5-MINUTE FRIDAY: 3 Exercises to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor with PVOLVE's Chief of Training (part 2)
Feb 09, 2024Episode 76
Danielle Donovan
Welcome to 5 Minute Friday - your weekly wellness pep talk! We are back for part 2 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE's Chief of Training- Antonietta Vicario.
Today we are talking about the top 3 exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor.
Antonietta walks us through each exercise - emphasizing the importance of truly engaging our muscles. Tune in for a quick 5-min pep talk on:
- Understanding how to activate your pelvic floor through proper breathing techniques - The top 3 exercises for strengthening your pelvic floor - Optimal number of reps and sets per exercise for maximum benefits
This is part 2 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE.
Next week we will be back with Antonietta to focus on how to create a mind-body connection when focusing on your pelvic floor.
Welcome to 5 Minute Friday - your weekly wellness pep talk! We are back for part 2 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE's Chief of Training- Antonietta Vicario.
Today we are talking about the top 3 exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor.
Antonietta walks us through each exercise - emphasizing the importance of truly engaging our muscles. Tune in for a quick 5-min pep talk on:
- Understanding how to activate your pelvic floor through proper breathing techniques - The top 3 exercises for strengthening your pelvic floor - Optimal number of reps and sets per exercise for maximum benefits
This is part 2 of our 4-part Pelvic Floor Series with PVOLVE.
Next week we will be back with Antonietta to focus on how to create a mind-body connection when focusing on your pelvic floor.
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Speaker 1:
Hey squad, I'm your host, danielle Donovan, and you are listening to 5 Minute Fridays, a 5 minute pep talk and boost of inspiration to take with you into your weekend. Today we are talking with P-Volve's chief of training, antonietta Vicario, and today's topic is about pelvic floor. We are back for another series diving into the top three exercises to focus on strengthening your pelvic floor. Antonietta, can you take it away and share those top exercises to really help us focus on that pelvic floor area?
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yes. So the first exercise is just understanding how to activate your pelvic floor through breathing. I mentioned on an earlier podcast with you, a 5 minute Friday that your pelvic floor is actually part of your core and it is affected by your breath, by your diaphragm. So everybody, even if they're listening and driving in their car, we can do this all together. But your diaphragm sits at the top of your trunk, right underneath the lungs, and then you have your pelvic floor at the base of your pelvis. When you take an inhale in, the diaphragm naturally moves down and that allows for our pelvic floor to widen and to release. As we exhale, the diaphragm naturally moves up and our pelvic floor actually lifts right, and this is happening without us even needing to think about it. If the pelvic floor is healthy, that's happening all day, every day, as we're breathing.
Speaker 2:
However, with the pelvic floor, if you tend to be somebody who holds tension in your pelvis and you can't quite necessarily move your breath down into your pelvis, that can create pelvic floor dysfunction actually the pelvic floor being very tight, which can it's called hypertonicity which can create all sorts of issues pelvic pain, painful intercourse. So we want our breath to move, we want to be able to release our muscle and then we want to be able to contract the pelvic floor. A healthy muscle can both contract and release and go through its full range of motion. So I'm going to do this one more time with you. It's the most important exercise, which is just being able to tap into the musculature, and I'm going to add a couple more layers so we feel that deep pelvic floor contraction. So we're going to take that deep breath in feeling the diaphragm moving down, trying to send breath into our belly, and then, as you exhale, you're going to think of stopping the flow of urine also, like you're stopping yourself from passing gas, like there's a carnival claw that goes down to the pelvis and pulls it up, up, up, up, up up. So that's the diaphragmatic breathing with pelvic floor activation that we teach at Pee Valve.
Speaker 2:
So it's this full inhale release, full exhale contract, lift up and I think a lot of times Kegels are often taught is just stopping the flow of urine and that's only one aspect of a pelvic floor contraction. We want to close vaginally, rectally, and draw in and up. So it's a little bit more complicated than just thinking stopping the flow of urine and again, I can't stress enough the importance of letting go. So not too tight, not too loose, but finding that functional muscle where you can go through its full range of motion. So that's one exercise, probably the most complex, and I think sometimes people think exercise, I need to hit it hard, but if you don't have that coordination set with the pelvic floor, you can't integrate it into other exercises. Well right, the second one that I would say is doing something like a child's pose to either a modified plank or like a bent knee downward dog to a plank, because again, you're going to get that full range of motion through the pelvic floor. So as you inhale back into your child's pose, you think of spreading and releasing your sitz bones, sending breath into the pelvic floor, letting it widen and open, and then, as you exhale, you can find a real sense of hugging in and up, that you're using your core, you're using your pelvic floor, you're integrating your abdominals and your back muscle to find a very strong supportive posture, whether that's modified plank or plank. It's amazing, when you start to integrate your pelvic floor into your planks, how much stronger you feel, Because, again, the pelvic floor is responsible for stability and strength.
Speaker 2:
And then the last exercise that I want to talk about is something like a deadlift, like a sit to stand, and really bringing the functionality of the pelvic floor forward.
Speaker 2:
With this exercise, which is, you know say you're somebody who just had a baby, or picking your baby up, you're potentially breastfeeding we all have to lift heavy things up off the floor. We want our pelvic floor to be part of that support so that we're not potentially leaking or experiencing low back pain or hip pain. So when we exert, when you're doing something that requires a lot of effort, like you know, lifting weights up from the floor, a standard deadlift, for instance you want to exhale and time it so that you're contracting your pelvic floor. You're finding those cues that I just ran through, right of closing off, like you're stopping the flow of urine, you're stopping yourself from passing gas, you're feeling even your abdominal muscles pull in and up and that's going to help you really maintain proper posture. You won't sink into your back. You're using your pelvic floor and you know you're really going to be able to support those movements. So, whether you're practicing them in the gym or in the real world, right, you are able to use your pelvic floor to really support your movement.
Speaker 1:
So helpful Quick question how long should you be holding the plank or holding your breath and how many reps should you be doing in the deadlift, and how often? How many reps, how many rounds? I would love to know.
Speaker 2:
Awesome question. Awesome question. So nice deep breath, right, not going quickly through the movements? Again, the breath is the primary way that you're going to tap into the pelvic floor. So everybody has a different rhythm in their breath. But thinking like in, you know, taking a nice deep breath in, inhale back, exhale, pull forward into that plank, inhale back, so something that's natural. You don't want to force it. If we're holding our breath we actually could be creating too much tension in the pelvic floor. So, letting your breath flow with your movement, I would say start eight to 10, let your breath be your guide in terms of the timing eight to 10 of each exercise, and then, as always, you know, you can work up to doing about three sets of eight to 10. And you'll be, you know, you'll be good to go. You'll definitely experience some strength in the pelvic floor.
Speaker 1:
Amazing. And there you guys have it. Five minute Fridays. Stay tuned. For next week we'll be talking with Antoni Etta about the importance of mind body connection when focusing on your strength and your strengthening your pelvic floor. Until next time, cheers and happy Friday. You can find me over at the squad underscore call on Instagram and we'll link Antonietta's all her info in the show notes and p-bops info in the show notes as well. Cheers and happy Friday.