How to Strengthen Pelvic Floor Muscles
This question isn’t only asked by women who have recently given birth. Most of us want a stronger pelvic floor - whether it’s to prevent problems as we age, improve our sex life or stop little accidents from happening when we exercise… or have a laughing fit!
So how do we improve our pelvic floor muscles?
You might have heard of Kegel exercises. These are the pelvic floor squeezes we can do at any time of day to engage our pelvic floor muscles. You’ll feel these muscles working if you squeeze and stop half way through a pee.
Ballet fitness can be amazing for the pelvic floor. In fact, some professional dancers have another problem completely and can suffer from an over-engaged pelvic floor. Don’t panic though, unless you dance professionally five to seven days a week and train at this level for years, you have very little chance of suffering from this extreme problem.
Where is the pelvic floor?
In women, the pelvic floor is a group of lovely muscles that connect your pubic bone and coccyx (or tail bone). Your pelvic floor muscles support your uterus and bowel. So having a strong pelvic floor is really important.
Just like a mini trampoline, the pelvic floor is able to move up and down - which is what allows us a level of control over the passing of fluids through our urethra, vagina and anus.
But it’s not all about pee and poop. Our pelvic floor contributes to sensation and pleasure during intercourse, it helps to keep our spine stable and prevent back pain and helps to support a baby during pregnancy.
Why is ballet so good for the pelvic floor muscles?
Throughout most ballet exercises, we are encouraged to engage our pelvic floor.
This helps us to pull up our abdomen, maintain a straight back and prevents us from sitting in our hips.
Lots of ballet exercises use a pelvic floor focus to help us maintain correct posture. In turn, this helps to improve our pelvic floor strength and keep our posture strong in day-to-day life.
Three simple exercises to help improve your pelvic floor strength
Plies for pelvic floor strengthening
Standing facing a barre, chair or countertop. Turn your legs out so that your toes are pointing towards the corners of the room.
Bend your knees, pushing your knees outwards from the hips.
As you straighten your legs, squeeze your pelvic floor muscles and imagine pulling them upwards.
Repeat 12 times.
Glute Bridge for pelvic floor strength
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor about hip width apart.
Rolling up through your lower spine, squeeze your pelvic floor muscles as you push your hips towards the ceiling and squeeze your buttocks at the top. Keep squeezing the pelvic floor as you roll back down gently through the spine.
Sauté jumps for pelvic floor strength
Sautés are ballet jumps. Stand in first position (heels together and legs turned out with toes towards the corners of the room).
Bend your knees in a demi plié and jump - straightening your legs in the air.
As you land, bend your knees to absorb the movement.
Your pelvic floor should automatically engage as you land but think about keeping it engaged for extra benefit.
Repeat 8 to 12 sauté jumps and rest.
Tip: If you have any knee or back problems, iIt’s a great idea to try this exercise wearing trainers or do your sautés on a mini-trampoline for additional shock absorption.