Let’s Explore the Pelvic Floor

Headlines in newspapers are not often cause for celebration, but this one in The New York Times prompted us to grab the pom-poms:

“Why Men Shouldn’t Ignore Their Pelvic Floors”

Well, if you’ve been around Anatomy in Clay® Learning System founder Jon Zahourek, you’ve been hearing something similar for a long, long time.

Jon would say all of us (men and women) should have a better grasp and more awareness of our pelvic floors.

What is the pelvic floor? It’s a group of muscles and ligaments that form the base of the core. It stretches like a hammock from the pubic bone to the tailbone. You’d be in trouble without it. The pelvic floor supports the bladder, bowel and, for women, the uterus. It helps maintain bladder and bowel control, enables sexual function, and provides stability to the spine and core muscles.

Anyway, the article sent us scurrying back to a video with Jon Zahourek from about nine years ago where Jon discussed these same points and argued that more attention needs to be placed on this key feature of how we’re put together.

“To be able to clarify (the role of the pelvic floor) is super important,” says Zahourek in the video. “And again, those things seem like mystery, anatomical mystery, sort of vague. And that's one of the reasons it's not addressed carefully is that people are shy about it. People are a little afraid of that and it's completely wrong—completely wrong. If anything, this is so vital to your everyday life. It ought to be, you know, everyone ought to know it. Extremely well.”

The pelvic floor, he argues, tells a very clear story. “All of that anatomy is so clear if you, if you can approach it the right way.”

Zahourek argues—convincingly—that we need to get over shyness about this region of our body and to confront the “mystery.” The mystery, he suggests, should prompt us to better understand!

Ironically, the Times article notes, better understanding of the female pelvic floor has helped the medical community take a closer look at the male side of things. Various pelvic floor issues, the article points out, can be addressed through physical therapy. These include bladder or bowel incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and pelvic pain.

Some pelvic floors are too tight, some are too loose. 

How to take good care of your pelvic floor?  Again, we highly recommend the N.Y. Times article, but steps include deep breathing, stretching, and avoiding (yes, avoiding) Kegels that could lead to an overly tight pelvic floor.

So, don’t overlook your pelvic floor! It really is the foundation for so many critical anatomical functions so let’s get over the hangups.

And learn.

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