Fitness expert and PT Joey Bull shares how midlife women can use pelvic floor exercises to strengthen a weakened abdomen
Words: Joey Bull | Images: Shutterstock
The female pelvis is nothing short of a miracle. How its tissues are designed to be elastic enough to expand to the size of a basketball to hold a baby, then retain enough muscle strength to deliver that baby and, not least, return to normal after six weeks, is an engineering marvel. Even the mucus that promotes self-cleansing, permits sexual activity and repels infection, is something only nature could create.
During our fertile years and pregnancy, your intimate area has the fastest-healing tissue in the body. But come menopause, this area might not feel like such a great feat of engineering. Low-grade infection and inflammation in the urethra and/or incontinence can be reoccurring issues. The latter is noticeable when coughing, laughing or lifting, which is caused by intra-abdominal pressure.
No antibiotic will stop these irritations from returning as hormones are out of balance and bacteria have a better survival rate due to reduced levels of mucus. Other reasons for these discomforts can be:
- Weakened pelvic ligaments and muscles causing the bladder to slacken and the urethra to be distorted, allowing leakage.
- Having had difficult births.
- Vaginal cells become weaker from reduced oestrogen levels.
- Dietary habits and food sensitivities – caffeine can be a culprit for some, and other foods such as too much sugar can encourage an overgrowth of bacteria or yeasts.
- The contraction of the bladder and/or sphincter may not be in harmony and elimination isn’t completed.
This full body workout at home saved my midlife fitness routine
Ways you can reduce some of these issues are:
- Pelvic floor exercises.
- Support weakened tissues by supplementing with testosterone.
- Maintaining good pelvic hygiene for yourself and your partner.
- Trying an intra-vaginal estriol cream.
Joey’s 3 key moves
It’s important to keep pelvic floor exercises diverse – not just lying down but also standing and adding movement. These exercises can be done daily to reinforce ligament and tissue, and to strengthen the pelvic region in general.
Frog legs
- Lie on your back and raise your pelvis slightly with a block, folded towel or rolled up mat; this helps the internal areas relax thereby reducing intra-abdominal pressure, allowing you to focus on the specific area of the “bikini triangle”.
- Bend both knees, keeping your feet on the floor. Lift one knee, allowing it to open to the side in a frog-like position
- Return to start and repeat on the other side.
- Do this four times in all.
Squeeze the ball
- Standing upright, place a towel or a soft ball between your knees, keeping an awareness of the gentle contraction in your pelvic floor area.
- Now, try other actions such as rotating and bending. Move in different directions and planes, keeping the ball between your knees.
- Try four rounds of 15 seconds each, focusing on holding the ball tight and keeping an awareness of your pelvic floor at all times.
Breathing well
Your core is made up of more than strong pelvic floor muscles – it also includes the multifidus around the lower back, the transversus abdominis wrapping deep around the front of the pelvis in the lower abdomen, and the respiratory system. When these get out of balance there can be a variety of niggles, including urine leakage. This can occur when you create tension in the body and aren’t breathing out, for instance doing jumps or squats, or laughing, etc. This exercise should help:
- With one hand on your chest and the other on your belly, breath in filling your chest and belly, then out while drawing the belly button into the spine. Do this a few times, breathing in and out through the nose.
- Place your hands either side of your hip bones and do the same breathing pattern, focusing on your pelvic floor – the urethra and anus – contracting them as if trying to stop farting or weeing! Keep repeating the sequence.
- After a couple of minutes of this, add a bridge move by lifting your hips off the floor as you exhale, still focusing on the pelvic floor. Inhale to lower your hips. Do 5 reps.
NOTE: Avoid tensing and straining. This is inner work, so you won’t see much going on from the outside.
Joey’s fitness and wellbeing course, The Best is Yet to Come, helps revitalise women in their middle years for all-round physical and emotional health. Visit joeybull.com and find Joey on instagram.com/joeybull_fitness.
