Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert reveals how to tell if your pelvic floor is tight or weak

It’s a subject many would prefer not to think about, but there’s no avoiding the fact that people can struggle with issues with their pelvic floor.

A weak pelvic floor can lead to issues with getting proper exercise - as well as other complications. 

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara reveals the signs and symptoms of a weak pelvic floor - and how to best treat this condition. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News TALKS'DB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And we're all about wellness. Now we're joined by Erin O'Hara.
Good morning, Erin, good morning. Very excited you're going to
talk about the pewervic floor today because last week we're
talking about the importance of jumping and I did say you, well,
both men and women can have issues with their pelvic floor,
so we might need to dip that up before we
do a bit of jumping.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Absolutely, we talked about jump exercises and obviously if you've
got a weak palvic floor, that can make it really
challenging to be doing any jumping exercises. Obviously that would
cause things like leakage, which is never very comfortable when
you're trying to do jumping exercises. But puloc floor dysfunction
is actually really common, not just for women, probably a

(00:52):
little bit more common with women, but also men as well,
particularly after anything like a prostate surgery, as there'll be
a weakness within the puvoc floor. Because the palvis is
the home to all the organs that include the bladder,
the uterus, the prostate, and also the rectum as well,
so it kind of holds everything together. And the pulvic

(01:12):
floor can have either a weakness or a tightness which
actually creates quite different symptoms. But it's the ability of
really how those parvot floor muscles are working together to
create that tightness but also being able to relax the
muscles as well.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So give us an idea of the signs and symptoms
of a week or underactive pelvic floor.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, so when there's a weakness within the parvic floor,
who particularly notice things like incontinents which could be urinary
or fecal, particularly if you're doing things like laughing or
sneezing or coughing or dumping or exercising. Also, other things
like a pervic heaviness or a prolapse is common. Any

(01:55):
decreased sensation during intercourse, or having any difficulty and sort
of contracting those muscles would really relate to having a
weak palvic floor and it comes to signs and symptoms
of tight palvic floor muscles. So when they're over contracting,
that may be a difficulty starting or stopping urination, or

(02:16):
having struggling to start and stop urination. Also pain on intercourse,
maybe pain in any of the palervic sort of area,
whether it's sort of tailbone, lower back, round sort of hips.
Also an urgency to go and urinate a lots you're
kind of wanting to go all the time because you're
not really have that same sort of control of all

(02:37):
those muscles, and that's where those muscles are really important
in how they work on contraction, but also relaxing, relaxing
the muscles as well. Now if you do yeah, so
if you do think you do have any of these
sort of symptoms, I think the number one thing is
probably going and seeing a parvic floor physio or specialists

(02:58):
so they can actually assess what is going on and
assess the muscle tone, the strength, the coordination of those muscles,
and then they can really identify what sort of puvloc
floor dysfunction could be there.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay, and then how do we handle it? How do
we deal with it? What can we do about it?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yes, you're usually public floor of physios will give out
exercises to do at home. Also, you can actually do
things yourself at home, so things what we call Keegel exercises,
which you could google and find out how to do those.
But it's contracting and holding those muscles for a few
seconds and then also consciously relaxing those muscles. Now, the

(03:37):
muscles of the key girl muscles would be kind of
like you would hold on. So if you're busting to
go to the toilet and you're holding on, those are
the muscles that you're using to hold on, So you're
just practicing using those muscles. Usually it's not a good
idea to practice doing the exercise as well you're on
the toilet because you could cause some urinary tract infections.

(03:58):
But instead just doing them as an exercise, either laying
on the floor or sitting in a chair. Also having
really good poshes. It's important for your pulvic floor, maintaining
a healthy weight and also if you hour overweight, maybe
losing some excess body fat so there's not so much
weight on the palvis. Also, bowel movements are really important

(04:19):
to make sure you're supporting the puvioc floor. So when
there is chronic constipation, obviously that's going to put more
heaviness and load and strain on the pervic floor muscle.
So by preventing constipation through things like eating fruit, vegetables, fiber, and.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Having enough water as well, thank you so much. Aerin
appreciate your time this morning.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio