A brief introduction to the pelvic floor 

From a yog­ic per­spec­tive, the pelvic floor is the seat of our life ener­gy (=prana). This area of our body has a major influ­ence on our pos­ture and gives us sta­bil­i­ty and inner strength. But our emo­tion­al world is also influ­enced by the pelvic floor. 

If we look at the dif­fer­ent chakras in the body, the area of the pelvic floor is the root chakra, as the first essen­tial main chakraand forms an impor­tant basis for the devel­op­ment of the entire chakra sys­tem:

“The root chakra can be strong­ly influ­enced by the expe­ri­ence of secu­ri­ty and the rela­tion­ship and con­nec­tion with one’s own moth­er at the begin­ning of life — the soul’s first point of ref­er­ence for the gen­er­al expe­ri­ence of life in this world.”

From an anatom­i­cal point of view, the pelvic floor is a mus­cle plate that clos­es the pelvis from below. You can think of it as a tram­po­line that is stretched between the pubic bone, coc­cyx and the two ischial tuberosi­ties. You can find more infor­ma­tion on the anato­my of the pelvic floor in this blog post

And because your pelvic floor is so impor­tant dur­ing preg­nan­cy, we have col­lect­ed a few exer­cis­es for you that you can do in between to strength­en and relax your pelvic floor.

Your pelvic floor exercises

The AHA Breathing = Breathing-posture approach

You can inte­grate AHA breath­ing into your every­day life at any time, whether stand­ing or sit­ting, wait­ing for the bus or sit­ting on the couch in the evening.

• Make sure your pos­ture is straight
• Now breathe deeply into your abdomen
• Active­ly tense your pelvic floor as you exhale

You can imag­ine your abdomen like a bal­loon. When you inhale, the bal­loon push­es out­wards; when you exhale, the bal­loon is com­pressed upwards by tens­ing the pelvic floor. 

Cat & Cow to relieve the back

Start­ing posi­tion “table”

• Fan your hands out wide and posi­tion them direct­ly under your shoulders
• Align your knees hip-width apart under your hips
• Make sure your back is straight and active

“Cow”

• Take a deep breath
• Active­ly tight­en your pelvic floor
• Low­er your stom­ach and raise your chest
• Look gen­tly upwards & back­wards with your head

“Cat”

• Breathe out
• Round your back upwards
• The chin tilts towards the chest
• Make sure that your wrists remain lev­el with your shoulders

Deep squat for relaxation

The deep squat, also known as “Yogi Squat” or “Malasana”, brings you relax­ation, ground­ing and at the same time stretch­es and mobi­lizes your pelvis. It also stim­u­lates blood cir­cu­la­tion in this area and relax­es the muscles. 

• Bring your feet slight­ly wider than hip-width apart
• Squat down carefully
• If the soles of your feet remain on the floor, your pelvic floor is auto­mat­i­cal­ly tensed
• Make sure your back is straight
• Bring your hands togeth­er in front of your chest
• Use your arms to push your knees out­wards a lit­tle more

Let grav­i­ty work with you & hold this posi­tion as long as it feels good for you.

Have fun practicing!