Gentle Pelvic Stretches

Muscles (including in the pelvis) tense up when we are in pain as a protective mechanism. This can hurt and of course, can stop you moving. Pelvic stretches done gently with awareness can be incredibly helpful to loosen and lengthen the pelvic muscles and send safety signals to the pelvic area. The muscles around the pelvis should only tighten up when you need them to. And humans are designed to move, so these stretches will get your pelvis moving. Check out the Pelvic stretches intro first.

Transcript

Finding yourself a comfortable position,

Lying on a mat or a blanket on the floor,

Just taking a little time to settle in,

Notice how the body feels right now.

Perhaps noticing points of contact with the floor,

Upper back,

Head,

Buttocks,

Parts of the legs and feet and the arms and hands.

And also noticing the little gaps where the body's not in contact with the floor,

The back of the neck,

Little arch in the lower back,

Perhaps spaces behind the knees and ankles.

And taking a few belly breaths here,

Filling the abdomen with breath like a balloon and letting it go like the balloons deflating.

Taking a few belly breaths.

You might even want to do a few of them with a nice sigh on the out breath,

Even making a noise if you're on your own.

So now bringing your right knee up to your chest with your hands clasped around the knee,

Noticing as you pull gently towards your chest,

Really finding that point where you can feel the tension,

But you're not straining anything or causing any pain.

And you may like to move the knee through this back and forward,

Maybe even with the breath,

Pulling it in to the belly on the breath out and out on the breath in.

Doing this maybe somewhere between three and six times,

Really noticing what feels right for you today.

And then really noticing the release as you place the right leg back on the floor and take a few belly breaths,

Perhaps comparing the right and the left side.

And then repeating on the left leg.

So gently pulling the left knee up to the chest with the clasped hands,

Finding that point,

That sweet spot,

And perhaps moving it through,

Having the knee away from the chest and the breath in and pulling it into the belly on the breath out.

And pulling it into the belly on the breath out,

Making sure it's around even on each side.

And releasing that left leg down to the floor,

Noticing the feeling in the legs after the first stretch,

Taking a few releasing breaths.

And now taking the left knee again,

This time just with the right hand,

Pulling it really gently towards the right shoulder.

And again,

Breathing in,

Releasing the knee a little,

Breathing out,

Pulling the knee in,

Squishing the belly a bit towards the right shoulder.

In and out through that sweet spot,

That edge on the breath,

Noticing the sensations in the hip,

The squashing of the belly,

Pressure in the hand,

And really noticing the sense of release as the left leg releases back to straight on the ground,

Taking a few releasing breaths in the belly,

Pairing the two hips.

Now using the left hand to gently pull the right knee into the left shoulder,

Noticing that tension in the hip,

Not pushing past into pain,

Just moving in and out through that tension.

The breath in as the knee releases a bit,

And out as the right knee comes towards the left shoulder,

Noticing the pressure on the abdomen,

The healings in the hip,

Noticing how there can be some parts of your body that are really soft and others that are more tense or stretched.

And when you've evened that up,

Noticing the release of that right leg down to the ground,

Really noticing the body lying on the ground,

Taking a few releasing breaths in the belly.

So now we're going to call one that I call threading the needle.

So placing the left foot on the floor with the knee bent and the left knee pointing to the ceiling,

The right knee crossing the right ankle over the left thigh.

And then if it's possible for you,

Placing your hands behind the left thigh,

Perhaps noticing the really strong stretch in the right buttock here.

If it's too strong,

Then releasing the hands.

And here again,

Pulling the left thigh into the body on the breath out and releasing a bit on the breath in.

You might want to do this two or three times.

You might even want to try moving to each side in this position as well.

Again with the breath,

And then releasing that right leg so that both the feet are on the floor,

Both knees pointing to the ceiling,

Taking a couple of releasing breaths,

Noticing the difference between the right and the left buttock.

And then bending the left knee,

Placing the left ankle over the right thigh.

This might be enough for you.

But if you feel like you can take a little more stretch,

Then placing the clasped hands behind the right thigh,

Pulling in the legs towards the belly on the breath out and releasing on the breath in.

Doing this a few times,

Really noticing the stretch,

The release,

Staying on that edge.

And again,

You might like to move to each side a few times also on the breath.

And releasing the whole body lying flat on the floor,

Noticing all the sensations in the legs and hips and buttocks and the rest of the body.

Any effect on the breathing,

Maybe noticing the breath slowing down a little,

Maybe even noticing the body might have warmed up a little.

And now bending the left knee again,

Knee pointing to the ceiling.

You might even want to pop that left foot on top of the right leg.

