How would it feel if you found difficulty in urinating? Perhaps, it has a lot to do with with your pelvic muscles. For women, pelvic muscles are known to be a support system for the bladder, uterus and bowel. It is good if the pelvic muscles are relaxed when these muscles tighten, that’s when problems with urination arise.
If you do not want pain in your pelvic region then you need to learn how to keep your pelvic floor muscles relaxed. Usually, you would have pain in your pelvic region when the pelvic muscles contract.
This article aims at helping you understand the role of pelvic floor muscles, what causes pain in the pelvic floor muscles and how to do the best pelvic floor muscle exercises to build strength. Learn everything that you need to know as it is going to be advantageous to boost the strength in your pelvic muscles.
What Is The Role of Pelvic Floor Muscles?
As you have already seen that the pelvic floor muscles constitute the bladder, uterus and bowel. Why does the pain occur? The pelvic muscles directly stress your urethra, anus and vagina when it contracts.
Apart from this, the pelvic floor muscles are important during sexual activity, pregnancy and while giving birth to a child. You would get control over your bladder and bowel if your pelvic muscles are strong.
The pelvic muscles are supposed to be thick. These muscles are stretchable and they stretch from the pubic bone to the tail bone. The bowel and uterus are situated right on the pelvic muscle.
One cannot really see the pelvic muscle but the pelvic muscle can be controlled just like how you would control any other muscle such as the abdominal muscle in your body. If the pelvic floor muscles weaken it can cause urinary incontinence and urinary frequency because the bladder loses its control.
Take a look at these points to know what exactly do the pelvic muscles do
- Several organs are supported by the pelvic muscles
- Urine passes through with ease when the pelvic floor muscles are relaxed
- In a way, the pelvic floor muscles help in making you feel salacious
- The process of childbirth gets easier with the support of pelvic floor muscles
- The pelvic floor muscles support your spine when accompanied by the muscles in your abdomen and back
Why Do The Pelvic Floor Muscles Get Weak?
Take a look at the causes for the pelvic floor muscles to weaken
- Giving Birth To A Child: When women are about to give birth to a child their pelvic muscles are likely to get weak because the muscles stretch and the elasticity in the pelvic floor muscles depreciates.
- When A Woman Is Pregnant: In case of pregnancy to the pelvic floor, muscles weaken because the muscles stretch too much.
- Other Causes: The other causes for weakened pelvic floor muscles is when there is pressure while coughing, lifting heavy weights, putting on too much weight and the age factor comes into the picture.
Read: Freak Yoga Asanas to Tone your Lower Body
Steps To Do The Pelvic Floor Exercises
Exercises are anytime a good way to build strength in your body. That said, to strengthen the pelvic region take a look at few of these simple exercises and try them at ease. Practice them and notice how strengthened your pelvic floor muscles feel. Usually, the exercises would be more or less focusing on your core and the lower body.
Exercise No 1 – Heel Drop Exercise
This exercise will undoubtedly strengthen your pelvic floor muscles with relieving pain from the Achilles tendon and it strengthens your lower legs.
Steps to do this exercise
- Step 1: Roll a mat on the floor and lie down folding your legs.
- Step 2: Let your legs remain folded, slightly lift one leg up and while you are bringing it down only let your heel touch the floor.
- Step 3: Now lift the other leg up and follow the same procedure while bringing it down.
- Step 4: Let your legs remain folded and lift both your legs up
Repeat this procedure 8-10 times and do it as slow as you can to benefit from the workout. You can practice this exercise thrice a week.
Exercise No 2 – Kegel Bridge Exercise
Kegel bridge exercise is going to add strength to your glutes, hamstrings and muscles. Your core will be strengthened, your butt would get a great shape, the pain in your lower back will be relieved, the pain in your knees will get relieved and your back would be much stronger than it was earlier.
Steps to do this exercise
- Step 1: Roll a mat and lie down flat on the floor.
- Step 2: Place your palms on the floor and join them together.
- Step 3: Fold your legs
- Step 4: Place your arms beside each other and lift your chest and hips up.
- Step 5: Adjust your position correctly, see to it that your knees are straight in line with your chest and hips. That said, your toes and heels should be joined together.
Let your body stay lifted in the same position for at least a minute. This way your stamina will be on point. See to it that you tighten your abdominal muscles and glutes. You can practice this exercise thrice a week.
