How Stress Affects the Pelvic Floor
Stress is often an unavoidable part of normal life. One way or another, it’s bound to affect you in small amounts. Chronic stress on the other hand is far from healthy. Mostly, it affects your emotional wellbeing, but it can also wreak havoc on your pelvic floor.
When you’ve got a million and one things to take care of, your pelvic floor is probably the least of your concerns. But, a strong and healthy pelvic floor can help keep you supported physically and mentally. Read on to learn more…
How Does Stress Affect the Pelvic Floor?
Too much stress can inevitably damage your pelvic floor. Withholding stress can cause your pelvic floor to become too tight. You could even be holding tension right now: breathe calmly and relax your jaw and muscles, better right? A build up of tension can cause you to bear down on your pelvic floor muscles.
If your pelvic floor is already weakened from ageing or childbirth, this can be a recipe for disaster for your pelvic floor.
If you are unable to manage your stress, you can put yourself at risk for a variety of pelvic floor complications such as incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. Let’s face it, we don’t want to make our list of stresses any longer do we?
How Do I Know if My Pelvic Floor Muscles are Overactive?
If your pelvic floor has become damaged as a result of stress, you may experience some of the following symptoms:
- Stress incontinence
- Urge incontinence
- Bowel incontinence
- Constipation
- Pelvic pain or pressure
- Pain during sex
- Lower back pain
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- Painful urination
How to Relax your Pelvic Floor?
Luckily, it’s not the end of the road. You can manage your stress and keep your pelvic floor strong and healthy – giving you one less thing to worry about. To relax your pelvic floor, you can try:
- Relaxation programmes – On the Kegel8 Ultra 20 Electronic Pelvic Toner, there are a number of programmes that are clinically-designed to help you relax your pelvic floor. Remember, relaxation is just as important as exercise. Programme 20, in particular, is specially designed to stimulate and relax your pelvic floor muscles - providing 20 glorious minutes of relief. What’s better – you don’t have to do a thing. With the push of a button you can sit back and relax.
- Low impact exercise – To keep your body and mind healthy, try participating in some low impact exercise such as swimming. Pilates is also a great way to engage your core and your pelvic floor.
- Get stronger from within – Supplements are a quick and easy way to ensure your internal health is in tip top condition.
