The Best Way to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor
Myth: A Strong Pelvic Floor Is a Tight Pelvic Floor
Many people equate a tight pelvic floor with a strong pelvic floor. Under this assumption, many people would believe that more squeezing = more strength. Makes sense, right?
But muscles don't work that way…
Imagine trying to pick up a heavy box while keeping your elbow bent the entire time. Your biceps wouldn't be very strong because they never have room to generate force. Same with the pelvic floor!
A muscle generates its greatest force when it can move through it’s full available range of motion.
Key Takeaways:
A strong muscle is one that can:
Lengthen
Relax
Contract
Generate force when needed
Let go afterward
Not one that's constantly gripping.
Why Kegels Aren't the Complete Answer
Kegels aren't inherently bad - but they also aren’t the solution to strengthen the pelvic floor. Would you strengthen your entire body by only doing bicep curls? Of course not. You would, instead, strengthen all of the supporting structures that need to work together.
The pelvic floor works with the:
diaphragm
abdominals
back muscles
hips
glutes
feet
rib cage
nervous system
It NEVER works alone, which is precisely what kegels are all about!
Your Pelvic Floor is Part of a Team
Instead of taking a very isolated approach (ie kegels), think of your pelvic floor as a very important member of a team. Not only does your pelvic floor work alongside other muscles, it also functions automatically in response to movement. This means, you shouldn’t have to think about turning on your pelvic floor every time it needs to work.
Example: When walking 🚶♂️⬇️
Your foot and ankle mobility allows for shock absorption
This causes some rotation at the lower leg and up into the hip muscles
The hip and pelvis then transmits the force from lower down and your pelvic floor engages to support you automatically.
Similar functions occur when lifting groceries, pick up your child, running, squatting, etc.
Your pelvic floor is coordinating with dozens of muscles. It's reacting - automatically and never alone.
Much like players on a sports team, if some members don’t show up, it puts added pressure on others to do more work than they should handle. This is what happens to your pelvic floor muscles when structures outside of the pelvis aren’t pulling their weight. This is why isolated kegel exercises aren’t the answer.
Strength Starts with Good Movement
To effectively strengthen your pelvic floor, you must start with having adequate movement among all “team” members. If the pelvic floor is trying to carry the load for the entire team, it just wont work. These muscle will often tighten, as a result of trying to work extra hard, and they will not be able to produce adequate force. This tightening, or “gripping”, of the muscles leads to pelvic floor symptoms. Adding more tightness is simply not going to correct the underlying problem.
This means that in order to have a strong pelvic floor, we must consider:
Hip mobility
Thoracic mobility
Breathing
Pressure management
Glute strength
Foot stability
Spinal movement
Posture (without being overly rigid)
So as you can see, the secret to strengthening the pelvic floor is really to optimize everything else to work with it! Your pelvic floor doesn't get stronger by working harder—it gets stronger by working better.
The Nervous System Matters Too
While the nervous system isn’t a specific structure, it influences how our body moves and responds to movement. This is something many clinics overlook. Trauma, stress, chronic pain, or past injuries are all things that can create an overactive nervous system - you likely have heard of “fight or flight.”
When a body perceives something as a threat, it leads to protective muscle guarding. This means muscles may be chronically turned “on” and results in tightness. Now remember what you learned back in the beginning of this article…tight muscles are not strong muscles.
The nervous system can play a significant role in symptoms and this is why it’s so important for me to address this with each person I work with in my clinic. Understanding how someone perceives their symptoms and what they believe to be the cause can have a huge impact on the treatment approach and their understanding of their body.
Imagine someone who hurt their back while deadlifting a few years ago. They conclude that deadlifts—and even squats—are dangerous, so they stop doing them altogether. Over time, they also begin guarding or completely avoiding similar movements in daily life, like bending down to pick up laundry, lifting groceries, or getting up from the floor. As a result, their hips become stiffer, their mobility declines, and they rely even more on their back to do the work. Ironically, the original problem may not have been the deadlift itself, but that they were performing it with poor movement mechanics and overusing their back instead of their hips and legs. Avoiding the movement didn't solve the problem—it simply allowed their body to become less capable of doing it and now their nervous system believes movement is bad and requires protection via muscle tightening.
So How Do You Actually Build a Strong Pelvic Floor?
The best way to strengthen your pelvic floor is to take a whole-body system approach. A comprehensive treatment plan may include:
✓ Learning to breathe well
✓ Learning how to connect with your pelvic floor
✓ Improving hip strength
✓ Ensuring a regulated nervous system
✓ Learning to manage pressure during lifting
✓ Restoring pelvic floor mobility
✓ Developing full-body strength
✓ Improving coordination
✓ Gradually exposing your body to meaningful load and trusting movements
Treatment depends on what YOUR body actually needs.
What Pelvic Floor Therapy Looks Like in My Clinic
The initial visit with me includes carefully listening to your story, concerns, and goals. Your lived experience matters as much as any muscle test I can walk you through. I carefully do an evaluation of you as a whole person including how you move, how you breathe, and how you hold your body. I will prioritize certain areas of the body first, depending on the person I’m working with at the time. A pelvic floor muscle assessment is often included in this but is never required in my office. Your story, your comfort, and what we see during an evaluation will help us to create a treatment plan moving forward.
✨If you’ve been struggling with any symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction, I’d love for you to consider working with us and getting you relief. We have both in-person and virtual options available, for your convenience.
Next On Your Reading List…
What a Trauma-Informed Pelvic Floor Therapy Session Looks Like (and why it’s so essential)
