What is your Pelvic Floor?!

Keeping it simple your pelvic floor is a hammock of muscles that sits in the base of your pelvis. These muscles are arranged in three layers:

1. Superficial layer – these muscles sit directly under the skin

2. Urogenital diaphragm layer

3. Pelvic Diaphragm layer – Levator Ani muscle group – deepest muscle group

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These muscles are very important for our every daily bodily functions such as controlling urine and feces, sexual function, lumbopelvic and core stability as well as pelvic organ support. Our pelvic floor is compromised of both endurance fibers as well as fast twitch muscle fibers, which means it needs to the ability to produce a prolonged contraction as well as a quick contraction to handle our daily activities.

Your pelvic floor is similar to the rest of your musculoskeletal system, these muscles can suffer from tissue damage (from things like childbirth), they can be weak, tight or irritated but because of their location they are often not talked about. They are HUGE players in the game and very necessary to take into consideration.

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction can be:

- Urinary incontinence

- Pelvic Organ prolapse

- Pain (pelvic pain, pain with intercourse ect)

- Low back or Hip pain