This is one of my favourite, my favourite, standing up bit quirky exercises, that you can do little
and often through the day to keep connecting your brain to the back, the front and the
sides of your pelvic floor. It's a learning where everything is exercise, don't worry
about breathing, we will come to that, don't worry about the rest of your body too much.
Just trying to tune in to the fact that the pelvic floor is quite large, larger than most
people think. So it's very strange but we are going to say turn your toes out like a
ballet dancer. And when your toes are turned out, if you tighten up your pelvic floor muscles
underneath, you will feel that this position favours the back passage, the anus as if you're
stopping wind. And then just let go, we are not going to worry about breathing or holding
or anything, we are just going to say tighten up round the back passage and then let it
go. And it should feel like your squeezing that little ring, the anus, and it doesn't show
on your face and you don't want to grip your shoulders, just tighten up and let go. I'm
going to do two more, squeeze round the back, release and one more, tighten up round the
back and then let go properly. Now turn your toes in, more like a pigeon, don't make your
knees sore, just a little bit. Now when you tighten up underneath it should feel a little
bit different, yes, yeah completely different. What it does, by tilting the pelvis it takes
you away from the back and more towards the front. It doesn't mean you're not, you might
still feel the back a bit but put your mind and your attention now on the front. Think about
the opening of the vagina and the bladder tube and try lift and tuck them up inside
and then let them drop, it's a bit of a urgh feeling. Yeah. So lift and tuck up underneath.
How many seconds would you do on the lift? We're just going to come up and drop down
again, we are not even going to try and hold it. Okay. Just a juicy lift and drop, and
a lot of ladies say they are not sure if they pulled up but when they let go they feel it
fall down. Yes, you can feel it down. Yeah, you don't necessarily know it's right there.
You don't necessarily feel it on the way up, but when you let go you feel it fall down.
Yes. And just do one more so we've done five altogether, lift underneath and drop. Then
put your feet normal. Now you've got to do both those things at the same time. So you
are going to squeeze round the back passage and then lift and tuck at the front as well
and then let them both go. And that should feel like a much bigger drop. Yes, yeah. So
be careful not to use your shoulders, it's not your bottom, it's coming from the back
passage, like you're stopping wind, lifting and tucking up underneath at the front and
then drop. And again, squeeze at the back, lift at the front, let go and then if you're
feeling clever squeeze at the back, lift at the front and there are those side parts that
just tense like we're pulling our hips towards each other. You won't think you've done much
but when you let go, just feels a bit bigger. Yes. Yes, you can feel it. So the whole package
is back, front, left and right, let go. And how many of those? Well if we do five
of those, five of those and five of those, you've done fifteen really good squeezes
and that's just after you've been to the toilet so if you link that in every time you go to
the loo, it's an automatic cue for you to remember do your exercises. And what I like
is because you put your feet in different positions it holds you down, where as if I
said stand in the kitchen and do fifteen squeezes you might have gone nip, nip, nip.
Yes. And done five and then made tea. And you would just never get to the end of it,
where as this is a bit more structured. Yes. Gives you a start and a finish and you're
done. Or even you might find yourself sort of resting on a table top or an island which
I think it would probably take the, take the intensity away. Yeah just stand free. Just
before you go though, especially if you've just done it after a wee, so you know your
bladder is empty, I like to link why we're doing the exercise to what's going to happen
in real life. So why do we need to be able to squeeze tight like this? It's so that if
a cough or a sneeze comes along, we've got something to use to protect ourselves with.
So you know your bladder is empty, tighten up the back, the front, the sides of your
muscles, everything you've got, hold them, cough. Have a go. Oh right, okay, so back
front, sides, cough. Yes. Did you feel it hold steady. Yes. Now you might find at first
when you cough you feel it go (in-audible) like that, but your bladders empty so it probably
wouldn't leak but then you try again, back, front, side and you can just clear your throat.
And that might be easier to start with but in the long run you want to be able to do
back, front, sides, hearty cough. So you've got that quite that push down that if you
didn't have good control there would be bladder leaks or worse. Yup. If you pull up first
it's called the knack, they've done research to show that it works and the idea is that
your pulling up these muscles underneath just before the pressure comes down. But you need
to practice it, you can't wait for a real cough, cause you've had no practice. But if every
time you go for a wee you do five of those, five of those, five of those and one fake
cough. Then actually even within a week I've seen people go, I'm so much stronger and I'm
catching my coughs in time. I had a friend who would have to brace herself like that
to stop herself wetting when she was laughing or sneezing, she would brace like that.
But something like the knack can help to brace that pelvic floor and stop the leaks. Definitely,
and they've shown with studies how well it works for people and it's strange, lot's of
people do this if they think they are going to leak but if you cross your legs and try
to tighten your pelvic floor it hardly works at all. No, no, it's all almost if it's... It's
actually really unhelpful thing to do.The pelvic floor isn't engaged
at all - no, you can't feel it. It's actually much better to stand up really straight and get your mind underneath
on your muscles. And visualise the muscles and get them working. So is the knack good
for prolapse? It's a really good skill for everybody. And fit's in nicely with life. Yes.