The Pelvic Floor Part 1: What it is and who needs to exercise it

Don't shy away from learning about Pelvic Floor function for optimal health.

We’ve all heard about it, we’ve all been told we need to exercise it, but do we really know what it is? What it does? And whether we’re doing the exercises correctly?

The Pelvic Floor is something that is often spoken about in hushed tones and eluded to in conversations with girlfriends. The truth is, too few of us actually know what we’re talking about. Our mother’s embarrassingly gloss over it, and we all have an Auntie/Grandmother who has noisily walked down the corridor. And I’m not talking about her footsteps…

What is the Pelvic Floor?

Your Pelvic Floor is a group or band of muscles that sling like a hammock from your pubic bone at the front, around our three openings, or two if we’re a male (yes, they have one too), and attach to our Coccyx and seat bones of our pelvis at the back. They sling up the insides of our pelvic bones too – supporting our pelvic organs; our bladder, uterus and our bowel; and also supporting our baby during pregnancy. The role of the Pelvic Floor is threefold:

1. They provide assistance in maintaining continence – allowing us to hold on when we need to pass urine/ move our bowels or hold onto wind,
2. They support our pelvic organs
3. They play a role in sexual desire, erection and orgasm

The Pelvic Floor also has a strong role to play in our core control or posture in conjunction with our diaphragm, our deep abdominal muscles and our deep back muscles. Any weakness or imbalance in any of these can cause pain or muscle dysfunction and can lead to pelvic floor weakness or dysfunction.

Who needs to exercise their Pelvic Floor?

Everyone!

As a group of muscles, your Pelvic Floor should be exercised daily, like brushing your teeth, to keep it functioning at its best. When it’s not working at its optimum level, a dysfunction can occur which in many cases can cause incontinence or a pelvic organ prolapse. Incontinence is an inability to hold on to wind, urine or stool when we would otherwise desire to. It can affect people of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction include:

• Pregnancy itself
• Vaginal Deliveries
• Age
• Menopause
• Obesity
• Female
• High impact athletes eg. elite runners
• Chronic Cough eg. smokers
• Manual labourers
• Weight lifters

Conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of people who are at risk for incontinence and whilst it’s common, it’s certainly not normal and nor should it be suffered in silence. 1 in 3 women who have ever had a baby will be incontinent so ensure you look after your pelvic floor with regular exercise.

Part 2: My list of exercises to strengthen your Pelvic Floor muscles.

Brooke Williams – Women’s and Men’s Health Physiotherapist and Director, Back In Motion on Collins