A little test

Right, and that’s why if kegels are going to be practiced at all they should be balanced by lots of exercise done with the sacrum tilted forward, like walking around all day in the posture! In fact, sacral nutation, while widening the sit bones, actually causes the pubic bones to squeeze more closely together at the top. You can sense a tightness in that area with the standing posture. We've had so few women with primary UI so I don't know yet, but I think we will find in time that the posture is a more accurate stabilizer of the urethra than kegels.

Anyone else? I really want you to experience the difference in muscle movement and organ support between these two primary ways of pelvic movement. It’s not that I have anything against kegels! It’s just that even our top institutions do not have the anatomy right, something women themselves can comprehend once they know what to look for.

Thank you so much Michelle and Marie for trying this and reporting back. I know we are all attached to our kegels, and shifting paradigms is not always easy. It’s very important that we do so, however, because we have been taught something that is at best unhelpful. They may work to stabilize the urethra for the short run, but they also create tension opposite of the anatomy that keeps our organs in place. Who knows if they can actually cause or worsen prolapse, but there is no anatomical basis for their helping.

The female pelvis is actually very well designed to be in that posteriorly-tilted, contracted, pulling in position, but only when our insides are being stuffed with a long, strong organ keeping everything in place. ;-)

Really, the human body is an anti-gravity, omnidirectional organism that can move any way it wants to. Belly dancing and giving birth are two examples of pelvic ability (and necessity) to move in both directions. The issue is routinely putting the body under strain patterns that pull our tissues and organs against the grain, so to speak. The human pelvis evolved to favor sacral nutation, or the rocking of the top of the sacrum forward and the tailbone back and up. This is synonymous with pelvic and pelvic organ stability. I think women are bearing the results of chronic spinal flexion much more so than men.

Pelvic floor contractions do not lift the muscles up, they only close the levator muscles like a pair of elevator doors. Kegels cannot make the vagina longer. Yet, it is good to exercise these muscles. The pelvic diaphragm is indeed a major stabilizer of pelvic anatomy.

So…the key is to “kegel” while keeping a forward pelvic tilt. Try it both ways – pelvis tilted forward and pelvis tilted back and you will see for yourselves that you are “winding the pelvis up” in the forward tilt and “ unwinding the pelvis” in the backward tilt. Things are so tight when you contract with a forward tilt that you can literally feel your urethra straightening and tightening. The actual kegel is a lot less effective in the backward tilt – and that is how everyone does them!

Now…you can set aside 15 minutes a day to do this…and burn a few brain cells in the process….or you can walk around all day in the posture and when you feel like things are coming down a bit, bend slightly forward and tighten. This shift is immediate and effective. And all your musculoskeletal aches and pains go away in the process.

:-) Christine

Hi Ornella,

I’m glad you tried it, for it’s good to see these things for ourselves. The bent knees would actually help in the counternutation of things and the pulling of the organs to the back of the abdomen. You can feel the spinal/pelvic floor extension best with straight legs, and since we are trying to get an idea of our standing anatomy, straight legs are best for this.

You can actually feel kegels more toward the back of the perineum (around the anal sphincter) with a posterior tilt (navel-to-spine) because the sit bones have moved in toward the center, while the ischial spines have slackened. There is more loose tissue to contract back there and that’s why the contraction feels more intense. When you arch your back, the sit bones widen, the area between pubic bone and tailbone lengthens, and the ischial spines increase their tension across the middle of the pelvic diaphragm.

This is very revolutionary information that you can only find at Whole Woman! The gynecological literature has chosen to ignore the musculoskeletal workings of the pelvis entirely, while orthopedics never bothered to put together how vital a notion for women it is that sacral nutation causes the ischial spines to pull toward each other and in doing so constricts the circumference of the middle of the pelvic outlet. Somehow the well-known physical therapist Diane Lee missed this, as did dance physiologist Eric Franklin.

The “squeeze” we should be after is one that narrows the front half of the "true pelvis", thus providing a backstop to the tightly packed pelvic organs occupying the front of that space. The pelvic diaphragm IS the key player in this process, but IT IS NOT THE PUBOCOCCYGEUS!! IT IS THE COCCYGEUS MUSCLES, IN WHICH THE SACROSPINOUS LIGAMENT IS EMBEDDED, THAT PULLS THE ISCHIAL SPINES TOGETHER AND NARROWS NOT ONLY THE PELVIC DIAPHRAGM BUT THE ENTIRE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE FRONT HALF OF THE BONY BIRTH CANAL. This constriction is a major factor in female pelvic organ support.

We sense this movement as a tightening up of the entire pelvis and it can only be achieved by standing in the Whole Woman Posture™. If you sense while in the posture that you are more pulled together, you are! You have actually narrowed the middle of your pelvis like squeezing around the middle of a toothpaste tube. As a result, the organs are trapped in a narrower space at the front of the pelvis with a strong, sinewy wall of muscle behind them. And understand that doing kegels on your back with your legs bent causes the exact opposite – the pelvic diaphragm to widen while pushing your organs back against it.

:-)Christine

Hi Ornella,

I re-read the post I wrote to you earlier and realized I needed to make a couple of corrections. In trying to do so, I deleted it! Good thing I posted it (and successfully made the corrections!) in my blog - hope you will take the time to read it - the blog is on the home page.

What I needed to fix was my use of the term "pelvic outlet" incorrectly. What I meant was what is known as the "true pelvis" - the cylinder of bone and ligament also known as the birth canal. The "false pelvis" is considered to be the two ilia, or hip bones. The ischial spines, and therefore the "toothpaste tube" effect, are located in the middle of the "true pelvis."

Christine