From the ground up: where your roots become your trunk

In this third article in the series looking at how we can best take care of our roots, I'd like to concentrate on the top of our root structure – where our roots turn into our trunk. In the first article we looked at the tips of our roots, our feet, and some of the common problems that arise in that area. In the second article, we looked at the middle section and our knees, focusing on alignment and stability.

As I said previously, I define our roots as everything from the pelvic floor downwards, so here we're going to zoom in and have a look at that very important area – the pelvic floor. It's important both physiologically and energetically in the context of our yoga practice, and it's associated with the practice of Mulabandha (more on that later).

To start off with, let's look at this area physiologially – and for this I've enlisted the help of my sister Kim, a physiotherapist who lives in Stockholm.

In Latin, "pelvis" means basin. The pelvic floor or pelvic diaphragm is composed of muscles and fascia (connective tissue) which span the area of your undercarriage (between your anus and genitals). Physiologically it's function is to provide support for the lower organs (bladder, intestines, the uterus for women) and maintain intra-abdominal pressure (if it wasn't there, each time we took a breath in our organs would slip out between our legs...), to give us control over our bladder and bowel, and to help in child birth (only for women of course). They're also important for sex – for erectile function and ejaculation in men, and for sexual sensation and arousal in women.

The muscles of the pelvic floor are composed basically of three layers or structures. The deepest layer is the pelvic diaphragm (the levator ani), which supports the rectum, and in women the upper two thirds of vagina. The levator ani is actually made of two main muscles, the pubococcygeus and the ileococcygeus. The former is found in the middle, whereas the latter is found along the outer edges of the pelvic floor area. Next there's the urogenital diaphragm. It closes around the urogenital organs supports and has a sphincter-like effect around the vagina in women and contributes to continence. The third structure we find between the anus and the vagina is a structure called the perineal body (or the perineum). This fibromuscular structure is shaped like a pyramid with its base sitting between the genitals and the rectum and its tip pointing upwards.

Image from the book "Mulabandha" by Dr. Kathleen Summers (www.theYogaDr.com)

Back in the 40s, a gynecologist in California called Dr. Kegel started encouraging his patients to practice pelvic floor contractions in order to build up and strengthen the muscles in this area since he thought that would help prevent urinary incontinence and uterine prolapse. Decades of research since has shown that he was onto a winner. So-called "Kegel exercises" are now the first-line therapy for urinary incontinence, primarily resulting from ageing, childbirth, obesity, and the associated straining of chronic constipation. They've also been found to be effective in men undergoing prostate surgery.

So how should we go about finding this complex and rather obscure set of deep musculature? Start off by trying to lift up the whole area by contracting the entire pelvic floor. You’ll feel this as a tightening of the muscles around the anus (as if you are trying to stop a bowel movement), the genitals (as if stopping the urine stream) and the bit in between. This is basically a Kegel exercise.

How did that go? Did you feel a contraction?

If you did, then we can start looking at this in more detail, and try to identify some different structures within the pelvic floor.

First try activating only the muscles you need to stop yourself from peeing – this will be the urogenital diaphragm and the sphincter around the urethra.

Now try activating just the muscles around your anus – you should feel the contraction towards the back of your pelvic floor in the anal sphincter. (Personally I can't do these two separately, but Kim can, and I know others who can too – don't ask me how that came up in conversation though!)  

If you've successfully managed to isolate those two, try activating (contracting, pulling up) the area of the pelvic floor that's between. Now there should be no movement of the anus, the urethra, or the penis/clitoris. What we're finding here is the perineal body and the central portion of the pelvic diaphragm (levator ani) – and can be quite tricky to do. You might need a good bit of time and practice to find this subtle contraction (or it might just work straight away!).

Let me know how you get on using the comment box below.

Next week we'll be looking at why all this physiological detail is necessary for understanding and accessing the more subtle, energetic side of the pelvic floor area. We'll look at why all this is so important in yoga and how it relates to things like the practice of mulabandha (or root lock).