Zen Yoga in the Wintertime

Zen Yoga in the Wintertime

by | Dec 9, 2024 | Classes, Studio News, Wholehearted Living, Yoga

Our Zen yoga classes in Looe are deeply aligned with nature’s rhythms. As the season transitions to the serene palette of winter, we are invited to slow down and turn inward and reflect on the energies of this time of year. In Traditional Chinese medicine, winter shifts our focus to the kidneys and bladder. These vital organs not only support our vitality, but also cleanse and rejuvenate. By unrolling our mats and embracing a gentler practice, we cultivate warmth from within.

Guided by Nature

In nature, many trees and other plants have either lost their leaves or totally disappeared into the earth by December, so nothing is showing. Despite this apparent lack of activity, the plants are busy drawing and cultivating their energy into their core. In Zen Buddhism, this season is described as a time of nourishing the root.

The temperature is dropping and it is important to keep the joints of the body mobile with gentle movements and stretches to maintain our natural flow. If we don’t maintain our mobility we become like ice, when we want to our movement to flow like water.

Zen Yoga in the Wintertime

Winter is characterised by turning within oneself to introspection. In our yoga practice we can spend time in our mindful movement, sensing our inner body. Maybe spending a little more time in meditation and breathing practice.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the element of Winter is water, the most nourishing substance for life. Water is related to the storage and conservation of energy. The corresponding organs of the body are the kidneys and the bladder. 

The kidney energy meridians run from the sole of each foot, along the inner side of the feet travelling up the inner side of the legs up the front of the body and splaying outwards just before the collarbones.

The bladder energy meridians run up from inner corner of the eyes up over the forehead, and head, down the neck, back and over the glutes (bottom), down the back of the legs and then round the outside of the foot to the little toes.

Energy issues or blockages in the energy lines associated with the Winter organs can manifest as a sense of fear or anxiety.

In our Winter seasonal yoga classes in Looe we have been working on stretches to mobilise these energy lines. We have been using gentle movements to warm the body whilst conserving energy and encouraging reflection through longer elements of meditation.

Take care of yourself this winter season and nourish your root, When the days lengthen and Spring arises, like the plants you can burst into life with the energy you’ve cultivated and stored over the darker months.



See you on the mat soon!

Craig

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10 Essential Prehab Exercises For Swimmers

10 Essential Prehab Exercises For Swimmers

by | Sep 4, 2024 | Pilates, Yoga

Imagine gliding through the crystal-clear water, each stroke a dance of grace and freedom. The sunlight sparkles on the surface, and as you breathe in the cool, refreshing air, you feel a sense of rejuvenation wash over you.

Swimming isn’t just exercise; it’s a meditative escape, a way to connect with your body and spirit. Each lap brings a sense of flow, allowing the stresses of the day to dissolve with each powerful kick and rhythmic breath.

Amidst this blissful experience, the last thing you need is an injury! That’s where prehab (short for prehabilitation) exercises for swimmers comes into play.

In this blog we explore common swimming injuries and how effective, tailored, prehab exercises for swimmerscan help you maintain your passion for the sport while safeguarding your health.

Overuse Injuries In Swimming

* The information is provided in good will for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional or medical advice. See our full disclaimer here.*

Most swimming injuries fall into the category of overuse injuries. They usually have a gradual, insidious onset/worsening of symptoms over time, starting as a niggle and turning into a naggle!

Some examples of overuse swimming injuries are swimmers shoulder (where the rotator cuff and bicep tendons become inflamed and irritate the nerves and other structures beneath), swimmer’s knee (causing pain on the inside of the knee, particularly common for breaststroke swimmers, and swimmer’s back (also more common in breaststroke swimmers).

Overuse injuries in swimming are usually related to one or more of these factors:

  • A sudden increase in a particular movement (e.g. swimming a long distance when you’re not used to swimming)
  • Excessive and repetitive loading of the muscles/joints (e.g. swimming much further or harder than you’re used to)
  • Not resting enough and/or poor recovery
  • Decreased strength and/or mobility at key joints – shoulders, hips, spine
  • Insufficient core strength and/or joint stability
  • Stroke mechanics and breathing technique

Basically, Tension > tolerance = injury!

