How your pelvic floor is impacting you when you exercise

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Your pelvic floor is a collection of muscles between your hip bones/inside your pelvis that provide support and stability to your body, support bowel and bladder function, and allow for sexual and reproductive function.

The pelvic floor can also have a large affect on your ability to exercise and the quality of your exercise. This is mainly due to the pelvic floor's responsibility of support and stability.

Below are many ways that the pelvic floor impacts your body when you exercise:

1. Pain - a strong yet balanced pelvic floor will provide the stability and support your body needs to prevent low back pain, hip pain, neck pain, etc. The pelvic floor and core musculature was found to contract first with almost any other movement of the body (lifting an arm, turning your head, etc) providing a stable foundation with which the rest of your body can move. So if there is weakness, tightness, lack of coordination, or more with the pelvic floor you might experience pain with exercise.

2. Flexibility - Your pelvic floor has multiple insertion points into the lower back, pelvis, and hips. Therefore, if the pelvic floor is dehydrated/tight/fatigued/weak you can see large impacts on your flexibility through your spine and hips.

3. Efficiency - The pelvic floor aids in the efficiency and strength of surrounding musculature. If the pelvic floor is dysfunctional or unbalanced it can create increased load to other muscles in your body. Which can then decrease your overall ability to be efficient and reach the results you're aiming for such as increased strength, improved body composition, increased stress resilience, and more.

There's a lot more that the pelvic floor impacts throughout your life but by optimizing your muscle balance you can elevate the way you experience exercise.

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