March Theme — Reset for the Pelvic Floor, Deep Core, and Hips

March has arrived! In Prague, it isn’t quite spring, but the sun has finally revealed itself, and we’re slowly waking up after a long winter.

Nevertheless, the residue of the colder months remains. If you pause and actually notice your body right now, you might feel that winter has left its imprint. From hips feeling a bit dense to the lower belly remaining guarded, it all contributes to tension that prevents the breath from dropping as deeply as it could. It’s natural to turn inwards during the darker part of the year, and sometimes that holding and coiling is not easily released. 

So it feels appropriate that this month we bring our attention to the deepest centre of the body: the pelvic floor, the deep core, and the hips. We can think of it as spring cleaning for the body. Of course, we will be working from the inside out, but I don’t mean a detox or a cleanse, more like opening the windows and letting air circulate in places that have felt closed.

The seat of support, and so much more

Anatomically, the pelvic floor is a group of muscles that support your organs, manage pressure when you cough or lift something heavy, and coordinate with your diaphragm when you breathe. It also works with the deep abdominal muscles and small spinal stabilisers to create real, functional core strength.

The problem is that many of us are not weak at our foundation; we’re tense. Busy people juggling responsibility and expectation often live in low-grade contraction. It shows up as tight hips, stubborn low back tension, difficulty relaxing in deep stretches, or even discomfort that doesn’t quite have a clear cause. We want it to be able to relax just as much as we want it to engage, so responsiveness is the key. 

When you inhale, the diaphragm descends and, ideally, the pelvic floor gently yields. When you exhale, both recoil and lift. It’s a subtle pressure system, and another miraculous part of the human body. 

In our classes this month, to strengthen our awareness and tap into this powerful mechanism, you’ll notice a lot of emphasis on:

• 360-degree breathing
• Slow exhale-led engagement
• Complete softening on inhale

All in service of developing a happier and more responsive pelvic floor. 

Hips, they hold more than we think

The hips are an important part of the equation, too. As the bridge between the upper and lower body, they transfer force, stabilise gait, and absorb load. But they’re also incredibly responsive to stress. Long days of sitting, emotional strain, pushing through fatigue, the body adapts by guarding or “protecting.” There’s a reason hip openers can feel unexpectedly emotional.

The hips are deeply connected to our sense of safety, autonomy, and agency. And from a philosophical lens, this region is the seat of grounding and generative power. As such, I want to explore movement that allows us to create space in the hips so we can feel supported from the inside out. To coordinate breath with movement so that the hips, deep core system, diaphragm, pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, and spinal stabilisers work as an integrated whole.

If really deep stretches, like splits, are part of your curiosity, this work will support them far more than any other passive hamstring stretch ever could. True flexibility requires stability at the end range, as well as access to relaxation. Without that balance, we either over-stretch or over-clench, and neither feels particularly liberating or is sustainable long-term. 

Going into spring feeling open, supple, and ready for what awaits 

As always, I’ve got yoga on my mind when I’m engaged in my second favourite activity (reading), too. And with this theme coming into focus, I’ve been thinking about something Virginia Woolf wrote regarding how the souls we most wish to resemble “are always the supplest.” Because “a self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.” She goes on to say:

Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotch-potch of impulses, our perpetual miracle — for the soul throws up wonders every second. Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death…

So, we aim for suppleness, not only in the body, but in the way we inhabit ourselves.

In anatomical terms, this means a pelvic floor that can lift when needed and fully soften when safe to do so. Hips that can stabilise under load and release into depth. A core that supports without armouring. In more expansive terms, it means we are not frozen in one shape, physically or otherwise.

What will this look like in class?

We’ll begin with awareness of the breath, feeling how it drops into the ribcage and lower belly, noticing whether the jaw and pelvic floor move together (they often do), and practising the full exhale. 

From there, we’ll transfer that coordination into strength: deep core, integrated rotation, creative lunge variations, and (my favourite) slow transitions. We’ll spend time in deep squats that lengthen the pelvic floor as much as they strengthen the hips. We’ll explore dynamic movements that build elasticity instead of rigidity.

We will also explore more expansive shapes, deeper hip work, and perhaps even split progressions. Overall, I hope to leave you feeling steady enough to take risks and follow your heart in the months ahead. We will be reminded that we are not frozen in one version of ourselves. We are allowed to change.

We can become, in Woolf’s words, more supple. More alive.

I’m so looking forward to moving through this with you ❤