Do you feel like you’ve been doing ‘core exercises’ but your core STILL isn’t strong? Or your still dealing with chronic back pain? If you’ve been in the office recently, you’ve likely heard me talking a lot about the pelvic floor. That’s because I recently took a super exciting course where we learned all about how the pelvic floor is such a HUGE component of the internal core system.
If you have been a patient of mine in the past, I’m sure you have heard me talk about the internal core system being made up of the diaphragm at the top, abdominals in the front, pelvic floor muscles at the bottom, and the back muscles in the back (think of a soda can). Now the internal core system is inherently very stable, like a closed soda can. However, if you open the can from the top or puncture it from the bottom, like you probably did in college :-), you will get a release of pressure causing the inside to leak out.
The same goes for our internal core system. If any part of this internal core system loses integrity, such as when the pelvic floor muscles are not engaging or the abdominals are not efficient, we lose that ‘stability’ in our core. This can happen ESPECIALLY in women after having kids. Sometimes there may be a diastasis in the abdominal muscles that hasn’t fully come together, affecting the functioning of the muscles. There could be weakness or tightness in the pelvic floor causing a loss of pressure there. In fact, 40% of moms experience leakage postpartum.
Now you men out there, don’t think this can’t be you. Just in the past 2 days, I’ve assessed 2 of my male patients who came to see me for low back and buttock pain, who both had a diastasis AND dysfunction in their pelvic floor muscles. What’s even more interesting is that pelvic floor tightness is very closely linked to hip pain, piriformis tightness, sciatica AND plantar fasciitis! I’m so excited to be able to add this perspective into my treatments…I’m regretting I didn’t take this course earlier!
If you’re dealing with back pain or hip pain, don’t forget about your pelvic floor. If you experience leakage when you cough, sneeze, jump, run or lift, you HAVE to reach out to us! We can totally help you! Although it’s common, this isn’t something that can’t get better! It can! Imagine going for a run without being worried about leaking. Or being able to cough or sneeze without being worried that you aren’t wearing a pad. It’s going to be life-changing! Yay!
