The pelvic floor is the set of muscles and ligaments that close the abdominal cavity in its lower part. These muscles are responsible for supporting all the pelvic organs and ensuring their proper functioning.
It is something dynamic that adapts to our movement, but it is always necessary to maintain an adequate tension that holds the organs inside the pelvis. Thus, when the pelvic floor is weakened, problems can arise that affect the functioning of the pelvic organs, such as the bladder, urethra, uterus, and rectum.
Why is it important to strengthen the pelvic floor?
From Metropolitan Club, a chain of gyms with 22 centers in the main cities, they assure that it is important to “become aware of the importance of the pelvic floor in our day to day” and strengthen it to “prevent pathologies and improve our quality of life”.
The truth is that when the muscles or ligaments that form this abdominal and pelvic area are weakened, this can cause a series of pathologies described as urinary and fecal incontinence, or even pain or discomfort during sexual intercourse.
In this way, to exercise the pelvic floor correctly, one must know the functions of this musculature, as well as how one can work this area of the body, with the aim of carrying out a training program that guarantees the best results. expected and improve our present and future quality of life.
These four exercises will strengthen your pelvic floor
The Metropolitan fitness coaches service explains that “it is necessary to compensate for physical inactivity with regular training.”
Thus, these experts emphasize that “the muscle tone of the pelvic floor can be exercised and recover its proper state through exercises and implements that directly affect our day to day”, so it is necessary to introduce or adapt our training with exercises that prioritize that area. .
From Metropolitan they propose a series of exercises to exercise and strengthen the pelvic floor. Some are the following:
- Kegel exercises : this is the most popular training to strengthen the pelvic floor, which consists of contracting the perineum muscles. “To achieve this, the area must be contracted as if holding the urge to urinate, holding the contraction for a few seconds and relaxing, being able to increase the intensity by lengthening the contraction time”, explain the Metropolitan trainers, who assure that they are necessary several sets of several contractions during different times of the day to make the training more effective.
- Hypopressive : hypopressive abdominal gymnastics (GAH) is another of the best-known exercises to exercise the pelvic floor. “This technique allows you to work the abdominal area without having pressure on the area called the core, which includes the area to be stabilized in each exercise,” the professionals specify. The technique can be worked in different positions, but the exercise consists of an alignment of the spine, adding activation of the deep abdominal muscles and breathing ending in apnea, opening the ribs while activating the transverse and pelvic floor muscles. Hypopressives are complex exercises, so it is advisable to always perform them under the supervision of a professional until a good technique is achieved.
- Ball on your knees: to practice this exercise we must be lying on a mat, with the knees bent and the spine with its natural curvature, with the ball between the knees and accompanying the breath while we press it on the knees. “It is important to maintain your posture and not move your hips or upper spine,” the coaches explain.
- Abdominals : to practice this last exercise it is essential to focus on activating the deepest area of the abdominal girdle, the transversus. “It will consist of doing abdominal work, but focusing on this area, bringing the navel in and slightly up, accompanying it with your breath, exhaling when performing the movement, feeling how your waist narrows,” they conclude from Metropolitan.
