Pelvic floor exercises

Pelvic floor exercises

The small ball is probably my most favourite piece of equipment with which to practise Pilates as not only does it helps to keep the spine in neutral, it also prevents the tendency to squeeze the buttock muscles instead of the pelvic floor.

Before you start...

there are a few things you should be aware of in order to get the most out of these exercises. 

• Try and maintain a neutral pelvis. In other words, don't clench your buttock muscles or try and tilt or "tuck" your pelvis under
• Use the small ball as your guide. If you are standing doing these exercises with the small ball between your knees and you clench the buttock muscles and tuck your pelvis under, chances are the ball will shoot out from between your knees. That will teach you that you are definitely doing the exercise incorrectly! 

How often should I perform these exercises and for how long?

Every day if you can or if not at least three times and week and, as I tell all my clients once they enter my studio, what they do is not just for that hour but for the rest of their lives. So pelvic floor muscles should be exercised forever!

The more you practice actively engaging these muscles in the beginning the more the muscles will remember to engage on their own. Research tells us that muscle memory takes anywhere up to 6 weeks to kick in, but it is up to you to active these muscles and keep practising.

Exercise 1: The Pelvic Squeeze - Slow

• Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, arms at your sides.
• Place the Small Ball between your knees.
• Inhale through the nose and squeeze the ball. Really squeeze it so you feel your inner thigh muscles engage but don't let you pelvis move.
• Now exhale through the mouth and squeeze the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles work on the exhale.
• Try to vizualise pulling your tailbone and pubic bone towards each other (front to back) and your sitz bones in towards each other (side to side)
• Continue for 5 more breaths, head, neck & shoulders relaxed, the only tension is in your inner thighs, pelvic floor. Inhale and exhale to squeeze inner thighs, pelvic floor muscles.
• Repeat 5 times
• Try this exercise up in a bridge position or with your feet on the sofa, either on the floor or in bridge. These anti gravity positions is another way to work those pelvic muscles.

Exercise 2: Pelvic Squeezes – Fast

With this exercise you have to think "sniff & blow" for your breath. The breathing is sniffing in through the nose for 5 counts, and blowing out through the mouth for 5 counts.

• Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, arms relaxed at your sides.
• Place the Small Ball between your knees. Squeeze the ball a little so you feel tension in the inner thighs.
• Inhale through the nose for 5 counts (sniff 5 times)
• Exhale through the mouth for 5 counts (blow) squeezing the pelvic floor muscles, engaging as described in the exercise above.
• Repeat 5 times

 Watchpoints

• Try not to squeeze the buttock muscles or tilt the pelvis. Stay in neutral with the rest of the body relaxed.
• Use the breath to work the muscles. This will ensure you keep breathing and don't hold your breath.

 Don't rush your development

Remember it takes time to find, recruit and engage new muscles and this is especially true if a muscle group has been damaged through childbirth and surgery or not used for a particularly long period of time.

• Be patient.
• Don't give up.
• Using your small ball, practise the exercises on my YouTube channel and in less than 6 months or so you will forget that you ever had a problem with your pelvic floor.