Sun Salutation

If you are like me, a woman of a certain age with two vaginal child births behind you, then you know that you are supposed to be paying attention to the condition of your pelvic floor – that is, you are supposed to be doing your Kegel exercises every day so you can sneeze and laugh without "spending a penny," as it were.

( How I do Kegels )

I have never found the process particularly pleasant or relaxing, and I know one person who finds Kegels actually make her anxious and stressed.

Recently, Yoga Journal had a Daily Insight titled :Mula What? It was a tiny blub about what Mula Bandha is and how to find it. Specifically, this comment got me thinking:

To help his students find Mula Bandha, Richard Freeman, an Ashtanga Yoga teacher, offers this hint: "If you exhale very fully and smoothly, you'll notice that the end of exhalation creates a natural toning in the pelvic floor muscles that allows you to get the last of the breath out. This is the point where Mula Bandha is set. It's really complex but really simple."

After reading about how to find mula bandha by a deep, cleansing exhale, I have changed how I approach Kegel exercises.

Review Langkawi Yoga's explanation of mula bandha, located at this link.

They state, "The contraction of mula bandha on the deepest physical level is similar to the Kegel exercises used to correct urinary incontinence and strengthen the vaginal walls after childbirth."

I have been experimenting with the following breathing technique as my new approach to Kegels.

Deep breath in – duration is a count of three.

Deep, cleansing exhale – count of approximately seven.

Feel mula bandha engage. Hold that engagement while breathing normally for a count of 10. This "breathing normally" for me is somewhat shallow in order to hold the lock. I don't know if that is normal, or if I just need to practice more so I can really breathe normally.

Release the lock with a very deep, belly inhale – again about a count of three.

Repeat the cycle with a deep cleansing exhale to engage the lock again.

I find this breathing cycle to be extremely relaxing and pleasurable. My Kegel exercises have gone from being a chore I did not to embarrass myself, to something I enjoy and look forward to. They would be meditative, I think, if I weren't doing them in traffic.

I totally made this up. Has anyone ever done anything similar or gotten any similar instruction? Can you add any thoughts to how this might be done better?

I was Googling "free stuff yoga" (my friend with the chocolate and coffee website cocoajava.com always puts free stuff into her newsletters and I was thinking, hey, that would be cool for our community) and I found this at Yoga To Go:

Yoga Solutions for Specific Problems.

Looked intriguing. Thought I'd share.

They actually have a Free Stuff page here.

So, I was home talking to my Mom about her arthritis and bursitis. And she said, oh, and at the doctor someone told me that the worst thing you can do for your back is touch your toes.

I went out looking for anything that might support that idea, and I found this person, Jolie Bookspan, who attacks yoga and pilates as being bad for the back because of every single forward bending exercise, including seated forward bends, but especially toe touching.

See this article here: http://www.drbookspan.com/BackPainArticle.html

My first thought was that doing uttanasana correctly is back- and abdominal- strenghtening, and if done correctly should be good for you over the long term, helping to bring space into the vertabra and length into the spine. But is that in fact the case?

My second thought was, hmmmm, if correct, is this, in fact, universal advice for people with healthy backs, or mainly advice to people who already have back problems, since you know, by personal and anecdotal experience, I don't know a lot of yoga and pilates practitioners walking around with bad backs, and it seems counter-intuitive that sun salutatinos would have developed as they did over many, many years, for all I know centuries, if people hurt themselves doing them.

Thoughts? Responses from the yoga community?