Many of us spend time strengthening and shaping some of the more visible muscles in our bodies — who doesn’t want to have rock-hard abs, toned biceps, and a round hind end?
Whether or not we achieve these lofty muscle goals, there’s one muscle group that you shouldn’t overlook — your pelvic floor. Tucked inside your pelvis, these muscles may not be exactly sexy, but when it comes to quality of life, they’re important, especially for women.
To give you an idea about the importance of a strong pelvic floor, Dr. Fernando Otero and the team here at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley compiled some important benefits of pelvic floor physical therapy, and we share them here.
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles and connective tissues that form a sort of hammock underneath your pelvic organs. This group of tissues performs several important functions, including:
Just like all other muscles in your body, there are ways you can keep these tissues strong and functioning well, which we’ll get into further on.
To underscore the importance of a strong pelvic floor, we’re going to look at it from the opposite direction. A weak pelvic floor can lead to some serious quality of life issues that include:
With pelvic organ prolapse (POP), your pelvic floor weakens to the point where organs can shift out of place. For example, your uterus can shift downward and into your vagina or your bladder can migrate in the same direction.
POP is prevalent among aging women, affecting about 40% of women around the world.
A weak pelvic floor can also leave you vulnerable to urinary incontinence, which affects 25 million Americans, and fecal incontinence, which affects another 21 million adults.
The good news is that it doesn’t take much effort or time to strengthen your pelvic floor once you get into the habit of it. These muscles are the ones that you use to stop a stream of urine. You can also put a finger in your vagina and squeeze — what you feel are your pelvic floor muscles in action.
The most effective exercises for strengthening this muscle group are called Kegels, which are designed to isolate and strengthen your pelvic floor. With Kegels, you squeeze this muscle group without activating other muscles like your abdominals.
A great way to start is to lie on the floor so that you can better control which muscles you engage. From there, simply squeeze your pelvic floor and hold for 3-10 seconds. Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. As you get better at Kegels, you’ll be able to do them anywhere you want — driving your car or sitting on the couch while you’re watching TV.
There are other pelvic floor strengthening exercises that we’re happy to share with you, but Kegels are a great place to start.
For a more personalized plan for strengthening your pelvic floor, we invite you to contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule an appointment.
