Balancing life’s numerous responsibilities and striving to maintain an active lifestyle despite facing pelvic floor symptoms can be really challenging!

In this blog, we’ll cover some tips and tricks, focusing on specific exercises like jumping jacks and push-ups, to help you confidently navigate workouts while managing pelvic floor challenges.

Changing the load: 

If experiencing pelvic floor symptoms when exercising, try changing your position, adjusting your breathing, and focusing on how your legs absorb shock during exercises. I.E. Change the load. These small modifications can help you move your body more effectively and comfortably. 

Breath Strategy and Impact:

Strategic breathing is also something to consider in managing pelvic floor symptoms during exercises, such as focusing on the importance of exhaling and inhaling strategically. Be mindful of rigid movements during impact. Specifically shock absorption through the legs and improved lower body strength.

Let’s get into some modifications for specific exercises: 

Tips for Jumping Jacks:

Jumping jacks, a classic exercise, can pose challenges for those dealing with urinary incontinence or pelvic floor concerns. The key is adapting the load. Break down sets, incorporate pauses, and consider modifying the exercise by doing jacks against a wall or on the floor. These adjustments maintain cardiovascular activity (big plus!) while reducing stress on the pelvic floor. Check out a quick video HERE for more tips.

Tips for push ups: 

Push-ups are a wonderful exercise and have many great benefits. But, they can be challenging when you have pelvic floor symptoms! With push-ups, we recommend starting on the wall to reduce the load and gradually transitioning to the floor. Dropping to your knees during push-ups is a practical modification that significantly alleviates pelvic floor stress. Maintain breath control and body posture to enhance the effectiveness of these modifications.

You can catch our quick chat about it HERE.

Tips for running/high impact: 

Moving onto running, it’s important to note that rigid posture and breath-holding can negatively impact pelvic floor symptoms. Incorporating hill training and focusing on lower body strength can improve shock absorption and ground reaction force during your run. Strengthening exercises are essential components of a well-rounded running plan as well. 

To sum it up: 

We hope these tips help to make exercising with pelvic floor symptoms more manageable! Whether modifying jumping jacks, push-ups, or adapting your run, understanding load variation and incorporating strategic changes can make a big difference in your exercise routine and symptoms! Remember, it’s about finding what works best for you. If you need individual support, don’t hesitate to reach out to a local pelvic floor therapist to help. 

If returning to running, especially postpartum, is one of your exercise goals, be sure to check out our 12 Week Return To Running Guide! You can grab it and get started TODAY. You’ll see a tangible transformation after 12 weeks and, of course, we keep your pelvic floor in mind throughout the plan! Grab it HERE.

Hope this helps!

Katie Kelly, PT & Eryn Matheson, PT

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