This week I signed up to a training course to become a certified Hypopressives Trainer for Pelvic Health. This curious curve-ball has actually been weaving its way into my life for the last few years, since I first attended a hypopressives class in Spain with a friend and was struck by the positive feedback from the group (all women) and the benefits I felt within my own body and mind, and also because it seemed intimately linked to the topic of deep core/pelvic floor awareness that my women’s yoga offerings are grounded in. But, in truth, this intriguing thread has been with me for much longer than this because hypopressives are based on a particular breath technique, which creates a vacuum-like effect (called an ‘apnea’) on a breath-hold in the abdominal/pelvic area, which is, in essence, the activation of uddiyana bandha, a yoga kriya (cleansing practice) that is thousands of years old and that I have been practising almost daily for decades. The ratio breathing and breath retention is also reminiscent of ancient yoga pranayama practices, so no wonder it all feels so familiar and aligned.
Hypopressive exercises are proven to improve the muscle tone of our deep core muscles, including the diaphragm, transversus abdominis, psoas, internal obliques and pelvic floor muscles, and can help prevent and reduce symptoms of pelvic floor issues such as prolapse, incontinence and pelvic floor tightness/pain, as well as correcting posture, balancing the nervous system and many other benefits. It is an embryonic area of scientific research and, although it’s clear that the practice is beneficial, and indeed the yogis have known this for a long time, the exact physiological mechanism that creates the apnea isn’t yet known. It was originally thought to be due to a lowering of pressure in the intra-abdominal/pelvic area of the body (hence the name ‘hypopressives’, which indicates low pressure). However, very recent evidence, which in fact I only heard about once I had signed up to the training course, suggests that there is no significant lowering of intra-abdominal/pelvic pressure after all, although it’s thought that the pressure of the thoracic cavity above the diaphragm may lower instead.
After a bit of a wobble on my part, whereby I questioned the sense of pursuing study in a therapeutic area that didn’t yet understand its own physiological process, I followed a gut instinct and decided to proceed. This was helped by the measured, thorough response of Alice Housman, my trainer, who is dedicated to transparency and to creating her own evidence base of results in this fast-developing world of research.
It feels both edgy and exciting to be moving into such a new area of scientific discovery and I note that there needs to be a level of trust and faith within myself to continue with this line of enquiry. But, yes, that trust is there. I trust the wisdom of the ancient yogis, who understood this vacuum-based kriya was important. And I trust the wisdom of my body and my intuition, which has guided me to this piece of work.
It feels to me like I am at an interface that I’ve been drawn to for a long time; the convergence of ancient spiritual wisdom and modern scientific study. It has long been my feeling that there is great treasure where these worlds meet and merge, as the convergence honours both our brain hemispheres and allows a bridging and melding of these, which, to me, speaks to the ‘union’ of yoga (yoga means ‘to yoke, unite, join together’). Through yoga we bring all sides of our being together, in union – mind, body and spirit, conscious, unconscious and super-conscious, masculine and feminine energy, left and right brain hemispheres, or however else you want to look at it.
Already I am feeling the fruits of this new avenue of study and research. It is taking me down all kinds of intriguing wormholes of research, such as myofascial release of the pelvic floor for women, as a means of addressing prolapse and other pelvic issues, and the concept of ‘biotensegrity‘ as the way the body tissues are held together in a web-like whole, through fascia. The world of fascia has long had me enthralled – we are only just scratching the surface of understanding the immense wisdom of this incredible web of interconnectivity through the body, and I sense that this wisdom will only be fully accessed once we unite our left and right brain hemispheres, as fascia is highly, highly sensitive and subtle in its workings.
As I dive deeply into this work I can feel my pelvic bowl stirring in response. Memories, emotions and sensations are arising that have been buried in there for decades. So, as I buckle down to study my training modules I simultaneously bow down in reverence at the temple door of my pelvic bowl and all that it contains and knows. I open to receive the teachings of both modern science and ancient yogic practices, and feel my body open up and soften at this union.
frond yoga with Rebecca May 