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EXERCISES OF THE SECOND GROUP.
GYMNASTICS OF THE PELVIC FLOOR
CHAPTER V
Anatomy and Physiology
In dealing with the exercises of the pelvic zone, anatomical
explanations were unnecessary : but it is otherwise with
exercises of the pelvic floor. Detailed descriptions of the
anatomical structure and functions of this region cannot be
given in a practical manual on gymnastics, and I shall,
therefore, confine myself to tracing the main points, and
illustrate them by a few drawings. The medical reader of
this book needs no such explanation, and the lay student
will doubtless find the drawings more illuminating than any
text.
Plates I. and II. show the two main muscular layers of
the pelvic floor as they would appear viewed from outside
and from below, and after the outer skin and the layer of
fatty tissue between pubes, buttocks (tubera ischii) and
coccyx had been removed from the muscles. Plate L shows
the outer and much less powerful muscular layer which is
confined to the anterior position of the lower aperture of
the pelvic bones. Plate II. depicts the deeper layer, which
is also visible in its posterior or hinder portion on Plate I.
In both plates, the sphincter ani, the powerful muscle which
closes and supports the outer aperture of the lower bowel,
is shown, but does not come much into our consideration
here, although it may be reckoned as part of the pelvic
floor, which it helps to support. It is also more or less
affected by the voluntary contraction of the perineal muscles.
But on the whole, the sphincter ani is a separate and indepen-
dent entity, fully occupied in its special function of closing
and guarding the rectum and bowel.
