How to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles through pregnancy

• What are pelvic floor muscles?
• Why are pelvic floor muscles so important
• The best basic pelvis floor exercise
• Breathing styles
• Caution
• Tips to help you tune in
• A 20 minute pelvic floor exercise sequence
• Top tip for limiting tearing
• Tools to help me strengthen

What are pelvic floor muscles?

Pelvic floor muscles are layered muscles that support our pelvis and organs like a hammock effect. The organs in the pelvis are our bladder, bowel and for woman their womb.

I’ve included a model photos below of what the pelvic floor muscles look like. This can also encourage more awareness within, to how much space these muscles encompass, below, our top of hips:

Why strengthening pelvic floor muscles is important in pregnancy?

The reason our pelvic floor muscles are so important especially in pregnancy, is the pelvic floor muscles help support carrying and birthing our baby.

If they become weak, many bladder and bowel problems can be created, as a result. It is for this reason that, I cannot stress how vital it is to maintain strength within our pelvic floor muscles throughout pregnancy.

They are muscles that are not seen, but definitely felt.

By having strengthened pelvic muscles in pregnancy, it is more likely to repair better, after the birth.

There is so much controversial information about working the pelvic muscles, from too much, to too little, and rightly so. The key is finding a balance.

The reason health professionals have a minimum 6 week no exercise rule, after giving birth, apart from gentle pelvic floor exercises, is due to allowing your body time to rest and heal. I personally didn’t even contemplate exercise, for two months, postnatal.

Rest is as important as exercise

It allows our body time to heal naturally. Our body is so smart, if we can give it time to rest and heal.

So its really important to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles in pregnancy, because it’s these muscles that can birth our baby and are stretched in labour, if giving a vaginal birth.

Getting in tune with your pelvic floor muscles in pregnancy, will help support the pelvic floor muscles to be stronger, through the labour and beyond.

As a woman, straight to the point question, you wanna pee your pants? Really these are the muscles that control these sensations that are unseen, but definitely smelled and seen if we have an accident. All jokes aside, it can be a major societal embarrassment if we haven’t built up strength and control of our pelvic floor muscles.

True story, I was frightened to put a tampon in for a year postnatal, incase it fell out. Thats how much I felt I had lost, in strength. Admittedly I didn’t try, because I was so anxious about what could happen.

Its a rarely talked about natural issue, that is a consequence of vaginal birth.

This is why, exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, is so important in pregnancy and postnatally.

Thee best exercise to strengthen pelvic muscles?

Neutral to imprint exercise, is thee best exercise for strengthening pelvic floor muscles.

It’s a simple, subtle and such an effective exercise, at drawing in, strengthening, and sustaining strong pelvic floor muscles.

The best explanation of this exercise and really helped me realise its importance for future advanced exercises, came from a yoga teacher and my first teacher training teacher of over twenty years teaching experience, Colette Forrest-Bosque, who has her own fabulous studio here http://www.infinityyoga.com.

I’d literally heard the instruction so many times by a variety of teachers, before the penny finally dropped. Aha, that’s what they meant.

Is that it!

“Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Confucius

Once you get this simple exercise, it will change the way you do further pelvic floor exercises. Its the foundations of future core workout.

What I love about this exercise is you can do it anywhere, sitting, standing, lying.

I loved doing it on my birthing ball when pregnant, as it really helped me be more aware of the muscles I was engaging and strengthening ready for giving birth.

Using a ball really supports and disperses the weight more evenly and helps release the hips at the same time.

All time, ‘must have’ winner for me in pregnancy.

So now your ready to learn and are sitting on your birthing ball, put your hands on your hips and visualise this picture below. Remember its the muscles below your hands that you are exercising and tuning into:

• Sitting on your birthing ball with feet as wide as your pregnant body needs and feet under knees. Your spine is in a natural neutral curved position and your pelvis is in an anterior (frontal) tilt. With your hands on your hips to help awareness, that its the muscles below your hips your using, lift your pelvis up towards your baby on your exhale, giving your baby a gentle cuddle. This is imprint spine.The birthing ball will roll slightly forward as you lift the pelvis up. As you inhale back to neutral spine, the ball will roll slightly back, and as you exhale again, gently lifting your pelvis too baby, the ball will move slightly forward. Repeat fifteen times with your belly breathe. Try to do three sets, of fifteen daily.