Cultivating a prehab routine can help to negate these factors. These essential exercises for swimmers are designed to strengthen, mobilise, and stabilise your body, ensuring that your time in the water remains joyful and unencumbered.

Thread The Needle

This exercise increases mobility in your spine and shoulder, as well as strengthening your triceps and supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle).

 

Pro tip: Roll your shoulders open as far as you can as if opening against a wall behind you.

Plank to Downdog

Plank to Downdog strengthens your shoulders throughout the full range of flexion. This exercise improves shoulder stability, core strength, and spine & shoulder mobility.

 

Pro tip: from the downdog position keep your hips high while pushing your chest forward between your arms and looking to your hands to create extension in your spine.

Dumb Waiters

This is a shoulder stability exercise that strengthens the rotator cuff muscles and rhomboids which sit between your shoulder blades.

 

Pro tip: keep your upper arms and elbows tucked in tight to your sides, as if you’re squeezing oranges under your armpits.

IYTs

IYTs improve shoulder flexibility and scapular tracking (how your shoulder blades move). You can do these with or without a resistance band.

 

Pro tip: Keep your shoulders down away from your ears throughout and avoid leaning backwards as your arms raise.

B*stards Variation

This exercise teaches your shoulder blade and shoulder to coordinate their movements and strengthens your rotator cuff muscles. It provides important stability for the catch and pull aspects of your stroke.

Pro tip: Use a light weight first and build to a moderate weight. Aim for high reps and/or continue until you can’t do a single one more.

Side Plank

Use side plank to build strength in your oblique (waist) muscles, shoulders, and outer hips.

 

Pro tip: Imagine a rectangle from right shoulder to right hip, across to left hip, and up to left shoulder. Keep each corner of the rectangle facing the front and don’t allow your shoulders to droop to the floor.

Prone Swimming

This exercise may feel gentle, but you get a big bang for your buck! It strengthens the back line – hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae, lats, traps, and rhomboids. It also teaches your core and limbs to coordinate swimming specific movements in a controlled setting.

 

Pro tip: Keep the headlights of your pelvis stuck down to the floor as you lift your leg to ensure you’re moving from the hip and glutes.

Back Extension

Strengthen your back and improve your flexibility with back extension.

 

Pro tip: Look down to the ground as you lift your upper body to keep your neck in a strong neutral position.

Lats Stretch

The lats are huge muscles on your back and in fact they are the only muscles that connect your shoulder and pelvis. This means there’s a big demand on them in swimming. Show your lats some love with this – the greatest stretch in the world!

Pec Stretch

We could all do with stretching our pecs. These muscles of the chest can cause shoulder and neck pain when they’re tight and unhappy. Keep them sweet with this gorgeous pec stretch.

Build A Routine

These exercises for swimmers are most effective when they become part of your weekly routine. Aim to do at least 10-20 minutes of prehab twice a week to reduce your risk of overuse injury. You can even use prehab exercise as a warmup (though save static stretches like the pec and lat stretches for after your swim).

Get Strong For Swimming With Pilates at Cove

Making and sticking to a plan can be the greatest barrier to those who mean well by starting a prehab habit. Take the thought out of it and let us do the work!

In just 1-2 Pilates classes a week you’ll hit all the major muscle groups involved in swimming whilst building full body strength, stability, and mobility for real life impact.

Book Here

See you on the mat soon!

Jennie

 

Hello@covecornwall.co.uk

Cove Mind & Body

Fore Street

East Looe

Cornwall

PL13 1AD

How To Exercise Your Pelvic Floor

How To Exercise Your Pelvic Floor

by | May 17, 2024 | Pilates, Studio News, Yoga

This is part 2 of Fantastic Pelvic Floors & Where to Find Them.

Hello Pilatinis,

Does the cue to lift or relax your pelvic floor leave you confused? If you’ve ever just stood there pretending to exercise your pelvic floor whilst not really understanding what you’re supposed to be doing, you’re not alone my friend!

