What is the pelvic floor?
If you don’t know much about your pelvic floor, consider yourself lucky: Most people only get to know it once it stops functioning optimally, contributing to problems like incontinence and pelvic pain. “It’s one of those overlooked areas,” in part because it’s associated with sensitive topics like bathroom habits, sex and childbirth, says Carrie Pagliano, a physical therapist in Arlington, Virginia, who specializes in women’s health and serves as a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. But the pelvic floor — a collection of muscles that holds in organs and plays a major role in sex, urination and defecation — is important to take care of before circumstances demand it. Start by becoming aware of these five common habits that can wear it down:
1. Sucking in your belly
Whether you’re self-conscious about a stomach roll in a clingy dress or simply in the habit of engaging your core all day (thanks, barre), relax — literally. “When you’re sucking in your tummy, you’re not allowing your diaphragm to plunge down the way it’s supposed to, which means you’re not allowing your lungs to take in enough air,” says Lindsey Vestal, a pelvic floor therapist with Icon underwear and founder of The Functional Pelvis, a physical and occupational therapy practice in New York City. Practicing deep belly breathing, on the other hand, is one of the best ways to support a healthy, flexible pelvic floor — as well as a pain-free back and tension-free shoulders.
2. Living in high heels
Beauty is pain — a pain in the pelvis, that is. While wearing high heels isn’t a big deal every once in a while, walking on them day in and out can take a toll on more than your feet, Vestal explains. That’s because the heels of your feet are designed to absorb much of the shock of your body weight when walking, but high heels ask your toes to do more of that job, which they can’t. Instead, a lot of force travels up the legs to the pelvic floor, which absorbs more of the shock than it’s designed to. “That wears it down,” Vestal says. (Men, too, aren’t immune from pelvic floor issues including erectile dysfunction, and aren’t doing themselves any favors by constantly wearing hard-soled, pointed shoes, Vestal adds.)
3. Being a (slouchy) desk jockey
You probably know sitting all day can wear on your back, neck, heart and eyes. Add your pelvic floor to the list. After all, it’s a group of muscles that, like any muscle, benefits from movement. “It would be lovely to have the ability to stand for a little (on the job), but even standing for too long isn’t healthy,” Vestal says. How you sit matters, too. Rather than hunching forward or slouching back, aim to sit directly above your “sitz bones,” or the bony points in your rear end. Stacking your body on top of them “can help you with good posture,” Vestal says.
4. Peeing ‘just in case’
Visiting the bathroom before your commute, running errands, attending a performance or meeting friends for dinner: Almost everyone has used the bathroom preventively, even if they don’t feel the urge to urinate. But making this a habit is a bad idea because, over time, your brain will get the message that it should alert you before your bladder is full. Eventually, that may mean needing to pee many more times a day than is convenient or normal (up to 10 times), and waking up to use the bathroom multiple times at night, which can contribute to sleep deprivation. “What seems to be an annoyance now can quickly become a big issue,” Vestal says.
5. Overdoing the crunches
Most folks view six pack abs as a sign of top-notch health and fitness, but Vestal goes as far as to call them dysfunctional. That’s because such tight outer muscles can overwhelm the inner core, which includes the pelvic floor. While the pelvic floor is more difficult to consciously activate and relax, here too deep breathing — perhaps even while squatting over a mirror or using an app like Calm — can begin to make you aware of it. “You can’t change things you don’t know are there,” Pagliano says. Physical therapists with pelvic floor expertise can help, too. They’re typically covered by insurance and don’t require referrals to see, she says.
5 Bad Habits for Your Pelvic Floor
— Sucking in your belly
— Living in high heels
— Being a (slouchy) desk jockey
— Peeing “just in case”
— Overdoing the crunches
More from U.S. News
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What Color Should My Pee Be? A Stream of Urine Questions, Answered
The Best and Worst Exercises for Pregnant Women
How to Prevent Pelvic Floor Problems originally appeared on usnews.com
