Some great Yoga Tune Up® poses to reconnect to your pubococcygeal muscles by awakening and engaging, as well as stretching and releasing them are:
Adductor slides—to contract the pelvic floor, along with the inner thighs.
Squat at the wall with arms up—this is a great way to put intentional pressure on the pelvic floor and strengthen it (this is also a great place to play with engaging and releasing the pubococcygeus and other pelvic floor muscles).
Half Happy Baby—this is a great way to create pull on the pelvic floor by extending one hip and bringing the other into deep flexion (shown in the first part of the video clip below):
Most importantly, get on your Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls! You can massage the pubococcygeus and the other pelvic floor muscles to bring circulation to them and gently release them. For instruction on how to do this gently and well, check out Jill’s webinar!
Check out the Yoga Tune Up Pose of the Week
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These four exercises hit all the realms of public floor health. They strengthen and stretch the muscles of the pelvic floor as well as the surrounding tissues. Excited to try all of these in order to have better pelvic floor.
These are things you don’t think about until you get older, or have a couple kids perhaps. It’s great to have some movements that help. In my experience, strength training overall (squats, anyone?) has helped immensely as well. Thanks for the new poses to try.
I appreciate these specific poses from the teacher training that will help specifically with the pelvic area. it’s a blindspot for me for sure and can’t wait to see how the blindspots can melt away or feel more in balance.
I’m currently dealing with some pelvic floor distinction myself and I just so happen to learn happy baby minivini and adductors slides today! And I just looked up pubococcygeal muscles! WOW It’s so helpful to know that these poses will strengthen the pelvic floor in addition to how they make me feel that I’m tackling blind spots and learning how it’s all connected. Thank you!
Thanks for link to jill webinar will put that onnthe list ?
These are all great YTU poses that I love and will incorporate into my classes. Helpful information for sure. I can’t wait to to put these in a sequence! t hank you!
I would like to know more about the pelvic floor, I’ll check the video of Jill. Thanks!
This is a great reminder to not neglect our pelvic floor muscles. There are so many postures where we can integrate this work into and I especially love the half happy baby with an awareness of the pelvic muscles, it it brings so much support to my spine and hips!
It’s always good to learn some different movements to strengthen the pelvic floor. Everyone can benefit from these. Thanks for sharing.
I love half happy baby but hadn’t made the connection to the pelvic floor – thanks for that reminder!
The pelvic floor muscles are the easily forgotten ones, but can wreak havoc and cause pain. They can also be weak and need additional attention to bring back the underdogs!! Also, the balls make an easy way to get myofascial issues addressed in a modest and acceptable manor. Thanks for the links and explanations.
This Article is great, a reminder that we have some important Muscles in the Pubic Area. We spend so much time concentrating on all the heavy hitters. Thanks for taking the tie to write this. I will be taking care of my Pelvis Floor with the yoga Tune up exercise and the therapy balls
I guess I’ll get hooked on those exercises. Horseback riding is a very demanding sport and since we are literally sitting on our pelvic floor in the saddle, I wonder what spending more than 12 hours per week on a horse for more than 20 years has done to my own pelvic floor, Let’s try those exercises as soon as I can !
that mini vini happy baby flow is awesome!
I love all of these poses for strengthening and stretching but hadn’t realized the relationship to the pelvic floor. In my next practice I’ll be sure to bring awareness to it– thank you for this tip!
Ahhh…this is why I am already (two days in to level 1 teacher training) in love with Yoga Tune Up! All of the poses offer a blend of benefits that correct, restore, release and realign the body. This is one of my favourites, and yet I wasn’t aware that it could help with the pelvic floor! Adding it to my repertoire for post-natal care! Thank you.
A perfect blog post to read today as I just practiced half baby pose and adductor slides this morning! I discovered areas of great tightness in half baby pose and a surprising lack of strength when doing the slides. I can’t wait to listen to Jill webinar on how to use the YTU balls to release the pelvic floor muscles.
Thanks for the post and the reminder to awaken the pelvic floor – the poses you mentioned will indeed bring awareness and stimulation to the all important muscles in this area of the body. Some of the consequences of weakness in this area are obvious – some are more subtle and it is so important to know the effect these muscles have on providing a component of stability for the spine in so many of our poses and daily activities.
Thank you for the shift in perspective regarding the benifits of this pose. It was during the the adductor slides that I have just truly felt this area “wake” up after being “asleep” since the birth of my child 14 years ago. They tell us it takes 9 months to grow a baby but no one talks about how long it takes to “reclaim” our bodies after birth. I’ve also done the pelvic floor rolling as outlined in the roll model and “Oh my GOODNESS!” was that a discovery of tightness!
We did this Happy Baby in Jill’s Level 1 YTU training, really helps me open up my hip and pelvic floor muscle, as it is tight from having two kids, and one child was forcep delivery, my pelvic floor took over a year to heal. The Happy Baby pose also helps stretch out my adductor muscles inner thighs,
I love the term ‘intentional pressure’ – great phrase! Thanks for the post.
Hello Caitlin,
I was attending a level1 YTU training with Jill today and we practiced Half Happy Baby pose. What a great hip opener! I would not have though at this pose as doing anything with the pelvic floor. But now, I remember Jill asking us to engage the adductors through the motion. What a good idea to engage the pubococcygeal muscles and also lengthened them in the process. I will refer this pose to a few friends who recently had children and including into my now routine.
As someone dealing with various hip and sacroiliac issues, I’m beginning to believe that tight pelvic floor muscles is one of several culprits. I always used to do half happy baby with the passive leg bent because it felt more accessible, but the sequence featured in the video performed with that leg straight gave me so much relief! I’m definitely adding this sequence to my regular practice.
Great blog! Thank you. My hips felt more open after doing the video.
I enjoyed finding this blog since I chose the Adductor slides variation 1 for my exercise due to the strengthening and awakening benefits of the adductors, pelvic floor (pubococcygeal muscles) and abdomen. I find it helpful that she lists 3 different exercises that work in different ways to accomplish the goal of pelvic floor engagement. The video is a great visual to aid in teaching extended the hip and which can definitely cause new sensations in the pelvis region.
This exercise is helpful for me. I have flexible body and joint but sometimes feel stuck in coxal and uncomfortable sacrum.After try this movement and stretch, I felt more open my joint but also felt strength the entire pelvic area!
I recently had a family member contact me about some pre/post natal stretches. Now I have 3 more in my arsenal to share.
You mention massaging pelvic floor muscles with Tuneup balls – This was another of the things I was trying to teach long distance. I have been searching for a demo video of this that I can share but have so far come up empty. Does anybody know of one?
Thank-you for this reminder
Pelvic floor is often a totally forgotten about area to focus on and ensure proper awakening and engaging
If you have never given birth, how and when might you ever need to think about this!
Yet, it is at the base
It houses so much
it stabilizes
And when a close friend of mine broke the bones around his pelvic floor in a cycling accident ….. well, you learn much on the importance of the proper engagement an awakening of this area
When those tiny bones break with impact and a crash, you are literally and almost paralyzed
Small area, small muscles, small bones, enormously important to understand and activate the proper awakening and engagement of this stabilizing, hard working, somewhat self managing muscles.
Thank-you for this