As I announced a few days ago, we have the privilege of having on the blog the advice of the specialist Mercedes Blanquet, president of the Association of Spanish Physiotherapists of the Pelvic Floor.
After knowing the general conditions on how to exercise during pregnancy, we go to the specific, childbirth preparation exercises of the Q method to strengthen the pelvic floor.
If you do them regularly you will be able to tone the muscles involved in childbirth by facilitating the delivery, perhaps avoiding the epidural, and you will surely have a better recovery.
PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES
To prepare the perineal area well, it is first necessary to know and feel the perineum, that is, our genital area.
Advertising- Starting position. Respiratory domain exercises. Stretched upside down, knees bent, arms in extension (hands-wall thrust) in inspiration (elevation ribs).
- Sit down, with perineal support, make it like a balloon.
- Pelvic awareness, pay attention to the sacrum. Sacral with support: move this support in the lumbar direction (pay attention in the abdominal area)
- Repeat without abdominal contraction.
- The same movement, sacrum in coccyx direction and alternate.
- With these movements we must be aware of the rectal angle.
- Pubic awareness, imagine an elevator over the anterior part of the spine (lumbo-sacral junction). The elevator must go up from the pubis to the navel (if necessary our fingers as a reference point).
- Initial position: awareness of our pelvis. Lift from the waist. The start and stop movement is made by contracting the perineum.
- Awareness of the pelvis. What we feel?
- Relationship between iliac crests, pubis and coccyx. Now all this structure is the elevator, going up you have to contract the perinné.
- Join our arms to the body with the elbows flexed (imagine we keep a steering wheel) and separate the forearm.
- Arms attached to the body, bend the elbows, split with the hands with palms down, when opening, the palms up.
Relax, don't force, breathe
BALANCE OF MUSCLE CHAINS
- Hands linked in the back. The arms are stretched down counting to 6. It expires relaxing and counting up to 3.
- "Moor" posture. Straight back
Press with the back of both hands against the inside of the knees. These will make a resistance to this movement. When tension is noticed, the pelvic floor will slowly begin to be inspired, slowly inspiring. Breathing all the muscles must be consciously relaxed again.
- Crouched, with legs apart and supported with the entire sole of the foot. If possible, back straight. Press your hands against each other and press; an attempt will be made to maintain this posture alone (1) or with the help of another person (2). When this position is maintained, the back will move forward and the hands will be placed on the floor and the feet on the fingers. In this posture the muscles of the pelvic floor will be stretched upward by pressing with the knees to the arms that will resist. Maintain and relax. (3)
Face up. Semi-flexed legs, feet flat on the floor, exhaling put the pelvis in retroversion. Raise the buttocks keeping the pelvis elevated. Keep. Slowly inspire.
Legs flexed, feet crossed and on the floor. Keep a ball between the knees, raise the buttocks exhaling, keep and return to the starting position inspiring. The same exercise can be done by replacing the ball with a manual opposition.
PELVIC-PERINEAL EXERCISES
These exercises can be done both for the preparation for childbirth, to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, and for the prevention of prolapse and the treatment of urinary incontinence.
- Elevator Exercise:
Stand up, feet slightly apart and parallel. Imagine that the pelvic floor is like a multi-storey building with an elevator. We are on the ground floor; you have to start tensing the muscles and feel that you are going up, one floor, another floor higher, the elevator is maintained for 5 or 10 seconds and slowly returns down floor by floor until you reach the ground floor.
- Face up: Lying with your knees bent, separate your legs at the height of your hips, raise your arms from the floor to your hip palms facing each other, as if framing your gluteal muscles and activate sphincter and perineum. Breathe in and exhale, raise your head and chest, feel the abdomen that puts pressure on your lumbar spine and on the floor. If you notice that the lower back arches, adjust by lowering the back, maintain the contraction of your perineal musculature, keep that abdominal breathing gently, focus on your body, relax by bringing your back back, and perform three breaths to restore your balance.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Do not force, feel no pain, breathe slowly.
- Perform the exercises slowly, gently. They are exercises that have to be done with tenderness, looking for the toning of the body.
- You have to do the exercises well, quality is more effective than quantity.
- You do not have to perform the exercises every day with obligation, they can be alternated. The exercises for the search of well-being must be carried out.
- We have to perceive our body, be aware of our tension zones in order to relax them.
- Accept our limitations, do not go more than reasonable.
- We may notice more one side or one muscle group than another.
