Hi, today I'm going to show you how to do your pelvic floor exercises and get started
with your pelvic floor exercise program. If your pelvic floor muscles are really weak or
if they're not working well it can be really hard to know if you're doing your pelvic floor
exercises correctly using the correct technique. So these little tips and techniques I'm about to
show you will help you get started on your way to getting your pelvic floor strong.
Ok so let's take a look at the pelvis. Here's the female pelvis, it's like their body structure. So
you've got a pubic bone here at the front of the pelvis and a tail bone at the back. Now,
your pelvic floor muscles actually sling like a hammock underneath there, from front to back.
They also sling from side to side between the sit bones. So sometimes it's described as a
trampoline the pelvic floor muscles are described as a trampoline under the pelvis but that's where
they sit. So by strengthening those muscles you're trying to get these muscles thicker and sitting
more supportively and stronger inside your pelvis to help your pelvic floor with it and probably
problems whether it's a prolapse or whether it's continence issues or you might be trying to relax
your pelvic floor muscles if you've got pelvic pain. So, that's where those muscles sit so that
they're not outside they're not your buttocks, so not where you're sitting, there actually muscles
are not the inside of your thighs they're actually inside and they actually encircle the three pelvic
openings. So, for women, this is the urethra we'll be opening to your urine tube, your vagina,
and then the anus. So those three openings are there wrapping around encircling those.
So when you're doing your exercises it's useful to visualize that area underneath your pelvis. So, if
you're sitting now, you can feel the area between your sit bones, and from front to back your pelvic
floor muscles it in and around area. Now, that's the area we're going to be exercising. So I've got
some nice little tricks to help you get started and the first one is using a towel roll. So I've
got a little towel roll here. This is just a towel fold in half and fold it in half again
you could use a hand towel at home if you wanted to, and basically, you roll it up so it's about a
hand circumference around. I'm going to use that like a little saddle so I'm sitting on a stool
here this is going to chair at home and coming up and just sitting so that I’m actually sitting on
that rolled towel. So that I can actually better feel my pelvic openings where I'm sitting on that.
If you don't want to sit on a rolled towel you can sit on a firm armchair of a lounge
chair perhaps to feel what's going on or maybe even a big exercise ball that could also help.
Now, in that position, we're going to start to try and identify little bits of the pelvic floor
muscles that are actually in certain other parts of the pelvic floor muscles that are encircling
your openings. Let's start within and around the anus those muscles in and around the back
passage or anus. Now, you can try to draw up and remembering that your pelvic floor contraction
feels like a squeeze and inwards lift in and around all your pelvic openings together. So,
try to squeeze in and around the anal area and lift inside. Can you feel that at home?
Try to squeeze and draw inwards and lift and lower back down. Now the muscles around the
anus they're those extra days of the external anal sphincter are part of the pelvic floor.
Now move forward to around the vagina, and this could be hard to feel, and try to squeeze and
lift inwards in and around the vagina. So try to draw up, and try to lower down. You might
not be able to lower down you might feel that it's already gone and that's okay.
The idea at first is to try and see if you can get a feeling of the contraction. Then,
move forward to in and around the urine tube of the urethra the opening of the urine tube,
and try to sense a movement in a squeeze and small inwards left in and around that urethra. Lie back
down and relax and take a breath, big breath in, and out, and now let's try and do all three
together. So, the back middle and front all those openings together, squeezing and lifting inwards.
Now try to keep lifting at home, keep lifting if you can, and now lower down slowly and let
it all relax. How did you go? Could you feel a movement? Or could you not feel much at all?
Sometimes if the muscles are really weak it can be really hard to feel anything happening
at all and initially, we'll start on the towel roll or start using another technique and then
you might find that you can get enough strength and the capacity to actually
not have to worry about using the towel roll. I'm going to move the towel roll now,
and again we'll do this on a chair so if you've got a towel roll at home maybe you
can move that to the side and put it down, and I want to just click into a correct technique.
So, correct techniques and tips to get the most out of your pelvic floor exercises. First of all,
sitting tall. So posture needs to be tall. You need to have an inward curve
in your lower back. If you're slumped, you won't get nearly as an effective
pelvic floor contraction. So inward curve in the lower back is really important. So
nice tall posture tall through your spine shoulders are back and down.
Let's go again, try to lift and squeeze through your openings the back middle and front together,
lifting up squeezing, squeezing, and lifting, keep lifting and try to keep breathing, breathe
throughout. Now, lower down slowly, slowly, slowly, and relax. Take a deep breath in, and out.
Things to avoid, not squeezing your buttocks this is another back your buttocks, this is not about
inside your thighs, and this is not about drawing your tummy and strongly either. The other thing
to try and avoid is holding your breath. So those four things. Buttocks, thighs, tummy muscles being
drawn into strongly, and holding your breath. Try to keep your normal regular breathing throughout.
So, that, that's just a little starter on how to get going with your pelvic floor exercises
and how to start feeling your pelvic floor muscles at home. Let's review what we've
just talked about. We talked about how to locate your pelvic floor, and pelvic floor muscles and
we talked about them sitting inside that area in and around where you sit. Then we talked
about ways of actually feeling those pelvic floor muscles and we talked about using a towel roll to
sit on a towel to feel your pelvic openings and to feel the action of the pelvic floor muscles,
and then finally we talked about getting the right technique and getting the most out of
your technique. Sitting tall with inward curve in the lower back and making sure that you're not
using the other muscles around the pelvis and mistaking those for the pelvic floor muscles.
So if you'd like some more information now to continue with your pelvic floor
exercises. Check our pelvic floor exercises library and you'll get your information on
how now to progress' your exercises and make your public floor muscles stronger. Well,
that's it for me today, I look forward to exercising with you again soon. Bye for now!