5-MINUTE FRIDAY: How to Use Your Breath to Create a Mind Body Connection with PVOLVE's Chief of Training (Pelvic Floor Series part 3)
Feb 16, 2024Episode 78
Danielle Donovan
Welcome to 5 Minute Friday - your weekly wellness pep talk! We are back for part 3 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE's Chief of Training- Antonietta Vicario.
Today we are talking about how to use your breath to create a mind-body connection when working on your pelvic floor.
Antonietta shares practical exercises and tips on how to tune in to your body's signals, all thanks to the power of breath work. Her advice is not just doable; it's also grounded in the deep connection between mind and body. Discover how simple moves and some strategic ab action can bring stability and strength where it matters most!
Tune in for a quick 5-min pep talk on:
- Understanding the importance of truly engaging our muscles through breath - Breathing exercises to create a mind body connection
This is part 3 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE.
Next week we will be back with Antonietta to focus on pelvic floor tips for postpartum.
Welcome to 5 Minute Friday - your weekly wellness pep talk! We are back for part 3 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE's Chief of Training- Antonietta Vicario.
Today we are talking about how to use your breath to create a mind-body connection when working on your pelvic floor.
Antonietta shares practical exercises and tips on how to tune in to your body's signals, all thanks to the power of breath work. Her advice is not just doable; it's also grounded in the deep connection between mind and body. Discover how simple moves and some strategic ab action can bring stability and strength where it matters most!
Tune in for a quick 5-min pep talk on:
- Understanding the importance of truly engaging our muscles through breath - Breathing exercises to create a mind body connection
This is part 3 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE.
Next week we will be back with Antonietta to focus on pelvic floor tips for postpartum.
Don't forget to leave a review! We love to read them -- THANK YOU!
Don't forget to leave a review! We love to read them -- THANK YOU!
Speaker 1:
Hey squad, I'm your host, danielle Donovan, and you are listening to 5 Minute Fridays, a 5 minute pep talk and boost of inspiration to take with you into your weekend. We are back with P-Volve's Chief of Training, antonietta Vicario. Antidea's topic is talking about the mind-body connection when focusing on strengthening your pelvic floor. Antonietta, what are some key areas to focus on and how do you build that connection to your breath and your strength in your pelvic floor?
Speaker 2:
Great question. Thank you, danielle. Yes, that mind-body connection. I think some people understand intrinsically what that is. They've been practicing it their whole life Myself.
Speaker 2:
I started as a dancer so there was always this kind of sense of what was going on in my body. And I know for others it takes some time to make those connections. So when we talk about just the mind-body connection in general, I always encourage people to just kind of close their eyes and try to sense and feel their body from the inside out. If you're just starting off, it can take a little bit of time to turn your brain off and kind of get into, tap into that more primordial self that we have. We have these bodies and we can feel what it feels like to be inside of our body. And closing your eyes is such a great tool. And also just starting specifically with the breath, especially when it comes to the pelvic floor. So the pelvic floor can be a mysterious muscle it can be hard to tap into. A lot of times people don't know about the pelvic floor or they only learn about it because they're experiencing some symptoms like incontinence or pain pain in their lower back, pain in their hips, and so starting to just create that mind-body connection is the best tool so that we can incorporate this part of our core really in all of our movement, especially when we need it. I would recommend, in order to find that mind-body connection into the pelvic floor, maybe start starting lying down.
Speaker 2:
The breath again is so important, placing your hands on your belly, on your lower abdomen, and moving your breath. So some of us are chest breathers. We only breathe up into our chest and kind of hold tension right, like we're constantly pulling the belly in. I could go on a whole tirade about why that might be, but I'll save that for potentially another day. We want our breath to move throughout our body. Our breath is meant to move and our bodies will move better when we're breathing in all areas. So, again, laying down, putting your hands on your belly, feeling that breath pull in or that breath go fully into the lower abdominal cavity, and then for the exhale.
Speaker 2:
For if you're having trouble accessing kind of the pelvic floor and the abdominals, I'll often sometimes say like when you clear your throat right or when you sneeze or if you very quickly breathe out forcefully, you're engaging your deep transverse abs. It's easier for people to tap into those muscles right by a strategy like that. So you're starting to find that mind body connection into all of those muscles that exist in the lower part of the core. Your pelvic floor is going to respond with those contractions because our core, our abdominals, our deep transverse abs are actually interconnected into our pelvic floor musculature. So, starting simply like that and then adding some of the other exercises that I talked about prior, feeling like you're stopping the flow of urine, you're stopping yourself from passing gas, finding that contraction and that support and coordinating all of that with that, like again, feeling of hugging. You know hugging in it's just a beautiful way to tap into your pelvic floor and especially when you're doing something that requires effort I think I spoke to this in our prior chat that when you know you're picking up something heavy off the floor or you know if you're feeling a little bit unstable if you're doing a balance exercise, you know if you're again jumping or sneezing, if you know you're going to sneeze, can track that pelvic floor first and chances are, you know, if you are somebody who experiences pelvic floor weakness, those tips and tricks will kind of help keep everything supported.
Speaker 1:
Amazing tips and tricks to build that mind body connection which truly is so important. And I love how you said you start simple, you start by closing your eyes, you start by focusing on the breath and you bring it all together. We'll link the other episodes from Five Minute Fridays with the three top exercises to focus on in strengthening your pelvic floor, because it's all connected. And there you guys have it. Another Five Minute Fridays To connect more with me, I'm over on Insta at the Squad underscore co and we'll link Antonia, Tia and P-Volves info in the show notes and all the prior episodes from our Five Minute Friday pelvic floor series. Until next time, cheers and happy Friday.