What every woman should know about the pelvic floor

It is possible that if you ask a friend where it is and what the pelvic floor is for, you will receive a silence in response or simply change the subject. What you should know is that if those muscles weaken, you can suffer from urinary incontinence, prolapses, sexual problems , or lower back pain. Tell your friends! So that they begin to pay more attention to this important area of ​​our body.

If you also do not know what the pelvic floor is and where it is , you came to the right place, we invite you to read this article, because here we are going to tell you about it and we are going to teach you about the importance of exercising it correctly for your health and your quality of life. life.

What is the pelvic floor?

It refers to a set of muscles and ligaments in the shape of a hammock or suspension bridge that work, together with your back and abdominals, to hold the pelvic organs (bowels, bladder, uterus, vagina and rectum) in the proper position and thus control its good performance.

When these muscles become weak after childbirth or for any other reason , more than 50% of women begin to suffer from urinary incontinence and other ailments related to their malfunction.

Now, you should also know that it is a frequent problem in women of any age , who practice sports that cause excessive pressure on these muscles, such as athletics and running, among other bad practices in other sports disciplines.

The reason is simple, when receiving excessive pressure or continuous pressure prolonged over time (for example, nine months of pregnancy, long-standing obesity with a very distended abdomen , running and jumping daily), causes the pelvic floor to sag. weaken and generate difficulty for urinary continence, vaginal flaccidity and a higher frequency of prolapses (or falling of the internal organs - vagina and rectum -), among other consequences.

How to prevent the pelvic floor from weakening?

You have to start somewhere! And at Zenzsual ™ we guide you on this preventive path for your well-being, since there are many cases that we attend to every day of women with dramatic situations, very depressed or affected due to the changes they have had to introduce in their lives as a result of incontinence. or pelvic prolapse (just to mention two common diseases).

Many are the consequences of not taking care of your pelvic floor! We don't want to see you in the awkward position of having to wear diapers, being afraid of inadvertently peeing in public, or the pressure of not wanting to go too far from home to avoid peeing. Not to mention the inconvenience caused by the smell, the distance from your partner due to the fear of urinating during sexual intercourse or the intense pain that you may feel in some cases.

Whether preventive or curative (because in most cases the symptoms of pelvic floor diseases can be improved) for all women it is better business to strengthen our pelvic floor so as not to have to suffer from some of the diseases associated with weakening of these muscles.

How to start taking care of your pelvic floor?

Let's come clean ! Start by becoming aware of your lifestyle. Review those habits inherited from your family or learned throughout your growth, customs or routines that you carry out daily so that you can identify those daily actions that harm you, in which you have to start introducing changes.

When to start exercising and taking care of your pelvic floor?

• As long as you have full consciousness to do it . Start from now, do not wait for pain, incontinence or other associated illness to appear.
• It's never early. Teach your daughters or close girls to take care of their pelvic floor by leading a healthy lifestyle in terms of eating, postures, etc. so that they strengthen that musculature.
• It will always be necessary , because your body requires care from birth. And the pelvic floor too.
• It's never too late . Elderly women with chronic cases of incontinence have exercised their pelvic muscles and in a short time have witnessed the reduction of the feared symptoms of incontinence.

Quick guide to start pelvic floor care:

Review your daily habits from the time you wake up until you go to sleep:

When you get up:

How are your visits to the bathroom? Can you hold the urge for a long time? Do you always get a trickle involuntarily when you get up?

Pay attention:

1. Do not hold the urge to urinate: go to the bathroom as soon as you feel like it.
2. Maintain a correct posture in the WC / sink / toilet. Sit with your knees raised as in the previous photo.
3. Do not push or put pressure on your abs. Let your intestines do their job and empty themselves at their own pace. For this it is important to avoid constipation by eating well.

When feeding you:

It is not about following magical diets for eternity, it is about choosing a good diet and learning to choose your food better.

