Episode 385: Pelvic Floor Health for Women: The Truth About Kegels, Breath, and Core Stability
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
Everyone has a pelvic floor. We just don’t think about it until there’s a mega problem! Bloating, back pain, constipation, leaking – these symptoms are more common than you think. Erin is taking us on a deep dive of the often overlooked pelvic floor, explaining how it connects to our diaphragm, core, breath, and even our gut.
You’ll learn why chronic tension, shallow breathing, and stress can lock the pelvic floor into dysfunction, why kegels alone don’t solve the problem, and how to retrain your body through intentional movement and 360° breathing. Erin speaks from her own experiences, sharing the exact cues, poses, and breathwork practices that helped her rebuild strength, relieve pain, and reconnect with her body from the inside out.
In this episode:
The most common symptoms of pelvic floor issues, including how constipation and gut issues play a role
Why kegels alone won’t fix your pelvic floor – and what to do instead
How pregnancy and postpartum changes can affect the ribs, core, and pelvic floor
Why diaphragmatic breathing (not shallow chest breathing!) is the foundation of pelvic floor health
Erin’s favorite yoga poses for pelvic floor release, including child’s pose, happy baby, and supported hip openers
Resources mentioned:
Episode 380: The Real Reasons You’re Constipated (and What Actually Works)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK and get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
OneSkin (Use code FUNK for 15% off your first purchase)
Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Bon Charge (Use code FUNK to save 15%)
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Erin
This type of breath that I'm talking about requires you to slow down. It requires you to sit still. It requires you to be intentional. It requires you to solely focus on your breath, on your body. To really do this, you have to pull your attention from the external world and turn it inward. In this, you guys, is the real pain point. This is the real resistance. This is why people aren't taking the time to do full, deep diaphragmatic breathing, even though it's the thing that can unlock your entire health potential.
Welcome to The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast, spelled with a K, because we do things a little differently around here. I'm your host, Erin Holt, and I've got 15 years of clinical experience as a functional nutritionist and mindset coach, creating a new model that I call Intuitive Functional Medicine™, where we combine root cause medicine with the innate intelligence of your body. This is where science meets self trust. Your body already knows how to heal, and this show is going to show you how. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health, be sure to follow and share with a friend, because you never know whose life you might change.
Erin
Hey, my buddies. So a few weeks ago, maybe it was more than that. At this point, we released an entire episode dedicated to constipation.
And in that show, we mentioned the pelvic floor, and I got a Fair amount of DMs and requests asking for a full pelvic floor episode. In my Instagram stories, I shared a couple of things that I was doing in my fitness routine that were very pelvic floor related, and a lot of people DM me to say, like, I want to learn more about that. That's where I need help. So it's super top of mind for me right now. I am potentially teaching a class for the Yoga Medicine conference on the interplay between pelvic floor health and gut health, because the pelvic floor impacts the gut and the gut impacts the pelvic floor. It's also just a really big focus of my current movement and workout routine right now, and I'm getting what I feel like are really good benefits from focusing on pelvic floor health. So I figured I would do a whole show dedicated to the pelvic floor, which I understand probably doesn't seem that exciting to many people. Even though everyone has a pelvic floor, we usually don't think about it until there's a mega problem.
Erin
Like if your vagina drops out of your butthole, you're like, oh, I should probably look into that. But pelvic floor issues are super common and you might not even recognize them as pelvic floor issues. So, for example, low back pain, hip pain or hip tension, or even hip weakness. Pelvic pain is kind of an obvious one. And it can be actual pain or just a feeling of heaviness. That's kind of how it manifested for me. It's like, you know that feeling right before your period where, like, that's how I know I'm getting my period. I'm like, oh, my uterus just feels kind of heavy.
Erin
It's like a heaviness down there. If that is not cyclical, if that's just happening all of the time, that can be an indication that there's some pelvic floor dysfunction. If you can't fully release your bladder or your bowels. So we talked about this in relation to constipation, but this is also true if you can't like fully pee, get all of your pee out, or the opposite where there's leaking, or it can be both. So it might be leaking urine, it might be leaking stool, you might be constipated. It can be some combination of any of those. Peeing your pants when you sneeze or when you cough or bounce on a trampoline or go for a run. It's a good indication that there's some stuff going on with your pelvic floor.
