Green Valley Fitness

The pelvic floor forms sling-shaped layers of muscles that are attached the walls of the pelvis (via fascia) and to the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis, the tailbone (coccyx) at the back, and the ‘sit bones’ one each side at the base of the pelvis. The sling has three openings: one at the front from the bladder (urethra), one in the middle from the birth canal (vagina) and one at the back from the bowel.

Brilliant pelvic floor website – do visit it

http://www.gynzone.net/women-s-health/pelvic-floor-training

What do the pelvic floor muscles do?

There are two types of muscle fibre in the pelvic floor: slow twitch muscle fibres and fast twitch muscles fibres. The slow twitch fibres have a constant tone in them (even when you’re asleep) and work as a postural muscle. They also support your pelvic organs inside you, to help prevent prolapse, and help to keep urine inside your bladder until you find a suitable place to pass it. The fast twitch fibres contract strongly and quickly to control the bladder and prevent leakage of urine when you sneeze, cough, laugh or lift something heavy. They do this by pressing the urethra against the pubic bone, and the muscle fibres need to be strong to do this.

Why is the pelvic floor a focus during pregnancy?

These muscles are put under more pressure in pregnancy for two main reasons: the growth of the baby over the months in the uterus, and the effect of the pregnancy hormone ‘relaxin’ on the ligaments in and around the pelvis, in preparation for the birth process through the birth canal.

This softening effect is not isolated to the pelvic region alone; relaxin loosens all the joints in the body, whether they are directly related to the birth or not. Some women even report joint laxity in the little finger! The effect of the hormone continues until approximately five months after the baby is born. This is why it is so important during pregnancy to treat your pelvis with respect and care, and to keep all your joints and muscles in good alignment, so reducing strain on the joints.

Finding your Pelvic Floor Muscles

Sit on a firm chair, stool or block, in good posture. Tighten the ring of muscles around your back passage (anus), as though preventing a bowel movement or wind escaping. Lift the muscles up inside, hold for a second and then relax slowly.

Tighten the muscles around your back passage again, then take this feeling through to your front passages. Lift the back and front passages up inside, hold for a second then relax them slowly.

When you tighten the pelvic floor muscles during an exercise, it is important to actually feel the release of the muscles again, as you return the pelvic floor to the start position. Never perform pelvic floor exercises while you are passing urine at any time not just during pregnancy as there is an increased risk of developing a urine infection if the exercise is not done correctly.

Exercising the muscles

SLOW TWITCH. The slow twitch muscles need to be recruited smoothly and gently. Their strength needs to be build up gradually over a period of weeks. As with all exercise regimes, you need to determine where you are starting from, so that you can measure progress and be motivated by improvement.

To determine your ‘starting block’:

Tighten your pelvic floor muscles smoothly and gently as described above. Hold for as many seconds as you can (up to a maximum of ten seconds). Relax the contraction and rest for four seconds. How long could you hold the contraction for?  Note down how many seconds.

Now, repeat the muscle contraction gently and smoothly. Tighten, hold for the number of seconds just noted, and relax, repeating this as many times as you can (up to ten repetitions). How many times could you repeat the contraction? Note down how many repetitions.

So, this becomes your ‘starting block’ – the number of seconds you can hold and how many repetitions you can do ( for example, two seconds with four repetitions)

FAST TWITCH These muscles need to be able to react strongly and quickly, preventing leakage when you squeeze them tightly. See how many quick and strong contractions you can do, and note down the number of repetitions. Aim to increase this number up to a maximum of ten repetitions. TRY AND MAKE THE LAST REPETITION AS STRONG AS THE FIRST (i.e. there is no point in continuing if it feels really weak after 4, you need to build up the strength gradually doing these exercises over a period of time)

Repeat a balance of slow and fast muscle contractions between three and six times a day. For optimum pelvic floor health, make this a habit for life, not just for the three to four months retraining following the pregnancy and birth!

If there is a weakness in the pelvic floor muscles, you may be more aware of an increased leakage of urine during the second and third trimesters. In the third trimester the increased weight of the baby also makes it hard to be aware of the pelvic floor working in a standing or sitting position, so it’s a good idea to do these exercise in a side lying position, to get a good contraction of these muscles. It is important to continue to practice these pelvic floor exercises throughout pregnancy