Did you know that you can have pelvic floor tightness without giving birth or having kids? Pelvic floor tightness causes include stress, trauma, and never learning how to properly relax your pelvic floor.
5 Ways to decrease pelvic floor tightness
Pelvic floor tightness is a condition where the muscles of your pelvis, the ones that control your bowel, bladder, and sexual functions become tight. Since they’re muscles, they can become tight or weak just like any other muscle in your body, take for instance your hip flexor muscles (the muscles you use to bring your knee toward your chest in a sitting or standing position).
You’ve likely come across tight hip flexors if you’ve experienced back pain, knee pain, or got into a half kneeling position (the “will you marry me?” pose) and then tried to shift your weight forward. It can feel RATHER uncomfortable to experience this tightness, like your muscle magically transformed into a rubber band that is pulled to its max capacity.
It’s like that for your pelvic floor muscles too. Studies show that the incidence of urinary tract dysfunction can be as high as 76%, and I’m not sure about you, but I wasn’t exactly shouting that I was peeing my pants from the rooftops in the beginning, so that number could be WAY higher. Almost 20% of the population will have pain during sexual intercourse & most of these individuals will not be offered the education that there is something that can help them that is non-invasive (pelvic floor therapy), even from their doctors.
It’s up to us, the grassroots of the pelvic floor dysfunction world to take a stand & educate our circle of influence so that the women who have experienced this or will experience this know that there is an option for them that is successful. The hardest part of pelvic floor tightness, especially for me, was that the symptoms, “tend to develop slowly and insidiously.” For me, it wasn’t a priority to make an appointment early on because I thought I was just in a season of stress and they’d go away. I wasn’t aware of HOW big of a deal it was and that without intervention it was likely to just continue to get worse, which it did — a lot worse.
I’ve been in pelvic floor therapy with my Physical Therapist who is trained by the Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute for three months now. My appointments range from 2-3x/month and I complete stretches, relaxation techniques, and (now) strengthening exercises.
The biggest point that I can make is that if you are experiencing pelvic floor tightness, you MUST stretch/relax BEFORE you can strengthen. Otherwise you are going to continue to perpetuate the same problem. Think of it like this: a relaxed muscle is like the palm of your hand in the open position with your fingers extended, when commanded to “make a fist,” you’re absolutely able to. A tight muscle is like having your hand already in a fist, then asking it to “make a fist,” you cannot because you’re already THERE! We need to have available range in order for our muscles to contract appropriately, when a muscle is tight, it’s not able to do its job.
Now that you’re ready here are some ACTIONABLE steps..
Here are 5 things I did to help resolve my pelvic floor tightness:
CONTACT A PELVIC FLOOR PT (I’m serious, you will not know if you have pelvic floor tightness unless you have an EXPERT actually DETERMINE if your muscles are tight.) Click on this link to search for a PT in your area, they will be able to help you determine if you need a script from your medical doctor first or if you can make an appointment without one (typically depends on state laws & what your insurance rules are).
FOCUS on Relaxation: ONCE you’ve determined that you have pelvic floor tightness by an EXPERT #PT, they will likely teach you relaxation techniques specific to your pelvic floor. These were the hardest for me to do because they need to be added into your daily life and often times I would completely forget to “check in” with my pelvic floor and do a quick contraction and then release/relax my pelvic floor. My suggestion would be to set a timer or reminders throughout the day or attach it to something you do regularly, like “check in before you leave your desk to stand up,” or “everytime you get in the car.”
STRETCH your hip external/internal rotators: Do piriformis and obturator internus stretches. I hold mine for x30 seconds (the shortest amount of time per studies to create an effect) and complete 2 on each side. Check out the photo below for instructions.
ADD IN REST to your daily/weekly schedule: Stress plays a major role in the development/progression of pelvic floor tightness/dysfunction. In my personal case, stress, trauma and general tightness in my hips all combined to cause that insideous, progressing tightness until it became a HUGE issue. I was always the go-go-go, “busy is the new cool,” “watch me handle all the things because I’m so strong,” “never ask for help because I can handle it all,” kind of girl. These days, I’m less obsessed with getting everything done and more obsessed with taking bubble baths, epsom salt baths, & asking for face masks for Valentine’s Day. I learned Transcendental Meditation, which also helps me get some deep rest. I’m not sure what “rest,” will look like for you, but I want you to start exploring ways you can do less & rest more.
Start talking about pelvic floor issues with your girlfriends: I am totally gutted when I think of the conversations I’ve had with my girlfriends in the recent months of painful sex, urinary incontinence, and other super vulnerable topics that we’ve NEVER taken the time to share/discuss. These women are my LIFE LINE to humanity, my best friends, my soul sisters, the people who give me joy & make me so grateful to be a human on this planet and to experience all the things life has to offer & we never took a moment to talk about the REAL THINGS we were all struggling with. The things that can bring shame & guilt & that “what’s wrong with us?” feeling. & still the things that we can change, if only we had a few tiny pieces of information strung together. If you struggle with pain with sex, urinary urgency, peeing your pants (urinary incontinence), difficulty voiding your bowels or difficulty stopping your bowels from coming out (anal incontinence) HAVE THE CONVERSATION with a girlfriend you trust. Ask them if they’ve ever heard of anyone else having that specific concern. Ask them if they know of a good pelvic floor PT or if they’ve ever had pelvic floor PT themselves. Our Shame Gremlins cannot live when we start asking and connect with others and holding space open for what we’re struggling with.
*actual picture of my printed out homework + my PT’s handwriting from October 2018.
Now that you know 5 ways you can start to help address pelvic floor tightness, I hope you do them. I hope you believe that you can have a better quality of life by taking small action-able steps. I hope you open the curtains and pour light on your shame gremlins surrounding pelvic floor dysfunction and talk about them with your best friends over coffee or a craft beer at your local brewery. I hope you believe in the power of connection, that these small words may impact your life, give you hope, and that by one person sharing their experience, others may see and believe in the potential of change.
