In order for your pelvic floor to maintain optimal function, it must be able to relax.
Since tension isn’t isolated, if you’re holding tension in other areas of your body, you may be holding tension in your pelvic floor as well. Areas of tension related to the pelvic floor:
- You grind your teeth or clench your jaw
- You carry tension in your shoulders
- You squeeze your glutes all day long
- You suck in your stomach throughout the day or “engage” your core with every exercise
Other signs of potential pelvic floor tension:
- Trouble fully emptying your bladder or bowels
- Pain with tampon insertion, intercourse, or orgasm
- Pelvic pain
- Incontinence
- Back pain
Because the pelvic floor needs to be able to relax in order to function properly, it’s important to add in periods of relaxation both with exercise as well as sprinkled throughout the day when presented with chronic stressors. This may look like diaphragmatic breathing, mobility, lying with your legs up the wall, or even reducing the intensity of your workouts.
Mobility in your workout
Adding mobility to your warmup can help you elongate the pelvic floor and surrounding muscles and gain stability in end ranges of motion, thus helping you reduce your risk of injury and feel less symptomatic. The key here is stability and control.
Try these mobility exercises as a warm up for your workouts or when you need the extra relaxation after periods of increased tension from stress, long periods of sitting, or an increase in your activity levels. Go slow and try to get as full of a range of motion with these exercises as you can for now.
Exercise: Adductor rock back
Perfect for: Squats, deadlifts, step-ups, lunges
Exercise: Shinbox rotation
Perfect for: Squats, deadlifts, step-ups, lunges
Exercise: Thoracic rotation
Perfect for: Squats, overhead press, bench press
Exercise: Wall angels
Perfect for: Overhead press, bench press, squats
Exercise: Hip CARs
Perfect for: Squats, deadlifts, step-ups, lunges
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.