Breathing styles

Breathing is so vital for life. Its the one force we cannot live without. It enables us to hone into our body.

There are so many different breathing techniques for a variety of challenges. Below are the ones really vital in pregnancy.

• If feeling stressed, breathe in and out through the nose to encourage calmness to your baby and nervous system.
• If feeling fiery, inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth, to release the fire.
• You could also add in a lions breathe, by sticking your tongue out on your exhale and really let that roar sound out. Don’t worry guys, we can feel a bit silly doing this when we first start, you get used to it. It’s so good for the nervous system.

Caution

• ⚠️ please note it is a gentle cuddle, you are not compressing the stomach or contracting the stomach muscles, simply switching on your pelvic floor muscles which are much lower.

Tips to help you tune in

• If you’re finding it challenging, imagine your needing a pee and oh my lord your squeezing the muscles necessary to hold the pee in. Some teachers advise holding a pee in for a little longer than is necessary, to help a person feel the muscles that are supposed to be working. It isn’t your booty, shoulders, jaw or teeth, that are meant to be tensing. Tune into your pelvic floor muscles.
• Another tip is to place your hands on your hips, this will bring awareness to what is the outer pelvis. It is everything from here down, that is supposed to be working.

20 minute Pelvic floor exercise sequence

These pelvic floor exercises can be done either lying on the floor, sitting on a birthing ball or sitting on the floor. Its entirely your choice and how you are feeling today.

1. Belly breathing- inhale through nose exhale through mouth. Inhale into your belly and baby and as you exhale draw in your belly button to your spine. Repeat 15 times. ⚠️ You are not crunching into your belly and baby, simply drawing in and strengthening your transverse and pelvic floor muscles.
2. Imprint to neutral- as already explained above, 15 breathes and time
3. Stirring the cauldron– Make a circular motion with your hips remembering your breathe. When your hips move forward exhale and as your hips move back the way you are inhaling. One circle is one breathe, in and out. By connecting your breathing, with your movement, it switches on the pelvic floor muscles. Deep and long slow breathes. Do 10 one way, then switch direction for 10. This isn’t the hoola hoola dance ladies, this is slow and steady mindful breathing movements. One circle is one breathe of inhale and exhale. Close your eyes, really go in.
4. Neutral to gentle cat pose-Similar to cat cow pose but not. I don’t advise cow pose in pregnancy because its a pulling away from the body. On all fours or sitting, inhale to a neutral spine and as you exhale, curl in by pressing with the hands, arching the back gently as you tuck in chin to chest, into a gentle cat. Inhale to lengthen the back into neutral spine and exhale as you gently curl into cat. As you curl in and exhale, switch on your pelvic floor muscles.
5. Squeeze and hold- sitting, slightly tilt your pregnant torso forward, whilst maintaining a straight back. In this position, squeeze your pelvic floor muscles for the count of 6 keep breathing as you squeeze. Once your mastered 6 try upping it to increase strength.

Top tip for tearing

⚠️ You hear the ripping/tearing stories of giving birth. Its a frightening thought for most pregnant woman. A top tip to limit this happening, is to massage almond oil along your perineum before bed. This can be done throughout pregnancy and ideally, the sooner the better.

The oil allows this area to soften, so it becomes more elastic and can stretch better, during labour.

Tools to help you strengthen

Theres so many products out there to use and so many unnecessary and useless ones too.

Keep it simple.

The tools I used whilst pregnant and still use some of them now, are below.

• Organic almond oil to limit tearing in birth.
• A birthing ball for comfort and exercise ease in pregnancy.
• PharMeDoc Pregnancy Pillow isn’t something I personally used, but know from so many other mums expressing how much it helps alleviate comfort. In pregnancy whilst in bed, lying on your left side, the pillow can be used as a knee ledge, in creating a 90 degree angle with your leg, to create more room, hence a more comfortable feeling and can ease sleeping. Better still this pillow is also useful postnatally, especially if breastfeeding. Instead of your arm taking all the weight, use the pillow
• Deluxe Comfort Pillow Side-Sleeper Prenatal Pregnancy Unique L-Shaped Design-Superior Comfort-Body, White can be useful for comfort in bed to sleep better.
• Manduka Cork Yoga Block is very useful for encouraging awareness of the bodies midline. It also creates height, length and space for the body.

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