Your pelvic floor plays an important role not only in bladder, bowel, reproduction and sexual function, but also in hip function, breathing, core strategies, standing balance and more. The pelvic floor is also known to be intimately connected to the feet and the floor of the mouth. Pelvic health issues related to these many roles are commonly poorly addressed or often left untreated in both women and men.

Join Shelly Prosko, PT, C-IAYT, CPI, physical therapist and yoga therapist, for her 20 hour, Live In-Person, yoga therapy course focusing on pelvic floor health that offers a combination of inspiring, empowering, educational and valuable theory and practice. This course explores the evidence surrounding the biopsychosocial factors that influence pelvic floor function and integrates this evidence with yoga practices and philosophy that can be safely and effectively used to address and maintain optimal pelvic floor health in both men and women in an accessible way. Read more →

Dustienne Miller. At risk of sounding a bit creepy, I will admit that I have a huge “girl-crush” on this phenomenal woman. I remember about 5 years ago I came across her brilliant work as I was starting to travel around to teach PhysioYoga workshops for optimizing pelvic health.

Dustienne is a board certified women’s health physical therapist, Kripalu-certified yoga teacher, AND a professional dancer. She integrates her love of movement with physical therapy and yoga to help men and women who suffer from pelvic floor pain and dysfunctions.

Dustienne is the creator of a video series that uses yoga postures and breathing techniques to navigate pelvic pain and incontinence: Your Pace Yoga: Relieving Pelvic Pain and Your Pace Yoga: Optimizing Bladder Control. I have been tremendously inspired by these videos and I recommend them to my patients and students regularly.

Dustienne and I had the opportunity to dig deep into the inspiration behind her videos, their impact and if she’d do anything different:

Me:  Let’s start with your inspiration. What prompted you to create these videos?

Dustienne:  The videos were really born out of a true need for my patients. In 2011 I was working in NYC at Beyond Basics Physical Therapy, and I found myself giving my clients yoga home programs in stick figure form. I realized there was a massive void in video programming available and recognized the need for something to work with at home. Carryover between sessions and after discharge from physical therapy is sometimes a missing link in rehab. Yoga can be an important aspect of the patient’s home program and used for maintenance. I created a program my patients could use at their own pace, in their own space. Read more →

I recently wrote an article that was published in the International Association of Yoga Therapists Winter 2016 Issue of “Yoga Therapy Today” publication titled:

“Optimizing Pelvic Floor Health Through Yoga Therapy.”

The purpose was to review the role that a yoga therapist has in helping people create and optimize their pelvic floor health. The article is also valuable for yoga teachers, health care professionals, or anyone interested in or requiring more knowledge about the pelvic floor.  Pelvic health physical therapists have provided me with positive feedback, stating that the article is an accurate and valuable resource for their clients and also for educating other physical therapists who may want to learn more about the pelvic floor:

“Excellent article. Well written and one of the most accurate I’ve read. So needed.” Diane Lee, PT

In this article, I explain specifically what ‘is’ pelvic health and the pelvic floor, the many roles of the pelvic floor, the numerous factors that influence the healthy functioning of the pelvic floor muscles, and the role that yoga therapists may have in working with people with pelvic floor dysfunctions, with examples of some techniques they may use.  I also discuss what some of the research is saying about yoga and certain pelvic health conditions.

There are 27 citations included in this evidence-informed article.

**Above Photo credit: Raymond Long www.bandhayoga.com

You can find the article here:  “Optimizing Pelvic Floor Health Through Yoga Therapy”

Please also review the 4 min trailer of the videos, “Creating Pelvic Floor Health with PhysioYoga” that I created for you to download that include many of the techniques discussed in the article!

 **This article and video is not meant to diagnose, treat or act as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider for clearance and guidance before following or participating in these activities**

9 Ways to Help Your Yoga Students Engage Their Pelvic Floors

In my Pelvic Floor Yoga and Yoga Therapy courses, I emphasize the importance of adequate training and education of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) engagement with proper synergistic timing with other muscle groups with awareness, movement and breath.

I received a great question from a yoga therapist at the International Association of Yoga Therapists annual Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research where I was presenting a session on this topic. One of the participants asked, “how does a yoga therapist know if the student is properly engaging the pelvic floor muscles?”  The simple answer to this question is, unfortunately you don’t. Accurate measurement of PFM function and strength is difficult, even with the current tools of measurement we have such as direct skilled manual palpation or use of clinical observation skills with measuring devices such as ultrasound, EMG recordings, or MRI’s (Bo et al, 2005). However, these methods are not within the scope of practise of a yoga therapist or yoga teacher.

Additionally, some research shows that over 30% of women (no statistics for men yet) do not engage their PFMs correctly even after their first consultation of one on one training (WHO, 2002). Even if you think you are providing proper PFM engagement cueing in your classes, you really have no way of knowing if every student is engaging correctly. Furthermore, some evidence-based treatment guidelines advise against teaching a PFM contraction for certain conditions. I further expand on this in my courses and in a short blog here.

But for now, we can address this original question if we re-phrase it:

“how can a yoga professional enhance the probability of a person effectively engaging his or her PFM, while staying within scope of practice?”

Here are 9 ways: Read more →

53% of women between the ages of 20-80 years old experience urinary incontinence (the inability to control the bladder) at some point in their lives (Culligan &Heit, 2000). Less than half of these women do not even mention it to their physician (Burgio, 1994) perhaps because they are too embarrassed, or simply because they think it is normal to experience ‘a bit of leakage’ when they sneeze or laugh. Or, that it is normal after pregnancy or with age. Or, that it is normal because their mom, sister, and best friend all experience a ‘bit of leakage’ too. But it is not normal. Yes, it is common, but not normal. Urinary incontinence can be prevented and treated in most cases.

The two main types of urinary incontinence are stress and urge. It is important to know the difference between the two, and know which one you may have, in order to treat it accurately. However, it is common to have a combination of the two as well.

Stress incontinence is what occurs when the pelvic floor muscles(PFM’s) are unable to stop the flow of urine during actions that put pressure or stress on the bladder, such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, twisting, or lifting. PFM function can be affected because of childbirth or even from low estrogen levels, such as during menstruation or menopause. Other factors that influence PFM function can be found HERE. Read more →