Kegel Exercises for Women | Level 2
Laura: Welcome everyone, my name is Laura, and this is Level 2 of the Femme Flexor Yoga Series. We’ll get started on today’s practice in an easy seated position. You may need a block for practice but it’s not necessary. You can have your legs crossed for this, and settling into the shape, maybe lowering the gaze and find yourself with a tall spine. Lifting up from the pelvis, we’re going to roll our shoulders up and back, opening up through the chest.
Taking a few breaths here, focusing on expanding our rib cage laterally, creating more space so that we’re not pressing the air down onto our pelvis. Then, we’ll do the breathing exercises for the pelvic floor using the ujjayi breath in this class. The ujjayi breath is created by slightly constricting the back of your throat. It’s going to make a little bit of an oceanic sound, which sounds like this, filling all the way up, and then we’ll exhale through the nose as well slowly constricting the back of the throat. As you exhale, drawing the navel in and up, drawing the pelvic floor up.
We’ll do this several more times, relaxing on the inhale and exhale, engage. Slow, long exhales engaging the pelvic floor all the way through, inhale, relax. Keeping that oceanic breath, start to uncross your legs and come to a neutral table position. Stack in your wrist underneath your shoulders, knees underneath your hips, and we’re going to inhale up dropping the belly, bringing the shoulder blades together. This position is going to feel good for your pelvis, especially if you have prolapse, any dysfunction. Then exhale, curling the spine, tucking the tailbone, tucking the chin, drawing that navel in, drawing the pelvic floor up. Take an inhale back to cow, dropping the belly, opening up through the chest, exhale, engage the pelvic floor drawing the femme flexor up.
We’ll do this several more times. Inhaling to relax into cow, exhaling curling under. Inhaling up, exhaling under engaging the pelvic floor. Inhaling up and exhaling under, beautiful. Now come back to a neutral tabletop position and then we’ll pick up the left hand placing it behind the head creating a firm connection by pressing gently into the back of your head, and opening your elbow up to the side. Take an inhalation right here relaxing, and then exhale open up engaging the pelvic floor, inhale back to center, exhale open, drawing the femme flexor, inhale, come back to the center. Exhale open, inhale back to the center. Exhale open, inhale back to the center. We do that one more time; exhaling to open up, and then inhaling back to center. Releasing the hand down, we’ll do the other side. Be sure to keep a strong connection to the back of your head and your elbow up. Remember, as you bring your elbow out, you’re exhaling, drawing the pelvic floor up, and then as you inhale back to center, relaxing the pelvic floor. Last one.
Then we’ll find our way on our backs bringing the feet in toward the body as close as you can, maybe your fingers are touching your heels and settling into the shape. Then on your next exhalation, we’ll start to lift the pelvis up, rolling through the spine all the way up to bridge, taking inhalation at the top, and then exhale slowly down. See if you can use that ujjayi breath engaging and drawing the pelvic floor up. Just a soft, subtle action; take a breath here, inhaling, and relax. Exhale, lifting the hips up rolling through the spine, take an inhale at the top, exhale, curl under vertebra by vertebra touching down. Inhale at the bottom, exhale picking up the pelvis rolling through the spine. Inhale at the top, exhale curling down. We’ll do this a few more times. Inhaling at the bottom, exhale up. Inhaling at the top, exhaling down, and relaxing down here.
Begin to extend your legs all the way out, and we’ll do a very gentle core movement engaging the pelvic floor with this as well. Flexing your right foot on the exhalation, start to rise it up, and if you need to keep a gentle bend in your knee, feel free to. Point the toes when you get to the top, inhale down, relax. Flex the foot, exhale up engaging the pelvic floor, a gentle pulling sensation. Point the toes, inhale down, and just moving through this at your own pace. This exercise is super safe if you have any pelvic floor dysfunction, core strength is really important to help support the pelvic floor; engaging both at the same time is very beneficial for the pelvic floor strengthening.
Take a moment to prop yourself up and flip yourself over onto your belly. We’re going to be coming into Sphinx pose, so fingers spread wide, elbows a little bit forward off your shoulders, chest is broad. Take a few breaths here just to feel how your stomach and your chest is expanding against the ground, trying to find as much space in your ribcage as you can, and bring your feet to touch behind you pointing the toes. On the next exhalation start to raise your legs up slightly engaging your pelvic floor, inhale, relax the feet back down to the ground. Take an inhale here, then exhale, raise the legs up, inhale back down. Exhale, lifting legs, and try to keep your big toes touching, legs together as much as you can. Inhale, relax the legs down, relax the pelvic floor. Exhale, lifting the legs up just a little bit, inhale, relax down.
If you’re quite comfortable with this movement, to make it a little bit more challenging, you can extend your arms down long by your side, fingernails grounded into the ground, and then on the next exhalation, we’ll lift up engaging the chest, engaging the legs, and then inhale, relax down. Exhale, lift, engaging the pelvic floor as you do so, inhale back down. One more time; exhale, lift up, inhale, relax back down. Now you can create a little cushion with your hands for your head and come all the way down to the ground relaxing, taking several rounds of breath here, feeling your rib cage as it expands against the ground. Feel free to stay here relaxing for as long as you’d like. Thank you so much for joining me for Level two of the Femme Flexor Yoga Series, I hope you join in for Level 3. Namaste.
