Commonly, when we think of stretching the pelvic floor, we think of really wide-legged positions–after all this increases the stretch in the groin and feels like a really big stretch!
The pelvic floor is generally NOT tight EVERYWHERE. Usually, only portions of the pelvic floor are tighter/shortened, while other portions are overlengthened! If you have read our blog enough, you’ll know that there is no one movement that opens your entire pelvis–so being that the pelvic floor attached to your pelvis, there is no one movement that would stretch your entire pelvic floor.
Different hip and pelvic positions will influence your pelvic floor tension!
When we favor more external hip rotation with extension in our spine (a favorite posture during pregnancy), the front half of our pelvic floor tends to have more length, and the back half of our pelvic floor tends to tighten. But, these wide-legged pelvic floor stretches tend to stretch the front half of our pelvic floor!
For most of us, even outside of pregnancy, we tend to favor this type of position–so it’s likely the back half of your pelvic floor has more tension than the front.
So, when you are doing those wide-legged pelvic floor stretches (and that’s all you do), you might be feeling this big stretch because that portion of the pelvic floor is already lengthened–you’re just adding more stretch to it.
Rather, we want to target the posterior pelvic floor with more internal hip rotation and hip shifts! We are going to break down a few exercises to do this in this blog!
Want to learn more on how to use prenatal fitness to support a strong and pain-free pregnancy, plus exercises to release tension in the pelvic floor and open the pelvis for birth? We also break down how to use prenatal exercise and labor positions to support your baby’s position!
Pre-order our book Training for Two! This book includes 90+ exercises to build your confidence as you navigate fitness throughout your pregnancy and prep for birth, plus a whole chapter on early postpartum recovery!
How to ACTUALLY Release Tension in Your Pelvic Floor
As we discussed, most of us have more tension in the back half of our pelvic floor–so we need to skip the wide-legged stretches and focus rather on internal hip rotation and hip shifts with a posterior pelvic tilt or rounded back positions!
When we find internal hip rotation and a posterior pelvic tilt, this tends to stretch the posterior pelvic floor. The same release happens with hip shifts, but this will be more asymmetrical (one-sided) so you may feel more of a release.
If you want to dive deeper into how to release tension in your pelvic floor, particularly for birth preparation, join our pelvic floor prep for birth course! We go beyond deep squats and butterfly poses (and you don’t need to do kegels, please don’t do kegels) in our course to teach you HOW to approach releasing tension in your pelvic floor.
If you want a preview of the course, sign up for our newsletter below!
1) Back Expansion Breathing Drill with Internal Hip Rotation
Since we favor external hip rotation with an extended spine (arching in the back), finding the opposite can be a great place to move into to release tension in your pelvic floor.
Place a yoga block between your knees, and actively squeeze the block. Then rotate your ankles OUT, keeping your knees together. This will create more space side-to-side in the bottom of your pelvis.
Then place a resistance band across your bra-strap line (mid back) and push into the band to find a rounded back position. This will intensity the stretch in the posterior pelvic floor.
From here, use your breath to move your pelvic floor! Inhale to push DOWN into the back of your pelvic floor (this will stretch that area); you can also think inhale to expand in the low back. Then exhale to lift UP in the front half of your pelvic floor; you can also think lift your belly/baby to spine.
Continue to breathe like this–inhale to stretch the back, exhale to shorten the front–for about 10-20 breaths. Watch this video for a breakdown of how to do an all-fours back expansion breathing drill with a few other options.
If you want daily workouts to support a strong pregnancy (and release tension in your pelvic floor) as you prepare for birth, join our online prenatal fitness programs!
MamasteFit is unique in that we are one of the ONLY prenatal/postnatal training facilities in the United States. We develop our workout programs from our experience of working with in-person pre/postnatal fitness clients and work closely with physical therapists to refine our programming. In addition, we are birth workers, so we combine our experience as perinatal fitness trainers and birth professionals to ensure that our programs actually support your birth preparation and recovery!
Our prenatal fitness programs are offered in several formats:
- 40-Week Prenatal Strength Program in the Teambuildr App:
- This program is a self-paced workout with shorter demo videos. This is ideal if you like to workout in a gym setting and prefer a traditional workout delivery format.
- This program syncs to your current week of pregnancy, so you can start anytime, with one-time payment or month-to-month payment options.
- This program has a full and mini version, depending on how much time you have to dedicate to workouts!
- Prenatal On-Demand Fitness Program:
- If you prefer to follow a video as you workout at the same time, this workout program will be the best option!
- This program syncs to your current trimester, so you can grab the trimesters you need!
- Prenatal Yoga Classes:
- If you want prenatal yoga, join our prenatal yoga program! This also syncs to your current trimester.
2) All Fours Hip Shifted Pelvic Tilts
Next, we can incorporate some hip shifts! Hip shifts bring the pelvis into internal rotation–which is a little different than hip internal rotation. With this position, it is shifting the sacrum’s position to stretch the pelvic floor.
Since this is a one-sided movement, it tends to stretch one side more than the other (and is a bit deeper of a stretch than a bilateral movement).
In this exercise, you will place one knee on an elevated surface, such as a yoga block. Then shift your weight to the elevated knee. This will increase the stretch in your glute.
Then keeping your weight over the elevated knee, begin to move through pelvic tilts–arch the back and then round in the back for about 10-15 per side.
Watch this breakdown video for more on how to do this exercise, plus some ways to intensify this movement!
The all fours hip shift is one of the exercises included in the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit! We developed this circuit after recognizing a common pattern in our prenatal clients–most of us favor spinal extension and external hip rotation. Because of this common postural tendency, we tend to also have common areas of tension–and these areas of tension can impact how well we can open our pelvis (and release tension in our pelvic floor)!
This circuit includes six exercises you can do a few times a week to help create more space in your pelvis as you prep for birth! Sign up for our newsletter for the free PDF guide with breakdown videos!
3) Hip Shifts with Foam Roller
Another hip shift exercise you can do to release tension in the posterior pelvic floor includes some external props–the foam roller. In this movement, you will put weight into the outside leg as you actively press into the foam roller. This will help with pelvic internal rotation (the adductor/inner thigh helps to pull the pelvis into internal rotation) and create more space in the posterior pelvic floor.
First, rotate the hips from an open to a closed hip position. And then you can step the inside leg forward to find a stationary hip shifted position.
Watch the breakdown video for a better walk through on how to do this exercise!
Learn to ACTUALLY Release Tension in Your Pelvic Floor
If you scroll social media long enough, you’ll scroll across a ton of posts promoting pelvic floor release–and almost every exercise will be focused on external hip rotation. While this is still helpful as a part of your birth prep, it is neglecting a really important aspect of your pelvic floor! Wide leg positions tend to stretch more of the front half of your pelvic floor, and shorten the back half–but most of us have more tension to the back half of our pelvic floor due to common postural tendencies during pregnancy (and just life).
So, we need to include exercises that emphasize internal hip and pelvic rotation, and a rounded back! Hopefully, this blog helps you take your understanding of the pelvic floor to the next level!
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