Supple like a stingray

February 23, 2025 Maggie Yount

Stiffness exists in many realms, Like, wow. It had been HARD to get myself off of Instagram.
I have some awesome connections there and I love following a bunch of accounts and supporting my friends. If you’re on IG, I’m guessing you feel the same.
But, I REALLY don’t want to support Zuck with my presence and my content anymore. And yet, it’s really hard to tear myself away.
I’m noticing how that is 100% by design, AND the habit of getting on social media all the time is a lot like a shortened muscles that doesn’t want to stretch, doesn’t want the discomfort of doing something new.

But it’s necessary. So today, I stretched. As I started to create a post on IG out of habit, I was able to stop and think, “this would be a great short blog post.” So here we are!

So, as you think about preparing your pelvic floor for birth, you might still have the 1998 Cosmo magazine version of a Kegel at top of mind.
Contract your pelvic floor 100 times a day and strive for a “tight pu***”!
Because tighter is better!
Right?!
WRONG.

I want to let you in on a little secret that contradicts so much of what women are told.
Think of it this way. Your pelvic floor doesn’t push you baby out. Your uterus does! And your pelvic floor muscles (three layers of muscle at the base of your pelvis that hold your pelvic organs up and in) just need to get out of the way. They need to soften, lengthen, and relax so they can STRETCH.
A tight muscle is also a weak muscle. It can’t move through its full range of motion, so when it needs to contract or lengthen, it can’t and it’s more likely to TEAR.

And tearing is a really common fear during birth.

But there’s a lot you can do to stack the cards in your favor to minimize that risk. Instead of thinking you need a tight pelvic floor, think instead about how you can make it SUPPLE. Like a wet, floppy stringray. Hear me out.
They’re not floppy because their tissues have no integrity, they’re floppy because they’re strong and soft at the same time.
How can you create something similar in your pelvic floor muscles? You can create balance, quieting areas that are overactive, and waking up the areas that are asleep. How can you notice your posture, how you stand, and repeated ways you move every day?

An exercise I love for helping to encourage more pelvic floor balance is pictured below. It’s called a “shin box” in traditional fitness but if you have a better, birthy name for it please let me know in the comments!
Why is it good? The 90/90 position of the legs in front and behind creates internal rotation of the femur on the rear leg, and external rotation of that same thigh bone on the front leg! Opposing rotational directions means the pelvis itself is being moved, opening the pelvic outlet on one side, and closing it on the other, while giving the pelvic floor muscles a different kind of stretch through the mid-pelvis with these gentle oppositional forces. When two bones move closer together, the muscle fibers between them shorten. If both legs are externally rotated (knees out) all the time, it’s making your pelvic outlet smaller and those muscle fibers in your pelvic floor can shorten and get tight.

So if we just wanted the stretch and mobility exercise, we could end it with the dynamic 90/90 and call it good. But by adding a kind of kneeling squat where the glutes have to lift you up over the shin and sit you back down with control, you’re also building glute strength, which helps take load and strain off the pelvic floor. If your glutes are weak, your pelvic floor can hold tension to try to make up for that weakness, so tune in to your body and see what you think.

Got questions? Leave them in the comments!