1. Review your menu: Include at least one serving from each food group. For example, that your plate does not lack vegetables (prefer dark green, such as: broccoli, chard, arugula, lettuce ), complex carbohydrates (cassava, sweet potato, brown rice and pasta, etc.), proteins (fish , chicken, pork or meat (make sure they are lean meats).
2. Eat enough fiber to avoid constipation, such as: Legumes, such as lentils, black beans, dry peas, kidney beans, lima beans, and chickpeas, Nuts and seeds, such as sunflower seeds, almonds, pistachios, and pecans.
3. Stay hydrated: drink enough water throughout the day. At least two litres. Always have a thermos or cooler on hand, to avoid spending a lot of time without drinking something, because routine and obligations make us forget things like these.

During the day:

Don't carry too much weight!

Avoid lifting loads that are too heavy for you, until you have retrained your pelvic floor and the rest of your body . Well, by forcing it, you exert unnecessary pressure on the area of ​​your abdomen that falls directly on your belly. It's like when you try to roll a heavy table with just one foot, remember that? You immediately feel the pressure further down your abdomen.

It is important to keep this recommendation in mind , especially after childbirth or caesarean section, at which time this muscle is weaker than normal, due to the long pressure to which it is exposed during the nine months of gestation and at the time of birth.

Get active!

Analyze how often you are moving and exercising your body.

Are you sedentary? Are you a stay at home mom and keep on the go? Or do you work in the office and spend the entire working day sitting down? How much do you exercise during the week? what kind of exercises do you prefer? These are some of the basic questions you should ask yourself to assess your pace of life and the agility of your body.

Although the pelvic floor is not an area easily located with the naked eye , like any other muscle in the body, you must exercise and strengthen it constantly. For this you must include in your daily routine the performance of some of the recommended exercises, according to your lifestyle and your preferences.

Here are some recommendations when exercising:

1. Advise yourself with experts : Before starting a new routine, go to a pelvic floor professional, to obtain a proper diagnosis.
2. Choose the sport that is most similar to you so that you guarantee that you continue over time. Among the best sports options to take care of your pelvic floor, we recommend the following:
1. the pilates
2. Tai Chi
3. traditional yoga
4. And complement with Yoga for your vagina with @vagiyoga from @zenzsual
3. Perform specific exercises to tone your pelvic floor, such as Kegel exercises . In a recent article on our blog, whose link we leave here , we share the step by step of these very important exercises that will help you tone your pelvic floor muscles constantly.

There is no excuse for not doing Kegels , because you can literally do it at any time. And if you have no idea how to start, at Zenzsual ™ we offer you VagiYoga ™ , an innovative exerciser for your vagina that permanently tones and recovers your pelvic muscles and allows you to observe your progress on a calendar. It has the function of massages with different levels of intensity, modalities and challenges. All this controlled by its own mobile application available for Android and iOS phones or you can also control it manually if the matter of technology is not easily given.

It's crucial to remember that incontinence and pelvic floor symptoms almost always have solutions and shouldn't be shrugged off. Find time each day to include Kegel exercises in your routine.

1. It doses the load of sports practice . Extremes are bad for your body. Neither a sedentary life nor excessive exercise (or pressure) on your pelvic muscles are recommended. Do not exaggerate! Do it in a balanced way.
2. Choose a training suitable to your possibilities . When it comes to training and taking care of your body, it is better to seek advice from experts. From a gynecologist, a physical therapist and a good certified trainer. Avoid those massive classes where you don't have an instructor monitoring your performance, especially if you're just starting out with that sport.
3. Zero excuses, make it routine! Simply no one is going to take care of your body if not you. Nothing is more important than staying healthy. You cannot take care of your family, be happy with your partner or be a successful professional if you are not in good health. Without a doubt, we all agree there.

And during the night!

• Take advantage of those moments of relaxation to do your Yoga class or simply rest.
• And close the day by doing your Kegel exercises, with the help of your VagiYoga ™ and in the last few minutes, put it in massage mode so you can enjoy with your partner.

So that you have more information on how to take care of your pelvic floor and prevent the pain that its weakening can cause you Subscribe now! to our portal www.zenzsual.com and receive an extract from the book #TuCuerpo where you will find a solution to this and other problems of female intimate health.