7 Best Stretches to Improve Your Pelvic Health

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sit at the base of your body, forming a sling-like muscle “hammock” that stretches from the pubic bone to the tailbone.

The pelvic floor supports all of the pelvic and abdominal muscles. These muscles are constantly working, whether consciously felt or not. They clench and release as needed to aid in bodily functions. The pelvic floor is considered the base of your “core” muscles, making them important to everyday functioning, from bathroom habits to giving your spine the necessary support. This group of muscles makes bodily functions and movement possible, impacting all the muscles they support.

The pelvic floor directly supports the bladder and bowel in those assigned male at birth and the bladder, bowel, and uterus in those assigned female at birth.

Why is the pelvic floor important?

The pelvic floor holds the pelvic organs in their proper place and supports their function. Since the pelvic floor is at the base of the body, these muscles also support the rest of the body’s organs. These muscles, which form the base of your core, aid in many basic bodily functions ranging from bathroom habits to orgasming to breathing.

There are five main functions of the pelvic floor muscles:

Sphincteric

The pelvic floor supports the bladder and the rectum. When the pelvic floor is released and relaxed, it allows you to use the restroom. These same muscles contract as necessary to prevent bowel or urinary incontinence.

This function of the pelvic floor demonstrates just how important having a strong pelvic floor can be; with a weak pelvic floor, you run the risk of leakage and accidents on top of other potential complications. This helps you “hold it” and avoid accidents when doing everyday things like sneezing or laughing. This function also gives you the ability to use the restroom without straining or struggling with retention.

Support

The muscles of the pelvic floor form a hammock-like structure that reaches from the pubic bone in the front of the pelvis to the tailbone. These muscles support everyone’s bladder, colon, and rectum 24/7. They also support the vagina, cervix, and uterus in those who have these organs.

This support keeps these organs in their proper position and helps them function optimally. Without a supportive pelvic floor, you risk organ prolapse. Organ prolapse occurs when the organ (namely the rectum, bladder, and uterus) begins to bulge, loosen, or fall from its normal position. This can cause a feeling of heaviness or dragging around the pelvic floor, or become so advanced it causes organ dysfunction or even protrudes into the vagina or rectum.

Stability

The pelvic floor is constantly working in tandem with the rest of the body. Namely, these muscles work with your hip muscles, spinal column, and your diaphragm to help stabilize you.

The strength of your pelvic floor helps stabilize your hips and core, which keeps you upright and helps you move about. The pelvic floor helps maintain control of the sacroiliac and hip joints, as well as the gluteus medius, gluteus maximus, piriformis, and deep core muscles. All of these functions combined keep you upright and mobile.

Sexual

The pelvic floor facilitates the functional aspects of sexual intercourse. The pelvic floor muscles help achieve and maintain erections; a relaxed pelvic floor allows for vaginal penetration. These muscles then contract as needed to achieve pleasurable intercourse and eventual orgasm.

Pain during or after intercourse is often due to overly tightened pelvic floor muscles; in some, it may cause premature ejaculation, painful ejaculation, pain after orgasm, and pain with urination.

Circulation

We have lymph nodes and veins throughout our whole body, and this includes the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is an important part of the lymphatic drainage and circulatory system, as it connects our lower peripheral arteries to our abdominal arteries and eventually the heart.

The abdominal aorta, one of the main arteries in our body, connects to the iliac artery in the pelvis. The iliac artery then connects to the femoral artery in the thigh, thus connecting the peripheral arteries to the rest of the body.

Just like arteries and blood vessels, there are lymph nodes throughout the whole body as well. There are many lymph nodes in the pelvis, making it an important part of the lymphatic drainage system. The main sets of lymph nodes in the pelvis are the iliac, inguinal, and sacral nodes.

When these systems are not working properly, you can develop pelvic congestion or Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). PID can cause pain in the lower abdomen, burning, bleeding, and other symptoms of an infection.

How does over strengthening the pelvic floor make some problems worse?

While you need a strong pelvic floor to properly support your core, avoid prolapse, and more, over-strengthening the pelvic floor has become a widespread problem. Over-strengthened or tightened pelvic floor muscles can lead to high-tone pelvic floor dysfunction and other issues.

High-tone pelvic floor dysfunction occurs when the pelvic muscles become so tight that they are continuously tense, inflexible, or in spasm. This can lead to urinary retention, fissures, pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, and more.

A proper balance of strengthening exercises and relaxation/stretching should be used to avoid developing symptoms of an overly strong or tense pelvic floor.

The best stretches for relaxing your pelvic floor.

A lot of unqualified fitness gurus teach Kegels but not relaxation techniques. Proper Kegels should be taught to you by a professional, and your abdomen, back, buttocks, and sides should all remain relaxed during the exercise. Kegels should always be done in moderation and combined with stretching.

A few of my favorite pelvic floor stretches are listed and shown below.

Knee to Chest: