One in four Australians suffer a decreased quality of life due to incontinence, a loss of bladder or/and bowel control. Whilst there are many factors that influence incontinence, the pelvic floor muscles play a vital role bladder and bowel control.
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that live in the area of the body that we never really want to talk about…down there!
Now every single muscle in your body is there to do a job. Just like a person who works in a big company, the role that they play might appear to be minor, but if one person (or muscle) isn’t contributing and doing their job, then it creates a chain reaction which ultimately leads to the rest of the company (or body) not being able to do their jobs and in a some cases when many people (or muscles) are not doing their jobs, the company (body) stops functioning.
The human body is beautiful piece of machinery that loves to be balanced and have all of its parts well maintained.
When the pelvic floor muscles are not doing their job, and this can happen for many reasons, the body may develop symptoms that are way too embarrassing for people to talk about and admit that they have, which then has a major impact on quality of physical and mental health.
Any person, male or female, young or old, fit or unfit can experience pelvic floor dysfunction.
The pelvic floor muscles, like all the muscles of the trunk are part of your “core”.
When these muscles are weak, this can contribute to BACK PAIN in a big way. They attach to the pelvis and the base of your spine and form the foundation of the support system for the entire trunk.
So, if you are one of the 70%-90% of Australians who suffer from back pain,then your pelvic floor muscles are very important to understand and get working in the right way.
Training the pelvic floor along with the deep breathing muscles, is the foundation of postural integrity, and pilates is the only strength training method that was specifically designed to do just that.
That’s the major reason that pilates is so well know for helping people get rid of back pain.
As we age, just like any other muscle in the body, the pelvic floor muscles will get weaker if they are not strengthened and kept toned.
Taking a PRO ACTIVE approach to aging includes looking after your pelvic floor and understanding that incontinence isn’t something that “just happens” as you get older.
The good news is that it’s never too late to start!
It really doesn’t take very long to start to get results and improve the quality of your daily life with the amazing pilates method of exercise!