Let’s talk about your pelvic floor.
The bowl of muscles and bones located at the bottom of your seat, connected to your sacrum and your hipbones, that supports your bladder, uterus, vagina, and rectum. It’s important for so many things: sitting at your desk, standing in line, and sexual pleasure. But it’s often misaligned, which can cause severe physical tension.
Enter: the squat, which helps keep your pelvic floor in good shape.
How your pelvic floor works
If the pelvic floor isn’t stretched properly, it can cause lower neck and back pain, shifting into a strange position that contracts the muscles. Frequently, we don’t even know we’re doing it. Our individual tendencies differ over time, as we carry larger bags or walk longer distances, or even as we have different sexual partners.
The pelvic floor helps create sexual pleasure. By tilting the pelvis upwards, hips towards the shoulder blades, women can receive greater internal and external stimulation. Through learning how to identify the pelvis and contract the pelvic floor, many women achieve greater orgasms.
Image via Getty.
But the pelvis causes problem for many women. A scientific review on Medscape reveals nearly one-third of all women suffer from PFDs, or pelvic floor disorders, frequently caused by a weakening of the pelvic floor. Most women don't realize they have a PFD until they experience urinary problems, pain in the groin, or some form of sexual issue. Luckily PFDs can often be reversed with treatment. It is important for everyone to stretch and strengthen the pelvic floor daily.
Which is why you should take a squat.
How to do the perfect squat
Squatting is frequently utilised in other countries as a means of sitting for long periods of time, including at mealtimes. But the West takes a vastly different perspective on squatting. We squat reps at the gym, or when we don’t want to touch the toilet seat. Our knees crack, our back hurts, and our body shifts out of alignment. We are frustrated with our lack of flexibility—and it’s time to reverse that habit.
It's also quite easy.
Listen:
Stand with your feet considerably wider than your hips, about two feet apart. Move your heels in and your toes out. Bend the knees and sit low, bringing the seat close to the floor. Hands can come to your heart or the floor.
Stay and wiggle around. Shift forwards and backwards, feeling into the body. Assess the pelvis. Pause and hold, even when it gets a little uncomfortable. Take five deep breaths.
Bring your hands to the ground and straighten your legs. Fold forwards. Bend one knee at a time to flush blood back into the legs. Shift more weight into your toes to lift your pelvis higher towards the ceiling. Slowly, roll up to stand. Pause at the top. Think about that pelvis.
There is a sweet spot where the pelvis is both tucked and slightly contracted. With equal weight in both feet, your perineum (the strip of muscles between your anus and your sexual organs) will point directly towards the floor.
This is you on your best day, in your best stance, ready to tackle life head-on without any aches or pains in your lower back. This is your perfect position.