I was taking an online cycling class this morning and found myself getting distracted.
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It was the first time I saw folks in the studio riding alongside the instructor — people who aren’t professional cyclists or hyper-fit athletes.
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As the class went on, I found it hard not to watch the riders in the background. My “coach” brain turned on, noticing each person’s form, cadence, and degree of effort. Amongst the hunched shoulders and collapsed chests, there was one thing I couldn’t stop noticing: everyone was riding in a posterior pelvic tilt.​
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I’m not a cycling coach. There has to be a very good reason why we see high-level cyclists riding with intentionally rounded spines. But that’s not what I’m here to discuss because the people in that class weren’t high-level cyclists. The majority of them were slogging through the session, trying to survive. Their tucked-under posture wasn’t intentional. Rather than helping them perform better, each posteriorly-tilted pelvis bouncing around in those saddles was likely having a less-than-ideal ripple effect on the rest of their bodies.
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I walked off the bike thinking about the impact that riding a bike—or doing any other repetitive activity—with a constant but unintentional posterior pelvic tilt has on the pelvic floor. I’d actually been meaning to write an email about the pelvic floor in honour of Mother’s Day (“Sure flowers are great, but you know what she really wants? Not to pee when she sneezes!”). The topic was already top of mind and that cycling class tipped the scale.
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​When the pelvis is in a posterior position (tail tucked under), this impacts the functionality of key core muscles like the transverse abdominis, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. Our core “canister” is like a soda can. We want to distribute pressure evenly through that soda can to maintain optimal functionality. When one side of the soda can is crushed (sucking the belly in, for example), the pressure throughout the entire structure is imbalanced. That’s why I spend so much time teaching people to:
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a) connect to and move their pelvis
b) engage the core without moving the spine
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We want to maintain the option to tilt the pelvis anteriorly and posteriorly, as well as move it laterally and through rotation. That's how we get to make intentional choices about when and why these positions might serve us well. But when we get stuck in one position—like a tucked-under pelvis—that can lead to suboptimal functionality.
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If you come from a classical yoga background you’ve likely heard something about moola bandha - the root lock. Moola bandha is an energetic “seal” - a way of holding energy in the body to create stability and strength. To engage the root lock, students are often told to “squeeze” their pelvic floor area.
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You can imagine how someone walking off the street into a yoga class might interpret that instruction…
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​Squeeze my…what? My bum muscles? My anus?
Should I be doing a constant kegel contraction?
Do I keep engaging “down there” all the time, or only when I’m working extra hard in a pose?
If I keep my tailbone tucked will that help me engage moola bandha?
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​To stop this spiral of confusion, here are three things I focus on to keep my pelvic floor (and that of my students) working optimally.
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1. Master diaphragmatic breathing. The breath is a key contributor to intra-abdominal pressure. When we let each inhalation create a 360-degree expansion, this contributes to an even distribution of pressure. When you breathe in, visualize your diaphragm and pelvic floor moving down. On your exhale, they contract back up to expel the breath. Use the inhalation to relax the pelvic floor and the exhalation to contract it. Can't feel a difference down there between relaxing and contracting? Seek out a pelvic floor physiotherapist for guidance.
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2. Combine effort with exhalation. During loaded movements, put your exhale where the work is: standing up out of a squat or driving up from the bottom of a push-up. Inhale through the eccentric phase of the movement. Exhale through the concentric phase of the movement. This way, your inhalation helps provide intra-abdominal stability as the load increases. Your exhalation, meanwhile, leverages inner unit engagement (including contraction of the diaphragm and pelvic floor as they ascend) and contributes to strong, powerful movement.
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3. Don’t skip out on hip mobility. Move your pelvis in relation to your femur bone (ie. practice hip airplanes, or continuous transitions between Half Moon and Warrior 3). Move your femur bone in relation to your pelvis (ie. hip CARS, 90/90). When the hips don’t move, the pelvis gets stuck. A stuck pelvis can lead to an achy lower back, an immobile pelvic floor, and limited movement patterns. Avoid that by giving your hips regular doses of mobility work.

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Most importantly, become aware of where your pelvis is in space. When you’re driving a car, is your tailbone tucked? When you’re standing in line at the grocery store, are you leaning on one hip? When you’re performing a deadlift, are you allowing your pelvis to tilt forward or just rounding into your lower back (think of the soda can!)? When you’re in Chaturanga, is your pelvis sinking to the floor?
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Make it a priority to know what your pelvis is doing. Add more opportunities into your day to free your tailbone from a fixed, tucked-under position. Pay attention to how you’re moving and how you’re breathing.
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If you want some guidance with that, I’ll be focusing on the pelvis in this month’s online workshop. I’ll release the date and registration link for that next week. It'll be the perfect complement to the Core Reform workshop I led back in March (which is now available for purchase as a downloadable recording).
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Want more than a 2-hour workshop? I’ve been quietly rebuilding Detour Method Online over the past couple of months. Soon I’ll be looking for some beta testers. If you’ve never taken DMO and want the opportunity to test drive the course at a seriously accessible price, hit reply and let me know.
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Cheers to a happy pelvis!
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Cecily
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