It is not as new of a concept as one would think...

 

Low Pressure Fitness is a comprehensive movement system that targets the core and pelvic floor muscles (coordinating and toning the muscles), restores posture and myo-fascial mobility and helps to improve breathing by focusing on diaphragm and lateral rib cage movement and position. A hypopressive or abdominal vacuum is often used while performing the technical poses and movements within Low Pressure Fitness creating reduced pressure throughout the abdomen and pelvic girdle.

 

Hypopressives have been used in certain yoga practices for hundreds of years. During the 1980’s in Europe, Dr. Marcel Caufriez started researching the use of hypopressives for women to help improve pelvic floor dysfunction such as pelvic organ prolapse. By 2006, Dr. Tamara Rial and Dr. Piti Pinsach continued to expand on the research of Dr. Caufriez, developing a comprehensive workout, exercise and postural system built on the hypopressive techniques, and in 2014, Low Pressure Fitness was created. The goal was to create a whole body workout and routine easily accessible for the general public to help improve pelvic floor dysfunction and combat some of the negative effects traditional popular sports can cause. How come you haven’t heard of this yet? It started in Spain and quickly spread to Latin American countries. So if you You Tube LPF, many examples are in Spanish. In Spain it has become the preferred method of training postpartum moms. It is beginning to take root in North America, first in Canada and more recently in the US. With increased awareness, the prevalence of Pelvic Floor dysfunction (according to the NIH, 1in 3 women experience some form of pelvic floor dysfunction), and education availability more practitioners including Pelvic Health Physical Therapists are incorporating the techniques into their treatment plans. To become Low Pressure Fitness certified you need to complete all 3 levels of training as well as take a competency exam.

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Hypopressives means reduced pressure. So let’s take an example of a crunch or sit up, when we perform these we are actually creating a HYPER-pressive environment in our core, increasing pressure that will effect our deep core structures and eventually that pressure over time can exacerbate already weakened structures. Pressure working toward the abdominal wall can create an abdominal hernia, pressure heading backwards toward the spine can cause increased disc pressure contributing to a herniated disc and finally pressure that travels through the pelvis can cause pelvic organ prolapse or pressure on the bladder causing urinary dysfunction or incontinence. Hyper-pressive situations occur all day long as we move, lift our children, pick up things and even go #2. With hypopressives, we reduce the pressure while improving spinal alignment to better adapt our bodies to handle daily pressures as we function. Check out this video performing Diaphragmatic/rib cage breathing then performing the hypopressive or abdominal vacuum!