5 Must-Do Exercises for Your Pelvic Floor during Pregnancy

The pelvic floor is an underrated, yet VERY important, part of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery.

Keeping your pelvic floor functional is essential if you want to be comfortable (down there!) and stay support the changes your body makes throughout pregnancy to prepare for birth.

The pelvic floor can also be a buzz word that automatically makes us think of doing 100 kegels a day, which is not actually the best approach.

In this blog post you’ll learn what the pelvic floor does, why it’s important to your pre and postnatal health, how to make sure you’re activating it correctly, and some exercises you can apply during pregnancy!

Grab my FREEBIE: Pregnancy Exercise Modifications by Trimester for a guide to safety and confidence in your workouts!

What is the Pelvic Floor?

The pelvic floor is a band of muscle tissue that sits at the bottom of your pelvis

To give you a visual, think of it like as net connecting your tailbone, sit bones, and pubic bone. You want this muscle tissue to be much like a trampoline. Able to withstand pressure and force, while also being able to relax.

One big mistake I often see is only focusing on the contraction of the pelvic floor but not the relaxation, which is a big concern with kegels. Doing strictly this can create an overactive pelvic floor and bring on symptoms like painful sex, constipation, and leaking.

Why the Pelvic Floor Is Important

What exactly does the pelvic floor do?

Keeps your pelvic organs (i.e. bowels, uterus, bladder) up inside of you, where they’re supposed to be!
Supports sexual function
Supports urination and bowel movements
Helps to guide your baby out of your pelvis during delivery (it does not push your baby out)

Why is having a functional pelvic floor important?

Helps keep you continent so you don’t leak when you sneeze/cough/jump
Keeps organs like your bowels and bladder INSIDE your body, preventing pelvic organ prolapse
Helps guide your baby out during pregnancy (it does not PUSH your baby out)
Can lead to a smoother postpartum recovery
Supports pain-free intercourse

Symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction

Frequently needing to use the bathroom
Constipation/straining during your bowel movements
Leaking stool or urine (incontinence)
Painful urination
Painful intercourse
Feeling pain in your lower back with no other cause
Feeling ongoing pain in your pelvic region

If you experience any of the symptoms above and they do not get better with pelvic floor work, I would recommend seeing a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist.

The Flaw with Kegels

We’ve ALL heard of kegels, right?

Many birthing classes will recommend you to do TONS of kegels a day. While this advice is well-meaning, it’s just not effective. Here’s why:

As they’re traditionally taught, kegels don’t encompass the ENTIRE pelvic floor. They typically just focus on the front portion of the pelvic floor – but there are 4 areas we actually need to be working in order for pelvic floor work to be effective (I’ll show you below).
Kegels only focus on the contraction of the pelvic floor which can lead to overactive muscles, also not a good thing. We want the pelvic floor to move out of the way during birth so it’s also important to teach those muscles to relax.

Watch this quick video tutorial where I walk you through the process of effectively activating your pelvic floor. This will be important for all other exercises in this post!

5 Must-do Pelvic Floor Exercises

While there is a long list of pelvic floor exercises, I’ve featured 5 of my favorites that I use with my pre/postnatal clients often (and have used during my own pregnancies).

Important: breathwork during your pelvic floor activation is the MOST IMPORTANT part of making these exercises effective. Turn your sound on for cues on breathing.

Pelvic tilts

2. Seated fast pelvic floor activations

3. Sumo squat with PF activation

4. Side plank with adductor squeeze

5. Clamshell

Feel More Safe and Confident Exercising in Pregnancy

Grab my FREE guide: Pregnancy Exercise Modifications by Trimester

You’ll get instant access to:

what’s going on with your body each trimester
exercises to avoid
what (and how) to modify movements in each trimester
warning signs to look out for

Click here to download it!

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 thriving, healthy pregnancy!

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