Day 48- Pelvic Clocks on Slomo

This exercise is very similar to the previous post, but it adds the soft ball as a prop to increase the mobility in the lower spine.

To do this exercise you will need a mat and a soft ball.  Start by lying on your back with your knees bent and the bottom of your feet planted in the ground.  Lift your pelvis in the air so that you can fit the soft ball underneath it.  Then let your pelvis release into the ball.  Begin some small micro movements in the pelvis to feel the feedback from the ball.  Then begin rocking the pelvis between the belly button and the tailbone. Next practice rocking the pelvis from side to side, and finally allow a circular motion to happen as you rock your pelvis from your belly button to your hip to your tailbone to the other hip and finally back to the belly button.  Reverse directions and repeat several times. 

Things to think about

This variation of the pelvic clock will increase the mobility of the lumbar spine, but it is important to remember that while the movement may appear to be larger, the effort is similar to the previous exercise.

Remember you are rotating your pelvis around the heads of your femurs (thigh bones.) The pelvis is moving and the thigh bones are staying still.  To find this separation it is important to continue moving the pelvis with the myofascial connections of the pelvis and to find ease in the larger muscles of the legs.

Day 47- Pelvic Clocks

This exercise takes the subtle movements of the pelvis in different planes of motion.  It introduces rotation to the spine, and can add relief to imbalances in the piriformis.

 

To do this exercise you will need a mat.  Start by lying on your back with your knees bent and the bottom of your feet planted in the ground.  For the purposes of this exercise imagine that there is a clock on the front of your pelvis.  Your belly button is twelve o’clock and your pubic bone is six o’clock.  Each hip is three and nine o’clock respectively.  The first part of this exercise is the pelvic rock, inhale as you rock the pelvis towards the pubic bone (six o’clock) and exhale as you rock the pelvis towards the belly button (twelve o’clock) Next you will introduce slight rotation in the spine by rocking the pelvis from side to side (three and nine o’clock.)  Now we want to move the pelvis around the imaginary clock.  You will start this movement by exhaling and rocking the pelvis towards the belly button (twelve o’clock) then begin rolling the pelvis to the side, and then towards the tailbone, to the other side and back to the belly button.  Inhale as your pelvis finds rest in the middle and then begin again, this time moving the pelvis counter clockwise.

 

Things to think about

This exercise is unusual because it provides an environment in which the pelvis is the mobile entity moving around the heads of the femur (thigh bones) so as you are moving your pelvis be sure that your knees continue to point towards the ceiling.  Your thighbones are stabile as your pelvis moves around them.

 

This is also a small movement.  Be sure that the feet are light on the ground so that the muscles and fascial connections of the pelvic floor can move the pelvis rather than the muscles of the legs.

 

Sometimes people like to imagine that their pelvis is a bowl of soup and the movement of the pelvis sloshes the soup around the edges of the bowl.