Hi, I am Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas. I'm a pelvic floor physical therapist and I'm here to answer questions submitted by the plusOne community.

So how is breathing related to pelvic floor function?

So your diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration or breathing, and it's supposed to work synergistically with your pelvic floor muscles. So when you inhale, your diaphragm lengthens down as your lungs fill up.

Your pelvic floor should also kind of follow along in that same direction leading to pelvic floor relaxation. And when you exhale, that diaphragm pulls back up your pelvic floor follows along with it and kind of contracts a little bit.

So there's this gentle wave of movement even just as you're quietly breathing. And we can add to that in certain situations when we're trying to really enhance pelvic floor relaxation in the presence of something like pain, or when we're trying to enhance pelvic floor tension when we're working on strengthening. I often see the mistake of people trying to hold their breath when they do a kegel exercise. And that actually tends to put a lot of pressure into this abdominal cavity that actually pushes down on the pelvic floor and makes it harder for it to stay contracted and support those pelvic organs.

So contrary to what you've probably done your entire life, you actually want to exhale when you're exerting yourself. So like for example, when you're picking something heavy up off the ground. And that will help to recruit the pelvic floor better, to better support those structures.

Follow along to see what questions we answer next.