Forget Kegels—A Pilates Instructor Shares Four Simple Moves to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor

Originally published by Yahoo! Life | Read the original article

It’s common to target sore or tight muscles with stretches to help relieve tension.

I do this for chronic soreness in my hips, but it turns out there’s a more effective, longer-term solution.

Dr Caroline Packard, a physical therapist and founder of Connect Pelvic Floor Fitness, says stretching may only be a temporary, superficial solution.

“The hips don’t work in isolation. They’re part of the same system as the glutes, deep core, diaphragm and pelvic floor,” she says.

“When that system isn’t coordinating well, the hip muscles often have to work overtime.”

Packard, who is a pelvic floor specialist, tells Fit&Well that hip range of motion is impacted by pelvic position.

“If your pelvis is stuck, it will mechanically limit how far your hip joint can move, regardless of how much you stretch.”

“So the tightness you feel in your hip may not actually be a hip problem. It may be your pelvis blocking access to your range of motion,” she says.

She adds that hip flexor tightness I suffer from may also be due to overwork, which can’t simply be stretched out.

Packard recommends the following five exercises that go beyond stretching to ease hip soreness.

“The goal of this routine is to create space first, then teach your hips to feel supported through breath, better pelvic position, core coordination and glute activation,” she says.

90-90 Hip Lift

Sets: 2 Hold: 5 breaths Rest: 30sec

What it does: “Before we can ask the hips to move well, we need to address pelvic position first. If the pelvis is stuck—tilted too far forward or not moving freely—it will mechanically limit available hip range of motion regardless of how much stretching you do,” says Packard.

“It’s a reset, not a traditional core exercise and it’s why the rest of this routine works better when you start here.”

She explains that this position helps bring the pelvis into a more neutral position, aligns your ribs with your pelvis, and gently activates your hamstrings and deep core.

“When those pieces are in place, your hip flexors don’t have to grip for stability anymore, and your hips suddenly have access to a range of motion that was being blocked.”

How to do it:

• Lie on your back with a wall in front of you.
• Bend your knees to 90° and raise them so they are over your hips.
• Shuffle forward so your feet are flat on the wall.
• Support yourself with folded towels under your head, shoulder blades and lower back.
• Place a small Pilates ball between your knees to prevent your knees from falling outward.
• Press your heels into the wall, feeling the tops of your hamstrings engage.
• Let your ribs soften down toward the floor without excessively crunching your abdominals.
• Inhale through your nose and feel the breath expand into the back of your ribs.
• Exhale slowly through your mouth and feel your ribs settle down and your lower belly gently draw in.

Form tips:

• Keep your glutes relaxed throughout.
• This is not a bridge or difficult core exercise.

All-Fours Hip Shift

Sets: 2 Hold: 5-8 breaths Rest: 20-30sec

What it does: “Once your pelvis is in a better position from the first exercise, we can start asking the hip joint itself to open,” says Packard.

“This exercise helps the ball of the ball-and-socket joint slide back into the hip capsule, which opens the back of the hip. Most stretches miss this entirely because they pull on the surrounding muscles without addressing what’s happening inside the joint itself.”

How to do it:

• Start on your hands and knees with a yoga block placed under one knee, aligned under your hip.
• Gently press your elevated knee into the block and hold that gentle pressure throughout the movement.
• Inhale deeply through your nose and out through your mouth five to eight times.
• Repeat on the other side.

Form tips:

• Keep your pelvis neutral, avoiding tilting it forward or tucking it under.
• Keep your non-elevated hip relaxed.
• The downward pressure from your knee encourages the head of the femur to glide back into the hip socket so you are not forcing a stretch, but creating space.

Hands and Knees Pelvic Tilt

Sets: 2 Reps: 6-8 Rest: 30sec

What it does: “Your pelvis needs to move freely in both directions for your hips to function well,” says Packard.

“When your pelvis is stuck, either gripped forward or locked in a tuck, your hip joint pays the price.

“This exercise isolates pelvic movement specifically, without the rest of the spine taking over. The result is genuine mobility through the base of your spine and tailbone area, rather than just the upper and mid back moving.”

How to do it:

• Start on your hands and knees with your toes against a wall. Ensure your shoulders are over your wrists and your hips are over your knees.
• Gently push the floor away with your toes and hands, feeling your hamstrings lightly engage and your ribcage shift toward your shoulder blades.
• Keeping your upper body and ribs stable, gently rock your pelvis forward so your lower back gently arches.
• Take a full, slow inhale and exhale here, then tuck your pelvis under, rounding your spine upward.
• Move slowly between the two positions aligned with your breath.

Form tips:

• The wall gives your hamstrings something to work against, which keeps your lower back stable and forces the movement to come purely from the pelvis.
• The range of motion should be small and controlled in your pelvis, tailbone area and base of your spine, without moving your back. If your ribcage tilts with your pelvis, you are moving too much.

Adductor Rock Back

Sets: 2 Reps: 6-8 each side Rest: 20-30sec

What it does: “Your inner thigh muscles [adductors] attach directly to your pelvis and play a bigger role in hip mobility than most people realize,” says Packard.

“When they’re restricted, they pull on your pelvis and limit how freely your hip can move, particularly into external rotation and abduction.

“This exercise opens your inner thigh and groin while encouraging your sit bones to spread and the hip to rotate outward to gain more movement that the previous exercises have been building toward.

“It also reinforces the neutral pelvis position we’ve been working on throughout the routine.”

How to do it:

• Start on your hands and knees with your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.
• Extend one leg out to your side in line with your hip, keeping your toes pointing forward and the inner side of your foot on the floor, without rotating it.
• Maintain a neutral spine and inhale, using your arms to help you slowly shift your hips backward, feeling a stretch in the inner thigh of your extended leg.
• Exhale as you return to the starting position.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Form tips:

• Move slowly and with control—these are small movements.
• If you feel pinching at the front of your hip in the starting position, angle your leg slightly back until there’s no discomfort.
• Avoid your pelvis tucking under as you rock back. If this happens, you’ve gone too far back.