Article on the Female Pelvic Floor

Understanding the Female Pelvic Floor

By Marina Locke, RMT, RYT
www.motherwellness.com

Have you had an experience where you sneeze and leaked a little? This type of accidental release relates to the strength and integrity of your pelvic floor muscles. The foundation of the pelvic bowl typically concerns pregnant or postnatal woman but is also something that women in general need to understand. It affects many women, especially later on in life. The pelvic floor supports us in posture and function. It is the base of our core strength. Weakness in this area can affect us emotionally, mentally and physically. American statistics show that 1 in 9 women receive surgery for pelvic floor weakness by age 70*. Many have more than one surgery. The research surveyed American women age 30-90 years. Whether it’s due to the weight of a baby, a difficult birthing process experience, weight gain and muscle weakness, binding clothing, rushed behaviors, bad habits, or surgical procedure, or many other reasons, this area can weaken to the point where surgical intervention is required if less invasive techniques.

Something that is often overlooked, but absolutely essential in the proactive recovery of a weak pelvic floor, is posture. Posture is a key to strengthening this area. If you think of the abdomen as a container holding liquid then a simple slouch or rounding of the low back spills the container. But the abdomen is a sealed container so where does this “spill” go? It pressures downward if the walls are compromised habitually.

Yoga certainly can benefit a weak pelvic floor. It is the author’s opinion based upon knowledge of physiology and anatomy and from observation and anecdotal feedback from students, however, that strong postures can complicate the condition. If the student lacks awareness of the weakness or tries too hard they may acerbate this pelvic weakness. From a teaching perspective, the key to understanding the link to posture is in learning about anatomy and physiology, and then guiding women on how to correctly engage this area.

The workshop "Understanding the Female Pelvic Floor" was created in 2003 based upon a series of criteria. This included observation and interviews of clients and students from over 20 years of professional practice, anecdotal feedback and the author’s personal experience. What emerged was a pattern of complications incurred due to poor exercise choices (and poorly instructed exercise), diet, posture, and daily habits. "Understanding the Female Pelvic Floor" is carefully designed, systemic approach to countering these complications.

Participants of "Understanding the Female Pelvic Floor" workshop experience integral learning by way of visual teaching aids (pictures, models, etc), descriptive sensations specific to the different muscles as participants engage them and the practice of techniques from many disciplines including yoga, and chi gong, and from anatomical/ physiological knowledge and understanding.
A strong pelvic floor braces during a sneeze. Here is a simple exercise which you can do to identify pelvic floor muscles and strengthen your pelvis. Later you may practice while you are waiting in your car, standing in line or before rising from bed in the morning.

1. Sit on the edge of a hard chair and turn your feet slightly inwards so the heels are further apart then the toes. For extra awareness you can roll a small towel or face cloth and place it under the pelvic floor from pubic bone to tailbone. This will give you contact pressure to help identify those muscles. (once you have identified them and the feeling of contracting them then you can try engaging the muscles while in other positions such as standing or lying down).

2. In this position, engage the muscle of the anterior pelvic floor and feel for a tightening in that area.

3. Engage and rest, repeat this about 10 times then engage and hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat about 10 times.

4. Include pelvic tucks/tilts into your daily routine also unless otherwise advised by a medical professional. You can also train yourself by simply engaging the muscles before you sneeze.

*statistics presented at the 26th Annual Scientific Meeting of The American Urogynecologic Society in Atlanta (AUGS). Taken from the website: http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/8525697700573E1885257081006EE564

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