Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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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.