The traditional approach to bandha goes something like this:
We need to lift up the pelvic floor to connect to our core strength.
We need to draw navel to spine to engage our core to protect and stabilise the lower back.
Taking Moola Bandha first…
There is a general belief that our pelvic floor can become weak and by engaging it we can make it strong.
The problem with this is - many of us have a pelvic floor that is TOO TIGHT. This can be caused by many things - mental issues such as anxiety and stress, and physical things like posture and movement patterns.
A tight pelvic floor can give similar symptoms to a weak one - things like wetting your pants a bit when you laugh or cough - things like an urgent need to wee or poo RIGHT NOW - and other things that may seem unrelated like constipation and period pains.
The statistics are pretty surprising - 80% of all people (men and women of all ages) have some pelvic floor issue - and of those over half have a pelvic floor that is TOO TIGHT.
So for many people engaging Moola Bandha is counter-productive and potentially causing an already tight pelvic floor to tighten even more - and this can cause many uncomfortable, embarrassing and miserable symptoms.
Also if the pelvic floor is too long and weak then it’s best addressed by a proper diagnosis from a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist.
Here is a great TED talk that goes through a lot of these issues
And a great article on how engaging is not always helpful
Now let’s talk about Uddiyana Bandha, here we have been taught that “navel in and up” or “suck the belly in” or “navel to spine” will engage the “core” and protect the lower back.
However! The lower back is strong and stable and doesn’t need to be protected. And drawing navel to spine engages the deep Transverse Abdominus rather than a global engagement of the whole torso and could be actually weakening the over all strength of the core (by encouraging the other muscles to switch off). Also, drawing the belly in can be doing things like pushing the internal organs into the wrong place maybe contributing to hernias and restricting the movement of the diaphragm and the breath.
Here is a (very small but interesting) scientific study comparing “navel to spine” to “bracing”. Bracing is an over-all engagement - place your hands on your belly and do a “polite cough” Ahem! Do you feel that knitting together of all the abdominal muscles? Try doing some poses like chatturanga comparing navel to spine with the polite cough engagement and see for yourself which feels more stable and strong.
Here are some articles on whether “navel to spine” is the best cue
And finally….
My overall message is - the body knows what to do to engage and protect itself - we don’t need to do it through the bandhas - we can just let the body do it’s thing.
And one more thing…
As yoga teachers if we are using language in a way to suggest the body is somehow delicate and unsafe and we might hurt ourselves - that can cause fear - and feeling afraid or unsafe can create pain in the body - pain is very interesting and doesn’t work how we think.
My suggestion is that we could help our students by not cueing the bandhas and using language to encourage feelings of safety, trust and community