Newsletter article#18

The Connection You’re Missing: Your Pelvic Floor and Your Breath

When people talk about breathing, they usually think about the lungs.

When they talk about the pelvic floor, they usually think about bladder control, childbirth, or pelvic-floor exercises.

But these two areas are closely connected.

Your diaphragm sits at the bottom of your rib cage and is your main muscle of breathing. Your pelvic floor sits at the bottom of your pelvis. Between them are the abdominal muscles, spinal muscles and other structures that help manage pressure inside your trunk.

Together, they form a pressure system that responds every time you breathe.

Understanding this connection can change the way you think about both breathing and pelvic-floor training.

Think of your diaphragm and pelvic floor as a piston

Imagine a cylinder.

At the top is your diaphragm. At the bottom is your pelvic floor.

When you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and moves downward. The rib cage expands, and the pressure inside your abdominal cavity changes.

The pelvic floor can respond by lengthening and moving downward slightly.

When you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and moves upward. The pelvic floor can recoil and move upward again.

This is sometimes described as a piston-like movement.

You breathe in, the diaphragm moves down, and the pelvic floor responds.

You breathe out, the diaphragm moves up, and the pelvic floor responds.

Of course, the human body isn’t a simple mechanical piston. The amount of movement varies depending on your posture, breathing pattern, activity and the amount of pressure you’re generating.

But the basic relationship is important.

Your pelvic floor is part of a much larger system.

Every breath changes pressure

Your diaphragm doesn’t work in isolation.

When it contracts during inhalation, it changes the pressure inside your abdominal cavity. Your abdominal wall, pelvic floor and muscles around your spine respond to those changes.

This becomes particularly obvious when you lift something heavy.

Before and during a heavy lift, you may naturally increase pressure through your trunk. Your abdominal muscles brace, your diaphragm contributes to pressure regulation, and your pelvic floor also responds.

This is one reason breathing matters during strength training.

Your pelvic floor isn’t simply sitting at the bottom of your pelvis waiting to be switched on with a Kegel exercise.

It is responding to changes in pressure and movement throughout the day.

What happens when you breathe well?

Efficient breathing gives the diaphragm the opportunity to move through a useful range.

During a relaxed inhalation, the lower ribs can expand, the diaphragm descends, and the abdominal wall has room to respond.

During exhalation, the diaphragm rises, and the abdominal wall can gently recoil.

The pelvic floor participates in this movement.

You don’t necessarily need to consciously contract and relax it with every breath. In fact, trying to control every millimetre of pelvic-floor movement can create unnecessary tension.

The goal is to allow the system to move.

And this is where breathing patterns can become relevant

Consider someone who constantly holds their stomach in.

Perhaps they’ve spent years trying to maintain a “flat stomach” by keeping their abdominal muscles switched on all day.

Or someone who breathes predominantly into the upper chest and barely allows the lower ribs and abdomen to move.

Or someone who habitually braces their abdominal muscles because they feel more secure that way.

These patterns can influence how pressure is managed through the trunk.

The diaphragm may have less freedom to move down during inhalation, while the abdominal wall and pelvic floor may remain more guarded.

That doesn’t automatically mean there is a pelvic-floor problem.

But if the muscles around your trunk are constantly working, there may be less opportunity for normal movement and relaxation.

Too much tension can be a problem, too

Pelvic-floor training is often presented as a matter of making the muscles stronger.

Strength is important for many people, but the pelvic floor also needs to be able to relax and lengthen.

Think about making a fist.

You can squeeze your hand tightly and hold it there for a while. But if you never let go, eventually the muscles become tired and uncomfortable.

The pelvic floor also needs the ability to contract when required and release when appropriate.

Breathing provides thousands of opportunities every day for that movement.

A relaxed inhalation can encourage the pelvic floor to lengthen. Exhalation and increased abdominal pressure can be accompanied by a return to its resting position.

Again, the movement is subtle.

