7 reasons to start training your pelvic floor NOW!

Women trampolining

Just because you can’t see your pelvic floor doesn’t mean it isn’t important. After all, you can’t see your heart but you know it is important, don’t you?

Almost all movement starts with your core. The pelvic floor is the ‘core of your core’. It impacts your balance, breathing, peeing, pooing, mobility and even your emotions. Since we can’t actually see the pelvic floor in the same way we can see our biceps or glutes, we may not realise the important role it invisibly plays in our lives. Here are 7 compelling reasons to train your pelvic floor:

1. You are losing muscle as you age - We all lose muscle mass as we get older, we often forget the pelvic floor is a muscle that weakens as we age. It supports our bladder, rectum and our sex organs, weak muscles cannot adequately support our organs, this is why it is important to condition the pelvic floor regularly.

2. Stop peeing your pants now - 49% of women who exercise regularly aged (18-83) experience urine leaks regardless of age. For those who have experienced childbirth, that number is higher. Despite this, 95% of women with incontinence normalise this symptom (especially after pregnancy) and don’t seek help from a healthcare provider. Let’s stop normalising peeing our pants and start normalising training our pelvic floor!

3. Avoid peeing your pants later - The No 1 reason women (and men) end up in nursing homes in old age is incontinence. Even if you are not incontinent now, the chances of this happening increase with age. Learning to condition the pelvic floor now will pay off later.

4. Help picking up heavy things - Moving house and lifting boxes? Picking up a screaming, kicking child? Carrying your week's groceries? Trying to open a heavy door? Dragging a pram up the stairs because the lift is broken? All movement originates in our deep core where our pelvic floor is, having strength here will help make these activities easier.

5. Increasing sexual satisfaction - Training your pelvic floor can amplify pleasure during sex. I won’t elaborate on why that is important, you get it!

6. Dissolve anxiety - The pelvic floor is connected to our diaphragm so affects breathing and our nervous system. Women often hold a lot of emotion in their pelvic floor since it is close to our hormone producing ovaries. When we learn to relax our PF, this can aid emotional and stress release which has a positive knock on effect to the rest of our body.

7. Improve spinal health - Your pelvic floor begins at the base of your spine. If the pelvic floor is weak, often people find the lumbar spine picks up the slack and works overtime. When you train your PF, you might find your lower back pain is gone and you sit up straighter.

Are these reasons compelling enough?

Want to know more? Train with me, let’s talk.