Many of us only think of Kegels when we think of pelvic floor function!

However, pelvic floor function has got so much more to it than that! Depending on your dysfunction you may be doing more harm than good with Kegels.

In this post, I share in depth the anatomy of the pelvic floor and the core and how it relates to the core and the breath. I share a few core and breathing exercises to help you build sensitivity and stability in the pelvic floor and so you what pelvic floor health is beyond the Kegel.

My journey to pelvic floor education

After I completed my 300-hour teacher training with my teaching partner, Jenny Armstrong, we got onto the topic of pelvic floor and pelvic floor dysfunction. We are always talking about the pelvic floor and comparing notes!

What we noticed is that we don’t hear much about pelvic floor function and dysfunction in a way that is informative or helpful.

However, during our teacher training, we learned all about the breath and the beautiful and complex system in our anatomy.

When we think of the pelvic floor, many of us just think of not peeing when we sneeze but it is SO much more than that!

The anatomy of the pelvic floor

Our pelvic floor is a big structure that is like a bowl between our pelvic bones, that connects our lower body and our upper body. This is a huge amount of space and much more than just where we pee from ;).

What this means is that we can’t Kegel our way to a healthy pelvic floor! We also need to be thinking about our abs, spine, and our breath which are equally as important.

My story of pelvic floor dysfunction

I started having pelvic floor dysfunction after pelvic surgery. I had a benign tumor removed that turned out to be much bigger than they thought it was going to be! The surgeons went ahead and removed the entire tumour and, in the process, caused a lot of damage to my pelvic floor muscles. They went right in there and yanked it out which caused issues to develop!

The doctors didn’t talk to me about my pelvic floor and because we don’t talk about this stuff much, I didn’t end up getting pelvic floor therapy until much later.

Jenny’s journey with pelvic floor dysfunction

Jenny found out that her pelvic floor muscles were too tight. Many people think yoga and Pilates teachers shouldn’t have this kind of dysfunction because they should be strong and always doing Kegels.

However, even if you’re working those muscles, you may be working them too much and creating too much tightness (instead of weakness) which also results in dysfunction.

Beyond the Kegel

There is so much more to pelvic floor health than Kegel exercises. There is a much bigger picture to consider! When we go beyond the Kegel we look to the breath and the core and how they interact with one another to create balance and stability within the pelvic floor area.

The breath

In our training, we teach a motion that we call pelvic floor breath. When we practice this breath, as we inhale that body expands and the breath goes down into the body, allowing the diaphragm to descend.

This means that the pelvic floor needs to also lengthen and descend as, now we know, our entire core system is like a pressurized can.

Then as we exhale the pelvic floor and the diaphragm lift together.

Issues with the breath

All too often we can find ourselves tightening and tensing as we breathe and can establish reverse breathing patterns. We may find that we breathe up on the inhale instead of down and breathe down on the exhale instead of up.

There are a couple of different exercises we can do to establish healthy breathing patterns.

Breathing patterns are crucial to the pelvic floor

This is why one of the primary things we teach is how to develop a healthy breathing pattern! Without a healthy breathing pattern, you can’t feel the pelvic floor.

And feeling the pelvic floor is where the rubber hits the road in pelvic floor health.

I used to do Kegels all the time and wonder whether I was doing it right. And the answer is I wasn’t. I usually was tensing my glutes because I didn’t even know what my pelvic floor felt like. In my Core & Floor Foundations workshop, my teaching partner Jenny and I teach women HOW to feel the sensations of the PF, and HOW to correctly – activate and relax the muscles.

The pelvic floor is our second diaphragm.

Without even knowing what the pelvic floor feels like and without doing any effort, the pelvic floor responds. It is very dynamic; it moves with us without us even thinking about it.

The pelvic floor is a diaphragm.

It’s a disc of tissue at the base of the pelvis that descends as we inhale, and the lung diaphragm descends and lifts as we exhale it lifts.

