Belly Breathing.. Its more than "just" breathing!
You may have heard of belly breathing before, also called diaphragmatic breathing, but may not know that this form of breathing has a critical role in mobilizing and training the pelvic floor.
In addition to training mobility and strength of the pelvic floor musculature, this type of breath can also help to regulate the nervous system. This is crucial due to most pelvic floor dysfunction having some involvement of pain, stress, and anxiety. The nervous system also helps to manage the urinary system and sends the signal to our brain when the bladder is full and it's time for us to urinate. This same effect occurs when we need to have a bowel movement.
If you have ever had strong urgency with urination or bowel movements, this is the effect of dysfunction with that specific part of your nervous system. This compromises the pelvic floor and predisposes it to leakage or incontinence. The solution to this is to train your pelvic floor and diaphragm to move and coordinate with each other through diaphragmatic breathing.
So what exactly is the relationship between these two body parts..
As you can tell from the picture above, these two body parts are not particularly close to each other in proximity and have some muscles and organs sandwiched between them. This comes back to the function of our breath. When we take a deep diaphragmatic inhale our diaphragm will descend downward as the lungs fill with air and everything below it will also descend downward and lengthen. This includes the very lowest portion of our torso which is the pelvic floor.
When you exhale, the diaphragm and pelvic floor will ascend and contract together as the deep abdominals contract inwards. In order to contract your pelvic floor and deep abdominals effectively, you should remember to "exhale on the effort," where you match your exhale with your pelvic floor contraction. Even though you want to start with slow and controlled exhales, you can eventually increase the speed and power of your exhale to powerful movements. This will help train your pelvic floor so that you do not leak urine with powerful activities such as jumping or lifting. So this form of breathing can be used in more than one way, and most certainly for more than one reason.
Now, coming back around to the nervous system...
As mentioned previously, diaphragmatic breathing helps to down-regulate that part of your nervous system that creates such sudden need and urgency to urinate. This is the same part of your nervous system that tells your body you are, "running from the tiger," so to speak. This in turn makes your brain tell your body to void everything, and quickly, allowing you to run faster with less body weight. Excess stress, anxiety, and pain can all re-create the same effect that puts your brain and body into that "running from the tiger" mode.
In addition to allowing time for your pelvic floor to move- the slow, deep inhales and exhales of diaphragmatic breathing also help to promote relaxation and down-regulation of your nervous system. It does this through decreasing heart rate and blood pressure as well as reducing the output of stress hormones like cortisol. This can help reduce overall stress and anxiety in your life in addition to improving pelvic floor health.
So between the physical movement, control, and strength you can gain for your pelvic floor and decreasing the nervous system's urgent trigger to urinate, diaphragmatic breathing is typically your first stop for pelvic floor dysfunction. See how you can find pelvic floor pain relief through the diaphragm.
So, what sounds like simple breathing is not so simple at all! There are additional forms of breathing that can be taught by a pelvic floor specialist to help with achieving diaphragmatic breath if you are unable to fully perform it at first. It's common to have difficulty performing this if you have excess stress and pelvic floor dysfunction. You could potentially be breathing with an "inverted pattern," which is exactly the opposite of diaphragmatic breathing. There are plenty of other strategies and exercises that can be taught through pelvic floor physical therapy besides diaphragmatic breathing alone...
Reach out and book an appointment with Refine Physical Therapy today!
@refine_pelvicpt
Comments