Erin
Definitely pain with sex or even pain with using tampons. And if the symptoms get worse when there's a contraction. So if you're doing Kegel exercises, for example, and that actually makes it worse, or if you have pain or discomfort with orgasms, anytime there's contraction down there, if it's uncomfortable, all of those things can indicate that there's dysfunction going on with the pelvic floor. And these are all pretty darn common. So many people experience these things, but most of us aren't really taught how to understand them. We're not really necessarily connecting those symptoms to the pelvic floor. And then we're not really sure how to correct them. And I want to be super crystal clear with this episode.
Erin
I am not a pelvic floor expert, but I actually think that that's going to be helpful for this episode. Because I'm just coming at you as a person with a body and a pelvic floor, and I'm just talking through ways that I've navigated these things and continue to navigate these things myself without being a full blown expert. I have worked with and talked to and even had pelvic Floor experts on this show. However, for me, just listening to somebody talk about the pelvic floor doesn't always get me to like connect with it in my body, if that makes sense. There's like almost like a disconnect. As we'll talk about today. The pelvic floor is a set of muscles and they coordinate with our deep core, with our diaphragm, with our hips, with our back. There's a lot of coordination that needs to come online.
Erin
And for any of you guys listening that identify with not being super coordinated, not having a ton of spatial awareness of your body, this can be difficult. It's really difficult for me to just bring all of these different pieces and parts of the body together. I think that's honestly just how my mind works. Like, I can't read a map. I do not understand geography. Understanding where my body is in space is sometimes a challenge for me. It's something I have to work at. So I have to be really intentional with pelvic floor coordination.
Erin
For me, it does take a lot of intention and it's also more of a felt experience. So I have to drop into my body to really feel it and experience it and for it to click. So today I'm going to give you some of the ways that you can do that and some of the cues that have been really, really helpful for me to connect with my pelvic floor, to connect with that coordination piece. So my goal, my hope, my intention of this show is that you walk away with a deeper understanding of what the pelvic floor is, what it does, why it's important, why it matters, but also even more importantly, how you can support yours, Specific ways that you can work into your day to day life that can support your body from basically the root up. So the pelvic floor is a group of muscles at the bottom of your pelvis. It's kind of like a hammock that supports your bladder, your uterus, your rectum, it helps to control urination, it helps control bowel movements, it supports your organs, it plays a role in sex function. And the pelvic floor itself doesn't just work in isolation. It is part of a system.
Erin
It is part of a team. And that team includes your diaphragm, it includes your deep core, it includes your back, it includes your hips and your breath. The breath is like the force that powers and connects all of this together. So the muscles, the joints, the tissues, all of these things surrounding the pelvis and the pelvic floor should really all work together as A team. And if they don't, if that coordination piece isn't online, if there's a lack of coordination, that's. When did you hear my Massachusetts accent just slip out? I'm not even going to edit that one. Just enjoy it. Enjoy it.
Erin
So when they're not coordinated, that's when we can see problems and issues that I just listed out. So we can see leaking, we can see pain, we can see weakness, we can see heaviness, discomfort, injuries. So that's really your body's way of saying, like, hey, the system is out of sync when those symptoms show up. It's your body's way of telling you that this system needs to come back online. Those things are all happening because the system is not coordinated like it should be. So what causes that incoordination or the dysfunction of the pelvic floor? Pregnancy can often take the blame here. And that's because the pelvic floor is supporting the weight of the uterus and of baby during pregnancy. And that of course, puts a lot of pressure on that hammock.
Erin
And then in addition to that, with childbirth, there's a lot of pressure changes and tissue changes. Also when we're pregnant, there's a big rib flare, which super common during pregnancy. It's a normal adaptation to make space for baby. The ribs kind of flare out, but they can get stuck there if they're not retrained back. I definitely work with a fair amount of rib flare myself, to be honest with you. I had it prior to pregnancy too. But it's basically the bottom of your rib cage points up and out instead of staying back over the pelvis so your ribs are more forward. Sometimes it's the.
