5 Things you didn’t knew about the pelvic floor

Pelvic floor muscle training is becoming popular thanks to the women’s health speciality of physiotherapy. But there are still some facts that you may not know about the pelvic floor muscles.

The pelvic floor is the inferior component of the CORE muscles

This means that when we plan CORE voluntary activation we should be activating the pelvic floor too! A workout without activating the pelvic floor is like only workout one leg or one arm. Anyways, people with healthy pelvic floor musculature activate and relax the pelvic floor unconsciously. When the pelvic floor is not working properly it’s when problems start happening… I explain more about it in the next point! Keep reading!

The pelvic floor becomes activated in every movement in which we need to maintain balance… maintains the continence

If we have urine leaks while coughing… jumping..sneezing… means that our pelvic floor is not becoming activated properly and we have to check why! As I was mentioning before the pelvic floor activates unconsciously while making any kind of movement. Once we stop the muscles relax a little bit. If we don’t engage the pelvic floor or don’t relax it properly we develop continence problems and pain.

When the pelvic floor is not strong enough it’s easier to have low back pain, urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunctions…

In order to solve these problems we have to do pelvic floor exercises guided by a physiotherapist specialist in these treatments. You might be wondering why is better to be guided by a pelvic floor specialist. Well, as i was mentioning before the proper behaviour of the pelvic floor is UNCONSCIOUS. We need to work with a specialist to identify if the activation and relaxation of the pelvic floor happens while you are not thinking about it. The physiotherapist finds out about this with the help of manual assessment, ultrasound (echography) or biofeedback. Once we know if the synergies between the different parts of the CORE work the fun part start. The physio establishes the objectives of what you need to improve… or in the best case sends you home because you are doing great!

I know that the theory sounds a bit confusing, but the practical part is fun, painless and very dynamic.

During delivery, if the pelvic floor is strong enough the head rotates easily making a faster and safer birth.

We used to be taught that during pregnancy we ONLY need to relax the pelvic floor. Some professionals used to say that pelvic floor exercises are contra-productive for birth… but that’s not true! Women need a strong and elastic pelvic floor before birth. The pelvic resistance will give a bit of resistance to the head of the baby helping to the positioning of the newborn. That’s why we insist so much on pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy. If the pelvic floor muscles are not strong enough, for example, if you have incontinence during the pregnancy, there is an increased risk of tearing because the head of the baby will not rotate that easily.

People with a weak pelvic floor have an increased incidence of low back pain

Actually, the possibility to have chronic low back pain … increases too! This happens because the pelvic floor works in synergy with the muscles of the abdomen to maintain the spine. If the pelvic floor is not at 100%… the Core muscles can’t be at the 100%! If the CORE does not stabilize the spine the muscles of the lower back need to work more and they can become “overwhelmed” triggering pain.

Find a list of all of the details!

1. The pelvic floor is the inferior component of the CORE muscles ….so a workout without activating the pelvic floor is like only workout one leg or one arm.
2. The pelvic floor maintains the continence and becomes activated in every movement in which we need to maintain the balance… if we have urine leaks while coughing… jumping..sneezing… means that our pelvic floor is not becoming activated properly and we have to check why!
3. When the pelvic floor is not strong enough it’s easier to have low back pain, urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunctions. … so in order to solve these problems we have to do pelvic floor exercises guided by a physiotherapist specialist in these treatments.
4. During delivery, if the pelvic floor is strong enough the head rotates easily making a faster and safer birth. That’s why we insist so much in pelvic floor exercises during the pregnancy
5. People with a weak pelvic floor increase incidence of low back pain and the possibility to have chronic low back pain … this happened because the pelvic floor works in synergy with the muscles of the abdomen to maintain the spine.

A balanced pelvic floor is sometimes the missing piece to solve the combination of symptoms that is not allowing you to feel healthy. Due to the role of the pelvic floor, we will need to check if we have persistent low back pain, to prepare for delivery , to enjoy our intimate life …

If you feel that you need to start and you don’t know how contact here to be assessed.

Marina Vecino Pérez

Physiotherapist specialized in pelvic floor rehabilitation