Tense, stressed, anxious?!
Not only can physical stress cause pelvic floor dysfunction, but we also need to think about our mental health and how that can affect our core and pelvic floor!
Stress and anxiety can contribute to pain, tightness & dysfunction!
Think about it… when we’re stressed we tend to hold our breathe, tense up & bear down on our pelvic floor.
And if you’ve had babies your pelvic floor has already been weakened! That’s a lot of stress on those muscles!!
Some symptoms could be pressure, burning, pain, bladder urgency, constipation, lower back pain, inability to control bowels or stress incontinence.
Some things to try:
1. 360 breathing
2. Create awareness
3. Decrease your stress levels
4. Find ways to relieve anxiety
2 things you can focus on right now:
1. 360 breathing
Relieves tension off the pelvic floor muscles, plus it naturally decreases low back pain, SI joint pain and neck pain.
360 Breathing encourages that natural movement in the abdominals and pelvic
floor.
When breathing, you want to use your diaphragm and your transverse abdominus, which are your primary respiratory muscles, while relaxing your secondary respiratory muscles.
It relaxes the accessory breathing muscles that can cause neck tightness.
Which leads us to tension & stress:
2. Do you hold tension in your neck, jaw, shoulders or head??
Did you know that tension in your mouth and throat can also increase tension & pressure in your core and pelvic floor?!
Bring awareness to your habit:
Do you clench your jaw?
Do you grind your teeth?
Do you have chronic neck pain?
Think about your tongue positioning:
Tongue should rest on roof of mouth
Try to release the muscles around the jaw
Benefits of deep breathing and relaxing your tension in your mouth:
•increases oxygen flow which will help with tissue healing and recovery.
• help regulate your intra-abdominal pressure which will especially aid in core and pelvic floor recovery post-pregnancy
•help prevent Diastasis Recti, back pain, prolapse and hernias.
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