Co-contracting Pelvic Floor and Abdominals - Day 8 - 30 Day Pelvic Floor Challenge

[@carter11241]

Hey Denise, do you have any advice on ways to not loose motivation and hope while building strength?

[@TheFlowerEmpowered]

Hi Carter, that’s a great question! Some suggestions: Define your overall goal and reverse engineer some mini goals that you can achieve along the way. It’s important to have goals that are achievable in the short term as well as the big end goal. Find an accountability buddy if you can. It’s great if it’s someone else who is also working on building strength, but they don’t necessarily need to be working on the same things. Attend a group class each week where you can practice your exercises as part of a moving practice. This can be gentle yoga or some other group class where you can train within your limits while working on your pelvic floor. Change up the exercises. Pelvic floor exercises are amongst the most boring you can do, so use different positions each day to break the monotony a bit. Get “free Kegels” by contracting 5 to 10 times after urination or defecation. This is bonus training 😊 Hopefully these tips can help you to be consistent with your training. Consistency really is key to success.

[@TheYogiworld]

Very good keep it up ☺️☺️👌👌💐💐💐

[@TheFlowerEmpowered]

Thank you!

[@amandamccrea3727]

Hi Denise and thank you again for this great programme. Can you suggest an alternative to caterpillar pose as I have rods in my back post spinal injury around T12 and cannot bend forward enough to relax in this pose?

[@TheFlowerEmpowered]

Hi Amanda, was sure I had answered this already but I don’t see my response so it must not have gone through. I would suggest legs up the wall. You can do it on the bed if you have a wall near by, or put some blankets under you for some cushioning. Let me know if that helps 😊

[@amandamccrea3727]

@@TheFlowerEmpowered oh that's a great idea! Thank you, that will be much more comfortable for me 😊🙏

[@voyantesorciere6348]

I don’t understand why the caterpillar is suggested as pelvic floor friendly given you don’t brace the of in this position and it is crunch based. There are a lot of articles out there suggesting to avoid forward fold when you have a weak pelvic floor.

[@TheFlowerEmpowered]

Hi VJ, bracing is required when you are increasing intraabdominal pressure, for example if you are lifting something heavy. You don’t need to brace when you relax. You need to let go and allow the pelvic floor to expand. Relaxation and releasing tension is the focus of the relaxation portion of this video. Relaxation is good to do when you are working on building strength too. The focus should be to optimize the muscular length-tension relationship. A muscle should be able to both relax and stretch and it’s resting length should be somewhere in the middle.