What is the pelvic floor, anyway?

When Studio Blue instructors ask clients to think about their “pelvic floor,” they're talking about a set of muscles that runs between the two sitz bones, the tail, and the pubic bone. The pelvic floor has three muscle layers, and for the most effective workout, it’s important to exercise the entire complex through contraction and stretching.

To find the pelvic floor muscles, sit in a chair, or on a ball. Let your weight press through your sitz bones. The sitz bones are the boney areas under each butt cheek. Pull in the stomach muscles, and tuck your tailbone forward. The weight transfers then, to the tailbone. Next arch the lower back, and the weight shifts forward to the pubic bone. As you repeat this motion, try to isolate the muscles doing the work. These muscles are the “pelvic floor.”

During Pilates workouts, we’re constantly working the pelvic floor. Even bending our legs at the knees when we’re laying down on the matt stretches the sitz bone apart, lengthening the pelvic floor muscles. When we straighten our legs, the sitz bones move closer together, contracting the pelvic floor muscles.

It’s important not to squeeze the buttocks, as many of us might do when we think about contracting the pelvic floor. The buttock muscles are some of body’s largest muscles, so they easily overpower the smaller deeper muscles we’re trying to isolate. Pilates integrates the mind and body, so it can be helpful to think of an elevator starting at the pelvic floor when we thinking about working the deep pelvic floor muscles.

Strong pelvic muscles will improve more than our work outs, they also improve sexual health. According to Laura Chalfont, MA Certified Rolfer® with over twenty years of bodywork experience, "Healthy, balanced tone in the pelvic floor muscles can keep our sexual organs functioning optimally for many years to come. Because this intricate web of muscles weave around and have fascial relations to the sexual organs, exercising them
in very specific ways can have a direct effect on the sexual function and enhance orgasm."

Because Studio Blue workouts target specific muscles, we’re also training our bodies to relax other muscles not being used. This ability to stimulate isolated body parts while engaging others also makes for better sex, as does the added flexibility gained through a Pilates practice.