Strengthen Your Foundation
The pelvic floor is the foundation of your core. These muscles are always active and work to support many functions of your body. They’re responsible for your bladder, bowel and sexual functions, and also work to stabilize you through all of your movements. These muscles never shut off - they always have a low level of activation and change their activation in response to the task at hand. Really have to pee? These muscles should kick on a lot more to hold it in. Time to have sex? These muscles know it’s time to relax.
Having a healthy foundation requires both strength and flexibility. Your muscles need to be strong to lift you up and support your pelvic and abdominal organs, but they also need to be flexible enough to allow for dynamic movement in response to your daily activities. The first step for anyone working to strengthen their foundation is to cultivate awareness of your pelvic floor. The hardest part is understanding where these muscles are and what state they’re in - are they contracted and tightened or are they relaxed down? Check in with yourself right now by noticing your vagina and pelvic floor muscles. Okay good! Chances are you either just 1) relaxed this area which means your muscles were already clenched or 2) didn’t notice anything which means your muscles were either already relaxed or you are having a hard time resting them down. It is often very hard to understand where these muscles are and what they’re doing, so don’t get hung up if you don’t feel connected to this area yet. There are plenty of things to do to strengthen your pelvic floor and deepen your awareness at the same time.
Where is the best place to start strengthening your foundation?
Everyone should start with diaphragmatic breathing regardless of problems they may be having. Your diaphragm is your main breathing muscle and it mirrors your pelvic floor. The diaphragm is a dome that sits underneath your ribcage at the top of the abdominal cavity. The pelvic floor, or sometimes called the pelvic diaphragm, is another dome that sits at the bottom of the abdominal cavity inside the pelvis. They mirror each other - the diaphragm is like an upside down bowl under the ribs and the pelvic floor is a right-side up bowl in the pelvis. When you breathe in, the diaphragm flattens and increases the pressure in your abdominal cavity, which causes your pelvic floor to lengthen in response. When you breathe out, the diaphragm goes back to its dome shape, the pressure in the abdominal cavity decreases and your pelvic floor comes back up. Your diaphragm and pelvic floor are both core muscles, and the coordination between these two muscles is key to developing true deep core strength, stability and control.
95% of my patients get diaphragmatic breathing as an exercise at some point because it’s that important. It is a way for you to be in control of one of the most important functions in your body. The more you do this, the easier it will be to understand where your pelvic floor is. Breathing is the first step to developing strength and something that you’ll continue to build upon as you continue strengthening your pelvic floor.