Add “Pelvic Floor Day” to Your Gym Routine to Maximize your Pelvic Floor Health

Functional Movements

Functional movements play a crucial role in pelvic floor health. Julie Sarton explains the importance of training in different planes, such as sagittal, frontal, and transverse, to engage the pelvic floor effectively. She emphasizes that most daily activities, including walking, involve transverse plane motion, making it essential to incorporate rotational exercises into one's routine 1. Rena Malik and Julie discuss various lunges and squats that activate the pelvic floor, highlighting that simple kegels are not enough for comprehensive pelvic health 2.

The pelvic floor gets turned on when the hip rotates. Right. When forces come from the lower kinetic chain or the upper body, it's a signaling, right? Time to fire.

--- Julie Sarton

Incorporating these functional movements can significantly enhance pelvic floor strength and coordination.

   

Muscle Activation

Activating pelvic floor muscles requires specific techniques and cues. Julie outlines methods to ensure proper muscle engagement, such as feeling for tension inside the pelvic bone while imagining zipping up a tight pair of jeans 3. She also highlights the importance of weight-bearing exercises to teach the pelvic floor to respond dynamically to different activities. Rena Malik and Julie discuss progressing from basic contractions to more complex movements like standing on one leg with slight knee and hip bends 4.

Strengthening, we want to bring the pelvic floor. We want to load it so it learns how to explode when we need it.

--- Julie Sarton

These techniques help in building a resilient and responsive pelvic floor.