Unlocking Performance: The Importance of Pelvic Floor Therapy for Athletes
Unlocking Performance: The Importance of Pelvic Floor Therapy for Athletes
Embedded Files
When we think of athletic training, images of intense workouts, rigorous conditioning, and tactical strategies come to mind. However, one crucial aspect that often gets overlooked is pelvic floor health. Whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, understanding and addressing pelvic floor issues can significantly enhance your performance and overall well-being.
Why Pelvic Floor Therapy Matters for Athletes
Why Pelvic Floor Therapy Matters for Athletes
Pelvic Floor Impact: Many athletes, especially women, experience urinary incontinence due to pelvic floor weakness. This can be particularly distressing during high-impact sports. Pelvic floor therapy can help manage and even resolve these issues, allowing athletes to perform without fear.
Core Stability: The pelvic floor is a key component of the core, which is essential for athletes in any sport. A strong pelvic floor contributes to better stability, balance, and posture, enhancing your performance in everything from sprinting to lifting.
Injury Prevention: Weak and uncoordinated pelvic floor muscles can lead to a host of problems, including lower back pain, testicular/vulvar/clitoral pain, hip issues, incontinence, hemorrhoids, and even pelvic organ prolapse. By addressing these muscles, athletes can reduce their risk of injury and improve recovery times.
Enhanced Performance: Many athletes report improved power and endurance after engaging in pelvic floor therapy. A strong, mobile, and coordinated pelvic floor can enhance the efficiency of movements, allowing for better force generation and control during activities.
Breathing Mechanics: Proper pelvic floor function is linked to effective breathing. Athletes need optimal oxygen delivery during performance, and learning to coordinate breath with pelvic floor engagement can support better overall respiratory function, heart rate, and mindset control.
Addressing the Influence of Menstruation: If you’re an athlete, it’s important to understand when you're on your period you are more susceptible to muscle tears or ligament injuries. This doesn’t mean of course not to work out or attend soccer practice, but to be mindful of which type of exercises you engage in during the week of your period.
Common Myths About Pelvic Floor Therapy
Common Myths About Pelvic Floor Therapy
Despite its benefits, there are misconceptions surrounding pelvic floor therapy:
It’s Only for Women: While pelvic floor issues are often discussed in the context of women’s health, men can also benefit significantly from therapy. Conditions like pelvic pain, urinary issues, and even erectile dysfunction can be addressed through targeted exercises.
There is a great difference between a male and female pelvis! The male pelvis is narrower and because of this it creates more opportunity for compression problems. Men who experience compression problems in their pelvis may also have back pain, groin pain, hemorrhoids, and hernias.
For women, when it comes to sports, they often are affected by prolapse and incontinence.
It’s important to note any gender can experience pelvic floor issues but this is a general idea of how our bone structure shapes the pelvic floor.
It’s Only for Postpartum Women: While postpartum recovery is a crucial time for pelvic floor rehabilitation, athletes of all genders and life stages can experience pelvic floor dysfunction due to rigorous training and physical demands.
It’s Only About the Pelvic Floor: Athletes can seek pelvic floor therapy not only for their pelvic floor but to address other body parts/system influences. For example, an ankle/foot mobility issue could be driving pelvic floor dysfunction. Or, a rib mobility issue could be driving a shoulder issue. Jaw/neck tension is also a common occurring sx. These common symptoms, like foot knee or shoulder pain .. etc can be amazing clues for us as your pelvic therapist to really understand what is causing your pelvic floor dysfunction. Finding the root cause helps us help you get better truly, rather than just mask symptoms with band-aides.
Just Train Core: We have had patients come in even when they are using their ab roller daily, participating in vigorous pilates routines, or even setting goals for planks or sit ups. Exercise is medicine and we believe movement is great, but truly understanding the coordination of your muscle control when performing these exercises is key. For example, some people may be tensing their levator ani musculature when performing exercises resulting in repeated compression of their pelvic floor. Others may be over arching their spine, causing spinal nerve irritation like sciatica, testicular pain, vulvar pain, or abdominal pain. We can help you assess your movements and use cueing and biofeedback to correct these patterns.
It’s Just Working Out: Pelvic floor therapy is not only about breathing exercises and targeted muscle strengthening. In sessions, we also discuss the importance of protein content, intake, if we are eating enough, sleep hygiene, and the role of these factors throughout our lifespan. We need enough healthy calories including fiber and protein to support muscle development, which actually helps improve metabolism. At Pelvic Connections, we believe in our patients understanding the difference between anabolism and catabolism of their muscles to truly improve strength when needed. We also want to know about you in detail. Some patients have barriers to getting better, like a busy life, relationship concerns, or chronic fatigue. We believe we have a role in our patients lives to help you progress even while facing these common barriers.
It’s Only for Problems: Pelvic floor therapy is not only a reactive therapy but is proactive and can be preventative for future life events. For example, entering into pelvic floor therapy can help prevent muscle tears while running a marathon, fight future possibilities of prolapse or tears during childbirth. We believe in wellness visits every 6-12 months for musculoskeletal health. This helps us get ahead of many injuries before they even occur.
It Always Requires an Internal Assessment: Even though an internal assessment of the pelvic floor is greatly beneficial, it is not mandatory! It’s up to you and your comfort, transvaginal and/or transrectal, or we can assess externally by visualization or with electrodes which you could apply yourself, and we can look at a screen. We can also tell a ton about your pelvic floor just by looking at functional movements like squatting, balancing, lunging, etc.
Conclusion
Ultimately, athletes can unlock their full potential by improving core stability, promoting optimal movement patterns, and preventing injuries. Additionally, it’s important to dispel several myths surrounding pelvic floor therapy—such as the belief that it only benefits women post-pregnancy or that it’s only relevant for individuals experiencing dysfunction. In reality, pelvic floor health is vital for all athletes, regardless of gender or experience level, and can lead to improved performance, better recovery, and increased resilience against injury. Embracing pelvic floor therapy empowers athletes and fosters a more holistic approach to training and well-being.
Page updated
Report abuse