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I admit that it’s not the most glamorous of topics, and I bet that if it’s a question of sculpted legs versus toned pelvic floor, the legs are a more attractive proposition! Admittedly we can’t actually see or show off our beautifully toned pelvic floor (unlike a shapely pair of calves!) but having said that, we can certainly feel the consequences of a weak and de-conditioned pelvic floor… Having to cross one’s legs when coughing, sneezing or even laughing, really isn’t much fun. Discovering that you can’t have an impromptu race with your son without leaking, or show your daughter how to skip without dashing to the loo, is less than pleasant. And without wishing to get too personal, a weak pelvic floor does affect sexual intercourse in a less than positive way. To make matters worse, if the pelvic floor is weak during the child bearing years, it can only get worse as one reaches the menopause, with its accompanying hormonal changes.
So we all need to do more for our pelvic floor… and here’s how:
The pelvic floor is a muscle like any other in our body and, as such, is made up of two types of muscle fibre – fast and slow twitch – which need to be targeted using different sorts of exercise. Your slow twitch muscle fibres are essentially for endurance: the pelvic floor is busy all day, every day, holding up all your internal organs a bit like the bottom of a shopping bag! This requires strength and stamina and the following exercise will help:
You can do this standing, sitting or lying down but you might well notice that it’s harder to do in some positions than others. To engage the pelvic floor you have to consciously relax bigger, stronger muscles such as the glutes (your bottom!) and the abdominals. Now you have to imagine that your pelvic floor is a lift going up a few levels in a building (here’s the embarrassing bit!): have a go at pulling up around the back passage as if you were trying to stop yourself from passing wind. Done? Now keep hold of that and also pull up at the front as if you were stopping yourself from having a wee. Good, you’ve reached the first floor of your building. Now you need to pull up a little further to reach the second floor. If you’ve got a third floor – you might not yet have the strength to reach a third level – then take your pelvic floor up there. Quick check: are you holding your breath? If so, don’t! Are you tensing up your shoulders or your bottom? Relax! Now go slowly back down to the ground floor: remember that you’re not leaping off the top of a three storey building but smoothly and slowly descending in your lift…
Now you need to target the fast twitch muscle fibres in your pelvic floor. These are the ones that stop embarrassing accidents when you suddenly have a fit of sneezing or when you decide to test your son’s trampoline. As with the previous exercise, you need to pull up at the back and the front but this time you are simply pulling in and up for a second and then releasing in quick succession and repeatedly. I say “simply” but when you have a go, just check that you are not tensing up your backside, legs, abdominals, neck, facial muscles… or conducting an eyebrow-raising exercise!
So there you have it: two very important exercises that should be incorporated into every woman’s daily routine. “How often”, I hear you ask? You need to be doing a few sets of each exercise about three times a day. If you have a little baby, you can do the exercises whilst you are feeding but once you wean you’re going to have to think of some other trigger to remind you to do your pelvic floor exercises: a Post-It on the TV screen or on the fridge door, are options that spring to mind.
Last but most certainly not least, I have a slightly bitter pill for you to swallow: once you have exercised your way to a strong, toned pelvic floor, you can’t just stop doing your daily quota of exercises because the muscle will simply regress to its former state. You need to carry on… for ever after.