How to Engage your Pelvic Floor the Right Way
What are my Pelvic Floor Muscles?
Your pelvic floor muscles are that basket-shaped, group of muscles that sits in your pelvis and holds everything up and in place. If you sit on a yoga block longways and rock side to side, you should feel bones on both the right and left side between your legs. If you rock forward and back, you will feel your pubic bone and your coccyx (tail bone). That is roughly where the pelvic floor muscles rest into.
When do I need to work on them?
Those pelvic floor muscles have a pretty big job to do… but get ignored so often. And if you’re pregnant or if you had a baby… you’ll definitely need to recover and re-strengthen them throughout your journey.
Even if you are not pregnant or never had a baby, it will still benefit you to work this muscle… especially as you continue to get older and the body doesn’t function as it used to. 😉
How do I strengthen my pelvic floor?
You can do this by performing a simple Kegel.
How to:
- Think about stopping and starting the flow of urine. And if you can’t think about it, then the next time you go to the bathroom, practice it 😉. You can also think about pulling your vagina and anus, UP and into your pelvis. Make sure the rest of your body is relaxed, and your glutes and abdominal muscles aren’t engaging as well. We really want to just isolate this area first.
- Start with simply engaging and releasing for about 10-20 reps. This will work the fast-twitch muscle fibers that will help the pelvic floor respond when you sneeze, cough, or trip and fall.
- Subsequently, work on holding the contraction for 3 seconds and work your way to 15-30 seconds. Repeat for 2-3 sets and continue to increase your hold time as well. This will work those slow-twitch muscle fibers. Which will help the pelvic floor muscles be able to support your innards when your exercising, picking up and holding your kids or the groceries, or walking long distances.
- Check out the video above if you need more.
The result
It’ll become like second nature to engage these muscles and they will start firing on their own again… which is a big deal for some forgotten about muscles. Kegels are worth doing if you want to have full bladder control and prevent other problems and pain later on (such as a prolapse, back and abdominal pain, diastasis, etc.) Plus, the more you work your pelvic floor AND your transverse abdominal muscles (TA muscles), the stronger you will become in preventing these issues as well. Learn how to work engage your TA muscles here and keep your core safe during pregnancy.
And if you just feel like your stuck and can’t progress or you need help with your breathing and muscle control and completely rebuilding your pelvic core region, then please invest in yourself, by checking out and purchasing my Momma Pelvic Core Rehab-8 Week Program! Soon, I will also have a Pregnancy Pelvic Core Strengthening Program out as well. I’ll keep you posted if you are on my email list.
Let me know if you have any further questions in the comments below!
You do have a fabulous blog thanks. Ashly Garwin Landsman
Of course! Thanks for the feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed it.