Steemit Learning Challenge-S27W4; Physiofit; Pelvic Floor Strengthening"

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Have you ever wondered how women give birth? They go through a lot of contractions to remove a human from within them. This baby comes out of their pelvic area, where we have skeletal muscles that help them remove their baby successfully with contractions, compression and reductions involved. That's the pelvic floor for you, as it consists of muscles that help perform this function. Does it mean only women have these pelvic floor muscles? Learn about this below. You can urinate without these muscles.

Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles, ligaments, and connective tissues located at the base of your pelvis — that’s the area between your hip bones. Imagine the bottom of your pelvis (your hip area) as a bowl or basket that holds your internal organs — your bladder, uterus (for women), prostate (for men), and rectum. The pelvic floor muscles form the bottom part of that bowl, acting like a stretchy, supportive net or a trampoline that keeps everything inside your abdomen from dropping downward.

Muscles

Now these pelvic floor muscles are categorised into two layers that work together to support the organs in your pubic bone region or tailbone. These two layers are the superficial and deep muscles, which act as the outer and inner layers.

• The superficial muscles, or outer layer muscles, are found close to the anus and where urine comes out. These muscles are responsible for the opening and closing of these points. If we are to be specific with the muscles and their functions, we'll have it that under the superficial muscles, there are sub-muscles which help tighten openings and help in sexual functions. This muscle is called bulbospongiosus. Another one is the superficial transverse perineal muscle that helps stabilise the spaces between these openings.

Location	Close to opening in the pelvic

Let's give examples of their functions as the outer layer.

Erection in men and ejaculation are as a result of these outer layer muscles at work. The ability for sexual activities to be done, like arousals and increased blood flow, is as a result of them. They are mainly for the opening and closing of organs and protection of certain passages.

• Deep muscles, or the inner layer, are responsible for holding the pelvic organs in place, such as the bladder tectum and the like, so that they don't press much. The deep muscles include iliococcygeus, which lifts the pelvic organs and prevents pressure; puborectalis, which controls bowel movements; and pubococcygeus, which all fall under the levator ani group. Then the coccygeus muscle, which gives added support to the pelvic organs.

Location	Inside the pelvis, higher up

Let's give examples of their functions as the inner layer muscles.

Those inner layer muscles are responsible for holding these organs in shape, preventing them from falling off. A woman is able to give birth safely because of these muscles. The body maintains good posture when sitting and bending because of these muscles. It also acts in controlling pressure from sneezing and coughing, etc....

In summary, these muscles support the pelvic organs, keep them in their right position to prevent pressure, control bowel movement, and help in childbirth contractions and the like. **So if you've been wondering how faeces pass through the small hole in your anus, the muscles are responsible for the opening and closing of this organ. If you've also been wondering how urine passes out, the outer layer muscles are responsible.

Types

The main types of pelvic floor are divided into categories based on the tone of the muscle. There's this one type of pelvic floor that makes the muscles too tight and tense even when they aren't used. In this type of pelvic floor, the pelvic muscles increase. This type is called hypertonic pelvic floor.

• Hypertonic pelvic floor: If we're to break it down, it means the tone is hyperactive. What tone? The tone of the muscles. These muscles are constantly tight and tense. The muscles don't relax properly as they should, and they can cause discomfort in the lower back. If you find that difficult when emptying your bladder or faeces through your anus, it's as a result of the stiffness of these muscles. You also get this frequent urination or pain when sitting down. A few causes are stress, holding urine in your bladder for so long, injury, trauma, etc.... Another one is hypotonic, which is the reverse of hypertonic. The muscles aren't tight and tense. Rather, they are loose and weak.

• Hypotonic Pelvic Floor: In this type of pelvic floor, the muscles in the pelvic region lose their tone. They relax too much, which makes it hard to control the bladder, as things can't be held firmly. The organs in the pelvic region begin to prolapse, and there's this leakage of stool or urine that comes when one laughs or lifts something heavy. You do hear of situations where one lifts a weight and shits on his pants? There are a few causes, and one major one is childbirth in cases where a woman gives birth multiple times. These pelvic muscles become hypotonic. Ageing and menopause reduce muscle elasticity.

