The Do’s and Don’ts for Pelvic Health

There are so many to note but here are a few quick tips to start to get you thinking about your pelvic health!

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Do’s:

1. Drink half of your body weight in oz of water!! This is so hard for so many people! Not drinking enough can affect your pelvic floor way more than drinking “too much.” Many of us love our bladder irritants, i.e coffee, soda, seltzers, and tea (just to name a few) and there’s nothing wrong with drinking them as long as you are also drinking enough water and not overdrinking those irritants because they irritate our bladders which affect our pelvic floor muscles. (So many other reasons to drink water but that can wait for another post🙂)

2. Diaphragm breathing. Highly underestimated for its importance! There is a direct correlation from your diaphragm to your pelvic floor and we need your diaphragm to move in order for your pelvic floor to start moving. There are many changes in life that can affect our diaphragm from being used for breathing. it’s not just about belly breathing but about getting those ribs to move as well!

3. Relax that belly with that pelvic floor. Often we tend to hold our breath, clench our butts and pelvic floor and suck our belly in. This is all the opposite of what we actually want to do! Let that pelvic floor go

4. Learn how to properly engage those glutes. Doing glute bridges can be a great exercise for those glutes but are you actually feeling it in the right place? Are you “squeezing” at the top? That squeeze actually isn’t getting those glutes to engage

5. See a pelvic floor therapist! Everyone and I mean everyone can benefit from learning more about your deeper core and pelvic floor (😉) But especially if you are experiencing any pelvic floor dysfunctions or are recently pregnant or postpartum. it’s never too late 🙂

Don’ts:

1. Push or strain to go to the bathroom. This can be for number one or number 2! if you feel that you have to push to start the flow or to let a bowel movement out, then you might have trouble relaxing that pelvic floor! This can lead to other pelvic floor dysfunctions such as prolapse, hemorrhoids, constipation, etc.

2. Don’t go to the bathroom “just in case”. we have been programmed since we were younger to go to the baton leaving the house. but what we didn’t know then was that this can lead to us having the urge to go before we actually have to go and it can start to trick our minds and our bladders to not be able to hold as much urine or fill the bladder as much as it should be filled before you have a true urgency! This can lead to increased urinary frequency or urgency

3. Hold your breath when exercising. This is something found to be undertrained in many athletes. Not breathing during heavy lifting or high-impact exercise can lead to using putting pressure down onto our pelvic floors, increasing our risk for leaking, prolapse, etc.

4. Kegels are not the only way to strengthen our pelvic floors! Sometimes Kegels can lead to more problems and are usually not what is prescribed as an exercise in pelvic floor therapy

5. Suck that belly in. Also, something that has been ingrained in our heads from when we were younger can actually put a plot of pressure down onto our pelvic floor and weaken our core and our pelvic floors!

These are just a few tips to get you to start thinking about your pelvic floors. If any of these sounds like something that you do, come see Alexis, our pelvic floor therapist!