5 Ways to Support Your Pelvic Floor Health
Do you ever dribble a little when you cough or laugh? Do you feel any discomfort with intercourse? Do you feel pain around your tailbone?
If you answered YES to any of these questions it may be an indication you have a weak or even a tight pelvic floor and getting it checked out is very important for your whole body health! Your pelvic floor health is vital to everything in your life, supporting your organs, bladder/bowel control and sexual health. Unfortunately, it’s not often talked about until there are major problems…but I hope this blog post will inspire you to address any concerns you may have with your pelvic floor with a healthcare practitioner NOW and not later!
Our Pelvic Floor chat was informative, let me tell you a bit about it!
We were so excited to have Amy Gildner, physiotherapist and director at East Toronto Orthopaedic join us live on Instagram to chat about our pelvic floor health. She had some amazing and informative information to share and even dispelled some myths about your pelvic floor health. Watch the full conversation I had with Amy for more valuable information below!
Where is your pelvic floor and what does it do?
As Amy describes it, your pelvic floor is a collection of muscles attached at the bottom of your pelvis that acts like a basket, supporting your internal organs above (such as your bladder and uterus) and contributing to sexual sensations. If your pelvic floor weakens, you could experience discomfort, leakage and even prolapse of your organs.
The connective tissue of your pelvic floor stretches from your tailbone to pubic bone, and sitz bone to sitz bone. If you’re sitting and reading this you are on your pelvic floor right now!
Do men have a pelvic floor too?
Yes both men and women have a pelvic floor, however women often have more issues with theirs due to estrogen loss at menopause and pregnancy.
5 ways to support your pelvic floor health
- Get checked by a pelvic floor physiotherapist if you’re having pelvic issues – find out if Kegels are appropriate for you
- Don’t strain or bare down when you are passing stool –
- Keep active – movement and exercise actually helps keep your pelvic floor strong
- Stretch things out – your pelvic floor muscles liked to be stretched out just like any other muscle
- Maintain a healthy body weight – maintaining a healthy body weight for YOUR BODY is important to reduce the load on the pelvic floor (this doesn’t mean you have to be thin)
SUPPORTING YOUR PELVIC FLOOR HEALTH - RECORDING
If you didn’t catch the replay of our Instagram Live chat you’re in luck! Thanks to Amy Gildner for her time and wonderful insight…here is the recording of our conversation about pelvic floor health!
Watch my chat with Amy
Did you know that your pelvic floor muscles move when you breathe? It mirrors the movement of your diaphragm as you inhale and exhale. Check out this great post about the movement of your pelvic floor as you breathe and the wonderful image provided by Burrell Education!
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Book an appointment with Cindy, Registered Acupuncture therapist.
Contact Amy Gildner at East Toronto Orthopaedic to book an appointment to address your pelvic floor health!