Unlock Your Core Powerhouse: 9 Transformative Pelvic Floor Tips for Strength & Resilience
Imagine a hammock for your bladder and bowels, a cradle for your reproductive organs, and a gateway to pleasure. That's the magic of your pelvic floor. Train it and unlock your body’s superhero!
However, our pelvic floor muscles and pelvic floor health in general are often overlooked or avoided out of shame and embarrassment. But it is crucial that we, as women, pay attention to our pelvic floor. Our pelvic floor can become weakened due to various factors, including childbirth, aging, surgery and strenuous activities. Addressing pelvic floor health is essential for overall well-being and can significantly improve quality of life.
Continue reading to learn my 9 transformational tips for pelvic floor health. If you are struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction bringing strength and balance back to this part of your anatomy can be life-changing. Be empowered to take your pelvic floor health back into your own hands.
Tip 1: Recognize the Importance of Pelvic Floor Health
The first step in regaining or maintaining pelvic floor health is to learn about and understand its importance.
The consequences of compromised pelvic floor health range from urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and sexual dysfunction. These issues can significantly impact daily activities, exercise, sexual health, self-esteem, confidence, and relationships. All things that are incredibly important to a happy and healthy life! Therefore, we can see that understanding and addressing pelvic floor health concerns is crucial.
Most women know about their pelvic floor, but until you’ve experienced issues with your pelvic floor muscles you may not have thought too much about what having a healthy pelvic floor means.
The health of our pelvic floor is a paramount part of our physical, mental, and emotional well-being as women. The best time to start giving your pelvic floor some love and attention is before you notice any symptoms of an imbalance. This will help prevent problems associated with your pelvic floor as you start having children and/or aging.
>>> Learn more about the benefits of having a healthy pelvic floor
Tip 2: Empower Yourself with Knowledge
The first step towards improving pelvic floor health is gaining knowledge about its anatomy and function.
The pelvic floor muscles support our internal organs such as the bladder, bowel, uterus, and vagina. They stabilize our lower back, hips, and spine. They play an important role in sex, pregnancy, and childbirth. Understanding the muscles, their role, and potential problems can empower individuals to take proactive measures.
Online resources, including my Instagram, other blog posts, my monthly Yoga for Pelvic Floor class & my 2-part self-paced workshop “Beyond the Kegel” are great places to develop your pelvic floor knowledge. Pelvic floor physical therapy (PT), and self-help guides can provide valuable information.
Tip 3: Develop a mind-body-breath connection to identify and Address Issues
Developing a strong mind-body-breath connection is key to pelvic floor health. Explore mindful breathing techniques and gentle movements that engage and release the pelvic floor muscles. Practices like diaphragmatic breathing and yoga can enhance awareness, promoting relaxation and flexibility.
Pelvic floor issues are unique to everyone
This is why it is important to do individualized work with the pelvic floor, understand the pelvic floor, how our anatomy works in general, and how your unique anatomy works.
This is important because you may be doing Kegels for pelvic floor dysfunction that may be actually made worse by this type of exercise.
There are ways that we can empower ourselves to become attuned to our pelvic floor and where it may be weak or tight so that we can work with OURSELVES and other pelvic floor professionals in an individualized way.
The best way to become sensitive and aware of our pelvic floor ourselves is through the breath. Most of us pay attention to our breath during yoga or meditation. But we really want to pay attention to and feel the breath in all areas of our lives.
We want to feel every sensation that the breath is creating and how we are creating sensation with intentional breathing.
This illustrates places in our body that might be tight.
Once we establish a healthy and full breathing pattern, we can naturally start to feel what is happening in the pelvic floor. As the pelvic floor naturally lifts and drops with our breath due to the pressurized canister in our torso created between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor muscles. More about this in tip 5.
Pay attention to any signs of urinary or fecal incontinence, pelvic pressure, or sexual dysfunction. If these issues arise, it's essential to seek professional guidance. I always recommend seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist if you are having issues, especially if you have had any surgery on your pelvic floor or have given birth. They can assess the muscles' strength, identify any imbalances, and recommend personalized exercises and treatment plans.
In our Core & Floor workshop, we teach people to experience what is happening in their pelvic floor so they can understand this multi-layered, multidimensional system.
Tip 4: Connect to the core
The core plays a crucial role in our pelvic floor health. Here I’m talking about the entire core, not just the 6-pack abs.
The core is going much bigger than you may realize. It’s made up of the transverse abdominals, that wrap around your body. This is the sides and the outside of the core. The bottom of the core is the pelvic floor muscles themselves!
Then in our back, we have little muscles that run alongside the spine to stabilize it.
At the top of the core, we have the diaphragm, which you can think of as creating a canister or can in our torso.
By maintaining a strong, balanced, and healthy core, our pelvic floor muscles and diaphragm can work together, lifting and contracting as they were designed to do - leading to enhanced pelvic floor function.
