• Qui sommes-nous?

Pelvic Floor Muscles. How to Find and Feel Your Pelvic Floor?

Where are your pelvic floor muscles located?

We can’t see them because they sit inside the body, and sometimes they can be really difficult to find and feel.

The pelvic floor is shown right, located at the base or lower opening of the pelvis; the area in and around where you sit. The pelvic floor does not only consist only of pelvic muscles. It is a hammock-like structure of tissues bound together and it consists of pelvic floor muscles, blood vessels, nerves and strong connective tissues.

The external genital sex organs in women (vulva i.e. labia, clitoris and vaginal entrance) lie below or outside the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor has an opening in women through which the urine tube, vagina (called point V in Santelle programs) and back passage pass  or anus (called point A in Santelle® programs) through.

How to feel pelvic floor muscles working?

Stop-test

One way to feel your pelvic floor muscles is to try to stop or slow the flow of urine midway through emptying the bladder. Stopping the flow of urine repeatedly on the toilet is not an exercise, but a way of identifying your pelvic floor muscles. This should only be done to identify which muscles are needed for bladder control. If you can, stop the flow of urine over the toilet for a second or two, then relax and finish emptying without straining. This 'stop-test' may help you identify the muscles around the front passage which control the flow of urine. It is not recommended as a regular exercise.

Visualisation

Another method to identify your pelvic floor muscles is to imagine stopping the flow of urine and holding in flatus (wind) at the same time. This can be done lying down, sitting or standing.

  1. Relax the muscles of your thighs, bottom and tummy.
  2. Squeeze in the muscles around the front passage as if trying to stop the flow of urine and around the vagina and suck upwards inside the pelvic. Also squeeze in the muscles around the back passage as if trying to stop passing wind.The muscles around the front and back passages should squeeze up and inside the pelvis.
  3. Identify the muscles that contract when you do all these things together. Then relax and loosen them.

What sport helps to build your pelvic floor muscles?

To develop your pelvic floor muscles  you should not do any sport. Some types of physical exercices are more or less indicated than others to keep pelvic muscles tonic. Santelle® Fitness is good practice to strengthen the pelvic muscles. You can start your training cours right now here!

 

 

Santelle

Follow Santelle®
on social networks