There are many areas in life where we want things to be tight, the pelvic floor is not one of those areas! A tight muscle is not necessarily a strong one! Same goes for the pelvic floor. A tight – also known as a hypertonic or overactive pelvic floor is not a strong pelvic floor!
Imagine you are clenching your jaw. The muscles around your jaw will likely tense and tighten, creating tension and pain in your jaw, neck, and head. Well, just like any other muscle, your pelvic floor muscles can become tight or go into spasm from over-activity. This common condition is known as a “hypertonic pelvic floor”, because the pelvic floor has “too much tone” and cannot relax. It’s also known as an “overactive pelvic floor.”
Someone with a hypertonic pelvic floor may present with different symptoms such as:
- Constipation
- Urinary incontinence
- Painful sex
- Pelvic pain
- Low back pain
- Hip pain
- Coccyx pain
- Incomplete emptying of the bowels
- Need to strain when emptying the bowels
- Incomplete emptying of the bladder
- Slow flow of urine
- Hesitancy or delayed start of the urine stream
- Urinary urgency
- Urinary frequency
- Painful urination
A tight pelvic floor is not a strong one!
The difference between “tightness” and “strength.”
Just like any other muscle in our bodies, the pelvic floor muscles need to be able to lengthen and relax too. Chronic tension and tightness are never good for any muscle group! Kegels only work the muscle in one way (tightening), which causes muscles to shorten, but they don’t do enough to lengthen them and keep them supple. If you want to have real strength in your pelvic floor, it must be able to stretch or elongate and release, as well as engage when needed. In other words: A muscle that’s too tight is a weak muscle – It can’t do its job properly. And, the good news, a strong muscle can both fully contract and fully release.
Here are 9 habits that may lead to a hypertonic pelvic floor:
1. Being constantly stress and anxious
Stress is a widespread cause of hypertonic pelvic floor. When we are stressed, we hold tension in your pelvic floor. Remember the “fight or flight” response? Imagine a dog being afraid – it runs away with its tail between its legs. Well, we have a similar reaction: we tuck our tailbone under! The pelvic floor muscles are attached to the tailbone, and this causes the muscles to shorten and tighten over time.
2. Shallow breathing
Shallow breathing is characterized by movements that are contrary to what is expected of the chest and abdomen when breathing: drawing air into the chest area only (instead of the abdomen), using the (ribs) intercostal and upper chest muscles (instead of your diaphragm). In other words, if you’re a shallow breather: you can see your chest rising and stomach moving inward upon inhalation (air in), and the chest falling and stomach moving out upon exhalation (air out). This paradoxical breathing activates upper chest muscles and increases our stress hormone (cortisol) levels. Not only does it makes stress a normal state in our body, but it also prevents our pelvic floor from softening on the inhale (the pelvic floor and diaphragm can’t work together).
3. Kegeling
A healthy pelvic floor should be able to contract and RELEASE, like any other muscle in our body. Kegels won’t do that! If you have a hypertonic pelvic floor, and you keep “doing your Kegels” without focusing on “letting go”, the situation will only get worse.
4. Neglecting the abdominal muscles
The transverse muscles (deepest abdominal layer) are in charge of stabilizing the spine and pelvis. If they don’t do their job, other muscles, which can include the pelvic floor muscles, will jump in and attempt to compensate. The body is very resilient, and it usually figures out a way around. However, compensation patterns will only work for so long before issues arise. When a muscle does more than its job, it eventually develops tension, tightness, pain, and dysfunction.
5. Spending too much time in a poor alignment
We sit and stand for the majority of the day, and most of us probably don’t think much about it, but HOW we do it has a surprisingly huge impact on your body. Things like leg crossing, tailbone tucking, slouching or leaning back while seated often result in deep pelvic floor tension. It decreases the space in your pelvis by putting direct pressure onto your sacrum and tailbone – pushing these bones toward the pubic bone at the front. This reduced space requires the pelvic floor muscles to shorten passively, even though they are not contracting.
6. Sucking your belly in
Are you drawing your belly button in all day long because you were told it is better for posture? When we pull our belly button in, we increase intra-abdominal pressure. This excessive intra-abdominal pressure can cause a bearing down of pressure onto the pelvic floor, forcing it to bulge down. The pelvic floor can respond to this constantly higher pressure with two ways: either letting the leaks happen, or fighting back by getting tightened. That’s why some people unconsciously tighten their pelvic floor muscles.
7. Wearing tight clothes around the waist
Wearing overly tight clothing can interfering with breathing, which affects digestive and pelvic health. Here again, to resist against the added downward pressure of tight high-waist leggings or high-waist jeans, some people unconsciously tighten their pelvic floor. As a result, the pelvic floor muscles cannot relax, leading to a hypertonic pelvic floor.
8. Wearing high-heels
High-heels push your center of gravity forwards onto the balls of your feet, which will throw off your pelvic alignment, forcing you into unnatural positions. Our muscles have to work hard to compensate, increasing the tightness of your calf and hamstring muscles, which will continue to pull your pelvis into that tucked under position.
9. Holding on to your bladder or bowels contents for long periods
Some people feel uncomfortable using toilets outside of their home, which leads them to holding their bladders for hours! Holding onto urine or bowel content for extended periods of time will only make the pelvic floor tighten. An average person can go for about 2 hours without a bathroom break, but we should not hold it for too long.
Bottom line, keeping the pelvic floor muscles in a shortened position constantly prevents them from functioning optimally.
As you re-train the whole core system, develop more awareness, and work on your posture your body will progressively re-build the reflexive response of the inner core. Most of us can restore proper pelvic floor function and enjoy a leak-free life!!
I’m passionate about pelvic health and empowering women with knowledge! Let me know if there is any way I can support you on your health journey.
