How to Activate your Pelvic Floor during Pregnancy (it’s not kegels!)
So, you may have heard of kegels, yes?
You may have also heard that you should do hundreds of kegels a day during pregnancy. This isn’t completely wrong, BUT, what I’m going to teach you today isn’t kegels. It’s actually MORE effective!
Most women do these exercises wrong (including me before I learned and applied these techniques!)
In this post, I’m going to teach you WHY it’s important to properly activate/strengthen all sections of your pelvic floor and HOW exactly to find them.
Let’s dive in.
P.S. For my audio/visual learners, scroll to the bottom to find a tutorial video I posted on IGTV.
Why you NEED to strengthen your entire pelvic floor
Think of your pelvic floor as the gateway for your baby to come out of your body. The greater control you have over contracting and relaxing these muscles, the easier time you’ll have during birth. With that, a strong pelvic floor works with other muscles of your core (diaphragm and transverse abdominis) to act as a pump during the pushing phase of birth! Hey, I’m on board if it can help push the baby out quicker (but no guarantees).
A strong pelvic floor makes for an easier recovery postpartum. You may have heard of incontinence? Aka urine leakage (aka no fun). The excess pressure from your belly weighing down on the pelvic floor during pregnancy can lead to incontinence. Likewise, after birth, your pelvic floor will definitely be weaker which could lead to some incontinence issues (and/or many other dysfunctions down there). Starting with a stronger pelvic floor will help you recover faster and hopefully avoid these common issues!
How to properly find and ACTIVATE your pelvic floor
Alright, let’s walk through the mechanics of finding and activating your pelvic floor!
To Find your pelvic floor
First, I want you to think about your pelvis (super exciting, I know). Your pelvic floor muscles are at the very bottom of your pelvis, right where you see the band of red connective tissue in the photo below.
These muscles connect at 4 different places on your pelvis:
Front/Center: Pubic symphysis
Back/Center: Coccyx
2 Sides: Ischial tuberosities (your bony sit bones)
How To activate your pelvic floor
Now, I’ll walk you step by step through properly activating these muscles together - super important in order for these to be effective! General kegels are not enough to strengthen your pelvic floor.
Sit upright on a chair.
To find the front of the pelvic floor, lean forward slightly. Squeeze like you’re trying to stop the flow of urine. Practice squeezing and releasing in this area until you feel you have good control.
To find the back of the pelvic floor, lean back slightly. Squeeze like you’re holding back from passing gas. Again, practice squeezing and releasing in this area until you feel you have good control.
To find the sides of your pelvic floor, sit on your hands (you should feel your sit bones - aka ischial tuberosities). Sit upright and squeeze the sides upward and inward like you’re trying to lift your sit bones off the chair. Practice the squeeze and release of these muscles.
Finally, try this all together by activating front, back, and sides to pull your pelvic floor up and together.
Apply it
To start, try to complete a set of 10 Pelvic Floor Activations multiple times throughout the day. When you’re sitting - driving, working, watching TV - are all great times!
This is not an easy practice, especially at first. But practice makes you better and stronger, and less susceptible to pelvic floor dysfunctions.
Stay tuned for my next post/video on applying breathing techniques to strengthen your pelvic floor!
IGTV Tutorial
Hey there! I’m Nicole, Pre/Postnatal Fitness Coach and founder of Strong Mama Wellness. I take the confusion out of prenatal fitness and help women prepare and strengthen their body for pregnancy, delivery, and recovery. You and your baby deserve to have a vibrant, healthy pregnancy!
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