How to Connect Your Pelvic Floor and Breathing
You know that your abdominal muscles are involved in breathing, but did you know that your pelvic floor is, too? Proper pelvic floor breathing ensures that your muscles are contracting and releasing at the appropriate times and that they aren’t being overworked. Here’s what you need to know about how to do pelvic floor breathing properly:
The Connection Between the Pelvic Floor and Breathing
You might think that your pelvic floor has nothing to do with your breathing. After all, your pelvic floor is pretty far away from your lungs, right? Wrong! Everything in your core is connected to your breath, and that includes your pelvic floor. In fact, your pelvic floor is connected to your diaphragm by your abdominal muscles, with your spine forming the back of the column. These muscles all move in tandem when you breathe.
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As you inhale, the ribs expand and the diaphragm flattens out. This lowers and moves your organs down, which requires your pelvic floor to also lengthen and expand in order to accommodate this organ movement. When you exhale, the diaphragm lifts and your pelvic floor returns to its resting position. When you breathe properly, your pelvic floor gets a micro-break with each breath, which encourages pelvic floor release and keeps it from becoming overtaxed during the day. If your breath is very shallow or you keep your muscles tense, you’ll keep your muscles tense all day instead of giving them the chance they need to relax.
4 Pelvic Floor Release Stretches for Tight Muscles
Over time, breathing the wrong way can strain your pelvic floor, as well as the other muscles in your core. This can contribute to different kinds of pelvic floor dysfunction, including muscle spasms and incontinence. On the flipside, learning to breathe properly can teach you to deliberately engage and relax the pelvic floor in a safe way, making it strong and improving your health.
If you suspect that your issue is a pelvic floor that’s too stretched out rather than one that is too tense, then doing pelvic floor exercises with or without Kegel balls may help to rebuild those muscles and improve your strength. Doing pelvic floor breathing and syncing it with the contractions of your muscles down there can also enhance the effectiveness of the exercises.
Learn More Pelvic Floor Exercises
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How to Do Pelvic Floor Breathing
The key to any kind of breathing exercise, including pelvic floor breathing, is to breathe deeply from your stomach as opposed to your chest. This engages all the core muscles and ensures that they are engaging and relaxing at the appropriate times. If you need to practice breathing from your stomach, you can do this by placing one hand on your chest and the other hand on your stomach. If you are breathing deeply enough from your stomach, the hand on your belly should go up and down while the hand on your chest mostly stays put. You can lie on the floor while you do this to make the motion of your stomach easier to feel.
To further deepen your breathing, practice inhaling and exhaling through your nose while relaxing your mouth and tongue. You can also inhale through your nose and then exhale through your mouth if you find it difficult to do it all through your nose. Focus on deepening your breath and really taking your time with each inhale and exhale. You can count to three or five for each breath if you have a tendency to breathe too quickly and rush things.
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Obviously, you can’t lie on the floor all day to breathe (if only you could!). When you’re going about your daily life, practice good posture while sitting and standing to keep those core muscles properly aligned and supported. This will make it easier to engage and relax the muscles in concert. Don’t wear clothing that restricts your breathing and don’t constantly suck in your stomach either. Allow it to contract and release naturally instead.
Check in with yourself throughout the day to make sure that you are still breathing deeply and that your posture is still good. It’s easy to hunch over or start taking shallow breaths whenever you get stressed or your attention slips. By establishing regular check-ins, you can keep yourself accountable and make sure that your pelvic floor breathing is happening the right way.
For more information about pelvic floor health and techniques, including how to do a pelvic tilt, be sure to check out our resource center!