The perineum is the root of the trunk and supports multiple pressures during daily life or when doing physical exercise. Learning to sensitize and manage your muscles increases body harmony and improves various facets, including sexuality.
You hear more and more often about the perineum. This word is often related to women, in the periods that accompany childbirth or when mentioning urinary incontinence.
However, there are many other reasons why the perineum deserves central attention when you want to improve the harmony of the body, since taking care of it is a basic requirement for the development of our full potential.
Being aware of its role and training it provides varied and valuable benefits, both to men and women. The term “pelvic floor” is sometimes used. The perineum is the entire area that is at the base of the pelvis and trunk, while the pelvic floor is the set of muscles in that region.
The two terms are often used interchangeably and I will do so in this article as well. This area of the perineum and the pelvic floor muscles fulfill essential functions in the body of men and women. It is common to find men who are not sure of having pelvic floor or perineum or, at least, men who ignore that it would be very interesting for them to also know and exercise it.
By Blandine Calais-Germain as an approach, this article by Blandine Calais-Germain
presents some exercises. They come from the “Perineum and Movement” method created by them. They explore the potential of the perineum based on situations that involve the whole body in motion.
To really know this work and benefit from the progressions it proposes, the ideal thing is to attend classes taught by a professional trained in the method, which is already present in Spain.
1. COSTAL INSPIRATION
Work on the perineum can be associated with various forms of breathing. Now try to make a great inspiration by opening the ribs as much as possible and raising the arms.
See how this movement sucks the abdominal organs in the direction of the rib cage. This allows you to momentarily unload your support on the pelvic floor.
2. INSPIRATION LYING DOWN
If, in addition to opening the ribs, you place the trunk horizontally, less weight will fall on the perineum. In this way you can tone or relax the pelvic muscles in a situation where you can ascend more easily.
3. THE ABDOMEN IS ASPIRATED
Adopt with your lips the position of whistling. Hold it and blow gently, seeking at the same time that the thorax remains wide – the ribs remain open, without forcing. In this way the exhalation will be synchronized with the abdomen, which will be gently aspirated (the belly is put inwards).
Then seek to activate the abdomen as low as you can to its base: the perineum. At first this breath should be brief, like a soft sigh, without abruptness. Little by little you can try to lengthen it, but without losing the opening of the thorax or the softness when blowing.
4. INVESTMENT
Approach a wall and climb it with your feet. The perineum is thus in a situation in which it does not receive the weight of the viscera. This allows you to experience differently its contraction or non-contraction.
The viscera are mobilized when reversed, which favors circulation and creates different sensations. Although this action cannot be maintained, some effects do persist, in particular sensory enrichment.
5. PUSH TO THE GROUND
Prepare an object the size of a step (a block of wood, a low stool…). Standing, raise your arms to lighten the weight on the abdomen and perineum. With your arms raised, rest one foot on the step and seek, through that support, to feel the strength of your leg, generated by the most powerful muscles of the body.
Perform several times the movement of climbing feeling this force and recognizing it. Then feel that pushing force of the foot ascend through the leg to the perineum.
6. EARTH AND PERINEUM
Sensing this force from the foot propagate to the perineum can help your pelvic floor contract. Repeat it several times, first slowly and then at the speed at which you climb a step. In your day-to-day life, look for this upward force every time you go up or down stairs and, with practice, even when you run!
7. PUSH IN PAIRS
In the action of pushing through the hands, the abdominal muscles are involved in order to transmit to the arms an action that can come from the supports, that is, from the feet, passing through the perineum. As can be seen in the image, it is appropriate for the trunk to remain stable, without the body becoming uneven.
It is a very healthy and effective action that can be applied to many daily gestures: lifting, pulling, supporting, pushing, laughing, shouting … All of them provide small opportunities to increase awareness and involvement of the perineum.
8. STRETCH THE PELVIC FLOOR
The stretching of the perineum muscles is difficult to appreciate since they are inserted inside the pelvis, which is similar to a bone ring very little deformable. But it is possible to do it through very wide movements of the hips.
These movements are facilitated by a long band of cloth that supports the weight of the leg. This stretches the muscles that are related to those of the perineum and these are stretched by proximity.
9. SKIP
Any action that involves a moment of impact for the trunk (jumping, running, dancing …) also exerts it on the perineum. If yours is weakened it is better to avoid them for now.
If you have enough strength in your perineum, try to jump in place (alternating jumps with normal steps). Feel how a percussion occurs on the pelvic floor when the feet impact the floor. You can exercise in anticipating that moment and contracting the perineum just before.
THE PERINEUM METHOD AND MOVEMENT
The method is based on a series of movement sequences, practiced in groups and open to men and women, which are enriched from class to class. The objective is to exercise the perineum in various ways to progressively increase not only its strength but also its coordination with breathing, and improve its response and adaptation to the daily actions and body practices of each one.
