Visceral mobilization restores movement to the viscera or organs. As elucidated earlier in our blog, the viscera can affect a host of things even including how well the abdominal muscles reunite following pregnancy or any abdominal surgery. Visceral mobilization aids in relieving constipation/IBS symptoms, bladder symptoms, digestive issues like reflux, as well as sexual pain. Visceral mobilization can facilitate blood supply to aid in their function, allow organs to do their job by ensuring they have the mobility to move in the way they are required to perform their function, and to allow them to reside in the correct place in their body cavity. Evidence is beginning to emerge to demonstrate how visceral mobilization can even aid in fertility problems.
Exercise. There are a number of exercises you can do at home or at the gym to help strengthen your pelvic floor. Some of the best exercises include bridge pose, wall squats, jumping jacks, and dead bug crunch. For instructions on how to do these exercises, ask a knowledgeable trainer. You can also search online for video instructions. I also recommend that you Google Katy Bowman, who has many good resources for pelvic floor exercises.
People with trigger points in their pelvic floor and surrounding areas can experience pain in the rectum, anus, coccyx, sacrum, abdomen, groin and back and can cause bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction. When physical therapists find a trigger point they work to eliminate it and lengthen it through a myriad of techniques. Recent literature has found that trigger point release alone can achieve an 83% reduction in symptoms.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is an umbrella term for a variety of disorders that occur when pelvic floor muscles and ligaments are impaired. Although this condition predominantly affects females, up to 16% of males suffer as well.[1] Symptoms include pelvic pain, pressure, pain during sex, incontinence, incomplete emptying of feces, and visible organ protrusion.[2] Tissues surrounding the pelvic organs may have increased or decreased sensitivity or irritation resulting in pelvic pain. Underlying causes of pelvic pain are often difficult to determine.[3] The condition affects up to 50% of women who have given birth.[4]
Pelvic floor dysfunction is a common condition where you’re unable to correctly relax and coordinate the muscles in your pelvic floor to urinate or to have a bowel movement. If you’re a woman, you may also feel pain during sex, and if you’re a man you may have problems having or keeping an erection (erectile dysfunction or ED). Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles found in the floor (the base) of your pelvis (the bottom of your torso).
During the internal exam, your physical therapist will place a gloved finger into your vagina or rectum to assess the tone, strength, and irritability of your pelvic floor muscles and tissues. Internal exams and internal treatment are invaluable tools that are taught to pelvic floor physical therapists. It can tell us if there are trigger points (painful spots, with a referral pattern or local); muscle/tissue shortening; nerve irritation and/or bony malalignment that could be causing your pain directly or inhibiting the full function of your pelvic floor muscles. We can also determine if your pelvic floor has good coordination during the exam. A pelvic floor without good coordination, may not open and close appropriately for activities such as going to the bathroom, supporting our pelvis and trunk, sexual activity, and keeping us continent.
Home exercise programs are essential for each patient. In the case of weakness, a patient will require more pelvic floor, core and functional strengthening and stability exercises. For overactive and pain conditions, the HEP typically consists of relaxation techniques, self-massages (both external and internal), gentle stretching, cardiovascular fitness as tolerated, and eventually pain-free core stability exercises. Both require postural and behavioral modifications and self-care strategies. For more information and detail, check out the book: Heal Pelvic Pain, by Amy Stein or her DVD: Healing Pelvic and Abdominal Pain here.
Help….I had a preventive hysterectomy seven months ago because of a horrible maternal family history of ovarian and uterine cancer. At 53, I had just started into menopause with skipping periods, but hadn’t gone a year. Now, I have had constant pelvic pain….it’s hard to walk sometimes, hard to stand for more than 30-40 minutes and a cystocopy showed that my bladder was inflamed. All these practitioners are telling me I have IC, but I have no frequency, no urgency or burning. When I finally went to a uro/gyn, during the exam she told me several of my pelvic muscles were tight and I the only pain I had was when touched near my bladder. I think this may be a pelvic floor dysfunction along with a hormonal imbalance, but no one listens and just keeps prescribing Uribel and other bladder drugs and now they want to do instillations. Am I completely off base that this is a wrong diagnosis? Any insights would be helpful.
Breathe from your diaphragm. Your inner core is made up of your pelvic floor, your transversus abdominus and multifidus, and your diaphragm. When everything is working optimally, your diaphragm and pelvic floor move in sync. However, when you suck in your gut, slouch over your computer, or experience chronic tension, this pattern gets disrupted. To practice diaphragmatic breathing, lie down on your back. You can put a pillow under your knees, but you want a neutral spine. Place one hand just above your belly button. Breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your inhale to expand your belly. Feel your upper belly rise under your hand. Keep your upper chest, shoulders, and neck muscles relaxed as you inhale. Then release your breath without forcing it out. Feel your chest and belly drop. Do this for 1-2 minutes and work up to doing this for 5 minutes and several times per day.
Practice yoga or Pilates. My Pilates teacher has had countless clients over the years who have healed their urinary incontinence in a few months after starting classical Pilates. And, many pelvic floor physical therapists use Pilates reformers as part of their practices. Both Pilates and yoga can help strengthen your core, which helps improve pelvic floor strength. Pilates targets the deep core and helps you develop both strength and flexibility. You can try a Pilates mat class or seek out an instructor who is well-versed in using the equipment. In yoga class you can practice your root lock, or mula bandha, to target your pelvic floor.
If an internal examination is too uncomfortable for you, your doctor or physical therapist may use externally placed electrodes, placed on the perineum (area between the vagina and rectum in women/testicles and rectum in men) and/or sacrum (a triangular bone at the base of your spine) to measure whether you are able to effectively contract and relax your pelvic floor muscles.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is very different than pelvic organ prolapse. Pelvic organ prolapse happens when the muscles holding a woman’s pelvic organs (uterus, rectum and bladder) in place loosen and become too stretched out. Pelvic organ prolapse can cause the organs to protrude (stick out) of the vagina or rectum and may require women to push them back inside.
The “pelvic floor” refers to a group of muscles that attach to the front, back, and sides of the pelvic bone and sacrum (the large fused bone at the bottom of your spine, just above the tailbone). Like a sling or hammock, these muscles support the organs in the pelvis, including the bladder, uterus or prostate, and rectum. They also wrap around your urethra, rectum, and vagina (in women).
Home exercise and therapy is also a mainstay of PFD rehabilitation. Because the goal of PFD therapy is to learn to control and, especially, relax the pelvic floor, therapists will teach you techniques for use at home to build on the therapies they do in their offices. This usually begins with general relaxation, stretching the leg and back muscles, maintaining good posture, and visualization—part of learning to sense your pelvic floor muscles and to relax them.
Surface electrodes (self-adhesive pads placed on your skin) can test your pelvic muscle control. This might be an option if you don’t want an internal exam. The electrodes are placed on the perineum (the area between the vagina and rectum in women, and between the testicles and rectum in men) or on the sacrum (the triangular bone at the base of your spine). This test is not painful.
“I would recommend that people call the facility and maybe schedule the first appointment and see how you feel about it. I also think patient support groups tend to have closed Facebook groups and they can recommend people in certain geographical areas. I know people call [our practice] a lot and we try and get them paired up with somebody we trust in their area,” Prendergast says.
