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How to stretch your pelvic floor

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What is a Kegel?

In 1948, Kegel exercises were first described by Arnold Kegel for pelvic floor muscle strengthening. The instructions were simple:

Rescue, help, helping gesture or hands Two hands, helping hand, arm, friendship Hand hold

5. A pelvic floor stretch

For this stretch you need to find your sitz bones:

The two bones you sit on are also known as your sitz/sits bones

There they are at the bottom - also called ishial tuberosities

The top two layers of your pelvic floor attaches directly to the sitz bones

So, if you can pull those bones apart, you are performing a stretch to the first two layers of your pelvic floor

Make sure you sit upright on the sitz bones and not on your tailbone when you do this exercise

For this exercise, you need to sit upright on a soft but solid chair

Now cup your hands

Put your hands under your sitz bones and wiggle around to feel the bones. They may feel like two golf balls

Play around in this position, moving and tilting your pelvis to see what happens in your hands. Before we show you the stretch, see if you can answer the following question:

Quiz:

What happens with your sitz bone when you...

Sit with a rounded back,

Sit with an arched back?

When you sit with a rounded back your sitz bones move closer together

And when you sit with an arched back, they move further apart

How can I apply this information?

Arching your spine periodically during your day can add a quick stretch/release to your pelvic floor

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Sitz bone sitting posture answer:

Now back to the stretch:

Remove both hands from under your bottom

Reposition in your upright sitting position

Pull the sitz bone you are sitting on out to the side. Slowly pull your hand out, so that you can sit down on that pulled-out-to-the-side sitz bone

Now reposition one hand around one sitz bone with your elbow sticking out to your side

Now repeat with the other sitz bone

Both bones you are sitting on, should now be pulled out to the sides.

That is a pelvic floor stretch. Can you feel the subtle stretch?

With the soft tissue pulled to the side, it may feel like you are sitting right on the bones

Don't stay there too long because you are not sitting on your natural padding

If it gives you relief, then you can carefully add this to your stretching progam. Overdoing this stretch can hurt your pudendal nerve.

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