We teach this breath, where we become sensitive to feeling the movements of the pelvic floor.

The core

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.

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 (these are the 6-pack abs). Most women tend to shrink away from the waistband and hug the navel into the spine – this is what we always hear in fitness classes.

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.

This is how we sneeze and do a bouncy workout without leaking and so on.

The transverse abs vs 6-pack abs

The transverse abs are a diagonal structure that wraps around the body and moves inward. The outer abs or obliques move in a diagonal direction as well. But the 6-pack abs only contract and expand in one direction which is limiting and promotes that tendency for us to hunch forward in our daily life.

What we need to do is build 3D core strength

The breath along with full 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, but also with the psoas as part of the hip flexor and the core.

We work on building awareness of all of the other core muscles through lateral movements (which our 6-pack abs have nothing to do with).

This is why many of the pelvic floor exercises we teach have nothing to do with kegels and are all to do with the subtle contractions of the core which also incorporate pelvic floor breath to bring sensation to the movement of our pelvic diaphragm.

4 foundational exercises for the pelvic floor

Exercise 1: Three-dimensional breath

In Western society, we tend to lean forward (over desks, steering wheels, phones, etc) so our breath becomes really compressed and our shoulders get tight.

In a healthy body, 60% of the breath should come forward from the belly but 40% should be behind the midline ie into the back!

But most of us are so tight in the thoracic spine, lumbar spine, and cervical spine which means most of us aren’t breathing correctly.

This is why we need to work to get the lungs to function in three dimensions.

We do this by breathing into the side waist and the back, not just the belly. Sometimes you hear about belly breathing, which is another kind of a misnomer as we want to be breathing into the belly, the back, and the sides of the ribs, all at the same time.

To do this the upper back and ribs need to be more resilient.

Exercise 2: Child pose

This is a great pose to be in to feel the breath moving into the front and back of the body. I like to embrace a bolster so that the back of my ribcage and lower back can expand.

In this position, our pelvic floor is naturally open, allowing the sit bones to expand and open on the inhale and as we exhale we can feel them gently contract.

Exercise 3: Cat-Cow

Cat-cow is another great exercise to feel the breath and pelvic floor moving together. When we are in cow tilt, we inhale and the spine arches, and the belly descends towards the floor. The belly is soft and open and the pelvic floor is widening.

When we move into cat tilt, we exhale and tuck the tailbone and chin, rounding the spine and contracting the belly and pelvic floor. This also causes knitting in or contraction of the transverse abs.

Exercise 4: Constructive rest

Relaxing the pelvic floor is THE most important pelvic floor exercise. We do this by simply relaxing the entire body.

After every pelvic floor exercise, it is important to practice constructive rest.

Lying down with legs elevated on a chair

We let go and relax all muscles by lying down and elevating the legs on a chair. This helps the pelvic floor and core muscles to properly recover and strengthen.

Having the legs up on a chair help to support the weight of the legs so the glutes, lower back, and hip flexors can relax and let go fully. You can continue to practice 3D breathing while in constructive rest.

Happy Baby

Happy Baby from yoga is another way to practice constructive rest. By drawing the legs towards the chest (you don’t have to reach the feet) but drawing the knees towards the armpits is going to open and lengthen the pelvic floor. You can just take a couple of minutes to breathe here.

Why rest is so important

The pelvic floor is frequently too tight, so Kegels are going to do nothing to help. Kegels may also end up not strengthening the muscles that need to be strengthened and may end up leading to your doing more harm than good if you don’t fully know what we’re doing.

What Jenny & I teach is how to build whole health and improve function no matter what your issues are (see a physical therapist to treat & diagnose specific issues). The basis is feeling your pelvic floor, building integrated core strength, and establishing a healthy breath.

Core & Floor Foundations: Beyond the Kegel

Are you ready to learn more about your pelvic floor and exercises to keep it balanced and strong? 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 & Floor exercises
You’ll have access to these videos for 90 days after purchase with the ability to download the 2 workshop recordings

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