Tightening Pelvic Floor While Lifting

Body: 

This thread from 2004 has been removed because it was confusing.

When you lift with the belly out in front and the hips/knees eternally rotated and bent (like heavy weight lifters do), there is no need to concentrate on tightening the pelvic wall. The organs and musculature have already followed the "nutated" pelvis to close the wall side-to-side.

That said, advanced prolapse compromises the pelvic organ support system, so you might feel an instinctual need to tighten in the back, which is fine. The primary concept is that the organs need to be pushed against the lower abdominal wall and away from the outlet at the back.

Christine

However, if you are picking up a piece of paper off the floor, it's best to be able to hinge at the hips, keeping your knees straight and one long line from crown of head to tailbone.

I am astonished at all the yoga teachers and physical therapists who instruct to bend the knees slightly when bending forward. The ability to fully extend through the hips and knees is part of our human heritage and loss of this ability is a classic precursor to chronic hip pain and dysfunction.

Christine

Hi Christine,
Thanks for your post above about picking up paper (or kids toys!). It gave me confidence to straighten my knees (not easy for me) and not worry about making my prolapse things worse. After just one day of doing this (many times over as I have young kids) I can straighten my legs with a lot more ease.

I am still not clear about lifting something heavy though. For example a basket of washing. We bend our knees, hinge from the hips and maintain the straight line through our upper body with our chin slightly tucked? So straight legs bending to lift something very light, tie a kids shoe laces etc and bent legs if lifting something heavy?? (Or if I don't want my bottom completely in the air when out in public.)

Just be careful to hinge at the hips, don't curl down from your waist. The difference is lumbar curvature. - Surviving

I do the same as you Activeandlapsed when picking up something heavy from the floor. Hinge hipped with lumbar curvature in place, bent knees, squatting, and item held closely to the body.

Found this thread on lifting:

https://www.wholewoman.com/forum/node/3863

You will find part way down where Christine shows step by step illustrations on lifting a heavy object.