Core Health
Tori Douglas on Jun 24th 2022
The health of your pelvic floor is more important to your sexual and overall health than you might think. The pelvic floor is part of the core muscles that help us move and help support our organs. The strength of these muscles is important to our everyday health, as well as our sexual health. Every move you make, in and out of the bedroom, is affected by your pelvic floor muscles.
The "pelvic floor" is composed of the muscles across the bottom of the pelvic bone. These muscles stretch like a hammock to support your bowels, bladder, and reproductive organs such as the uterus. The pelvic floor in women is important to support the womb during pregnancy. These muscles not only support the bowels and bladder, but help to control them. These are the muscles you clench to keep from peeing when you laugh, cough, or jump, they also help hold in a bowel movement until you are ready and able to go. The ability to relax and coordinate the pelvic muscles help us have healthy, complete bowel movements and good pelvic floor health leads to good bowel and urinary health. The pelvic floor can also contribute to your core stability. The group of core muscles including your pelvic floor and abdominals help you to balance and lift.
Many things can affect this group of muscles but the number one cause of pelvic floor weakness and injury in women is pregnancy and childbirth. After pregnancy, doctors often recommend Kegel exercises to strengthen and repair the pelvic floor muscles. You can do these exercises yourself, or use products to help you along. Kegel exercises usually consist of isolating the muscles of the pelvic floor. You can do this by finding the muscle groups that allow you to halt the stream of urine while peeing. Even in women who have not been pregnant or men there can find dysfunction within these muscles. This can cause bowel or urinary issues and sexual dysfunction including problems getting or keeping an erection. Kegel exercises are usually equated with women but men can benefit from Kegel exercises as well. The issues caused by weak or damaged pelvic floor muscles span the sexes so you should see your health care provider if you experience any issues with your bowel, urinary, or sexual health.
A strong pelvic floor can also help you in your sex life. Having a strong pelvic floor can help you to be aroused and even help you orgasm! As arousal happens you clench these pelvic muscles and this helps the physiological response of your body during sex and can make it easier to reach orgasm if these muscles are in good working order. During sex, you can flex these muscles to give yourself and your partner a different sensation during vaginal sex.
Taking the time to work on your pelvic floor health can benefit you in many ways. It is an investment in your core health, strength and overall well-being.