While doing yoga or other activities, we often hear teachers and even doctors tell us, “now use your pelvic floor.” Or, my favorite line I’ve heard from a yoga teacher is, “activate your pelvic floor”, like it’s an assumed, all-knowing action as simple as turning on your blender and mixing a cake!
As the creator of Core Functional Fitness and a yoga teacher (and prenatal/postnatal teacher) this is an area we as teachers and students to commonly feel a bit weird talking about, avoid talking about, or only explain it half way. This is likely because we are uncomfortable saying certain words in class or to friends like, “anal sphincter” or “vaginal passageway”, or possibly because we just don’t know how to refer to certain areas.Regardless, this is an area of the body we need to talk about – a lot!
For starters, our root chakra is located in the pelvic area, and is our area of grounding and rooting. Just above is our sacral or sex chakra dealing with our reproductive organs and sexuality. Both are areas of deep connection with us and this earth.
Both women and men need to work on the pelvic floor (and pelvic bowl) regularly, and this sacred area needs to be better understood not only in yoga classes, but even in activities like Zumba, aerobics, running, and activities with(pelvic floor) impact (such as sneezing). And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to not pee my pants at any sudden moment, be able to keep my organs in place, support and protect my back, and offer some energetic support to my body.
Here are some key facts you need to know about the pelvic floor:
Hope blogs regularly for MindBodyGreen, to view the rest of this amazing blog post visit MindBodyGreen