Pelvic Floor Rehab-Abductors & Adductors

As we travel up from the feet and ankles towards the pelvic floor, we hit the adductors and abductors (inner & outer thighs). These are the balance muscles of your legs, the I’m-falling-and-I-can’t-get-up muscles. The inner thighs run contiguous to the pelvic floor and core muscles. AND pretty much everyone is weak in these groups.

Massage

Par for the course of this Pelvic Floor Rehab series, we release, then re-engage. You have a few options for that here. The most cost effective is to purchase a foam roller. I always advocate buying a 36” roller as they are more versatile for things like core work in addition to release work. You have the standard density option (which can be pretty intense for certain areas of the body) or a less dense, softer version. Amazon has everyone beat that I ever see in terms of price, a link to purchase here. And here’s a link to a previous video on how to use a foam roller on the inner thighs as well as a trigger point release for the pubic bone.

You can also use a theragun or other self-massager. Two of my favorite options are here for a more affordable version and here for a more versatile version, particularly for when we get into the pelvic floor releases in a couple episodes. There are attachments to the latter massager that make it easier to access smaller muscles and yield a more pinpointed release.

Lastly, I love cupping the outer thighs/IT band. It’s an easy thing to do as you watch TV and is not rocket science. Here’s a link to the cupping set I’ve used for years. Alternatively, you can foam roll your IT band, link on tips for that here.

So, massage/roll/cup the inner and outer thighs. We also do some work on the Quadratus Lumborum (QL) in this video. This muscle causes a lot of issues for a lot of people and is often tightened up on just one side, lending someone to be crooked. I find that it becomes that way, in part, because of weakness in the muscles targeted in this video.

Stretch

You can easily stretch your IT band/abductors by putting a towel around your foot and pulling your leg across your body. Alternatively, you can put one foot on a surface like a chair or couch and then twist your body over that extended leg. Try to drop the targeted butt cheek towards the floor as you stretch.

For the inner thighs/groin, here is a shortened version of my favorite stretch that is also in this video.

To stretch the QL, stand inside of a doorway, bring your inside leg forward and grab onto the doorframe—you’re bending over the direction of whichever leg is forward. So, right foot in front, you’re bending to the right to grab onto the doorframe. You can gradually add a twist of your chest towards the doorframe and you may feel this stretch go all the way down your back.

Activate

My preferred way to activate the abductors is a simple side leg lift, a la Jane Fonda. I find that this isolates them better than doing a side squat walk with a band around the thighs. In a squat walk, I feel like people load more into the quads. Here’s a link to a shorter version of what I’m talking about.

For the inner thighs, you can adduct the legs (bring them together) with them up on a wall or in the air. Here’s a version in the air, which works the core more. If your hamstrings are super tight, the wall might be better. You can also start with a more gentle version like this with the knees bent.

The QL is the ‘hip hiker’ muscle. If you stand on an elevated surface like a curb or even a yoga block, you would pull the hip up directly to your ear on that respective side. You’ll know which side is your weaker if that motion feels completely foreign to your brain.

Having good stability in these muscles is a critical piece to balance and therefore aging well. This means aging well for all genders. Some of my male clients talk about these machines in the gym and refer to them as the ‘chick machines’. Balance is for everyone, so don’t forget to target these just as much as squats and lunges in your workouts—stability in these muscles will make things like lunges easier. And, these are the struts to the pelvic bowl, so inner outer thigh strength is pelvic floor strength. Channel your inner Jane Fonda, y’all.

What can you let go of in 2017?

As we begin another year, many of us take this time to reflect on our health. Wellness resolutions are made and often not adhered to after a few days or weeks. If we start to look at what we're ready to let go of over adding another thing to the list, those resolutions stick and we have longer-lasting health benefits.

When you start to see your physical health is also your emotional health is also your mental health, you'll have more profound results in your overall wellbeing. When life stress happens, we can mentally acknowledge what's going on, we emotionally feel a response, and the physical body goes into self-protection mode even if we don't consciously realize it. Mindfully connecting to your movement gives you greater dexterity in your physical body, while showing you which stressors and emotions you hold where so you can let that old stuff go!

