The way you breathe during your exercises can have an impact on your pelvic floor.
While some pressure downward into the pelvic floor is normal, excess pressure or bearing down can lead to pelvic floor disorders such as pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, and pelvic pain. To help reduce your risk of these pelvic floor disorders as well as to help minimize current symptoms, it is important to reduce the excess pressure placed on the pelvic floor.
Some strategies to help reduce excess pelvic floor pressure may include breathing pattern changes, alignment adjustments, foot placement, position of exercise within your workout, added mobility, pelvic floor relaxation, etc.
Below are different breathing patterns that you may find beneficial to help you connect with your pelvic floor and reduce excess pressure on your core and pelvic floor.
Diaphragmatic breathing
With diaphragmatic breathing, the goal is to fully expand your ribcage 360 degrees to allow your diaphragm full movement on inhale and exhale. Think of where the lower band of your sports bra is placed and work to expand out into that band in all directions with your inhale.
By allowing the full expansion, you can practice syncing your diaphragm movement with your pelvic floor and using your breath to create a lift or relaxation of your pelvic floor as needed. Diaphragmatic breathing also allows you to help better manage the pressure within your core as a whole and allows you to reduce pressure on your core for those with diastasis as well.
Oftentimes, having feedback is important when learning to do a diaphragmatic breath. You can use an exercise band placed lightly around your ribcage, lifting belt, or even tightening your bra one extra notch to help give you tactile feedback on where to expand your breath into.
Exhale through the movement
Once you have been able to practice diaphragmatic breathing, the next foundational breathing pattern is exhaling through the entire movement. This is typically what we recommend to most people when returning to exercise after a loss or after a core or pelvic floor disorder diagnosis.
This breathing pattern asks you to take a diaphragmatic inhale before you start the movement then exhale through your mouth (like you’re blowing out a candle) through the entire movement.
As you become more proficient in this breathing pattern, you may be able to move faster by exhaling through several repetitions of the movement.
Squat example:
- For a squat, you would take a diaphragmatic inhale at the top of the movement.
- As soon as you start to squat down, you would begin your exhale and continue your exhale until you were back to standing.
- Depending on your load and comfort level, you may be able to continue your exhale through multiple reps of the squat.
Exhale on exertion
Exhale on exertion is another foundational breathing pattern that allows you to relieve excess intra abdominal pressure during your workouts. This pattern asks you to take a diaphragmatic inhale as you start the movement and start your exhale just before the exertion portion of a movement.
Squat example:
- For a squat, you would do a diaphragmatic inhale on the way down
- Just before you reach the bottom, you would start your exhale and continue your exhale through to standing.
- This breathing pattern won’t allow you to move as fast as exhale through the entire movement and therefore may be better suited for heavier loads or slower tempo exercises.
Neither exhale through the movement or exhale on exertion are better than the other. Try them both to see which one you feel more comfortable with. You may even find that one pattern works for one movement while the other pattern works better for others (ex: exhale through the movement with squats but exhale on exertion with deadlifts).
Casey Thomas-Hardesty, MS
Casey is the owner of Two Peas Wellness. She specializes in core and pelvic floor health as well as returning to fitness after pregnancy loss.