You aren’t supposed to feel your pelvic floor dramatically dropping and lifting with every breath.

What about the core?

This connection also helps explain why breathing and core function are so closely related.

Your “core” isn’t just your six-pack.

It includes the diaphragm, abdominal muscles, muscles around the spine and pelvic floor, along with other structures that contribute to stability and pressure management.

When you breathe, the system has to accommodate movement.

When you brace, lift, cough, laugh or sneeze, the system has to manage a much larger change in pressure.

Your body constantly adjusts between mobility and stability.

Good core function, therefore isn’t about holding everything rigid all day.

You need to be able to create pressure and stiffness when you need it, and release that tension when you don’t.

Try this simple experiment

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor.

Put one hand on your upper chest and the other around your lower ribs or abdomen.

Let your jaw, shoulders and belly relax.

Now breathe quietly through your nose.

As you inhale, see if you can feel the lower ribs expanding in different directions. Your abdomen may gently rise.

As you exhale, allow the ribs and abdomen to return without forcing the breath out.

Now bring your attention to your pelvic floor.

Don’t squeeze it.

Instead, simply notice whether your inhalation creates a subtle sense of lengthening or softening through the pelvic area.

Then notice what happens during your exhalation.

You may feel very little. That’s completely fine.

This isn’t an exercise in producing a dramatic pelvic-floor movement. You’re simply becoming aware of the relationship between your breath and the rest of your trunk.

This matters during exercise, too

Once you understand the connection, breathing during strength training starts to make more sense.

For a lighter exercise, you may be able to maintain a steady breathing rhythm throughout the movement.

As the load gets heavier, you may deliberately increase abdominal pressure and brace your trunk to create stability.

That’s useful.

But staying maximally braced and holding your breath for every movement isn’t necessary for every exercise.

The breathing strategy should match the task.

A heavy deadlift, a relaxed yoga position and a brisk walk place very different demands on your body.

Your diaphragm and pelvic floor need to adapt to all of them.

What if you have pelvic-floor symptoms?

This is where it is important not to assume that everyone needs more strengthening.

Pelvic-floor symptoms can have many causes.

Some people may have a weakness. Others may have excessive muscle tension. Some have difficulty coordinating contraction and relaxation. Pregnancy, childbirth, surgery, hormonal changes, chronic constipation, high-impact exercise and other factors can also affect pelvic-floor function.

If you experience urinary leakage, pelvic pain, a feeling of heaviness or pressure, difficulty emptying your bladder or bowel, or other persistent pelvic-floor symptoms, a qualified pelvic-health physiotherapist is the right person to assess what is actually happening.

More Kegels aren’t automatically the answer.

Your breath is part of the picture

You take thousands of breaths every day.

Every one of those breaths involves movement of the diaphragm and changes in pressure through your trunk.

Your pelvic floor is part of that system.

Learning to breathe well won’t magically solve every pelvic-floor problem, and breathing exercises shouldn’t replace appropriate medical or physiotherapy care.

But understanding the diaphragm-pelvic-floor connection gives you another way to look at your body.

Your breathing, core and pelvic floor aren’t separate departments.

They are constantly communicating through movement, pressure and muscle activity.

And sometimes, improving that relationship starts with something as simple as paying attention to how you breathe.

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Free Live Workshop: Reset Your Nervous System with Breath

Join me for a free live workshop where we look at how your daily breathing impacts your stress, sleep, and overall focus.

We will cover:

• How dysfunctional breathing habits build up tension and fatigue
• Simple, practical techniques to calm your nervous system on demand
• Live Q&A—bring any questions about your own breath patterns or practice

We’ll finish with a guided breathwork session, so you leave feeling grounded. This is the first of a regular monthly series I’m hosting on Patreon, and all you need to do to attend it is to join my FREE Patreon membership, and save the date.

When: Saturday, 12th September

Time: 9am EST | 2pm BST | 5pm GST

Hope to see you there!

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See you next time,

Tamara

​https://innerpowerlab.coach​