An essential pelvic floor exercise for Pregnancy Postpartum

Hey are you struggling to know exactly WHAT pelvic floor exercises you should be doing ? Did you know only 1 in 4 women actually know how to engage their pelvic floor correctly.

Why should I strengthen my pelvic floor ?

Your pelvic floor is the foundation of your core. The pelvic floor muscles are located in your pelvis, and stretch like a hammock from the pubic bone (at the front) to the coccyx or tail-bone (at the back) and from side to side. Think of the foundation of a house or building – without a strong stable base it collapses. Without a stable pelvic floor the rest of the CORE and other internal organs can literaly collapse !

The pelvic floor muscles work with your deep abdominal (tummy) and deep back muscles and diaphragm to stabilise and support your spine and your baby in utero. They also help control the pressure inside your abdomen to deal with the pushing down force when you lift or strain – such as during exercise or lifting a pram into the car post birth. If your pelvic floor is not functioning correctly you can experience –  lower back pain, “mummy tummy” postpartum, leaking, peezing and bowel and bladder issues including prolapse.

Should I be doing kegels to train my pelvic floor ?

Too often trying to kegel results in way too much tension in the pelvic floor.
There is nothing wrong with kegels it’s just that unfortunately many women think that stopping the flow of urine or squeezing extra tight is the only way to “train’ this muscle.  It’s not – check out my complimentary core training guide.

What happens we over-activate and strain any of our other muscles like this when we exercise ?

Think about it …
If we strain ANY of our muscles (not just our pelvic floor)  what happens is injury, dysfunction and fatigue (and more than often breath holding) !

Learning to relax your pelvic floor and tranverse abdominus (lower core) is just as important as engaging correctly.
Exhale, stretch, release let go ! Learn how to strengthen your pelvic floor muscle functionally together with your other deep core muscles and breath – watch my video below.

Plus remember – just like any other muscle in your body your pelvic floor can be strengthened and retrained, a life of poise pads and peezing (that’s peeing when you sneeze) is not normal and can be avoided.

If you are concerned, please see a Women’s Health Physio to have your condition fully assessed, as facial restrictions, tight hip flexors, poor postural alignment and scar tissue can all contribute to pelvic floor issues. Which results in the inability to release your pelvic floor muscles so they can not contract correctly  – this is called a hypertonic pelvic floor.

How to activate your pelvic floor during pregnancy and postpartum

Start with my pregnancy and postpartum simple safe pelvic floor exercise video below

The secret to a toned core STARTS with your pelvic floor

To summarise here are 5 essential things you need to know about training your pelvic floor

1 ) Only 1 in 4 know how to activate or train their pelvic floor correctly

2) Tightly squeezing, over-activating your pelvic floor can cause dysfunction

3) Learn to train your pelvic floor safely and effectively during and after pregnancy with my video above and complimentary CORE TRAINING GUIDE

4) The foundation of your core is your pelvic floor so when this is given safe and effective activation during pregnancy and beyond it will set you up for a toned core for life !

Any queries connect with me in my Facebook Community the #BFABSQUAD   it’s a fabulous place where we all support each other through the challenges of pregnancy, birth recovery and motherhood.

xx

p.s Learn how to train your deep core and pelvic floor with fun total body workouts. Join my online pregnancy and postpartum membership THE BFAB METHOD and get fit and strong for the challenges for birth, recovery and early motherhood.