Now lets look at why pelvic floor and abdominal muscles could be a really good idea for you
if you get some leakage when you're on the move. Especially when you're walking, climbing
stairs or running. So what we are going to do is, don't use any muscles at all even though
you know what you could do with them. Just leave them all hanging out and relaxed and
pretend that you are going for a walk. So let one leg go out straight just along the
mat and then bring it back in and now you're other leg go out and back in. And it's a bit
stylised but it's a pretend walk and as you move your legs, can you feel what's happened
to the middle section of your body? It's moving up and down. Your pelvis is tipping backwards
and forwards and if there was a glass of champagne on your tummy, what would happen to it? It
would fall over. I think it would fall off. There's a bit of a wobble. Now if you pause,
imagine yourself walking along for real, your pelvis is moving with every step you take.
That means your bladder is moving with every step you take and the problem with the bladder
is it's a bit like a lemon jiffy bottle, it's got a tiny hole to the outside but if you
shake it, it's very vulnerable to leaking. So now watch what happens if you held your
abdominals and pelvic floor in just that light extra pants feeling. So let your tummy muscles
be relaxed, breathe in first let them swell. As you breathe out think drawing in pants
at the front and pelvic floor underneath like a gusset and make sure you can breathe. Now
keep those extra pants on and straighten your leg out again, bring it back in and then your
other leg and keep holding the abdominals and pelvic floor. And does it feel like
you're moving a bit less? Yes, it feels a lot more stable. Now it's often not a dramatic
difference but if after this next one you stop and let go, and now don't hold your muscles
in and move your legs. Yes, definitely more wobbly without your muscles. But the
thing to practice is what I call one hundred percent perfect walking. Glass of champagne
dead still. Because if you practice perfect walking as an exercise you will get about
75% of it when you really do go for a walk. So picture your glass of champagne stood on
your tummy, think breath in let your tummy muscles swell. As you breathe out think lower
abdominals in towards you, little bit of pelvic floor underneath and breathe. Now keep that
glass of champagne really still and straighten your leg. Bring it back in, careful as you
swap feet, other leg and your job is to try to not let the champagne move. Nice, and though
that feels a bit awkward or different to normal. If you can get the hang of that action - tummy
in pelvic floor and moving your legs, it will really help with walking. One more each leg.
Back in, stop and let go. Nice. Now the other thing we do loads of is climb stairs. So when
we climb stairs one leg comes in towards us then you put your foot on the step, then for
a moment they are both there then your other leg comes up and your foot goes on the step.
And now think about that glass of champagne, not only does it want to wobble this way but
it also wants to wobble that way. So stairs can be a bit of a hazard and people often
say they have gone to London for the day and all those escalators and their bladder was
really not happy. Then your next job is to keep your glass of champagne still while you
climb stairs. So you can put your finger tips on top if you find that helpful. So you can
do breath in and let your tummy swell, as you breath out think lower abdominals pelvic
floor just a little bit so you can breathe really nicely over the top and then fold one
knee in knee over hip, pause. Now put that foot down just for a moment both feet are
on the steps together, and then without losing your tummy bring your other leg up. Slowly
down feet side by side, keep the glass of champagne steady, bring your leg up. Slowly
down, have a breath if you need one and then pick up and it takes a bit of thinking, and
down. And Ideally we are going to blow put when we lift the leg up and we will always
breathe in again as it goes back down and then breathe out pick up, that's it. And back
down, so one more each leg. It won't feel like you are doing anything that interesting
but keep holding and then when you put your foot down let go of your tummy, let go of your
pelvic floor and you will feel them drop away. Yes. So it's getting your brain, your
middle, tummy and pelvic floor and your legs to all work as a package. Not just go brain,
legs and miss out the bits in the middle. And the last one I like to do in the sequence
is particularly good if you like to run, because when you run at a moment in time both feet
are off the floor. Now this one is quite a lot harder, so find your tummy muscles with
your fingertips, breathe in first let them swell. As you breathe out think lower abdominals
in, find your pelvic floor, make sure you can breathe. Fold one leg up in to that table
top position and that's quite easy to do and we just keep your knee over your hip. Now
you're going to have to think really hard. Can you keep the tummy flat and the pelvic
floor lifted as the second leg comes up to join it. It's a lot harder to do. And you've
got to be careful to keep a really good hold. And breathe and now going down is tricky too.
Slowly down with one leg, slowly down with the other leg. Pause have a few breaths. So
bring one leg up first leg up is quite easy, have a breath. You need to be breathing out
as you use your muscles and bring your second leg to join it. And breathe and then as you
breathe out slowly lower your first leg back down just for one and then lower the other
and then have a rest. You will find two at a time makes you think haww, and there is
a bit of a temptation for the tummy to bulge, so your goal is to learn to hold it really
steady as you move your legs. As a beginner I wouldn't do too many in a row just two at
a time, have a rest, two at a time. So would this exercise be safe if you've got a prolapse?
If you do it very carefully and I would spend some time practicing the leg stretches and
the one before the stair climbing one first, until you're really quite confident with that
before you try that more advanced one, because that can make a bit of a bulge in the tummy
and if it bulges in the tummy it's going to bulge underneath.