We only remember the pelvic floor when something goes wrong. But if we take care of it will not give us problems. It will also provide us with better posture and body awareness.
What is the pelvic floor? Anatomically it is the group of muscles that line the floor of the pelvis. Defined in a more understandable way, it is about the musculature that we have between the legs.
Just because you miss your pee doesn’t mean your pelvic floor is weak. It means it doesn’t work well. It may be because it is a weakened pelvic floor, but it may also be that your muscles are too tense. A tight muscle doesn’t work. Do not treat yourself, consult professionals.
The physiotherapists specialized in pelvic floor can help you, they know the functioning of this balloon and reeducate the pressure system. They can work as a team with an osteopath.
Raise your posture, bring consciousness to your pelvic floor, do perineal exercises, breathe… Posture and stretching are the keys to pelvic floor health. But you can also help yourself with the exercises we propose.
5 EXERCISES FOR THE PELVIC FLOOR
1. GROW UP LIKE A QUEEN
This exercise is excellent for activating the abdominal girdle and deep pelvic floor.
- Rest your back on the wall, including your head and sacrum.
- Tie a rubber band above your knees and put a bag of seeds or something that weighs a little on the top of your head.
- Bend your knees. The more flexion, the more intense the work. At the same time the knees keep the rubber tense during exercise.
- Breathe and, when the air is removed, take the bag to the ceiling. Push the wall with the sacrum and elbows (hands do not detach from the wall). Elongation, that is, growth, is the most important thing. It grows from the ears, not from the chest or nose.
- Take 10 breaths.
2. WAKE UP YOUR BUTTOCKS
It strengthens the buttocks and activates the deep pelvic floor and abdominal girdle.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent.
- Tie your legs, comfortably, without bringing them together completely, with a rubber band or a long handkerchief, above the knees. Separate them and press against the rubber throughout the exercise. That will activate your gluteus medius. Hold on to your heels.
- When the air is removed, raise the tailbone (rump) towards the ceiling, as if stretched from there.
- Stay up, breathing fluidly, with the idea of trying to move your knees away from your face, growing in opposite directions.
- When you go down, take out the air, as if you were hanging from the tailbone. This is the last one to touch the ground.
- Repeat 10 times.
3. WARD OFF CONGESTION AND RELAX
This is an excellent posture to decongest the pelvis and relax the diaphragm. It is especially indicated for women who suffer from prolapse (organ descent) or hemorrhoids.
- Stretch on your back on a cushion slide.
- The whole back has to be comfortably supported. The pelvis is higher than the head. Keep your chin up. Put your hands on your ribs, under and outside your breasts. That’s where the diaphragm lives. Men can do it too. The pelvic floor is not just a women’s thing.
- As you breathe in, bring your breath into your hands. Feel how, every time you take in air, your ribs push your hands out (right and left). Do not swell the belly, open the ribs. Keep the focus on your shoulders. They must not go up; they must always be relaxed.
4. PROTECT YOURSELF QUICKLY!
This exercise trains the rapid contraction of the pelvic floor, very necessary to close quickly and protect against a sneeze, a cough …
- Distribute the weight evenly between hands, knees and feet. The hands look at each other. Elbows slightly flexed. The shoulders away from the ears. Keep your back straight and your gaze toward the ground.
- Elonga, that is, it grows gently from the head, as if pushing, with the chin collected.
- Make an explosive contraction, as fast and stronger as you can. The contraction is rapid and brief.
- Then relax completely. It is very important to allow the muscles to relax completely before the next contraction. Watch the tension in your jaw.
- Repeat 10 times, breathing between each contraction.
5. PRACTICE WITH THE ELEVATOR
This is a Kegel exercise to work the pelvic floor, both superficial and deep.
- Sit on a cushion or blanket that makes a little wedge forward, without supporting your back. Make sure your shoulders are relaxed.
- Imagine that your vagina is an elevator. It closes the “doors” (superficial musculature) and then goes up 5 floors (deep musculature). You can count them out loud. Draw out the air as the elevator goes up. By inspiring, it relaxes. Take two rest breaths before the next contraction.
- Repeat 10 times.
SYMPTOMS THAT THE PELVIC FLOOR IS NOT WELL
Some symptoms reveal that the pelvic floor muscles are not in the best state:
- Does your pee slip away?
- Do you have to run to the bathroom when you get home?
- Does it hurt during sex?
- Have you missed an anal or vaginal “air”?
- Do you feel like you’re wearing a bad tampon?
- Do you have a feeling of weight in your lower belly?
- Does it cost or hurt to go belly?
Any of these symptoms or problems that affect the urinary, gynecological, sexual or defecatory world is reason enough to make a consultation about the state of the pelvic floor with a specialized physiotherapist.
WHY DOES THE PELVIC FLOOR GIVE SO MANY PROBLEMS?
When you imagine the pelvic floor, you surely visualize it as a hammock. It is a logical idea, but incomplete. The pelvic floor doesn’t hang down there, isolated. It is part of a larger sphere-shaped ensemble: the abdominopelvic sphere.
Imagine the sphere as a balloon:
- The top part is the diaphragm.
- The wall is the transverse of the abdomen – the deepest muscle of the abdominals.
- The bottom is the pelvic floor.
All three parties work as a team. When you squeeze the balloon from above the other side bulges. The pressure coming from above falls down, on the pelvic floor.
The pelvic floor is not just a women’s thing. Men have it too, only that, due to obvious anatomical differences, we express different problems. Men have the same pressure system as women.
RE-EDUCATE THE SYSTEM
The pelvic floor is not usually the source of problems, but suffers the consequences. The sphere is deprogrammed and the pelvic floor is over-pressured, which often weakens it.
It is necessary to reeducate the system so that the abdominal girdle, the pelvic floor and the diaphragm work as a team again, that is, correctly distributing the pressures. For this reason, too local a focus on the pelvic floor (such as when only Kegel exercises are performed) falls short.
FROM HYPOPRESSIVE EXERCISES TO HYPOPRESSIVE ATTITUDE
It is certainly necessary to work when there are problems, but as much or more interesting is to prevent them. We will achieve this by adopting a hypopressive attitude, that is, learning to live taking into account the pelvic floor, without falling on it, respecting it. The hypopressive attitude is a bodily and vital attitude.
We say that the pelvic floor is “a world of queens”, because posture is the base. It is a deployed, expanded, open posture… And elongation is its key. When stretching (with the chin collected) we activate the abdominal girdle.
A queen posture opens spaces, decreases pressure, activates friendly muscles and optimizes the functioning of the abdominopelvic sphere.
Play at home: put a weight on your head and start walking like a queen!