Goddess Pose for Mom Bodies

Guest post by Tracy Mattox
The “mom body” goes through a lot during pregnancy. I’m not talking about how you physically look, but how your internal organs and muscles change during and after pregnancy. The birthing process and pregnancy are both rough on the pelvic floor, those wonderful muscles that support your organs “down there.” Every person who goes through the process of childbirth, whether vaginally or through cesarian section, puts their pelvic floor through a lot. It takes months to recover and the muscles will never be the same again. There are many whose muscles don’t tighten back up or who experience tearing or prolapse. Some require surgery and others decide to live with it, and many women don’t realize there are exercises that can help.

A Weak Pelvic Floor
A weak pelvic floor is one that either holds tension and can’t release it, which causes pain, or is loose and can cause a feeling of pressure and incontinence. There are lots of exercises that can help improve muscle tone and potentially relieve symptoms. Physical therapy is wonderful if you have access to it. While yoga is not a treatment plan, this article describes how Goddess Pose can be modified to either stretch or strengthen your pelvic floor. 

Goddess Pose
In traditional Goddess Pose, you spread the legs apart by about 3.5 feet and squat down. The toes point outward about 45 degrees and the spine remains straight. It’s a pretty classic yoga pose. When focusing on the pelvic floor, you don’t need to squat down very far, just be sure that you pull the tailbone back toward the head and stick out your booty as you squat. If you have a mom body, this posture can improve your pelvic floor health.

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Goddess Pose to relax the pelvic floor
The act of holding the posture with the spine in a natural position helps to release tension in the muscles. Breathe deeply, allowing the air to raise the chest. The inhale should expand the rib cage and allow the belly to relax and pop out slightly. Proper breathing is the most important thing you can do for your pelvic floor, and this posture is great for learning that. When you breathe in, the pelvic floor drops and relaxes. When you exhale, the pelvic floor naturally moves upward. The act of breathing while holding Goddess Pose does wonders for the muscles “down there.”

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Goddess Pose to strengthen the pelvic floor
The act of moving upward and out of the squat in Goddess Pose helps to tone the muscles of the pelvic floor. To maximize the benefits, you can treat this posture like a traditional Hatha pose, where every breath has a motion tied to it. As you squat downard you can breathe in and allow the belly to expand, which relaxes the pelvic floor. As you come out of the squat you can exhale slowly to allow the pelvic floor to rise up. Coming up you straighten the legs, tuck the tailbone slightly under you and return to standing. You can even squeeze the butt at the top to further activate the pelvic floor. My own mom body loves this posture to help with my prolapse.

Your Mom Body Needs You to be Careful
There are a lot of different techniques in yoga to build strength in the pelvic floor, but you need to be careful with how you do it. Some people think that kegels are the solution to all problems. In yoga for the pelvic floor we “lift the perineum” instead of doing kegels. Here’s the problem. Those with tight pelvic floors may cause more harm than good in using this technique. People with loose muscles may also run into problems because doing too many of these lifts can weaken the muscles even further. It’s important to learn what your body needs. 

It’s amazing how subtle changes in regular yoga class can help improve the health of your pelvic floor, and this article highlights just one modified posture. I hope you found this information useful, and that you give yoga for the pelvic floor a try. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you might be surprised by how much a regular yoga practice can help you.

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Tracy Mattox is a mother of two who lives with her family in California. She’s a full time chemist with a passion for writing children’s books and coaching middle school sports, and has loved yoga since high school. Tracy developed pelvic organ prolapse after delivering baby #2 and after a decade of frustration she reclaimed her active life by turning to yoga. She is now a certified instructor with specialized training and teaches online yoga for the pelvic floor to help others become more active. She offers videos on-demand and live-streamed weekend classes on her website. Check out  https://www.yogabelowthebelt.com to learn more.

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