Free Pelvic Floor Webinar Replay
Why does leaking happen, prolapse worsen, and tampons keep falling out?
The answer is intra-abdominal pressure! Join Dr. Sarah Duvall, DPT, CPT in this free webinar to gain a better understanding of pressure and how to fix it.
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*Please check with your health care provider before trying any of the exercises suggested in this webinar. By performing exercises, you do so at your own risk. Thanks for understanding! Hope you enjoy the webinar.
Webinar Questions and Extra Resources
Does this advice work for all prolapse? Rectum? Uterine?
Yes, pressure management is important for every type of prolapse!
Helpful C-Section information:
Do you ever see issues with the serratus anterior with pelvic floor issues ? What’s the involvement of the serratus in breathing?
Yes it definitely affects our pelvic floor and core! Check out these videos and article for more:
The Importance of the Serratus Anterior
More Serratus for Diastasis Recti Healing
The Serratus Anterior: A Secret Weapon for Great Posture
I can’t stop my upper abs from gripping (“ha” breathing and lower ab challenge)
It’s so hard at first because it really highlights how your external obliques want to take over and it feels like Jedi mind tricks. I definitely had to give my abs the evil eye at first. You might need to change to a different strategy and position to help strengthen your intercostals.
Here are some tips to help find more lower abs and balanced in your system:
Skin Pulling for Ab Engagement
Having Trouble Finding Your TAs?
Can you explain why the pelvic floor needs length to lift?
Think of the pelvic floor like any other muscles where you need it to be able to lengthen to then contract. You can relate it to a bicep curl where if you are holding the curl at the top you won’t be able to engage it any more. Getting that inhale to go down will create the length in the pelvic floor muscles to then give it a place to lift up from. You also want a muscle to be able to move through it’s full range to have an optimal resting position so that it can dynamically move in either direction.
Here are a few videos on coordinating diaphragm and pelvic floor movement during breathing”
Pelvic Floor and Diaphragm Coordination
What if we have problems *other* than pressure and breathing process causing leaking? For example, if we had a birth with a prolonged pushing phase and some tearing, and may have problems with the urethra or urethral opening?
That’s why pelvic floor issues can be so much more involved than just pressure. Pressure is only one component. Check out this pelvic floor educational series to help continue thinking through further causes.
Pelvic floor educational series
6 Part MiniCourse Core and Pelvic Floor
What happens if you don’t feel any movement in your pelvic floor during the bearing down assessment?
This means that you could have a tight pelvic floor. Check out this video and then revisit the bearing down and see what happens.
I'm having a muscle spasm in my lower back, never had this before- is it caused by something I did wrong with the inner breath work I just tried? Should I do it differently?
My bet is that you engaged your back on your exhale. Great find 🙂 The child’s pose position might be easier to think about keeping your back soft as you go to exhale. So think of expanding from the inside out toward the area of restriction and then the exhale takes up the slack to take you further into that back expansion/areas that are tight.
Does managing pressure have something to do with excessive queefing during inverted positions like hand/headstands? How to tell if its coming from pf weakness or excessive pressure?
Here’s a video and article on that!
and
The Downward Dog Dilemma - Air in Vagina from Yoga
How to help diastasis?
You can think about pressure management as helping to make sure the pressure doesn’t go out into your DR instead of your pf as we talked about here. We’re still making sure that as you do ab work to close your DR that you’re creating a balanced ab engagement and not getting into the upper or middle ab dominance that would affect how DR would heal as well as unintentionally create pressure down into your pf as you try to heal your DR.
How to Heal a Diastasis Recti Without Surgery
It’s also one of the main foci of our programs. Check out this free mini series for more info:
Diastasis Recti Educational Series
I wonder if my bunion on my left foot negatively affects my pelvic floor?
It might! Check out this article and then a few other videos for you
Foot Foundations | Single Leg Stance
As a bonus I love this article for seeing the difference between good breathing pattern vs shallow and how it affects abs (you’re welcome for the particular visuals): Building Awesome Abs
We already have more tips lined up for Instagram on how to help with middle and upper ab gripping and finding better balance in your brace so keep your eyes peeled!
Does the course include how to assess the pelvic floor for tightness and weakness?
It talks about symptoms that go with a hypotonic (weak) vs hypertonic (tight) pelvic floor. Here’s a taste of what that might look like in regards to a tight pelvic floor:
Symptoms of a Tight Pelvic FloorSymptoms of a Tight Pelvic Floor
What is the PCES course?
