The importance the pelvic floor. How Yoga & Bellydance can help
What is the pelvic floor?
The pelvic floor muscles are located between your legs, and run from your pubic bone at the front to the base of your spine at the back. They are shaped like a sling and hold your pelvic organs (uterus, vagina, bowel and bladder) in place.
The pelvic floor muscles support the bladder and bowel and give you control when you urinate. They relax at the same time as the bladder contracts (tightens) to let urine out.
Why is it important to strengthen your pelvic floor during and after pregnancy?
During pregnancy, increasing pressure is put on your pelvic floor muscles. This is due to pregnancy hormones, and the increasing weight of your baby. Research shows that pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy makes it less likely that you will leak urine (be incontinent) after birth. It's therefore important to exercise your pelvic floor muscles regularly.
Continuing these pelvic floor exercises after pregnancy can help to prevent long-term problems, such as prolapse (when the pelvic organs have lost some support, and can bulge into the vagina).
Keeping pelvic floor muscles strong!
Weakened pelvic muscles can cause problems, such as urinary incontinence (being unable to control when you pass urine) and reduced sensitivity (feeling) during sex. Doing pelvic floor exercises can help improve incontinence by keeping your pelvic muscles strong.
In addition, a strong pelvic floor muscles can also mean increased sensitivity during sex and stronger orgasms.
How to do pelvic floor exercises - YOGA
To help locate the pelvic floor muscles, place yourself in an all-four position. This way you don’t have the gravity working against them. The pelvic floor is formed by 3 “sphincters”: urethra, vagina and anus. First, imagine that you try to stop passing wind from the bowel. To do this you must squeeze the muscles around the back passage. Secondly, imagine that you try to stop the flow of urine when you go to the toilet and you’ll be squeezing the urethra; thirdly, and perhaps the trickiest to locate, is the vaginal muscles: try to identify them during penetrative sex when you tighten them.
Be aware that: exercising the pelvic floor should not show at all ‘on the outside’. You should not pull in your tummy excessively, squeeze your legs together, tighten your buttocks or hold your breath!
To strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, come onto all fours comfortably (or puppy dog pose as shown in the picture below) and start the exercise routine: inhale and relax, exhale and pull up and squeeze the 3 sphincters as if it were a sponge, hold for 10 sec (or longer if you can), inhale and relax the muscles slowly. Repeat 10 times; after this, squeeze and release 15 times at your own pace. Please remember: Do not hold your breath as this will only exhaust you and will cause hyperventilation, or tighten your stomach, buttock and thigh muscles at the same time.
When you get used to doing pelvic floor exercises, you can add this variation to your routine: inhale and relax, exhale and hold the squeeze half way for 2 seconds, then lift it up the whole way holding for 2 seconds, inhale an relax the muscles slowly. Repeat this series 10 times. Every week, you can add more squeezes, but be careful not to overdo it and always have a rest in-between sets of squeezes.
After a few months, you should start to notice the results. Your incontinence should improve, as well as the sensitivity you experience during sex. You should carry on doing the exercises, even when you notice them starting to work.
How does BELLYDANCE help to strengthen pelvic floor:
In general, women living in other civilizations than our Western one have got a far lower rate of uterine descent and less problems with their pelvic floors. They move more than we do; they squat for working, and they dance those dances which keep the female organs well supplied with blood and healthy. By practising belly dancing we benefit from this traditional knowledge and contribute actively to keep the abdominal part of our bodies in good health. The pelvic floor plays an important part in this context. If - for various reasons - it loses its elasticity, this will have a number of negative effects, from uterine descent to incontinence. The consequence is a loss of mobility and joy of life. Every woman should keep in mind that the typical problems relating to the pelvic floor are not natural but almost always result from factors that could have been avoided. Belly dancing is the means of changing one’s course and starting to practise a new life style that will strengthen the pelvic floor or at least prevent further damage. The upright posture in the dance is impossible without the pelvic floor. More than that, the pelvic floor is actively involved in every single hip movement. I know women who have overcome their incontinence just by regularly practising belly dancing and who have praised and propagated this dance ever since. Belly dancing should be combined with a focused pelvic floor training and also exercises for the muscles that are synergetic with the pelvic floor, such as the muscles of thighs, buttox, belly, hips and back. This will finally lead to a strengthening and tightening of the whole pelvic floor.
Belly dancing is fun and lifts a woman’s body and spirit. Many of my dance students, including myself, have told me happily that they have been praised for their strong pelvic floors by their gynaecologists. The pelvic floor is our supporting basis, our centre of power. To preserve and cultivate this power should be our ultimate goal – until old age.
How often should I exercise pelvic floor:
Every day! I recommend you find a routine (something that you do every day) to associate it with. For example, every time you brush your teeth or whenever you prepare a cup of tea. This will help you remind you and it will soon become part of your daily routine.
Sources and articles: NHS org, NCT, Your Body your baby your birth from Jenny Smith, Keti Shariff, Zabel Bellydance
