The pelvic floor is more than just a collection of muscles that contract and relax. It's a support system for our organs, a pressure regulator that works with the thoracic diaphragm, and a major connection between the axial and appendicular skeleton. 

Like most other muscles, it is comprised of both slow and fast twitch fibers so it can support us when we are doing activities that are longer and require less effort as well as activities that require us to respond quickly. Most people have a hard time managing the latter.

On Day 1 we will discuss the anatomy and biomechanics and learn to identify between orientation of the pelvis and relative motion within the pelvis. We will identify 4 different quadrants and palpate each as well as go through positions that lengthen and shorten each quadrant. 

We can't talk about the pelvic floor without talking about the breath. We take 20-30K breaths a day and its not just the thoracic diaphragm that controls this motion, the pelvic floor has to work with the diaphragm to allow pressure to push down and to push pressure back up. 

If we have a rib cage and thoracic diaphragm that is rigid and narrow and can't expand then the pelvic floor will have to work overtime to support the pressure pushing down. If you have a more wide rib cage you may have a harder time allowing the pressure to push down.

The posterior pelvic floor is often chronically tight and this can play a huge role to the function of the pelvic floor and the ability of the sacrum to rotate and tip forward and back.

On day 2 we will learn to breathe and feel pressure moving up and down, and go through how to manage sway back posture in a wide and narrow and specific breathing positions and exercises for each one, as well as create space in the back of the pelvic floor. 

On day 3 we are going to jump right into our exercises! My goal for everyone in this course is to be able to use regular exercises to train the pelvic floor to respond the way we need by coordinating the breath with our exercises. 

We will start with beginner exercises that teach us how to push pressure up and down using the breath in strength based activities that are a bit more challenging than lower lever breathing and rehab activities.

On Day 4 we explore taking the day 1 exercises up a notch with more movement and having to rotate in the transverse plane while pushing pressure up and down with the breath.

On Day 5 we dive into what I call dynamic exercises where we add speed and learn to yield and catch and load and propel. I call this dynamic yielding and dynamic overcoming. It requires a bit more responsiveness of the pelvic floor because of the tempo changes but we aren't quite leaving the ground. 

On day 6 we try out some plyometrics. Plyometrics are the final stage of this course to give you a taste of what it feels like to have a dynamic responsive pelvic floor! This is where we get to feel super athletic in our bodies. This is just a snippet of the many plyometric drills possible but will get you started with improving the fast twitch capabilities of the pelvic floor.