If you’re sitting there thinking…”I don’t even really know what the pelvic floor is,” YOU ARE NOT ALONE! So we wanted to start off with some of the basics. Before we can talk about what the pelvic floor does, let’s go over some anatomy.
Here is your pelvis! The picture on the left is the pelvis from the front and then the picture on the right is looking from the bottom up, how it would be sitting between your legs. You will notice that there is a big gaping hole there! If that’s the case, how do our organs not fall out of our butt onto the ground? Enter the pelvic floor.
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sits at the base of your pelvis almost like a hammock.
The pelvic floor is 3 layers of muscles: the most superficial (layer 1), the middle layer (layer 2), and the deepest layer (layer 3), which does the brunt of the work.
Like I said, the pelvic floor is what supports our organs, as you can see here. But it also helps with sexual function, sphincter control, posture, stability, breathing and pressure management.
And how exactly does it do that?
The pelvic floor is part of our core. If you think of our core kind of like a soda can, the top is the diaphragm, the bottom is the pelvic floor and the abs and back muscles make up our core.
When we inhale, our diaphragm comes down, our ribs expand, our abdominal muscles and pelvic floor relax and come out and down. With our exhale, our diaphragm relaxes up, and our abdominals and pelvic floor come up and in.
These muscle systems need to work together in a coordinated way, and if something is off, we start to have trouble managing pressure within our trunk and we get stresses where there shouldn’t be, leading to dysfunction in our pelvic core. This can result in urinary leaking, tight muscles, and pain.
What are some signs you might have pelvic floor dysfunction?:
- If you’ve given birth and you don’t feel as strong as you used to.
- You feel like you have to rush to the bathroom or you might leak with coughing, sneezing or running.
- You’re worried you might have a diastasis and how it might affect you getting back to their activity
- You have been diagnosed with prolapse
- You have pain in genitals, perineum, pubic, or bladder area, or pain with urination
- Or if You’re dealing with back pain or hip pain that won’t go away even after you’ve tried other treatments
Pelvic floor physical therapy might be exactly what you’ve been missing!
Author: Dr. Jennifer Ryan DPT, PT, CSCS