Each class proposes a new topic of exploration, along with some of the sequences in this article, which are repeated to deepen and observe progress.
THE PELVIS, THE BONY CONTINENT OF THE PERINEUM
The pelvis is the bony framework in which the perineum is located, its home so to speak. It is essential to spend time recognizing one’s own pelvis, since it fixes the different muscle layers that make up the pelvic floor.
With this it is possible to place the perineum within the structure that contains it and that we can then relate to the trunk and the whole body. That is why the awareness of the pelvis occupies a central place in the first sessions.
The pelvis in the body is explored through contacts, pressures, supports and movement. From there it is easier to differentiate the muscles that are inside the pelvis – the pelvic floor – from those that simply act around it.
CONTRACT… AND RELAX
The pelvic floor is the muscular part of the perineum: it is everything that can contract, tone … but also relax. The two states are necessary, in alternation, for this zone to remain adaptable and alive. Many exercises of the “Perineum and Movement” method request the contraction of the pelvic floor, while others require, on the contrary, a relaxation sometimes unknown and unexplored.
It may seem risky (it is believed that relaxing this area in depth could cause “everything” to come loose), but the experience is guided by the teacher, who follows a protocol and knows that the ultimate goal is to return the tone.
By exploring the relaxation of the perineum, a wider range of nuances is developed: it is possible to contract with power or do it delicately, in front or behind, on one side or the other. In this way it is possible to adapt the contraction to an action that is developing and changing. All this allows to have a more effective, more reactive perineum, which adapts and even allows to exert a positive global action on the body, supporting it in its movements.
KNOWING THE PELVIC FLOOR
The pelvic floor contains three layers. The deepest is bowl-shaped and directly in contact with the organs of the pelvis (bladder, rectum, uterus/prostate) to which it supports. This layer is the most powerful, which constitutes the true support of the lower part of the trunk.
Below it, the front of this bowl has a layer of reinforcement to provide support – in women – or suspension – in men – to the genital organs. More superficially still, near the skin of the perineum, there is a thinner layer shaped like a cross.
Here the muscles protect and support the male and female erectile zones. They are less potent but their action is more easily noticeable. Therefore, in the acquisition of the management of all the perineal muscles, they can act as a compass that allows to orient with more precision in the area.
A PLACE OF PASSAGE
The pelvic floor therefore provides support and also regulates the functioning of the sphincters: the urethra, the anus and, for women, the vagina. It is the place where passage is allowed or not: sexual intercourse, urine, feces, childbirth.
That’s why it’s important that it stays elastic and flexible even when strengthened. There are varied exercises, specifically exercises in asymmetrical positions, which maintain at the same time the strength and elasticity of these small muscles.
THE ROOT OF BALANCE
The perineum provides the foundation, the foundation of the trunk. Often people who have weakened this area of their body report feeling like “abandoned”, uprooted from its base, unbalanced. To stand they need to compensate for this by unconsciously trying to suspend themselves from their chest or arms.
They do this through tensions in the upper part of the body, since they are not able to take support at their base. We can imagine then that awakening this zone of support and developing its strength is equivalent to building a balance from the base, from a more present, firmer root.
This makes available more energy and poise in everyday life and can also improve certain particular aspects: sexuality, continence, rooting, both in men and women.
WHO IS RIGHT FOR IT
This perineal base is important for all actions involving the trunk. For example, a fit perineum is useful for all those who use the voice as a tool in their professional life: teachers, lawyers, singers, actors…
In sports practices, the work of the perineum allows to feel the unity of the trunk from its own root. In the prevention of back pain, the perineum muscles allow to build more faithfully the postural balance for a good relationship between the pelvis and the spine. Perineal well-being thus equals postural well-being.
RECOVER THE PERINEUM
In certain corporal practices (yoga, chikung, tai chi, martial arts, oriental dance, Pilates …) the management of the perineum is included. But often the way of working it is greatly simplified, which impoverishes the possibilities. It can even be counterproductive, since it rarely provides the necessary time to stretch and relax these muscles.
And yet, through a practice of sensory development and differentiation, it is possible to access all the muscles of the perineum in a refined way, feel the asymmetries (we all have them) and balance them, choose deeper or more superficial areas and focus on one or the other sphincter, according to needs, desires and objectives.
Each layer, each muscle fascicle, has a role that is more specific to it and that can be fine-tuned. With practice it is possible to inhabit this area in another way and gain it to relate it with more availability with the rest of the body, its neighboring areas and the most distant.
If you’ve never stopped at discovering your pelvic floor, be patient. At first, depending even on the day, it is normal not to find great sensations. But through calm, attentive and regular practice everyone manages to sensitize and manage this musculature. Welcome to the wonderful world of the perineum.