My Pelvic Floor is Where?!

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles, nerves, vessels and connective tissues that sit within your hip bones, and functions to:
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• Support your pelvis (hips and tail bone)
• Support vital organs (bladder, uterus, rectum)
• Allow for sexual intercourse through the vaginal and rectal canals
• Facilitate respiration/breathing
• Prevent leakage of urine and poop
• Maintain upright posture

Just like the muscles of your arms and legs, your pelvic floor muscles can become tight, overstretched, weak and hypertonic (overactive). A dysfunctional pelvic floor can lead to urinary incontinence ("oops, I peed a little"), pain with sex, constipation, chronic pelvic pain and pain in other areas of the body. Trigger points, or hyper-irritable points in tight muscles, in the pelvic floor can refer to the low back, hips, thighs, knees and abdomen.

To locate & tune in to your pelvic floor, start with taking a few belly breaths. As you exhale, try a few of these cues to wake up your nether regions:

• Imagine there's a straw in your vagina, and you're slowly sucking up a thick milkshake.
• "Wink" your clitoris towards your tail bone
• A blueberry is resting on your vagina. Draw it gently into the vagina without squishing it!
• ​Think about the edges of your vagina as the top of a drawstring bag & pull on the strings.

This contraction of your pelvic floor muscles is commonly referred to as a "Kegel". Contractions and strengthening can be very helpful for some people, but is NOT a cure-all for postpartum moms or those struggling with incontinence. In many cases, pelvic floor relaxation is more important.

Are you dealing with leakage, prolapse, pain or constipation? A pelvic floor physical therapist can help.

Illustration from Pelvic Guru.

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