Erin
The ribs can be flaring out apart from one another too. You can notice if you have this. If you lie on your back with your feet on the floor, your knees bent, and your ribs like pop out, you can see it. Or even if you're trying to straighten your posture. If I say stand up straight and you thrust your ribs forward, that can be an indication of rib flare. But basically when that's happening, the diaphragm, the core and the pelvic floor don't work together well. They don't manage pressure as well. So they can.
Erin
It can lead to pelvic floor dysfunction or can be part of pelvic floor dysfunction. So that can be common in pregnancy as well. I really believe that every pregnant and postpartum woman should have pelvic floor pt. I think it should be part of postpartum partum care 100% covered by insurance. I think it's so important just because there's so much, so many changes happening in that section of your body during pregnancy that getting support there is a big deal. But I also want to say that you can go into pregnancy with pelvic floor issues. It's not like pregnancy is the thing that's causing pelvic floor issues all of the time. And you can have pelvic floor issues completely outside of pregnancy.
Erin
Men can absolutely experience pelvic floor dysfunction. So I think we have to talk about pelvic floor health in relation to pregnancy and postpartum. But only talking about pelvic floor health in relation to pregnancy and postpartum does a lot of people a huge disservice because like I said, everybody's got a pelvic floor, therefore everyone can experience pelvic floor dysfunction.
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Erin
So what are some other things outside of pregnancy that can lead to pelvic floor dysfunction? Earlier I mentioned there is an interplay between pelvic floor health and gut health. We talked about if there's tightness, tension and dysfunction in the pelvic floor that can lead to constipation. But long term chronic constipation caused by what's going on in the gut can also lead to pelvic floor dysfunction. It sometimes can lead to straining with bowel movements. It can put more pressure on pelvic floor muscles which exacerbates already weak or tight pelvic floor muscles. If there's bloating in pressure, we can see this with sibo. We can see this with other dysbiosis patterns. We can see this with poor digestion, just more bloating through the abdomen that can put direct pressure on the pelvic floor.
Erin
So long standing, long term gut issues can be part of pelvic floor floor dysfunction. How we sit, how we stand, how we lift, all of that can impact pressure on the pelvic floor. If you're sitting all day, if you're inactive, if you're not moving your body, living a sedentary life, if you're in a seated position most of the day, that can for sure contribute to dysfunction of the pelvic floor. Just your, your hip flexors constantly being in that position and then also just the body's designed to move and it's not designed to be in one static position for most of the day. Lifting. Let's talk about it because a lot of women are getting into heavy lifting these days, which I'm like, hell yeah. But if you're putting more weight and more pressure on a tight or weak system, that's going to make things a lot worse. So you can start to see pain, you can start to see discomfort, you can start to see injuries.
Erin
My pelvic floor issues were actually manifesting first and foremost in my shoulder. Wait, what? Remember, it's all an interconnected system, but I was lifting heavier and I kept tweaking my shoulder and my rib like in the back of my body. And that's really when I. I started to understand that there was this rib flare. And I'm like, oh, gosh, I have to learn to stack my ribs over my pelvis and breathe in such a way that I'm contracting my tva. Don't worry. We're going to talk about all of that in just a little bit. Other things that can lead to dysfunction in the pelvic floor.
Erin
Internalizing stress. Internalizing stress leads to muscle tension. You know how you get, like, a stiff neck? Yeah. You can get a stiff pelvic floor, too. During times of high stress or emotional intensity, the diaphragm can get rigid and bound down, and the pelvic floor can kind of get into this, like, locked position. So that leads to pelvic floor issues. We know that trauma can play a role here. So that's physical trauma, if there is an injury to the pelvis, but also mental, emotional, sexual trauma that can really cause the body, especially this part of the.
