Do you know where your pelvic floor is, and its main function in your body? Do you have ongoing pain in your hips or lower back, a feeling of heaviness in your pelvis, or leakage when you run, jump, cough, or sneeze? Learning how to connect your diaphragmatic breath to movement can help. Yoga therapy can help. I can help! 

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles, connective tissue, ligaments, fascia, tendons, and nerves, and is considered part of your deep core. It can get tight, weak, and sometimes overused, like any other muscles in your body.

Although pelvic floor dysfunction is more common with women, men do also have these same deep core muscles, and can also experience symptoms of pain or dysfunction in the pelvic floor, and deep core.

Often people think that if they are doing their kegels, they are strengthening their pelvic floor. Or if they are doing their planks, they must be strengthening their abs. The problem is that they are often doing them improperly, and could be causing, in fact, more dysfunction. Recent studies show that 85% of women were doing kegels improperly, or not in proper coordination with their breath.

When problems are present in your pelvic floor, dysfunction in any

number of ways can occur. This may show up as urinary or fecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, pain (which could be pain anywhere from your ribs to your groin), or painful sex. Inform yourself! Your lower back or hip pain could be directly linked to the pelvic floor. These issues are extremely common, but not normal.

What is your Core Canister?

The Diaphragm is stacked directly over the pelvic floor, think neutral spine, or ribs and hip bones stacked. The back of the canister is the spinal muscles, specifically the multifidus, and the front and sides are the abdominal muscles, more specifically the transverse abdominis. It may help you to think of it as the 4 sides of your house. If any one of the sides isn’t holding properly to the foundation, the house might crumble. Neutral alignment of the spine, stacking of the ribs to hips/diaphragm over pelvic floor, is a key factor in proper core function. 

Core Connection Breath/Diaphragmatic Breath

This is the most important and primary step to restoring & maintaining optimal core function/health. This way of breathing creates awareness and understanding of how intertwined the breath is with the diaphragm, abdomen, back, pelvic floor, and your core function in general. It helps us manage our intra-abdominal pressure, which in turn may reduce pain symptoms that appear in the core, and often spread to other areas of the body. 

As you inhale three dimensionally, your belly, rib cage, and lungs fill, your diaphragm and pelvic floor together expand and move downwards. Because your pelvic floor moves in coordination with the diaphragm, it is often referred to as your pelvic diaphragm. On your inhalation, allow your core and pelvic floor to relax. As you exhale, your diaphragm and pelvic floor together move upwards, allowing your perineum to pull upwards. When we exhale, our deep core muscles naturally turn on. Remember, overdoing your kegels may be causing more problems. The pelvic floor must learn to relax, just as much as it should contract. If you watch the movement of a jelly fish swimming, it contracts and relaxes, similar to how your pelvic floor contracts and relaxes.

It may take time to feel the downward movement of the pelvic floor on the inhalation. This can be from years of creating tension in the core and pelvic floor, a disconnect to this area of the body, fear of letting go in the pelvic floor, perhaps due to prolapse or incontinence, alignment issues, or sucking in the belly.

Your core is not only your six pack abs. If a teacher or personal trainer asks you to suck in your belly, or move your belly towards your spine, you are more likely to create a downward/outward pressure in your core canister. Learning how to breathe and connect your breath to movement is the first step. Then we must consider other factors, such as strength, stability and mobility in your hips, glutes, and back. 

If you or someone you know is struggling with any of these common issues, please share my newsletter and contact information. Consider booking a private yoga therapy session for you and your mom, or yourself and a group of friends. With Hanukkah, Christmas, and holiday season approaching, consider the gift of yoga and spending meaningful time with loved ones. 

Always remember:

-You should not leak urine, gas, or stool when you laugh, cough, sneeze, lift, jump, or run. These issues are common, but not normal.

-You should not have ongoing pelvic, hip, or back pain.

-You should not feel pressure or heaviness in your vagina or rectum.

-You should not have pain during intercourse.