The Pelvic Floor & Mula Bandha, Explained! Yoga Anatomy with Rachel

Transcript

[Music] what the heck is mulabanda and what are we doing and what's going on anatomically my friends mulabanda is a term that gets tossed around a lot um but it's taken me a while to unpack exactly what that means anatomically in the body what are we doing exactly what does it mean and so in this video we're going to look a little bit about uh what mulabanda is it's history how we use it in practice but also take a look at what the anatomy is what are we actually engaging and trying to do okay so first let's think about mulabanda and talk about what its intention is so Mula Banda Mula meaning root Banda meaning you know lock or valve you know kind of energy harnessing system if you will uh simulabanda the root lock is a way of harnessing chronic energy so when we're talking about the bundas and we're talking about the subtle body and the energetic body and of course the energetic body is embodied within this physical body so there is a physical aspect to milabanda and so mulabanda has become sort of synonymous with just lift the pelvic floor up so what the heck is the pelvic floor okay but first mulabanda energetically it kind of holds the bottom and the idea behind this is that the energy doesn't fall out the bottom of your pelvis so that we're contained we're having like a little basket or a trampoline of energy here to help lift that energy up in yoga Anatomy there is a central Channel running from the pelvic floor all the way up beyond the crown of the head called shishumna she who is most gracious and part of our yoga practice is to take our energy up through that Central Channel and mulabanda helps to prevent it from escaping so that's the energetic component of it now if you're an Ashtanga Yoga practitioner and this is just one of the uh one of my beloved Styles um that teaches this specifically as a fundamental part of the practice you pretty much engage mulabanda the whole time and on a practical physical level what this engagement does is it helps to create core support and we'll talk about this a little bit more in the anatomy but I do want to point out that mulabanda can be used physically in the Asana practice as well as in an energetic practice or with an energetic intention but physically it does help to create deep core stabilization and a sense of lightness and creates that beautiful floaty movement you see practitioners who are experienced with this kind of lift be able to do so there's a few reasons to do mulabanda it might be energetic it also might be physical and a lifting of the pelvic floor so let's talk about what exactly is really happening in mulabanda first of all let me just say that the pelvic floor quote unquote air quotes pelvic floor does not act in isolation it is connected to the rest of the musculature of your body right it's all connected and it works together and they support each other and so Mula Bunda when we're thinking pelvic floor physically is related to the Inner Line of the legs the adductors and also to the transverse abdominis which is your core step muscle wrapping around when we engage the pelvic floor it tends to trigger as a synergist as a muscle that works with it the Deep core the transverse abdominis and we could even if you get kind of subtle and connected with this you can even trace your big toe moving up the inside of your leg to the pelvic floor to the Deep core of your body so it's never like we just engage the pelvic floor and that's it right especially if we're doing Asana and we're moving the body will kind of recruit all these different things to work together but let's talk about what we mean by pelvic floor what is the pelvic floor so there's a bunch of muscles down here you guys and I'm just for the sake of kind of clarification I'm going to divide kind of this basket of musculature into three sections so there's the front which we might call the urogenital triangle there's the middle which we might call the perineum and then there's the back which is like the anal sphincter we'll call it the the posterior pelvic floor but we'll talk about that group of muscles um and the thing about your pelvis is that it's three-dimensional right so we have the musculature in the front like a little like a little sling here um that also contains the sphincters that stop the flow of urine um you know further back you know the vaginal walls that can constrict and way in the back we have the anal sphincter internal and external which is what you go like oh I don't want to fart right now right you know I can they talk to each other um so let's just start with the front so this is like a a kind of a triangle The eurogenital Triangle a little diaphragm of muscles um that slings across and it also contains bulbous spongiosis which are muscles that kind of go around the urethral opening and for women also back towards the vagina around the vagina like little walls if you will and when we contract our muscles to stop the flow of urine if you could get super specific about that that's often what people queue as a Kegel exercise right so you can sense that in yourself just take a seat or sit on a chair Close Your Eyes For a Moment imagine you've got a pee and then gently try to stop that so then we're in the Euro genital triangle specifically the urethral sphincters and there are some other muscles that start getting recruited in there as well so it's not completely isolated okay and then let that go now now let's go to the way back let's go back so in um I should mention in yoga has different names for each of these three areas um and the first one the the front one not surprisingly is associated with the retention of semen right so in some yogic practices if you're giving away your juice everybody you're giving away your Juju and that's dispelling your energy so there would would be some practices where you actually retain that and so it's not surprising