Erin
The body, to go into protection mode. I've definitely seen in my own practice, clients with a history of sexual abuse or trauma can have more issues in the pelvis. Sometimes that looks like constipation. Sometimes that looks like pelvic dysfunction. Sometimes that looks like pelvic floor issues. I remember one client in particular said that she was not even aware of what was happening below her belly button. And she did have a history of sexual assault. So that's just something to be aware of.
Erin
If that is part of your story, in part of your body's pattern. You guys know that I practice intuitive functional medicine, where we bridge the physical with everything else. Mental, emotional, energetic. So for me, that also includes the energy body, the energy anatomy, our chakra system, our energy centers, and our sacral chakra, our second chakra, really governs the pelvic floor. I don't know what is going on with my accent, but she wants to shine. She really wants to come out hardcore. My dad grew. Grew up in Andover.
Erin
My mom is from Lowell, Mass. And so sometimes, sometimes she claws her way out. So our sacral chakra governs. Pronouncing. My R's governs the pelvic floor, depending on what model of the chakra system you're looking at. But the second chakra, the second energy center, is really the center of pleasure, the ability to feel pleasure. It's creativity, sensitive sexuality, emotional intelligence, money, feelings of power, change, the ability to endure change and flow with change. So if we're holding onto any emotional wounding here, any sense of shame, a sense of Being unworthy of receiving pleasure.
Erin
If you had childhood messages that pleasure is wrong or bad or dirty, if you were controlled or manipulated, this energy center can really contract in self protection and then your body follows suit. So all of these things can contribute to pelvic floor dysfunction. And when I'm talking about dysfunction, we have a situation where pelvic floor muscles can be both too tight and too weak at the same time. It's actually pretty darn common. When these muscles are overactive, they can't relax fully. So tension and weakness can go hand in hand because things that are constantly gripping eventually get tired. It's like a metaphor, but it's also literally happening, right? Are you, where are you gripping super hard? You're eventually going to burn out and get tired, but your muscles same. So that's kind of the issue with Kegels, by the way.
Erin
I think for a long time, I think there's a sea change and most people understand like just doing Kegels isn't gonna like quote unquote, fix your pelvic floor. But for a long time, that was really the only resource being offered to women postpartum. It's like, yeah, just do some Kegels. But it's a contraction of muscles that are already super tight. So what happens when you just keep contracting a super tight muscle? It doesn't ever release. And what we actually need for true pelvic floor health is a full range of motion. So it's not just focusing on the contraction piece, it's also allowing the pelvic floor to release, to relax, to let go, to fully lengthen. So Kegels only focus on the contraction piece and not the release, relax and lengthen that most people need.
Erin
So how do we do that? Right, that's the next logical follow up cue. How do we create a coordinated System? And it 100% starts with the breath. Please do not dip out. I really, really, really, really want you guys to hear what I have to say next. Don't be like, oh gosh, she's just gonna tell me to breathe. Boring. Heard it all before. I really want you to hear this.
Erin
So just give me your undivided attention for the next few minutes. And then after I give my full pitch, my full spiel, if you still think it's, that's stupid, then you can just move on. But I'm going to make a case for breathing right now and I'm going to talk about the diaphragm, because the diaphragm is a crucial component to pelvic floor Health. And it's like another one of those things that we all know what a diaphragm is like, we've heard it, but we don't really ever think about it. And I'm kind of low key, obsessed with the diaphragm, because in Chinese medicine, it's said to be the bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. So, like, the breath is the gateway to the unconscious. And I'm just such a subconscious mind junkie that I think this is very cool. But let's talk about it on a more practical level.
Erin
You can think about your diaphragm as the muscle of breath. It's a muscle located across the bottom of your ribs and lungs and above your stomach. When we inhale, this muscle contracts, it flattens and it descends down. And then when we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and returns to its original position. So this movement of the diaphragm helps us pull air in and out of the lungs. Isn't the body so cool? Just side note, isn't the body so cool? So the diaphragm and the pelvic floor work together in a coordinated fashion to maintain intra abdominal pressure. When the diaphragm contracts, it pushes down on the organs in the abdomen. And this creates a pressure gradient that enables our lungs to basically fill with air.
