Pelvic Floor

5 important roles of the pelvic floor:

1. Organ support ( preventing prolapse)
The pelvic floor muscles support our bladder, uterus, rectum, and important abdominal organs against gravity and any added downward pressure.

2. Postural Stability
The pelvic floor is one of four muscles making up our inner ‘core’, which stabilizes our pelvis and lower back.

3. Bladder and bowel control
These are the muscles which control both the opening of the urethra, where urine comes out, and rectum, where faeces and/or gas come out. The pelvic floor muscles prevent leakage of urine, faeces and wind.

4. Sexual Function
The pelvic floor plays a role in orgasm. Strong pelvic floor muscles are linked with increased sensitivity during sex and stronger orgasms. Strengthening and training the pelvic floor can help to reduce the symptoms of erectile dysfunction in men.

5. Improving Circulation
The pelvic floor muscles act as a ‘sump pump’ to pump blood back up towards the heart.

These five important jobs only get done when the pelvic floor muscles are working properly.

How to strengthen your pelvic floor
1 . There are specific exercises that you can do yourself each day. They take just a few seconds and can be done ‘secretly’ while waiting in a queue or sitting on the sofa. The trick is to find your pelvic floor muscles first, then start ever so gently and build up over 4 -6 weeks. This is a group of muscles like any other and will get strong quickly if given a few minutes of attention each day. Click here for a video that shows you how. Learning to relax the pelvic floor is as crucial as learning how to tighten it.
2. Doing a core strengthening exercises like dancing, tai chi, pilates or yoga will all help your pelvic floor as well as improving your general fitness level.
3. If you are a woman, you can use an oestrogen cream or pessary to avoid something called ‘vaginal atrophy’ where the skin thins and muscles are harder to activate due to a lack of oestrogen.
4. There are specific physios that can offer suggestions, particularly where leaking of urine is a problem. The bladder and bowel clinic ( see link below) is in Eastbourne and you can ring them for advice or ask for an assessment.

It is surprising to some that there are many things you can do to support your bladder function, and often this makes urinary symptoms less troublesome. One example is that many women have a ‘latch key leak’, where they are unable to hold their urine in at the point that they open the front door. Curling your toes and focusing on something else as you unlock the door can help. The short video here gives a summary of what you can try, even if it is just switching to caffeine free tea for a month to see if it makes a difference for you.

Herbal teas such as chamomile, ginger and mint contain no caffeine at all.

Herstmonceux Integrative Health Centre

Pelvic Floor

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