We’ve all heard about doing kegel exercise for pelvic floor muscle health. Your doctor says it. Instagram says it. Pinterest says it. Maybe even your grandma says it. There’s an app for it. There’s weights for it. Let me tell you though, I’m so over it. Here’s why.
Most of us are running around stressed out, burned out, anxious, and tired. We live our life at like a 9. We are grinding our teeth at night, experiencing tension headaches, too wired and tired to even sleep. I’m here to tell you that about 90% of my patient population presents with pelvic floor’s that resemble their lifestyle- tense and tired.
Let’s simplify-
Think about your shoulders and neck. When you get stressed out, it’s easy to feel your shoulders start to creep up higher, your neck muscles tighten, you might find it more difficult to turn your head, you might even get a headache that starts at the base of your skull. Well, the same goes for your pelvic floor. Pelvic floor muscles naturally tighten as your body’s physiological response to stress and anxiety, essentially you perform a sustained kegel contraction. Your body will get used to maintaining that kegel contraction and, eventually, you may develop symptoms. What also tends to happen is your body “forgets” how to come out of that kegel state, potentially creating even more dysfunction.
Now, would you ever ask your body to stay in a sit up all day? No way. With that being said, for us to spend all day in a kegel contraction can be thought of as equally as ridiculous. So how do we get a muscle to relax, when it potentially has forgotten how to do so?
Enter the deep squat stretch.
It’s not fancy. The instructions are in the name, but it’s incredibly effective. Find something supportive, hold on, squat down as far as you comfortably can, and relax/rest in that position for 30-60 seconds. Take slow deep breaths and try to think of letting everything in their pelvis lower and let go. Doing this pelvic floor exercise a couple of times a day AND having an awareness of the muscle tightness in and around your pelvis, can be very helpful with managing pelvic floor-related physiological stress symptoms.
**It’s important to remember, if this position is painful, you’re not going to be able to relax your pelvic floor muscles, which is the whole point. There is an alternative to this pelvic floor stretch called “The Happy Baby” if the deep squat doesn’t work for you.