It is thought that pelvic floor dysfunction is for pregnant women who have given birth, elderly, obese, and the ones with trauma to the pelvic area, but not every pregnant, elderly, and obese for instance have pelvic floor dysfunction. In fact, how is it that young people have started experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction and its associated symptoms? It is because the cause of pelvic floor dysfunction is being missed grossly.
In order to get into the role of ergonomics on pelvic floor dysfunction, you need to understand some basic anatomy; I encourage you to read the blog I wrote on Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and Ergonomics in general.
Anatomy of the Pelvic Floor
Pelvic floor health, unlike what most people think, is hardly ever directly insulted by one single incident. Its integrity often is violated over a length of time while an incident such as childbirth, in some women, becomes the one incident that brings its lack to the surface!
While it is the inner lining of the pelvic inlet (see the picture above), it is dependent on the lifestyle, breathing, and the integrity of the movement and presence of the lower back, the lower part of the mid-back, hips, abdominals and sacro-ilica joint. This means not just the involvement of these muscles but the connective tissue and other soft tissue including the nerves.
How Does Ergonomics Impact Pelvic Floor?
The muscles of the pelvic floor, just like any muscles involved in movement, are impacted by:
- The use (or abuse)
- duration of use
- The sequence of their involvement in movement and
- The quality of them performing their work.
I know this maybe, in part, news flash to you so I encourage you to watch the video below that talks about the concepts of Developmental Kinesiology and Postural Neurology.
With a sedentary lifestyle, the muscles of the pelvic floor which line the pelvic girdle do not get to exercise, they weaken, and as a result, our pelvis, the base of the bulk of your body becomes unstable. The movement of every structure connected to it first gets compromised, every movement becomes dysfunctional, and the cycle continues.
With the decline in posture as a result of this lifestyle, our breathing gets compromised and therefore the pelvic diaphragm, the very foundational piece of biological breathing that is required for every function of our body, gets negatively altered. This becomes the beginning of a decline, the decline with so many faces that get missed as the components of the same story. After all, we have different specialists for every part of the body and they only look at their area of expertise and never at the whole body.
If you think your lifestyle does not and will not contribute to your weak pelvic floor, your pelvic floor dysfunction with its many faces, from incontinence to aches and pain, you ought to think again.
Explore other blogs I have written on the subject of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction; learn how doing Kegels on your own and isolated exercises are not enough. If you need to jump-start your recovery and treatment, I suggest reviewing this list of Ergonomics do’s and don’ts, watch the Ergonomic Playlist on one of my channels, learn about the Emsella Chair and how we help many take control of their weaknesses.
Dr. Shakib