Hi friends! Training your pelvic floor muscles is similar to training any other muscle in your body. Regular exercise at home or at the gym ca be a daunting task if you are not sure what to do or how to do it properly. Training your pelvic floor muscles can be just as daunting. Knowing where to start, what to do, and how to do it can be complicated and confusing. You may find yourself scared to do the wrong thing while desperately trying to find the "right" thing, but there's good news: there is a basic outline that can help you train your pelvic floor muscles effectively.
Training the pelvic floor muscles is often an important step to treating symptoms like urinary incontinence, bowel incontinence, pelvic pain, pelvic organ prolapse, and more. Even if you are not experiencing symptoms, training your pelvic floor muscles can help our bodies function at their best while preventing conditions from developing the same way regular exercise can.
While this blog is not meant to replace evaluation and treatment by a licensed healthcare provider, it can give you an outline to follow when learning to train your pelvic floor muscles.
The four basic steps to training your pelvic floor muscles are identify, isolate, improve, and integrate. Note that pelvic floor muscle training is not the same as "doing your Kegels."
#1 Identify
Finding your PFM can be fun and informative!! explore with a mirror, a partner, or your own hands!
#2 Isolate
During initial training, focus only on squeezing and relaxing your PFM without holding you breath. Tell your belly, glutes, legs, etc. to be quiet!
#3 Improve
If your PFM are underactive, work on up training. If they are overactive, work on down training.
#4 Integrate
Once you're ready to progress, focus on integrating your PFM into everyday movements, activities, and exercise.
While these are the basics of each step, make sure to follow along with our blog. Over the next four weeks we are going to break down each step in detail.
If you are experiencing signs of pelvic floor muscle dysfunction or are having trouble with any of the four steps, a pelvic floor physical therapist or occupational therapist is a great resource. A skilled therapist should perform a comprehensive evaluation of the pelvic floor muscles and surrounding areas to help optimize the way your body works. Once the evaluation is completed, they can help guide you in exercises and other techniques to help strengthen weak muscles, lengthen tight muscles, and improve overall function. You can ask your provider for a referral to a therapist near you or find one at www.mypfm.com/find-a-pt.
Ready to learn more about pelvic health? Here are some helpful resources:
Find a pelvic floor PT or OT near you at www.mypfm.com/find-a-pt
Order you myPelvic Bra perineal support
Watch Netflix for Your Pelvic Floor at Pelvic Flicks
Watch our YouTube playlist on Pelvic Floor Muscle Training
Learn more about the pelvic floor muscles with our book: My Pelvic Floor Muscles The Basics
Sign up for our email newsletter!
Visit our Instagram page for more on pelvic health.
For providers, check out myPFM Academy to learn more so you can better help your clients. With two membership options, you have access to courses, a growing library of patient handouts, hundreds of custom sharable images and infographics, and multilingual resources. At myPFM Academy you’ll find courses like:
Pelvic PT Evaluation of the Pelvic Floor Muscles with Dr. Samantha Richter, PT, DPT, WCS
Pelvic Floor PT and OT How-Where-What: How to Become One, Where They Work, and What They Do with Jeanice Mitchell, PT, MPT, WCS, BCB-PMD
New Structure for PFM Assessment Using ICS Terminology with Beth Shelly, PT, DPT, WCS, BCB-PMD
Written by Emily Reul, PT, DPT
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