I had my own journey making these mind-body connections after I had a stabbing pain in my left hip so intense (10 out of 10 pain) that it locked out my lower back. I wrote about this more here. I studied and figured out the muscular imbalances, but that didn't fully eradicate the pain. Unfortunately, it wasn't until more than a year later that I started to notice when my hip pain increased. It initially surfaced when my father unexpectedly died of a heart issue. So, anytime I felt threatened or afraid of losing someone, those muscles tensed. As I addressed this duality of emotion (fear) with my muscular imbalance, my hip got better. It has since reared its head a few other times, most abruptly and intensely when I had a miscarriage. So, same death and loss trigger.

Each time the pain has returned, it has been less instense or has not lasted as long because now I'm working through the root triggers. We often don't realize how much we're internalizing minute-to-minute until something hurts. In my case, the grief was so overwhelming I couldn't even process what I was or was not internalizing. Now when my hip starts to 'talk' to me, it's my reminder to take stock of what is going on in my life...what am I afraid of? Is there another emotion my body is responding to? Can I shift my mental perspective?

In my work with clients, we try to explore which emotions you're experiencing and holding onto in your injured and chronically stuck spots. You may not completely let go of something you're holding onto, there are layers to process, particularly for intense or tragic life experiences. At least in letting go, we allow more space for healing and more of us is freed up to be present and more authentic. We have more ability to create the life we want over physically carrying around the past.

What are you ready to let go of this year?

For the month of January, I'm offering a New Year's package for new clients. For more information, click here.

Loosen Your Pelvic Floor, Open Your Root Chakra!

When we hear "pelvic floor" it's usually with regard to women who have had children and how their pelvic floors become weak or distended. Years go by and then there's a new wave of pelvic floor awareness with prostate issues or pelvic organ prolapse. Based on my work with clients, I find tight pelvic floors to be super common due to stress and prolonged hours of sitting which contribute to lower back and hip pain/tightness.

What is the pelvic floor, exactly?

I see it as more than just our elimination muscles. If you were wearing brief underwear as in the photo, your pelvic muscles are in contact with fabric. So, there's three main sections:

• Front-lower abs, the little triangle between your hip sockets and pubic bone
• Undercarriage-elimination muscles and connective tissue
• Back-hip rotational muscles, gluteals

How does the pelvic floor tighten?

Sitting, feeling stressed and holding our breath. I wrote more about this in detail here. If you're prone to sucking in your stomach or have suffered from digestive issues, these muscles would also become chronically tense.

In addition to stress-holding, we can also have some unresolved emotional issues that can cause these muscles to restrict and hold.

What the heck is a 'root chakra'?

You can look at chakras as being areas of the body that emotionally (energetically) represent certain things we all face in life. In the case of the root chakra, it correlates to things that are foundational to our being--safety, security (including financial), family/clan identity and physical health. Issues here can come from not just our personal experience, but from the experiences of our family members. SO, pretty much everyone has crap to work through in this chakra.

Fear is a big factor in holding patterns here including, pelvic floor tightness. If we're constantly bracing for something to happen or afraid that there won't be enough, the muscles of the pelvis respond to that emotional outlook. Origins of that fear can include:

• Abuse, including abandonment or neglect
• Poverty, war
• Major personal illness or in your family
• Not having good personal boundaries so we're constantly at the whim of others' actions
• Inherited trauama and issues from our families

How can you shift these patterns?

Physically, you can practice relaxing these muscles.

In my one-on-one sessions with clients we discover where you're holding physically and emotionally and then intentionally create space there. I construct a series of exercise sequences to reinforce a new pattern in your body that doesn't involve bracing or restriction. With repetition, your body generates a new neurological pattern via flow instead of holding. To reconnect with your root chakra and maintain a relaxed pelvic floor day-to-day, try these tips.

• Breathe and feel the breath connect down to your pelvic floor. I wrote more about that here.
• Do things that honor your body and its health.
• Celebrate what you already have in your life--these things may not be material or tangible.
• Find and connect with a community to feel a sense of belonging.
• Go outside and put your bare feet in the ground. Feel how you are a living being!

Are you a tightass?

