again on the way down. So you don't have to think about it.
So blow out and lift and now think tummy think pelvic floor on the way back down. Two more,
blow out and lift and back down. Keep the tummy through the whole thing, one more, lift
and back down. And then let go. It's quite tricky. It is. But if you can teach yourself
to hold and breathe and move that's what real life is like. Yes and you can really feel
it, really very deep inside. And focus down low. Yeah and good for a flat tummy. Very good
for a flat tummy, that's the bonus.