Pulling the Hip Bones closer

Many people forget that there are muscles higher up in the tummy which also contribute to good pelvic health. This is an exercise that will engage those muscles.

Lie on your back with your knees bent as shown in the diagram.

Run your hands over your hip bones. If you are well padded, like I am, you may have to push into your padding to find the underlying bones. They are there, honest!

Once you can feel your hip bones, start exploring them upwards and downwards. You should notice that there is one part that sticks out higher than the rest of your pelvic area and it's not that far from your waistline. This is the ASIS, the Anterior superior iliac spine. The inguinal ligament is attached to it. This ligament is also connected to the pubic bone.

When you are happy that you have found the ASIS on both sides touch each one with the index finger from the same side hand. So you touch the right ASIS with your right finger.

Now breathe in deeply. On your out breath try and pull your ASIS closer to each other. To begin with you may not feel a thing but keep trying. Have ten goes each time you try and try every day. One day you will feel that those fingers have been moved towards each other and you will get an awareness of muscles tightening across your stomach.

Remember we always tighten muscles across the tummy and pelvic area on out breaths, allowing us to relax any muscle tension for the in breath where to breathe deeply, the diaphragm needs space to expand.

When you first start practising this, it can feel as if nothing is happening. So it helps to visualise the actions.

You can imagine you desperately want to get into a pair of jeans and you have to pull your tummy in really hard to squeeze into them. That action should bring your ASIS closer as well as using other muscles.

You can imagine you have a thread attached to the two ASIS with a needle as if you are going to make a stitch. As you work to bring your ASIS together imagine that you are pulling the thread tighter.

Don't worry if you can't feel anything for several goes. You will. And it will help towards restoring your pelvic health and it might even enable you to get into the smaller jeans you were thinking about :- )