And using the right hand on the left knee,

Pulling it over to the right and at the same time,

Allowing that left buttock to roll over to the right.

And perhaps you might even touch the floor with that right knee.

You can have your other arm relaxed or if you're experienced in this posture,

You might like to have it stretched out towards the left,

Maybe looking out to your left hand,

Noticing that edge,

Breathing in and out through it.

Releasing the posture a little if that feels wise.

Continuing a few more belly breaths,

Releasing when it feels right for you.

And if you haven't already,

Gently straightening the body,

Taking that left knee up towards the ceiling again and releasing the leg down,

Noticing the posture.

And now the leg down,

Noticing the posture in the relaxation position,

Taking a few breaths and bringing the right knee up now.

Perhaps placing the right foot on the left thigh,

Twisting the body to the left with using the left hand to pull the right knee down as far as it will comfortably go,

Perhaps to the floor,

Perhaps not quite there.

And breathing out in this posture,

Breathing in and out.

And only if it feels right for you,

Stretching the right hand out at a right angle on the floor and looking over to the right hand.

Noticing the belly rise and fall with the breath,

Noticing the strong stretch in the buttock and hip area.

Once you've evened up the posture,

Gently bringing that right knee back,

Releasing the leg down,

Taking a moment in the lying posture.

So now gently bringing yourself up to the hands and knees position.

And with your knees quite wide apart and your feet close together,

Resting the bottom back on the heels,

Gradually bringing the forehead down to the ground with the hands stretched out in front.

If this is not comfortable for you,

You can put one fist on top of another under the forehead,

Under the forehead.

Staying in this position,

Sometimes called child's pose,

Noticing the stretch in the groin area,

Breathing in and out of it,

Shifting slightly if that feels right for you,

Knowing when you've reached your limit,

If it feels okay,

Another few belly breaths here.

And then curling the upper body up,

Bringing the knees together,

Sitting back on the heels and noticing how the body feels after the child's pose.

And now lying down again,

Position sometimes called frog pose.

So this time you've got your feet together and your knees out wide,

Bringing your feet comfortably up a bit close to your bottom.

And you might like to just stay like this,

Or perhaps you might like to experiment with putting the arms up above the head flat on the ground,

Noticing the strong stretch in the groin area,

Releasing a little if that feels right,

Breathing into that edge.

See if you could find a little bit of release with the breath.

And bringing those knees in together,

Perhaps using your hands if you like,

And relaxing the feet on the floor,

The knees pointing to the ceiling.

So now we're going to do a position or position sometimes called happy baby.

So starting with your feet on the floor and your knees bent,

And grasp the inside of each foot with arms inside the knees,

And allow your knees to widen apart so that the soles of the feet are facing the ceiling.

And holding your feet here,

Gently pressing the feet downwards so that you get that strong stretch in the groin and pelvic area,

Perhaps releasing a little on the in breath and pressing down again on the out breath.

Noticing strong stretch and really carefully releasing those legs down,

Knees pointing to the ceiling,

Feet on the floor,

Take a few releasing breaths and rolling to one side and gently coming up.

And our final posture is a kind of squat.

So having your knees apart,

Resting on the balls of your feet with your buttocks coming down towards your heels,

Hands on the floor in front of you and using your elbows to gently push your knees apart here.

If this is too hard on your knees,

Then you might want to give this one a miss.

Breathing deeply into your belly,

Perhaps breathing in as the pressure on the elbows pushes the knees out a little bit.

And breathing out,

Relaxing that pressure a little bit.

Really conscious of the sensations in the pelvis and the buttocks,

Perhaps even a stretch in the calves,

The shins.

If you haven't done this one before,

You might want to just do it for a few seconds.

And once you get used to it,

You might be able to hold it for 20 or 30 seconds.

Just breathing in pressure with the elbows,

Breathing out,

Relax a little,

Hovering around this sweet spot.

And then releasing that posture,

Just lying down on the back once again.

For last,

Relax,

Noticing the effect of the whole body after the set of stretches.

Maybe congratulating yourself for spending this time really looking after your body in this way.

Taking a few deep belly breaths,

Maybe with that sigh on the release again.

Being quite gentle when you make your way up make your way up to standing and go about your day.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌷🪻🌷🪻🌷Thank you so much for the wonderful stretching 🪻🌸🎀it was a pleasure to do it and I’m feeling sunny 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste

Very nice set of stretches, explained well. Thank you!

Really helpful for me with hypertonic pelvic floor pain I deal with (I’ve had two surgeries for this problem). Thanks so much for this wonderful class! I’d love to do more pelvic floor work. Will definitely come back to this class!