VIDEO 11. Pelvic Exercises

In our second module on spine health, posture-based exercises will be discussed in four regions. Finally, you can watch our sample videos specific to the pelvic floor area.

Exercise 1

– You can imagine engaging your pelvic floor muscles as if you were trying to hold your urine or prevent gas from escaping. You can also tighten the muscles around your vagina.

– Once you’ve identified the location of your pelvic floor muscles, start by squeezing them for three seconds and then relaxing for three seconds. Try to repeat this 10 times.

– Continue lying on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and hip-width apart. Hold your arms by your sides with your palms facing down.

– Contract your hips and pelvic floor muscles, lifting your hips a few centimetres off the ground.

– Hold this position for 3-8 seconds.

– Relax your hips and pelvic floor muscles, lowering your hips back to the ground.

– Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Exercise 2

– Stand with your feet hip-width apart, flat on the floor.

– Bend your knees to bring your hips down, only going as low as feels comfortable.

– Keep your back straight and lean slightly forward. Ensure that your knees align with your toes.

– Focus on tightening your hips and pelvic floor as you return to the standing position.

– Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

– However, not all squat movements target the pelvic floor. Wide-legged or deep squats may make it challenging to maintain pelvic floor contraction. A narrow squat might be more beneficial for strengthening the pelvic floor.

Exercise 3

– Lie on your side with legs together and knees bent.

– Activate your abdominal muscles and tighten your hip muscles.

– While keeping your feet together, slowly lift your right knee.

– Hold for five seconds, then return to the starting position.

– As you strengthen, to add difficulty to the movement, place a resistance band around your thighs.

– Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Postural Exercises (Chin tuck) (will be given in e manual)

Chin Tuck: While maintaining good posture, place your pointer finger against your chin while looking straight ahead. Without moving the finger, draw your head directly backwards, keeping your gaze parallel to the floor. Return to neutral, bringing your chin back against your pointer finger.

Williams Exercises (will be given in e manual)

To improve stability of lower back and avoid lumbar lordosis, Williams exercises can be used.

1) the pelvic tilt – The posterior pelvic tilt position is performed with the patient lying on their back with their hands at their side and their knees bent. The patient is then told to tighten the muscles of their abdomen, as well as their buttock muscles, flattening their back against the floor.

2) the single knee to chest – The single knee to chest motion is done with the patient lying on a table or bed. They are then instructed to let a leg fall off the table or bed, bend their other leg and wrap their hands around the bent knee, and pull the bent leg toward their chest.

3) Double knee to chest – The double knee to chest stretch is also done with the patient lying on their back. The patient is instructed to bring both their knees, one at a time, to their chest. With their hands held together, the patient pulls their knees towards their chest and curls their head forward. While performing the motion, the patient is instructed to keep their knees together and to have their shoulders flat on the floor. The patient then lowers one leg at a time.

4) hamstring stretch – The patient is in supine lying with hands on the side. With one knee bent and other knee straight, the paint is asked to pull the foot of her/his straight leg towards himself. He is then asked to raise her/his leg till he feels the stretch at the back of her/his thigh.

5) Squatting – Stand with feet just wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed slightly out, clasp hands at chest for balance. Send hips back and bend at knees to lower down as far as possible with chest lifted. You can swing your arms back for momentum. Press through heels back up to explode up, jumping vertically in the air.

6) Hip Flexor Stretch – Kneel on your affected leg and bend your good leg out in front of you, with that foot flat on the floor.. Keeping your back straight, slowly push your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the upper thigh of your back leg and hip

Postural Exercises (will be given in e-manual)

Table position and cat-cow:

Come to the floor on your hands and knees. Bring the knees hip width apart, with the feet directly behind the knees. Bring the palms directly under the shoulders with the fingers facing forward. Look down between the palms and allow the back to be flat. Press into the palms to drop the shoulders slightly away from the ears. Press the tailbone towards the back wall and the crown of the head towards the front wall to lengthen the spine.

In table position, inhale deeply while curving your lower back and bringing your head up, tilting your pelvis up like a “cow.” Exhale deeply and bring your abdomen in, arching your spine and bringing your head and pelvis down like a “cat.”

Y, W, T exercise; The YTW exercise for scapular retraction is designed to strengthen the inter-scapular muscles between your shoulder blades, to help retract or pull your shoulders back, helping to maintain proper upright posture.

1. Start in a neutral standing posture.
2. Bring your arms up to roughly 135 degrees for the Y position, slightly in front of you, then bring your arms backwards by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Refer to the video for a visual demonstration.
3. Concentrate on squeezing the shoulder blade or scapula contraction at the end range of motion, holding this position for 3-5 seconds. Then release.
4. Bring your arms down to roughly 90 degrees, rotate your thumbs outwards, and bring your arms backwards by squeezing your shoulder blades again with scapular retraction. This is the T component of the YTW exercise. Hold for 3-5 seconds, squeezing at the end range.
5. For the W component, keep your arms around 90 degrees, but bring them backwards in a slight W position, squeezing at the end range, and focusing on the middle and lower inter-scapular fibres. Hold again for 3-5 seconds.