Most of us are, and the funny part is, we're completely unaware.

Ki Hara Active Hip Stretch

What is a tightass?

I define it as one who perpetually grips in their pelvis, specifically in the urinary and anal sphincters. Clenching here tightens muscles in the pelvic floor, which pull on the hips, which pull on the lower back.

How does one become a tightass?

Stress
Our bodies (nervous systems) are wired to process stress with fight or flight. Evolutionarily, if something threatened our survival, we fought or we ran. In the 21st century reality, it's usually not possible to discharge stress at the moment we're feeling it. Plus, we usually have multiple stressors hitting us simultaneously. We are then left with a freeze response, so the body goes on lockdown, as do our bums.

Breath
Building on the above, shortening our breath is a top physical holding response when we freeze. Unfortunately, this is where we spend the bulk of our time--barely breathing, which, only keeps our nervous system in a hightened state of stress. So the stress/breath cycle snowballs. Right now, take an inventory of your breath. Can you even out your inhalation and exhalation time? How many seconds does it take you to do an inhale/exhale? Can you increase that duration by 1 second, or maybe even 2 seconds? Does your body (pay attention to your pelvis, in particular) relax a little bit with this slightly longer breath cycle? Now pause and hold your breath...do you feel your sphincters tighten again?

Digestive Issues There's a greater awareness now about food sensitivities and allergies. When our digestive system is upset on a regular basis, it can lead to chronic clenching of the digestive sphincters. I also think sitting for long periods and the subsequent slowing of our metabolism can let things feel stuck in our digestive tract.

Sucking in the Stomach/Wearing Restrictive Clothing This usually applies more to women than men. Wearing restrictive clothing or sucking the stomach in, once again means the breath is affected so the tightass tendency follows.

Energetic/Emotional Component The area we're talking about in the body corresponds to the root chakra. This chakra, or energy center, represents our foundation, sense of safety, financial stability and tribal (family of origin) identity. Pretty much everyone has some emotional crap involving at least one of these issues. Emotional holding patterns surrounding fear, in particular, contribute to chronic clenching in the pelvis.

Why does it matter?

Tightening your holes pulls on your hip rotation muscles (especially the obterator internus), locking your femur (thigh bone) in a shortened range of motion. Chronic holding in this area of the pelvis directly affects not just hip rotation but also low back pain. The femur is a ball and socket, a super mobile joint. When we restrict its full range of motion (most of us don't even work the hips in their full range of motion on a regular basis, that will be another blog post) the sacral area of the low back gets pissed off because it's having to do the work that the ball and socket should be doing. Then we have low back pain. I'm not saying this is the exclusive reason for lower back pain, but it is a significant one.

What should you do about it?

Wear clothing that doesn't restrict your breathing and try to relax these muscles with your breath. For more information, check here on how to do that:

Pay attention to which foods your body is happy and nourished by and try to eat more of those. One of my favorite go-tos for eating more vegetables is eating 5 different vegetables each day. I find that the goal becomes the center-point of my meal planning because the focus is how I give my body nutrients rather than a thou-shalt-not-eat __ approach.

Do something for you throughout each day...even if it's just 5 minutes. As a movement person, let me suggest this be something movement-related. Not just because you're taking care of your body, it will also help aid your digestion and kick in your parasympathetic (calming) nevous system. Maybe it's taking a timer-motivated break for 5 mintues in which you just focus on your breathing or on your favorite cup of tea. Maybe it's repeating a favorite mantra each time you look in the mirror or take a bathroom break.

Start looking at your fear patterns and letting those fears go. We often hold onto fears that took root in our childhood that are no longer relevant and necessary in adulthood. A good place to start is noticing when you're triggered by something someone says or does and ask yourself why you had a reaction at all. Did it highlight a fear you have? Was it a way your parents/sibling/family member spoke to you growing up? Are you reacting to that trigger now the same as when you were younger? How does your body feel? Where do you feel tightness or restriction?

Trying a multi-faceted approach, meaning looking at your back pain (or maybe just your tight ass) from a physical as well as emotional perspective can lead to greater and longer-lasting pain relief...and help you grow as a person.