I used to pee my pants (just a little) when I “walked like a lady” (legs close together). No, I’ve never given birth, so I can’t blame it on that—many women who have never given birth experience incontinence. Incontinence is not a natural result of having a vaginal delivery (that would be a pretty crappy design of the human body). Incontinence may be a sign that you have a weak pelvic floor because you’re not using your body the way nature intended. Excessive sitting, positive-heeled shoes, and cultural messages (walk, sit, stand like a lady) have all shaped our minds and bodies. We are how we move…or don’t move.
Drop a plumb line from your ASIS; it should fall mid-point through the knee and ankle.
When I started walking with my feet the correct distance apart, I no longer had a problem with incontinence (or the feeling of urgency). Walking with my feet pelvis-width apart also helped my femurs move out of internal rotation. Notice how my knee is a smidgeon the inside of the plumb line, not because I need to widen my stance, but because my femur is internally rotated.
Walking with my femurs in neutral helped to support my pelvic floor (the pelvic floor does NOT work in isolation). The result I experienced wasn’t just that I was able to “hold it in” better, but the actual urge to pee went away. It felt as if something lifted off my bladder. Perhaps the change in femur position also lifted my uterus off my bladder? BTW, I’m not positive femur position can affect uterine position, I’m just playing detective with my own body. This is what I concluded:
The cardinal ligament is known as the main supporting ligament of the uterus, upper vagina, and cervix. It attaches in a circular pattern around the cervix and moves laterally to the obturator fascia along the pelvic sidewalls. Inferiorly, it is continuous with the fascia on the upper surface of the levator muscles. The obturator internus attaches to the medial aspect of the greater trochanter (see image below), so this got me thinking that a neutral femur might help support the cardinal ligament. It also makes me wonder if “incompetent cervix” has to do with a disruption of flow through the ligament to the cervix due to poor alignment or a tight pelvic floor. I haven’t come across any studies suggesting my femur/uterus hypothesis; I’m just going by how it feels to me. If you know of any studies on the uterine and femoral positions, let me know. In the meantime, all I can say is pelvic and femur alignment is working for me!
Please don’t force “alignment”. Walking should be reflex-driven. I can’t emphasize enough how difficult it is to know where you are when just starting on the alignment path, and how easy it is to force “alignment” at the expense of your tissues. That’s why working with a trained professional in whole-body alignment is so important. I recommend working with a Nutritious Movement™ certified restorative exercise specialist.
It’s essential to build up your lateral hip strength while standing first, and to avoid pushing your body into movements it’s not used to during gait. This is some of what I did to strengthen my lateral hip musculature. I’m including it here as a note to myself and as homework for the clients I already work with. pelvic lists and monster walks, and I worked on getting my femurs out of internal rotation. And of course, foot position and shoe choice are a great place to start.