Erin
And then in response to that, the pelvic floor muscles lengthen and relax to accommodate this pressure change. So essentially, when we're breathing in, when we're inhaling, that pelvic floor should be allowed to relax. Remember we talked about they were too tight? Pelvic floor muscles are usually too tight. It's because it's. They're not always getting this opportunity to fully relax with inhales because we're not really doing a great job collectively taking full, deep breaths. But it's that coordinated movement between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor that is crucial for not just breathing and bringing air into the lungs, but also core stability. The core canister needs to be stable because it basically creates stability for the rest of the body. So when this isn't functioning correctly, we can see pain and injuries anywhere else in the body.
Erin
And when I'm talking about the core canister, I'm really talking about the diaphragm, the pelvic floor, the transverse abdominals, internal obliques in the multifidus, which is a deep spinal muscle. So it's basically your abs, your obliques, your back, your diaphragm and your pelvic floor. They all have to be working together. And they can do this if we're appropriately breathing. So diaphragmatic breathing helps the core and then the rest of the body really be more stable. It also helps helps the heart rate to slow down. It helps blood pressure lower or stabilize. It supports healthy HRV levels.
Erin
It can support healthy cortisol levels, healthy stress hormone levels. Using your diaphragm also activates your vagus nerve. The vagus nerve runs through the esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm. So any movement of the diaphragm when we're doing this full breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which then stimulates parasympathetic response. And we know that parasympathetic response is what puts you in optimal healing mode. So the breath is really the gateway to optimal healing mode. And the truth is, if you spent time every day focusing on deep, full diaphragmatic breathing, you could probably throw away all your cortisol lowering supplements. You could throw away your vagus nerve gadgets, you could throw away your nervous system regulation devices.
Erin
You could save a lot of money, a lot of shelf space just by breathing. But the thing is, nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to do that. Instead, people would rather shout about how health is so expensive and so hard and so confusing and so overwhelming. Because this type of breath that I'm talking about requires you to slow down. It requires you to sit still. It requires you to be intentional. It requires you to solely focus on your breath, on your body.
Erin
To really do this, you have to pull your attention from the external world and turn it inward. And this, you guys, is the real pain point. This is the real resistance. This is why people aren't taking the time to do full, deep diaphragmatic breathing, even though it's the thing that can unlock your entire health potential. Because when we turn our attention inward, we start to notice things. We start to see or hear things. Our body tells us what's up, our intuition tells us what's up. And then we have to reckon with those messages.
Erin
So it's actually a lot less scary for a lot of people to stay in the trance of scrolling, to stay busy, to follow all the wellness influencers and stay overwhelmed, to stay ordering the supplements in the gadgets. It's less scary to do all that than it is to just slow down and breathe.
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Erin
So if you're still with me, if you're like fine, fine, I'll do it. Diaphragmatic breathing. How do we do it? First and foremost, without thinking, just take a deep breath in right now. Take a deep breath in. Just notice where that breath goes. The way a Lot of people breathe is into the upper chest. So if I tell you to take a deep breath in, did your shoulders lift? Did your chest lift? Instead, there really should be more of a focus on sending the breath down. So for a full, deep diaphragmatic breath, your belly should inflate, Your shoulders shouldn't hike up into the ears, your chest shouldn't puff out like a peacock.
Erin
Your belly should actually inflate. That's why diaphragmatic breathing is often called belly breathing. But remember, like we talked about earlier, there's a coordination that needs to happen in this coordination involved the pelvic floor. So when you breathe in, the pelvic floor should lengthen in the best way that I can understand this for myself to connect, like to really understand it, not just in my mind, but also in my body. I think about it like filling up a balloon. When we inhale, we're filling this balloon inside our body. So yes, the belly will absolutely fill, but, but also the hammock of the pelvic floor will expand. I think about it like dropping down or filling up the base of the balloon.