Many people’s understanding of the pelvic floor stops with kegels, and most people aren’t doing kegels right anyway. So I’ve written this blog to teach you how to exercise your pelvic floor.

This guide uses a combination of anatomical terms and informal language. This is to help you identify and understand your own pelvic floor through the jargon.

In my last blog post, I talked you through how to find your pelvic floor. If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check it out now as it contains need-to-know tips before you try the exercises in this blog.

Firstly, let’s recap some key points from the previous blog:

  • The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that create a hammock shape in the undercarriage area. There are up to 18 pelvic floor muscles (depending on how you count them).
  • These muscles help maintain intra-abdominal pressure and continence, support the internal organs, and play roles in sexual function and natural birth.
  • It’s normal not to know how to exercise your pelvic floor because it’s out of sight & mind, functions automatically, and can be embarrassing to discuss. These two blogs aim to help you connect with your body from the comfort of your own home!

The astute readers among you may have noticed earlier that I mentioned it functions automatically.

Nonetheless, knowing how to exercise your pelvic floor voluntarily is beneficial.

Here’s 3 reasons why…

  1. The pelvic floor is like any other muscle. It can contract/squeeze and relax/lengthen. It also has an optimal tone, or state of balance, where it is neither too tight nor too relaxed. Learning to take the pelvic floor through this range consciously can help the muscles to work more effectively when you’re not thinking about it.

2. Everyday activities and normal life stages can affect pelvic floor tone. For example, long periods of sitting, lifting & carrying, hormone changes (pregnancy and menopause), physical injury, periods of heavy coughing. Training the pelvic floor can reduce negative effects of these factors.

3. Another muscle that works involuntarily is the heart. Training your heart through cardiovascular exercise can help it to function better and for longer. Well, the pelvic floor is just the same!

Certainly, most peoples’ pelvic floors naturally rest at the optimal tone. But what happens when the pelvic floor isn’t at its best?

The Overactive Pelvic Floor

If your pelvic floor is too tight it has poor flexibility and is unable to relax. A tight pelvic floor is usually weak as well, as it’s unable to generate the force to support the body properly. You may experience some or all of the following symptoms.

  • Incontinence
  • Pelvic heaviness, pressure, tenderness, or prolapse
  • Flatulence, especially if it’s difficult to hold in
  • Pain in your low back, pelvis, or tailbone
  • Changes in sexual function, sexual sensation, and/or delayed or absent orgasms.

The Underactive Pelvic Floor

If your pelvic floor is weak, you may experience some or all of the following symptoms.

  • Chronic constipation
  • Incontinence or trouble starting or stopping the flow when you go for a wee
  • Painful urination, urgency, or frequent need to urinate
  • Pain in your low back, pelvis, or tailbone

If you have any symptoms of overactive or underactive pelvic floor you should seek medical care from your women’s health physiotherapist, physiotherapist, or GP.

How To Exercise Your Pelvic Floor – The Exercises

I know what you’re thinking… you’re ready to try the practical exercises! And we’ll get there shortly.

First, sit up tall on a firm chair, and make sure you can feel your sit bones against the seat. If you like, close your eyes to help you focus on the physical sensations.

Take a moment to identify your pelvic floor, find the hammock area from your clitoris/base of your penis to your left sit bone, back to your bum hole, and to your right sit bone.

How does this area feel when you are not doing anything? Is it tight, soft, hard, relaxed?

Easy Squeezy

Now, focussing on your pelvic floor area, do whatever you think a kegel is.

What happened?

Does your hammock lift or pull downwards? Did it move or contract in position? Did the whole hammock move or just a tiny part of it?

Most people will notice that just a tiny part squeezes, usually around the urethra (wee hole), especially if you were taught to kegel only using the cue to stop the flow of wee.

Remember, the pelvic floor covers the area of the wee hole, bum hole, and vagina for women. So, by only squeezing the wee hole, you’re not getting much bang for your buck!

Let’s try again.

This time, try to lift your pelvic floor upwards, away from your underwear.

Use between 3-5/10 effort, to avoid bigger muscles taking over. If you feel your glutes squeezing, activating, or tiring, you’ve not quite got it yet.

