REBUILD: WEEK 3 LUTEAL PHASE
REST.
Since we’ve been focusing on the pelvic floor this week, let’s talk about all the beautiful things your pelvic floor does for you…it is truly the source of your feminine energy and power.
The health of your pelvic floor is a key component of your overall physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Physical Health: Did you know that a flat stomach is achieved through the strengthening and relaxing of your pelvic floor? It’s true, you cannot have a flat tummy without a flexible pelvic floor because your core functions as a unit. When your flexible core can fully relax in between those moments of “clenching” (the same thing we do when we “lift” our pelvic floor), you have unlocked the ticket to a strong core and a flat mom tummy.
Lauren Roxburgh states in her book The Power Source, “Because the pelvis is an area of such connectivity, when you build resiliency in your pelvis by learning how to contract and relax your pelvic floor, you also release your hamstrings, inner thighs, sacrum, lower back, and hip flexors, while also helping reawaken your deepest foundational core muscles. Ah, freedom from those aches and pains that plague so many of our lower back and hip flexors! And as if that’s not enough, a relaxed, flexible more connected and confident pelvis also makes sex more pleasurable and in many cases climax easier to achieve.”
Emotional Health: Feeling stressed? The best way to combat stress is to do so at the beginning of the “stress network” in your mombody which is the pelvic floor. Our nervous system (where you feel stress) is a network that runs up and down your spinal cord, all the way from the cranium (your head) to the sacrum (your triangular bone that sits right above your pelvic floor). When you feel stress, your pelvic floor “clutches” as a reaction that sends your whole nervous system into a state of fight or flight - a state of being that Lauren Roxburgh says, “accelerates the aging process, is exhausting, and makes us live in a reactive state.” Her book explains that the pelvic floor is essentially your stress on/off button. The next time you are stressed, start paying attention to what your pelvic floor is doing. Your pelvic floor’s connection to the nervous system is the only way to truly be free from the cycle of stress as each day goes by - you must consciously let go and relax your pelvic floor.
Spiritual Health: Eastern philosophies believe that our life force begins in the pelvic floor, and a blockage (or tightness) in the pelvic floor means chi is also blocked in every other area of your body. This energy is meant to flow freely, in all direction, system-wide. This is definitely something to think about if you are feeling stuck in your life or have low energy. Relaxing your pelvic floor can unlock these areas of stagnation as your body wants to live in a joyful, relaxed, passionate, unstuck state.
As we have been learning in this program, it is so important to foam roll your pelvic floor - your physical, emotional, spiritual self will thank you! Moving on…
Throughout the last few weeks together, you have learned the best way to train your pelvic floor is by breathing into your pelvic floor with the BAB breath. You already know how to “Lift and Cinch” to engage your pelvic floor and corset muscle on the exhale of your BAB breath. But more importantly, you also know how to relax your pelvic floor and corset muscle on the inhale. You know how to bring flexibility to your pelvic floor by foam rolling it, and consciously making an effort to release tension there.
Another way to exercise your pelvic floor is by having sex. It’s the perfect time to try out the BAB breath by lifting up on your pelvic floor during the act, and you might be surprised that this is something that you already do naturally. This is an easy way to train your mombody core and flatten your tummy at the same time.
Alisa Vitti lists some of the many other benefits of sex in her book, In the Flo:
Orgasm sparks the release of DHEA, which improves brain function, balances the immune system, helps maintain and repair tissue, and promotes healthy skin.
Sex is also fantastic for your lymphatic system. Lymphatic massage improves digestion for a healthy gut, improves moods for a happier mama, and enhances the body’s natural detoxification process which is critical for a healthy immune system.
Sex is also linked with a healthy BMI - women who have sex often typically have a smaller waist and hip circumference.
The surge of oxytocin during an orgasm is the reason why sex is so good for stress relief.
Sex is amazing for your mombody but you probably already knew that.
But Ssomething you may not know is this: as collagen and elastin in your connective tissue is dropping in your face, it will be dropping in your pelvic floor too. A weak pelvic floor is subject to prolapse and incontinence - things that can make their way into your life in menopause if they haven’t done so already.
Just know that you are doing wonderful things for the strengthening and relaxing of your pelvic floor by having sex, BAB breathing, foam rolling, and drinking collagen or bone broth.
A YUMMY COLLAGEN DRINK FOR YOUR PELVIC FLOOR