Your Pelvic Floor: Why & How to Exercise Your Pelvic Floor Muscles

1. What Is Your Pelvic Floor
2. Functions Of Your Pelvic Floor
3. How To Exercise Your Pelvic Floor
4. Finding your pelvic floor muscles
5. Exercising your pelvic floor: Slow twitch for stamina and strength
6. Exercising your pelvic floor: Fast twitch for quick contractions
7. Exercising your pelvic floor: A more advanced slow exercise
8. Exercising your pelvic floor: how many a day?

What Is Your Pelvic Floor

Your pelvic floor consists of muscles and ligaments which all work together to form the base of the bony pelvis, which is shaped like a cradle. The muscles form two halves, joined down the middle, with openings where the urethra (from the bladder), the vagina (birth canal) and the anus (from the large intestine) pass through. Thre are four layers to the pelvic floor, two of which are muscles. The deepest muscle layer is attached to the pubis (pubic bones) at the front of the pelvis and goes back to the coccyx (tal bone). A more superficial layer of muscle forms an '8' shape around the openings.

Functions Of Your Pelvic Floor

Your Pelvic Floor:

• supports the contents of the abdomen (intestines, bladder and uterus / baby)
• maintains continence (bladder and bowel control)
• resists sudden rises in abdominal pressure (when coughing, sneezing or lifting)
• helps support the spine (together with the abdominal muscles)
• plays a role in sexual enjoyment and performance

During Pregnancy

The hormone 'relaxin' softens the supporting ligaments of the pelvic floor, allowing them to become more elastic. However, these muscles also have to support the extra weight of the baby and fluid surrounding it, so exercises are needed to:

• maintain the strength and stamina of the muscles
• increase circulation in the area
• help prevent constipation and haemorrhoids
• help you become more aware of this part of your body so that you feel more confidentd during birth

During Birth

Your pelvic floor also helps the baby's head to rotate into the correct position ready for birth.

How To Exercise Your Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor has two types of muscle fibres; the slow twitch fibres for stamina and the fast twitch for quick contractions. You need to exercise both types of muscle fibres to strengthen them.

Finding your pelvic floor muscles: To "find" your pelvic floor muscles, pull them up as if you are controlling the flow of urine, or stopping wind from your back passage. You could also see if you can stop the midstream flow when you are passing urine (This should not be done regularly as an exercise, as it can lead to the bladder not emptying properly). Other ways to find your pelvic floor muscles are to try and squeeze your partner during sex.

Exercising your pelvic floor: Slow twitch for stamina and strength

To tighten the pelvic floor, sit or lie in a comfortable position with your knees slightly apart. Pull up the muscles surrounding the back passage, then pull up towards the front. Hold for a count of four, breathing normally all the time. To check that you aren't pulling in your buttock muscles, or holding your breath instead, put one hand on your bottom as you do the exercise. If you are pulling in your lower abdominal muscles slightly with your pelvic floor muscles, that's ok. When you can do this slow twitch exercise easily, try holding for a longer count, up to a maximum of 10. Release between each pull up and repeat 5-6 times. The quality of the exercise is more important than the quantity. It's much better to do a few good ones at a time.

Exercising your pelvic floor: A more advanced slow exercise

Imagine that your pelvic floor is like a lift. Tighten the muscles around the back and front passages, as if closing the doors in a lift. Now tighten a little more as if going up to the first floor, then the second floor. Then gently come back to the ground floor again, making sure you are breathing normally all the time. Now you can push your pelvic floor muscles down, as if going into the basement, but finish back on the ground floor. trying coughing or blowing into your fist. You will feel the muscles of your pelvic floor being pushed down. This will also happen when your baby's head starts to move down the birth canal during the second stage of labour. Knowing how to relax these muscles will help you when you give birth to your baby.

Exercising your pelvic floor: Fast twitch for quick contractions

Try tightening your pelvic floor muscles as quickly as possible , 5-6 times. These are the muscles which contract instantly when you cough, sneeze etc. to resist the rise in abdominal pressure. Before you cough, sneeze, lift anything or laugh, try to take a moment to pull these muscles up.

Exercising your pelvic floor: how many a day?

Try to do 50 exercises a day, some slow, some fast. This may seem impossible at the beginning but by doing them little and often during the day, they add up. Here's a way to fit them in: after having been to the toilet, sit there a little longer and do five slow twitch pull ups and five fast ones. Do the same while washing your hands afterwards.

Source: National Childbirth Trust (NCT) Ante-natal Course (London, UK, Sept 2005)