Do You Have a Tight or Weak Pelvic Floor?
How do you tell if your pelvic floor is tight vs. weak?
Most people with pelvic floor symptoms have muscle imbalance – their muscles are actually too short and tight. Short and tight muscles don’t work well… which can feel like weakness. Occasionally, some women just have weakness— their pelvic floors aren’t working well but it’s not due to tightness. Ultimately you can have a weak pelvic floor, a tight pelvic floor, or a combination of both. This information will help you to identify what exactly is the cause of your symptoms. When you figure out what exactly is going on, you can then take steps to resolve your issue.
Signs of a tight pelvic floor:
Difficulty with starting your stream with urination
Spraying urine while peeing or having a wildly unpredictable stream
Dribbling after you pee or feeling like you have to pee again right after you go
Constipation and/or very skinny poops
Pain with penetration and/or tampon insertion
Pain or throbbing during or after sex
Vulvar (external pelvic floor) burning/pain
Increased UTI risk/long history of repeated UTIs— due to retention and irritation of urethra
Leaking urine (sometimes)
Feeling like you can’t relax your pelvic floor
Chronic abdominal clenching/abdominal pain
Difficulty with taking a full breath in (shallow breathing pattern)
SI joint pain, tailbone (coccyx) pain and/or hip pain
Stress, fear and anxiety also can contribute to pelvic floor overactivity. Taking steps to minimize stress and learning to respond to stress in a healthy way can assist with pelvic floor relaxation and pain reduction. If your symptoms get worse after kegels or if you can’t relax after a pelvic floor contraction, those are signs that kegels are probably not your best choice of exercise at this time. Focus must be on downtraining or relaxing the pelvic floor and surrounding muscles first
Click here for help relaxing your pelvic floor
Signs of a weak pelvic floor:
Difficulty feeling the desired rise in the pelvic floor upon attempts to contract/perform a Kegel
Leaking urine
Leaking gas
Decreased sensation during sex
Decreased or inability to orgasm
You have a very flat butt - healthy glutes are essential for healthy pelvic floor
Clenching butt muscles, inner thigh muscles, or abdominal muscles instead of your pelvic floor upon attempts to contract
Click here for help with contracting your pelvic floor
Urinary Incontinence:
For women with urinary incontinence, the goal is to NOT leak urine with activities like jumping, running, or just sneezing. The first step is to focus on connecting well with breath, pelvic floor and core muscles. This is why we created our Expecting and Empowered guides– to help women restore themselves back to full health!
Find both our pregnancy and postpartum guides in our Expecting and Empowered App
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