Get Rid of Your Low Back Pain with Pelvic Floor Muscle Training
Danielle Ivie, DPT, CSCS | Founder of Powered by Movement Physical Therapy
Imagine this scenario: You work out regularly, usually feel pretty good, but every few months or so your back tightens up from deadlifts, squats or sometimes a random movement.
So, you rest, your back feels better and you get back to the gym. But, a few months later, it happens again.
Being the smart human you are, you know that rest is not always best. So you modify your workouts and slowly build back up focusing on “bracing your core” when you do heavier movements to protect your back. Maybe you even saw a healthcare provider or fitness professional who helped you focus on “core stability” movements to reduce your pain. It works pretty well, but then one day your back seizes up again!
This vicious cycle leaves you feeling frustrated and hopeless, wondering what is wrong with your back and why you can’t just move heavy weights and feel good. You’re almost ready to give up.
And then you find this blog post.
One of the most overlooked components to treating low back pain, especially when it occurs during weightlifting, is the pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor is the bottom part of your core canister and must work effectively with your abs, low back muscles and diaphragm to coordinate efficient movement! Without considering the pelvic floor muscles as a component to low back pain with exercise, it’s like trying to fill up a cup of water that has a giant hole in the bottom. It just won’t work.
A very common problem we see in our clinic is that clients learn how to “brace” for weightlifting, but that bracing strategy does not include their pelvic floor muscles. Simply squeezing your abs tight won’t cut it. You need to create increased intraabdominal pressure and hold that pressure effectively to move heavy weights without a “hole in your cup”. Simply put, you need to know when to engage (or lift) your pelvic floor muscles – like when hitting a one rep max back squat – and when to relax (or lengthen) your pelvic floor muscles – like when you go to the bathroom.
In the simplest terms, you can think of engaging and relaxing your pelvic floor like an A frame house. If you are contracting, you are pulling your muscles “up and in” to the top of the A frame. Think up in the attic. We want this to happen when you brace for a big lift, reflexively when you jump, sneeze or cough, and when you are exerting yourself. To relax your pelvic floor you want these muscles to lengthen and drop down into the basement of that A frame house. We want this to happen when you have a bowel movement, are having a baby, or when you are practicing full lengthening of your pelvic floor muscles.
Improved awareness and control of your pelvic floor plus improving strength as the weights get heavier is often the missing piece to solving your recurring low back pain. It is important to know how to both contract and fully relax your pelvic floor and how to coordinate those movements with the rest of your body for specific activities. If you have recurring low back pain and have never addressed your pelvic floor – or don’t even know where to start, it’s time to take action. We have helped hundreds of clients get back to pain free activity, even after years of pain.
There is nothing worse than missing out on your favorite workouts or activities you love due to nagging pain that you can’t seem to get rid of. It takes a toll on you and your quality of life, and life is too short not to move well, move often and enjoy doing it!
At PXM, we help active people in St. Louis recover from injury, optimize movement, and stay out of pain for the long term while reaching their health & fitness goals. With our unique approach to physical therapy, our top priority is to provide you with holistic, fitness forward healthcare that emphasizes your goals.
We get you back to thriving in the activities you love with our 3 step process:
POWER UP: Diagnose and understand the root cause of your problem.
POWER BOOST: Create a custom plan for you to restore function & get back to what you love.
POWER PEAK: Optimize performance to keep pain away for good & get stronger than ever.
Not sure if PXM is right for you? Have more questions? Schedule a Free Consultation today.
Dr. Danielle Ivie, DPT, CSCS
Powered by Movement, LLC
567 Hanley Industrial Ct., Brentwood, MO 63144
314-252-0504 | www.poweredxmovement.com