Your Pelvic Floor is a Dial, Not a Switch
Understanding tension to task and how to use this to your advantage
Tension to task is the process of using the appropriate amount of force in various places within your body to accomplish a task. It’s the beautiful symphony of each muscle in the system doing exactly what it needs to do, no more, no less, for us to move throughout our day without causing pain, exhaustion or a general mess all around us (see examples below for clarity on that one).
How does this pertain to the pelvic floor?
We often hear that we should tighten up our pelvic floor to support our internal organs, help reduce incontinence & prolapse or transfer momentum & force from one side of our body to the other. The problem is that oftentimes we think about turning our pelvic floor off & on like a switch. You turn it on when you do things and you turn it off when you don’t.
Bending over to kiss your kiddo goodnight? Turn on your pelvic floor.
Carrying in groceries from the car? Turn on your pelvic floor.
Max deadlifting 200#? Turn on your pelvic floor.
We have completely forgotten how to use the right amount of tension for the task at hand when it comes to the pelvic floor despite the fact that we do this all the time with other parts of the body!
For example, if you were to lift up a glass of milk with the same force you would use to lift a gallon of milk, you’d have a mess on your hands. Your body knows how much force is needed to lift that cup. We figured it out as toddlers when we started feeding ourselves and ended up with food and drinks all over our face as we went through the trial and error process.
We’ve also all been there when we go to push open a door that we think is going to be heavy only to have it flying away from us like we are Superman on a mission and the door was in our way! That’s an example of too much tension for the task.
Your body understands how much force is needed for the movements we do during our day. It understands how to turn the force up & down depending on the need.
But why do we think our pelvic floor should work differently? Why do we think our pelvic floor should act like a switch and turn on & off instead of like a dial where we turn it up and down?
How to use the pelvic floor as a dial:
First, it’s important to get an understanding of how the pelvic floor feels. Practice doing some tension checks in your body, letting go of all of the tension. Practice this in a lot of different positions so that you get really familiar with it.
Next, see what it feels like to do a pelvic floor contraction, AKA kegels (that’s a whole tangent for another day but yes, kegel and pelvic floor contractions are the same thing). If you’re not sure how to do a pelvic floor contraction, try these visuals:
Think about a marble sitting at your opening and gently draw it into your body
Think about gently pulling your pubic bone (bone at the front of the pelvis) and your tailbone together as if they were going to touch
Think about holding back gas
Think about a straw in your urethra (where the urine comes out) and that you’re trying to draw fluid through the straw, into your body.
These are just a few basics on how you can practice contracting your pelvic floor but most importantly, try not to change your breathing patterns when you hold your contraction, as your pelvic floor contraction shouldn’t change your breathing pattern.
Now that you know how to contract your pelvic floor, let’s learn how to control it. Think about your pelvic floor like a dial labeled 0-10 where 0 is no force & 10 is max force. Try turning up the dial and pulling into 5/10 intensity. Now turn the dial up to 7/10. Then turn it down to 3/10. And keep bouncing around to different intensities, noticing how they feel for you. Keep in mind, your abdominal muscles are closely linked to your pelvic floor so don’t try to fight it if your belly tenses up too, it’s supposed to do that.
Once you feel more comfortable with this dial concept, consider the above examples with treating the pelvic floor like a dial:
Bending over to kiss your kiddo goodnight? 2/10 force
Carrying in groceries from the car? 4/10 force
Max deadlift 200#? 10/10 force
Constant contraction of the pelvic floor can be contribute to pelvic pain, incontinence, constipation and other dysfunctions. Give the dial a try and let me know how it goes! If you’re having trouble with this concept, contact us and we’d be happy to help!