Read: Workouts At Home For Healthy Living
Exercise No 3 – Bird Dog Exercise
Bird dog exercise strengthens your back muscles, core and glutes. This exercise makes your shoulders strong, the spine gets firm and your posture improves drastically. The lumbar region is strengthened and the back muscles get enough strength eliminating all the pain from your lower back.
Steps to do this exercise
- Step 1: Roll a mat on the floor, go on your knees by placing your arms on the floor.
- Step 2: Stretch your left hand forward and stretch out your right leg behind(straighten your leg).
- Step 3: Repeat the same procedure with your right hand as well. Stretch your right hand forward and stretch out your left leg behind.
Repeat this procedure 10 times on either side. When you bring your leg back after it is stretched see to it that it remains folded, do not straighten it. You can practice this exercise thrice a week.
Exercise No 4 – Happy Baby Exercise
This exercise is a yoga pose, it is also known as Ananda asana. It strengthens the groins, inner thighs, lower back and thighs. It is good for your shoulders and chest as well. Your thighs will get flexible and firm. Most importantly it opens the sacrum which is useful to strengthen your pelvic muscles.
Steps to do this exercise
- Step 1: Roll a mat and lie down flat on the floor. Spread both your feet wide apart. Fold your legs and bring the knees close to your chest.
- Step 2: Hold the sole of both your legs.
Stay in this position for 60 seconds. If you experience any kind of discomfort under your neck you can place a pillow or thick towel to get enough support for your neck. You can practice this exercise thrice a week.
Exercise No 5 – The Squat Exercise
Squatting focuses on strengthening your hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. Apart from this, you will be motivated to do this exercise to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles because it comes with several other benefits such as helps in better digestion, it helps in healing all your injuries, makes your butt firm and it helps you be a good runner, this is an added advantage for athletes. It does good for your body in terms of burning fats and calories and it is good to fix all the pain in your joints.
Steps to do this exercise
Step 1: Roll a mat on the floor, stand on the mat with your feet slightly apart.
Step 2: Bend in a way that you are going to be seated, stay on your knees
Step 3: Stay in this position for a few seconds and then slowly come up. Be sure that your posture is straight and you do not bend your back.
Repeat this 30 times, divide it into 3 sets, where you do 10 reps in each set. You can do this exercise 3 times a week.
Exercise No 6 – Split Table Top Exercise
A split tabletop exercise is responsible to do good to your hips and strengthen your pelvic muscles, this is one kind of a Pilates workout. The other benefits linked to this exercise is that it makes the abs and thighs stronger.
Steps to do this exercise
- Step 1: Roll a mat on the floor and lie down flat.
- Step 2: Fold your legs, join your heels and toes, position your heels close to your butt.
- Step 3: Lift your legs up in the same folded position.
- Step 4: Just how you close and open a door you would bring your legs close to each other and take them apart. You have to make sure to do this with your legs up and folded just the way it was when you have begun.
Repeat this at least 30 times. You can break the number of times you do it or do it all at once.
Tips To Focus On The Pelvic Floor Muscles
In order to improve the condition of the pelvic floor muscles, you should practice some tips that will do good to your pelvic floor muscles.
- Tip 1: Pay attention to your pelvic muscles, you can do that by trying to squeeze yourself from within like how you would if you wanted to urinate. Be aware and just focus on the pelvic muscles, do not squeeze your abdomen or leg muscles.
- Tip 2: After you squeeze your pelvic muscles, stay in that position for about 5-10 seconds. You do not have to exceed that time limit.
- Tip 3: When you want to exhale, do it as slow as you can, the right way to exhale is from your mouth.
All in all, you can check if you have been able to make your pelvic muscles strong or not by doing a small test while urinating. What you need to do is, control your urine while you are urinating by squeezing your pelvic muscles. See if you are able to control for long or not. If you are successful in controlling yourself it means there is a progress in your pelvic muscles.
In a nutshell, now you know what is the role of the pelvic muscles, it plays a vital role of controlling the uterus, bladder and bowel.
Time and again the pelvic floor muscles have to be taken care of by trying the right exercises because these muscles tend to weaken during pregnancy, childbirth and whenever there is any kind of pressure on the bladder. You are not going to lose out on anything by exercising, it is just going to benefit you so why not start pelvic floor muscle exercises to keep away from problems.
