Right here we go!! Fran and I have sat down and finally come up with a decent education video to help you once and for all with that tricky act of activation for engaging your pelvic floor, inner and outer core muscle systems. It’s tough. Many get it wrong and there have been so many cues and ways of doing it out there over the years, with a lot actually very wrong and some just too hard for people to get. And then in the end some work on some people and not on others.

PART 1⃣ How to activate you pelvic floor by holding a wee (trust us this works the best).
✔ You are trying think about holding a wee as if you were going to the toilet
✔ Then draw or lift internally to get the feel for the transversus muscle kicking in
✔ and your tummy flattening slightly and tightening.
✖not breath holding.
✖not hollowing your tummy or sucking your belly button down
✖not pushing out or doming

PART 2⃣ Try to do repetitions on the breath out so you are contracting and releasing in timing with your breathing, until you get the hang of it. Aim for “30%” of your maximum draw in of the pelvic floor as a rough gauge of how much for practicing the activation

PART 3⃣Try to now do contraction holds and breath at the same time, trying to not let your transverse abdominus let go on the breath in. This will help build endurance is keeping your inner core on in preparation for when you are lifting and training so you don’t have to hold your breath to stabilize your core with load. ✍ Aim for say 20 sec or 10 breaths and keep it on. ☝The second this is the bracing part which is layering on the outer core namely the external obliques with a quick forceful breath out as demonstrated in the video. This is in prep for you to do before the lift and at the bottom of the lift to brace and again allow to to have good core bracing without breath holding. Important part that.

This is exactly the cues we give our clients and they work for us, so hopefully they will work for you too, whether you a practitioner teaching a patient or a patient teaching yourself.

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