Yoga for male pelvic floor health
A healthy pelvic floor for men means having normal and pain-free bowel, bladder and sexual function. According to Susie Gronski, a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in male pelvic health, yoga is an effective way for men to maintain a healthy pelvic floor.
Practicing specific contractions while in certain yoga poses helps if you have a problem with sexual, bowel and urinary function. Gronski suggests men engage the muscles around the genitals as if you were about to urinate and were holding it back. Or, she says, imagine you’re drawing the base of your penis inward.
Practicing coordinated contractions, one second on and one second off, is a similar action to what occurs involuntarily during ejaculation. Practicing these contractions can increase your awareness of this coordinated muscle activity and could help with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction.
Child’s pose
How: Start on your mat with your knees as wide as your mat and your big toes touching. Set your hips back and down towards your heels. Relax your forearms and forehead on the floor. Take three deep breaths, in through your nose and out your mouth.
Why: “This pose encourages movement and space to pelvic floor muscles and nerves, which may reduce feelings of tightness and pain,” says Gronski.
Cat-cow
How: Set up in a table-top position, with your hands shoulder-width apart and under your shoulders. Your knees should be hips-width apart and underneath your hips. As you inhale, arch your back and look forward. Exhale, round your spine and look towards your naval.
Why: “On the exhale, everything moves up in, your lunges expel air, the diaphragm relaxes, and the pelvic floor moves up. So the cue to engage the pelvic musculature to enhance what’s already going on with breathing mechanics is to contract on the exhale,” says Gronski. “While inhaling, you are letting go, when you’re exhaling, you are contracting.”
While in cat-cow, let go on the inhale. Engage the pelvic musculature on the exhale when your body curls inward, Gronski instructs. “This movement allows for differentiated movement of the lower back and pelvis. It is also similar to thrusting during sex.”
Bridge
How: Lie on your back, bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor with your ankles underneath your feet and hips-width apart. Swing your arms alongside your body with your palms facing up. Root your feet down, to lift your hips and low-back up. Clasp your hands underneath you, and as much as your knees do not turn out, lift your hips up as high as you can.
Hold this pose for five breaths, lower your hips back to the mat and press your hands against the base of your thighs.
Why: This pose allows for greater pelvic floor muscle recruitment which can be beneficial for strengthening especially for urinary or fecal incontinence and sexual dysfunction caused by pelvic floor muscle deconditioning.
Lizard lunge
How: From down dog, step your right foot to the outside of your right hand and lower your left knee gently to the mat. Rotate your right foot at a diagonal to the right. Make sure your right knee-cap is aimed the same direction as your foot.
As much as your right knee stays aligned, bend your elbows. Without moving your back knee, draw it forward on the floor enough to lift your hip up slightly. Without moving your front foot, draw it back towards the wall behind you to scissor-square your right hip back.
Hold for five breaths and repeat on the left side.
Why: “This pose encourages low back, hips and pelvic mobility to support functional activities like getting up from the floor and sex. This pose can also mobilize the hip joint and pelvic nerves which can be helpful for pelvic and hip pain,” says Gronski.
Tree
How: Stand with your feet inner hips-width apart and straight forward. Shift weight into your right foot and place your left foot above or below your right knee. Swing your left knee to the left as far as it will go without your hips turning left.
Press your left foot against your right leg and your leg against your foot to straighten your standing leg. Bring your palms to touch in front of your chest and hold for five breaths.
Why: According to Gronski, this pose can be helpful for urinary or bowel control issues that someone might have while standing. This pose in particular can train your pelvic floor to be adaptive to different pressures and load demands.
“The pelvic floor has to accommodate the load transference that’s happening. If you’re transferring your weight over to one leg to prepare for tree pose, you can engage your pelvic floor in preparation for the load transfer, shift your body weight, then release,” she says.
Squat
How: Step your feet as wide as your mat and turn your feet out towards the side edges of your mat. Bend your knees as wide as your feet, and as much as you can keep your heels rooted.
Press your triceps against your inner knees and your inner knees against your triceps to create a lift in your low back. Hold for five breaths and slowly straighten your legs to come out of the pose.
Why: “When you are squatting or doing any lower body exercises, the pelvic floor has to accommodate for the tension and load differences,” explains Gronski. She says that the squat pose involves functional movement of much of the lower half of the body, including the lower back, pelvis, hips, knees and ankles.
For people who have pelvic pain or tightness, this pose can feel relaxing and can help ease bowel movement through stretching pelvic floor muscles, she explains.
Down dog
How: From plank, with your wrists straight across and under your shoulders, lift your hips up and back in upside down “V” shape on your mat. Make sure your hands turn out just enough to keep the entire perimeter of your hands rooted, spread your fingers wide and create a subtle lift at the base of your wrists.
Make your arms straight and lengthen your back. Step your feet hips-width apart, with your knees in line with your feet. Bend your knees as much as you need to in order to create a lift out of your pelvis in your low back. Hold for ten breaths or as much as you can maintain good alignment.
Why: Gronski says that “downward dog offers gentle movement and mobilization of lower back and pelvic tissues like the nerves and muscles, promotes circulation to pelvic tissues and can promote both relaxation and intentional engagement of pelvic muscles.”
Best yoga poses for male pelvic floor health:
— Child’s pose.
— Cat-cow.
— Bridge.
— Lizard lunge.
— Tree.
— Squat.
— Down dog.
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The Best Yoga Poses for Male Pelvic Floor Health originally appeared on usnews.com
