Do you feel fine during a workout then struggle with that prolapse bulge, pain in your lower back, or maybe a literal pain in your butt?
Why this could be happening…
Pelvic floor tension can lead to pain, spasms, or sore trigger points. If you’re prone to being hypertonic (or tight) anyways, adding on more tension during a workout can lead to symptoms. That doesn’t mean you have to stop lifting or doing the movements you enjoy. You may just need to mix things up a bit to help reduce the overall tension.
3 ways to relax your pelvic floor during a workout
1. Mobility in your warmup.
Your pelvic floor muscles aren’t all about strength. They need to be able to elongate and stretch too for proper function. You can do this with mobility.
Some of my favorite mobility exercises that we do in FIT Core Restore warm-ups are adductor rock backs, shin box, and supine thoracic rotations.
2. Stop squeezing everything with every movement.
If you’ve been diagnosed with a pelvic floor disorder like prolapse, it can be very tempting to want to hold your core and pelvic floor tight with every exercise (and even throughout the day), but staying tight isn’t serving you or your pelvic floor well. You don’t have to engage your abs, squeeze your glutes, or kegel with everything you do.
Learn to manage pressure, build strength, and match the tension in your core and pelvic floor to the effort of your activity.
3. Add pelvic floor relaxation at the end of your workout.
Release some of the tension you may have built up during your workout with pelvic floor relaxation as a cool down. Prone breathing and child’s pose are two of our favorites that we include at the end of FIT Core Restore workouts.
Don’t feel like you can connect to your pelvic floor? Focus on relaxing the glutes instead. Since your glutes are directly connected to your pelvic floor, you’ll end up relaxing the pelvic floor at the same time.
If you’re tired of having to modify your workouts (and life) around your pelvic floor, FIT Core Restore is for you. Get the mobility, core and pelvic floor progressions, and strength programming you need to help you transform your core and pelvic floor and get back to the life you love.
If you want to take a deep dive on more core and pelvic floor topics, join my weekly Q&A email list. It may or may not also be the only place to snag a discount on programs. So run, don’t walk, to join.