Notice all 3 holes squeeze and close, stopping the flow of wee, holding wind, and squeezing a tampon.

Here’s some other cues that may help:

  • It may feel like a pincer squeezing and lifting like an amusement claw pick-up game.
  • Imagine picking up a Malteaser without using your hands.
  • And a lovely one courtesy of one of my Pilates clients; “imagine sitting in a bath of eels and you don’t want any to get in!”

For many people learning how to exercise your pelvic floor doesn’t come straight away.

So, for the next few days, try 3 of these contractions each time you boil the kettle. Eventually you’ll start to feel those muscles engage!

Control The Holes

Now you know how to contract your pelvic floor, you need to be able to relax it too.

Stay seated on your firm chair with your sit bones on the seat. But this time, slump forwards. It’s important to stay slumped throughout this exercise, so if you struggle to feel the cues try slumping deeper and trying again. You can rest your forehead on a table for support, as long as you remain slumped through the torso.

Take a big sigh. Do you notice your pelvic floor lower? How low does it go? Does it go down low?!

Now, relax your jaw, relax your shoulder blades, maybe close your eyes.

We’re going to work with the breath, squeezing on your exhales and relaxing the pelvic floor on your inhales.

Take 3 big breaths, noticing your belly, your ribs, and your low back stretch with each inhale.

Keep going with those deep breaths.

I’m going to bring your attention to different areas with each breath, but feel free to take more than one breath at each stage until you’re sure you can feel the cue.

Inhale

Your belly is soft, though full of air

Exhale

The lower belly, bellow your belly button, pulls away from your t-shirt

Inhale

Relax your bottom. Notice your tail bone lift and push back.

Exhale

Notice your tailbone close like a flap drawing forward.

Inhale

Feel your anus/bumhole soften, widen, open.

Exhale

The anus closes like a gentle kegel

Inhale

Feel your undercarriage stretch soft and wide. The sit bones draw apart and open.

Exhale

Notice the undercarriage close and gently tighten.

Inhale

The vagina lowers and stretches slightly. The labia (vagina lips) open like French doors.

Exhale

The vagina lifts and tightens and the French doors shut.

Notice how pelvic floor relaxation is just a gentle drop and stay, which is why I love the visual of a hammock so much. It’s held in integrity, but not bulging, pushing, or straining.

Try this exercise a few times a day for up to 10 breaths each time until you truly understand how to exercise your pelvic floor and how it feels when it relaxes. Once you’ve felt that connection, try it from different positions e.g. in the shower, whilst watching telly, or on all fours.

About The Breath

Many people say that the breathing is confusing when they first try Pilates. The pattern feels opposite to what they feel comes naturally. Breathing the opposite way isn’t incorrect, but through using the Pilates breathing pattern (as above) you’ll probably feel more movement!

Experimenting with the breathing pattern can be an interesting way to connect with the pelvic floor though, why not try contracting as you inhale or even without a breath. Notice how much harder that is!

Balance Your Pelvic Floor with Pilates at Cove

Our Pilates classes are designed to include exercises that help you strengthen and relax your pelvic floor both voluntarily and involuntarily. Why not join a class to find your balance?

Book Here

I hope this blog has helped you to understand how to exercise your pelvic floor. If you haven’t felt connected to your pelvic floor before it can take a while to get used to, so don’t worry if you didn’t get it first time. Keep trying and over time you will start to feel the engagement!

 

See you on the mat soon,

 

Jennie

 

How To Find Your Pelvic Floor

How To Find Your Pelvic Floor

by | May 2, 2024 | Cove Mind & Body, Pilates, Studio News, Yoga

This is part 1 of Fantastic Pelvic Floors & Where to Find Them.

The pelvic floor. It’s kegels, right?

In my beginner’s Pilates classes we often spend time learning how to find your pelvic floor. This part of the class usually results in scrunched faces and eyes rolling upwards as people try to connect with the elusive muscles. And how do you know if you’re doing it right, anyway? You can’t SEE the instructor’s demonstration, and she can’t see your effort to check it! So, I decided to write this “how to find your pelvic floor” guide to solve that problem.