Erin
We're also simultaneously sending breath into the back body, so we're breathing into the back ribs as well. Because when you're filling up a balloon, it's moving and expanding out in all directions. The ribs need to be part of this coordinated effort. The ribs need to move, to expand, to allow the lungs to fully fill up with oxygen and expand. So rather than just thinking about it as belly breathing and like pushing the pressure forward, I think it's more appropriate and helpful to think about it as 360 degree breathing or balloon breathing. And this is exactly where you want to start for pelvic floor health. For better pelvic floor health, you want to focus on the relaxation portion first, connecting the breath to the pelvic floor, deep breathing into the belly, but also down into the pelvic floor, expanding into the rib cage and into the back body. That 360 degree breath, you can do this breath with and alongside hip openers or hip stretches, which are another way to support a tight pelvic floor.
Erin
So think poses like Happy Baby or a squat position like Malasana child's pose, hip flexor stretches, even foam rolling. The adductors, the inner thighs, they can get really, really tight and that can allow the pelvic floor to release as well. But you can do this 360 degree breathing while you're holding stretches. When I first started working with my pelvic floor PT and she was Trying to help me connect all of this, and I just, like, couldn't bring it all together. The thing that really helped me connect with to sending the breath down into the pelvic floor the most was deep breathing while I was in child's pose. So it really helped me understand how to send my breath down to the pelvic floor. It helped me experience and, like, feel that pelvic floor lengthening and help to bring that connection back online. So I would try a few different poses and really see an experience where you can connect all the dots for yourself as you breathe.
Erin
Another one that works really well for me. I'll try to explain it as best as I can. So you sit on your knees. Your bottom half of the body is like, you're almost in child's pose. I will also share this on Instagram so you guys can see exactly what I'm talking about. It might be a little bit more helpful with the demo. You can see. And then I take a foam roller, and I lean forward, and I put the foam roller on top of my thighs.
Erin
So the foam roller is between my front ribs and my thighs. And then I bring my forearms down to either the floor or a block. You're basically leaning forward, and if your forearms don't come all the way to the floor, just put them on a block. So you're in, like, a child's pose, essentially, with a foam roller between the front of your ribs and your thighs, and your arms are relaxed down on a block or on the floor. And so you have the tactile sensation of your front ribs pushing into the foam roller. And so this allows you to send your breath into the back body, into the back ribs. So you. You inhale, and in the child's pose, you're sending your breath back to the pelvic floor or back or down to the pelvic floor.
Erin
But you're also really filling up the back body with the breath. So this is one of my favorite poses to just sit in, breathe, and really not just connect to my breath, but also allow my body allow the pelvic floor to relax. So like I said, this is really step number one is allowing the body to learn to relax. And once you learn to relax those muscles, then you can retrain coordination. And the way to do this is through deep core activation. Deep core activation helps the pelvic floor muscles fire all together in sync, in harmony. And then we really match that activation, imbalance it with relaxation, and it's that balance between relaxation and activation. That's when the Pelvic floor works best.
Erin
We don't want the pelvic floor relaxed all the time, but we also don't want it contracted all the time either. It really should be able to turn on when we need it and then be able to release when we do not. I mentioned a TVA contraction earlier. So again, that's the transverse abdominis, which is a deep abdominal muscle that acts like a corset to stabilize the spine. Now, sometimes when we're trying to engage our core, we'll just think, pull the belly button in and back. That's a cue that we might get in a fitness class or yoga class. Pull the belly button back or navel to spine. That was actually a cue that I used to give a lot when I was teaching yoga.
Erin
Navel to spine. But here's the deal. I can bring my navel to spine. I'm doing it right now, sitting here talking to you. I'm bringing my navel to spine without really activating my tva so I can just pull my belly button in and. And I'm not truly activating my deep core muscles. So the cue that works best for me. And I think you have to trial around with this a little bit to figure out what words, what thoughts, what imagery connects into your body.
Erin
But for me, if I'm lying down on my back, knees bent, feet on the floor, with the exhale, so I take a deep breath and I fill into my back body, right? Fill into my low belly, lengthen the pelvic floor deep, full breath in. And then on the. The exhale, I imagine pulling my hip bones together. You can even put your fingers on your lower abdomen, just inside the hip bones and actually feel them turn on. So I imagine that I'm pulling them together. So the movement starts pretty low. And then I move that up almost like I'm zipping something up. Like I'm trying to drag my lower abdomen up into my belly button.