• Normal Pelvic Floor: In this case, there's a balance. It's neither hypotonic nor hypertonic. This is the state where the muscles are healthy, strong and balanced. They can actually become tense or tight, but they'll have to relax when necessary. You can hold urine in your bladder and still comfortably do what you want to do until you're free to release it. You won't really feel the discomfort or leaking. You can pass bowels easily, and you won't be uncomfortable when you sit.

Causes

The causes of pelvic floor dysfunction include the following. I'll state causes that weren't mentioned in the tutorial. One is

Heavy lifting is one major cause of pelvic floor dysfunction, which I attribute to hypotonic pelvic floor dysfunction. Most men today engage in labour that makes them lift heavy loads just to survive. This is the nature of their work. Such heavy lifting puts extra pressure on the pelvic floor, which makes the pelvic floor muscles weaken and become loose.

Chronic constipation is another cause, as the pelvic muscles are pressured when bowel movements become hard to push out. If one experiences, such as we do, hearing of people who scream when they want to pass faeces, the pelvic muscles can weaken over time, leading to a dysfunction.

Another one is obesity. When one is obese, that fat or body weight creates pressure inside the abdomen which extends to the pelvic floor and strains the muscles and tissues there, making it weak and loose.

Task 2

I'll talk about myself, for example. Some months back, I noticed this frequent urination and that my pelvic muscles couldn't relax.

It's always as if I should just use the toilet to pee. I can't recall how many times I visited the toilet, and I begin to wonder if I was suffering from an illness or maybe it was typhoid or something. I don't know what I did to stop that frequent urination and my bladder relaxing, as it was always pressured to use the toilet. Even if it was a drop of urine, I must pass it out before my muscles experience a little ease, as the case may be.

This tutorial brought to my knowledge that such symptoms are hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction, where there's tightening around the pelvic region which makes some organs feel pressured and not relaxed as they should.

Stretches are a major correction factor to such dysfunction. So I would say that since I do work out frequently, it has helped me a lot in relaxing my muscles and not making them unnecessarily tight. I also feel sitting for long caused it too because I do attend lectures from 8am to 5pm. Just imagine sitting in one place for such a long period of time. I'm knowledgeable now, and the possible solutions one can practise without taking medications include

• Stretching

• walking

• Deep breathing and the exercises shown below, which I'll implement.

Task 3

The Kegel exercises I performed for this dysfunction include the following:

• Pelvic Tilt

• Hip Bridging Exercise

• Glute Squeeze

How did I perform these Kegel exercises, because how it is done determines the outcome?. If done properly, the chance of getting a 100% effect is there. Now I'm the patient, and I'm suffering from hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction. How can I actually suppress this or relax my pelvic muscles, as they are tight and tense? Starting with the first Kegel exercise — pelvic tilt

This pelvic tilt, as the name implies, means tilting your pelvic region, and from the practical exercise, it is done by lying down on a mat or clothes on the floor with your face upwards and your two hands opposite each other in a horizontal plane.

Once this position is attained, your legs must be bent and feet close to your glutes. The knee should cluster to help in proper tilting of the pelvic region. Let's look at this critically, as I did so 10 times on 3 sets, which makes it 30.

Pelvic tilt	3 sets of 10 reps
Target	Pelvic floor
Result	I felt a whole lot of relaxation around that area, as the exercise was more like a massage medium, moving the pelvic region up and down.

Hip Bridging Exercise

This was done by taking that same position, but this time, the motion would be different. In the first part, you did locomotion, but in this one, you'll do movement because your body will be raised up with your head and knee still on the ground. It would take the up-and-down motion, and this target is your pelvic floor or waist region.

Hip Bridging Exercise	3 sets of 10 reps
Target	Pelvic Floor
Result	It felt like a whole lot of stretch in that area. It was as if I was dragged, and my pelvis was extended or stretched to give me maximal comfort, as the case may be.

Glute Squeeze

This was the most difficult because I felt a whole lot of contractions pushing my glutes inside. This may prove to be more effective than others because if you try holding for 5 seconds, you'll understand what I'm saying or trying to insinuate here.

If I practise this on a regular basis, I will attain a balance in my pelvic floor region, which would prevent hypo- or hypertonic situations.

Cc,

@ashkhan

I invite @sahmie, @lhorgic and @alexmartin04.

References to pictures used on thumbnail
https://share.google/gMANGrsZ7V05ABMN2
https://share.google/8fgG5u6oZeVaNk68o

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