that the front of the pelvic floor is associated with those retention practices now let's go to the back and we have the anal sphincter so go ahead and squeeze your butt you can imagine oh my gosh I'm at a cocktail party I'm standing next to someone cute I totally don't want to fart right now we gotta we gotta save that for when we know each other better whatever so you're squeezing your bum and you can squeeze it and let it go and if you really squeeze it a lot my partner Gail loves to talk about like raising the elevator of the back here um and in fact this basket of muscles is like a sling it's like a funnel actually it's not just like a flat floor but it's like a funnel going down into your pelvis that pulls in and lifts up this is called the levator Annie group The levators of the anus makes total sense so you can just kind of squeeze and pucker up the bottom or you could like a little elevator pull up through the whole back whoa all the way to the top and I don't know it gets kind of fun in there too um my boyfriend tries to wiggle his tailbone if you pull that elevator all the way up some of you might be able to wiggle your coccyx a little bit but as we lift that levator Annie group up more it starts to recruit other muscles as well okay so that's called a schwinny mudra which is the horse mudra in yoga probably because when you see horses pooping it is quite a thing to behold and there's a lot of action happening there okay so what's in the middle everyone so we've got the front we've got the back what's going on in the center now the center is what most people call mulabanda so when you start to be able to distinguish between these three areas mulabunda is the one we're going to talk about now and but you know if you're just starting this out honestly just feeling your pelvic floor at all is a bit of a process so explore these areas feel them when you're going to the bathroom just go oh hey what am I what am I feeling right now what's Letting Go what's holding on and start to get more literacy and familiarity with this part of our body it's such a it's such a wonderful spot it's really good to us is basically in the center and so ladies we have a feeling like this could be up into the vaginal walls right so you're thinking of pulling a tampon up if such a thing right sexual activity you can think about those muscles engaging and there's also a muscle which is the very back of the urogenital diaphragm called the transverse perenni transverse perennial it transverses the perineum and there's a bunch of connective tissue there too where these other muscles insert so what we're really doing is is toning that area so that particular muscle that transverses the perineum um so perineum is not a muscle it's a place and also for ladies the you know the uh pulling up through the walls of the vagina right and hugging in um and again some other muscles it's not going to be totally isolated other muscles might be recruited but as we're starting to explore this you might be able to distinguish different Sensations in the front and the middle and the back and guys for the front two I should mention that um you know the front thinking of lifting your balls like it's those little cremaster muscles that you have to pull up that would be a part of the front of your pelvic floor clear as mud hi everybody here's the thing Here's a thought to leave you with though um when we're moving and active in yoga practice yeah a little a little lifter sensation of lifting but your body is also going to be highly responsive to what you need so a real nice way to just explore this is to lay down on your back semi-supine bend your knees relax bring your hands on your belly and explore these different Sensations um and then in your practice see if when things are going on you can bring a little bit of that Consciousness into your movement the other thing that I want to mention which is super important is that we all talk about engaging the pelvic floor I'm going to lift that thing up and never let it go well as we know we need both sides of the equation we need the contraction but we need the expansion and letting go and a lot of pelvic floor Specialists have said that actually the problem they see is in tight pelvic floor is not able to release so make sure as you're exploring these different parts of your pelvic floor um that you take time to let go right so see if you can the exhale is a good time actually to kind of find the engagement of the pelvic floor you can drop and contract as you draw your low belly and it all kind of goes together at the end of the exhale and then as you inhale see if you can let it release and fill out so as the diaphragm the respiratory diaphragm drops it can actually create some movement all the way through your viscer all the way to the pelvic floor so there's a natural little inhaling exhaling inhaling exhaling that can happen through the pelvic floor although of course we can also manipulate its engagement outside of that pattern a really nice way to find a little stretch for the pelvic floor too is like you know badakanasana is great sitting in malasana and letting the pelvic floor be nice and open is also great um being kind to yourself you could like have a little soft rolly ball and maybe roll out those muscles if they're tight or unresponsive or just very hard to feel but again being really really sweet to ourselves this is a high innervated active energetic place was why the yogis talk about it to begin with so be kind to yourself give yourself lots of space and compassion as you start to explore your pelvic floor and mulabanda and then you know let that exploration take you where it will that's the thought for now if you have thoughts Explorations comments concerns questions additions put them in the comments below I'd love to hear from you guys thank you for being part of this community find me on Instagram for more tips and I'll see you on the mat [Music]