Both men and women have a pelvic floor and benefit from using it. This blog includes information relevant to both genders.

This guide uses a combination of anatomical terms and informal language. This is to help you identify and understand your own pelvic floor through the jargon.

The Bottom Of The Can

Picture your torso. The part of your body between your shoulders, to your bottom. Imagine that area as a cylinder or Coke can. Your rib cage and abdominals create the sides. Your diaphragm is a large umbrella shaped muscle that caps the top. And at the bottom? The pelvic floor muscles.

These muscles all work together to stabilise your trunk, keep your insides in, and control intra-abdominal pressure.

So, let’s look closer at the pelvic floor.

It’s a collection of up to 18 muscles (depending how you count them) that line the base of the pelvis.

Their most important role is to support the organs that sit within the pelvis (e.g. bladder, rectum and others). When we cough, sneeze, lift heavy objects, or vomit, that intra-abdominal pressure increases, and pushes the pelvic organs down. The pelvic floor’s job is to stop the organs from being pushed out during strain (prolapse).

The pelvic floor is also key to maintaining continence, so you can move through life without wetting yourself. Lastly, they support the presenting part of a baby during natural birth, and help the baby maintain a birthing position.

It’s normal not to know how to find your pelvic floor.

Here’s 3 reasons why the pelvic floor is not discussed enough:

1. It’s a bit embarrassing. The pelvic floor is all to do with continence, wee, and wind. Not exactly dinnertime conversation!

2. When it’s working well, it works automatically. You don’t HAVE to think about lifting your pelvic floor when you cough, it just happens.

3. You can’t see it. The pelvic floor is out of sight and out of mind.

But here’s the thing. Even though it’s normal not to know, you’re missing out on a whole range of benefits if you don’t learn to connect with your pelvic floor.

  • The pelvic floor weakens over time, with some injuries, and during menopause. It’s never too late to learn how to use it though! Like any other muscle, the pelvic floor muscles strengthen with use.
  • Strengthening your pelvic floor contributes to an easier birth and postpartum recovery.
  • The pelvic floor is key in sexual function, so knowing how to control it makes for fun and pleasurable sex. If you experience pain during sex, you should consult a women’s health physiotherapist.

Are you ready to try something practical?

Here’s how to find your pelvic floor.

Take a seat, somewhere you can sit upright. Make sure you’re sitting tall, with your feet firmly on the ground, and can feel your sit bones against the chair.

Now, bring your finger to your belly button. Trace downwards as if along the fly of your jeans until you reach your clitoris or the base of your penis.

This is the front of your pelvic floor.

Next, trace further still.

Women: trace from your clitoris, past your vagina, to your tailbone, just above your anus (bumhole). Notice you’ve traced a hammock shape from the front to the back of your body.

Men: trace from the base of your penis (underneath), along your perineum (gooch), to your tailbone, just above your anus (bumhole). Notice you’ve traced a hammock shape from the front to the back of your body.

This is the base of the pelvic floor.

Now, men and women, notice the base of your sit bones as they rest on the chair.

These are the sides of the pelvic floor.

See how these three points create a diamond shape in your undercarriage area. The whole area that you have drawn is your pelvic floor.

Notice that the pelvic floor encompasses the urethra (wee hole), rectum (bum hole), and vagina for women.

Controlling the pelvic floor gives you control over the hole!

Visual Prompts

Here are some great videos and diagrams to help you visualise the pelvic floor.

For Women: click here and scroll to the second image. This shows you a bird’s eye view of the pelvic floor oriented with the spine at the bottom of the picture.

For Men: see the video here. This shows you the pelvic floor anatomy and what happens when you engage them.

Kegels: How To Do Them (Properly)!

Learn how to exercise your pelvic floor in our next installment of “Fantastic Pellvic Floors and Where to Find Them” in which I will walk you through some simple exercises to contract and relax your pelvic floor.

Read More

I hope this article has helped you understand how to find your pelvic floor. It’s important to keep the pelvic floor strong to support the body for daily life as well as during special life events such as pregnancy and menopause. 

See you on the mat soon!

Jennie