The deep core & pressure in the pelvic floor
The transverse abs in the deep core are so important. Most of us are rectus abdominis dominant (the 6-pack abs). However, most women tend to shrink away from the waistband and hug the navel into the spine.
However, the diaphragm is supposed to be dropping down toward that space. If the diaphragm gets locked in the navel to the spine, all that breath goes up and the pressure in the pelvic floor goes down causing dysfunction.
Pelvic floor function and dysfunction are all about managing pressure.
What we need to do is build 3D core strength
Establishing healthy breathing patterns that correctly connect to the movement of the pelvic floor and three-dimensional core strength are the foundations of a healthy pelvic floor.
In our Core & Floor Foundations workshop, we work with pelvic floor breath and the three dimensions of the core. We work on building awareness of all of the other core muscles through lateral movements.
This is why many of the pelvic floor exercises we teach have nothing to do with Kegels and have all to do with the subtle contractions of the core. This also incorporates pelvic floor breath to bring sensation to the movement of our pelvic diaphragm.
Tip 5: Do Pelvic Floor Exercises that go Beyond the Kegel
While Kegel exercises are often recommended for pelvic floor health, a holistic approach involves a diverse range of physical and breathing exercises. Tailor your exercise plan to address your unique needs and problem areas.
Exercises like yoga, Pilates, and pelvic floor PT exercises can strengthen and tone the muscles, enhancing their support and function.
With pelvic floor exercises, we aim to train our pelvic floor to fully relax and contract quickly and to also have endurance.
Connect the breath first
Establishing a healthy breathing pattern first is essential.
When you think of maintaining the pelvic floor, you may not first think of the breath! But breathing properly is key to maintaining pelvic floor health.
When we breathe properly, on the inhale, the diaphragm will expand downwards to make room for air in the lungs. This presses down on the pelvic floor.
As we exhale the diaphragm contracts upwards and pushes the breath out. It moves upward toward the torso, which releases the pressure of the pelvic floor.
This pattern creates the right amount of pressure to support the spine and organs. This pressure is regulated by the muscles of the diaphragm (the lid), the pelvic floor (the bottom), and the core muscles (the sides) which create a pressurized container, as mentioned previously.
Once we have established this breathing pattern we can begin to work with more complex pelvic floor movements.
Tip 6: Make Pelvic Floor Health a Priority
Integrating pelvic floor health into daily life is crucial for long-term benefits. Incorporating pelvic floor exercises into regular workouts, taking conscious breaks during the day to bring awareness to the expansion and contraction of the muscles with the breath, as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle can significantly improve pelvic floor function and overall well-being.
Tip 7: Pay Attention to Your Nutrition
A nutritious diet plays a crucial role in supporting overall health and this includes the pelvic floor! Explore foods rich in nutrients that promote tissue integrity, collagen production, and muscle health. Good hydration is also essential for maintaining tissue elasticity and overall well-being.
Tip 8: Be aware of your posture
We often underestimate the impact our posture can have on our pelvic floor health. Bad posture can negatively impact the integrity of the pressure in the core, resulting in too much stress being placed on the pelvic floor. Be mindful of the correct alignment of your spine as you move through your day.
Tip 9: Address your lifestyle habits
Simple lifestyle changes can have a big impact on pelvic floor health. There may even be some things you think are helpful for your health but may be compromising your pelvic floor function. This includes lifting heavy weights and strenuous exercise that is high impact. Prolonged sitting, abstaining from sex and excessive coughing can also compromise your pelvic floor. Evaluate and adjust your habits to minimize strain on the pelvic floor.
Embarking on a journey from awareness to action is a powerful step towards transformative pelvic floor health. By incorporating these practical tips into your daily life, you are not only fostering awareness of the pelvic floor but also taking concrete steps to nurture and strengthen your pelvic floor.
Enjoy the journey toward a healthier, more resilient you.
Beyond The Kegel: Core & Floor Foundations Workshop
Take your pelvic floor health one step further! Flourish’s self-paced online workshop, Core & Floor, may be exactly what you need!
Over 100 women have been through this workshop. Learn how about the pelvic floor, how it works, the issues we have with an imbalanced pelvic floor and to improve your pelvic floor health, the anatomy of your pelvic floor as well as many breathing and yoga exercises to bring your pelvic floor back into balance (there is so much more to pelvic floor health that keels!).
Receive access to all of this for 90 days for just $225:
Two 90-minute workshops on anatomy, breathwork & simple techniques to improve function
Four Home Practice Exercises from Sessions 1 and 2: a comprehensive handout plus several short & full-length videos
Breathwork, meditation, and more bonus videos of Core and floor exercises
You’ll have access to these videos for 90 days after purchase with the ability to download the 2 workshop recordings