Erin
And then the last thing to come online is the rib cage. And it's like the rib cage is coming together and then down. This isn't something that you're, like, trying to, like, force down, but you're using your breath. And you can put your hands on your low ribs. As you do this, you're exhaling all of your breath through your mouth. So this generally requires an audible breath. So it might be like a ha sound, like a. As though you're trying to fog up a mirror.
Erin
Full exhale. And as you exhale, feel your lower ribs pull down and inward again, not Smashing the ribs down. You're using the breath to pull them back. So. So it starts with the hip bones. You're pulling your hip bones together. You're moving that up like you're trying to drag your low abdomen up into the belly button. And then you're exhaling out, wrapping the ribs around, in and down.
Erin
And for the rib cage, if that's like a little tricky for it to come online, when you're on your back, you can do this on your side. It's really helpful for me to feel my obliques working and feel my rib cage, everything coming together like a corset. When I'm in a modified side plank, so I'm on my elbow with a knee down, so it's not a full side plank. Right palm on the floor, both legs up. It's a modified side plank. So down on my elbow, on one knee or on both knees, and I'm doing the same breath, inhaling, filling up the full body, back ribs, and then exhale, Hip bones squeeze together, zip up, and then start to wrap the ribs around with a ha breath. And I can really feel my obliques. And I will put my hands on my ribs, on my obliques to really feel that TVA contraction.
Erin
And that's what helps me connect it all together. So you can experiment with some different things. You might buy a program, you might go on YouTube and try some different things out. But I'm starting here, and then I'm just recreating that when I'm up and about, when I'm lifting, when I'm exercising, when I'm going, about my day. I'm recreating that same experience in my workout workouts. But I'm always starting down on the floor to essentially retrain my body to do that first. And honestly, that is the main thing that has changed for me. So there's four key things that I'm doing differently now in my workouts that I wasn't doing like a couple of years ago.
Erin
And the first one is before training or lifting, I'm taking a solid 10 to 15 minutes just to focus on that 360 degree breathing. So this is signaling to my body that I'm not in stress mode. So I'm not taking rigidity and sympathetic overdrive into my workouts, which was for sure contributing to more pelvic floor dysfunction, more injuries, more discomfort. It also sets the breathing pattern and it gives my body a pattern to follow that it doesn't always intuitively want to do. So I'm taking the 10, 15 minutes to learn the breathing, like, retrain my breath. Like, remember, this is how we breathe. And then the second thing is, while I'm training, I am super intentional with focusing on my breath. So it's not just the movement patterns, but it is the breath with the movement.
Erin
And that is like at the forefront of everything that I'm doing. Number three, I have been working out by myself for the past few months versus in a class or with a trainer. And the reason for it is that it really allows me to go inward and focus on my breath. I'm not saying it's bad to work out in class or with the trainer. Just for me right now, as I'm really prioritizing this, it allows my breath, my body, my movement to be the sole focus. I'm not worried about what everybody else is doing in class. I'm not worried about carrying a conversation with somebody else. It's just me.
Erin:
And I'm coordinating my breath with every single movement that I do. And then if I need time to reset, regroup, come into full relaxation, I can do that before I jump back in. So if I notice that I'm tense and tight, I can be like, oh, timeout. I'm going to move back into the full body breath, allow these muscles to relax, and then we're gonna jump back in. And then fourth thing is that with the exhales, I am audibly exhaling each time. So it might be that ha breath, like fogging up a mirror that we talked about. It might be like a whooshing breath like. Like that.
Erin:
I don't know if you can hear that through the mic, but it is an audible breath because that's what really helps the core connection. And I just feel everything kind of click online when I' audibly exhaling. So that has been working wonders for me in my body and it's really allowing me to get strong without injury. And I'm just feeling so great. So that's how I'm taking care of my pelvic floor. I hope that this was helpful for you and, you know, send this to a friend who might need some support. I love you guys and I'll check in next week.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast. Please keep it mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you got something from today's show, don't forget, subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.