At the pelvic outlet, a firm plate of muscles and ligaments (which becomes more flexible during pregnancy) under strong basic tension ensures that the viscera remain in place in the abdomen. This “pelvic diaphragm” has passages for the urethra, rectum and, in women, vagina. Part of the musculature forms the volitional external sphincters of the rectum and urinary bladder.
Overstretching of the muscles and ligaments of the pelvic floor – for example, after pregnancy – can lead to displacement, especially of the internal genital organs, but also of the bowel or urinary bladder (descent). With the much vaunted pelvic floor exercises, the muscle plate and ligaments can be strengthened and corresponding complaints reversed.
Pelvic floor training
Want to know which muscles to exercise? Try to squeeze the sphincter of the urinary bladder as if to interrupt a flowing stream of urine (or, correspondingly, the anal sphincter). Do not move your buttocks, abdomen or inner thighs while doing this. If you do it correctly, you will feel a slight lifting of the pelvic floor muscles upward and inward.
The term “pelvic clock” also comes from physiotherapy: Imagine sitting not on a chair but on the face of a clock and, with your pelvis as the hand, walk down various clock times in certain sequences.
By the way: a well-trained pelvic floor not only counteracts problems with prolapse. It also helps to achieve good posture, a firm abdomen and a more pleasurable sex life. If that’s not an incentive to book a pelvic floor exercise class today!
