Skip to main content People with endo can hold tension in their pelvic floor muscles; learn more about letting this tension go.
People who feel pain regularly in their pelvis, genital area, lower abdomen or lower back may have increased tension in their pelvic floor muscles. This might be the result of the body trying to protect the sore areas. Tight and sensitive pelvic floor muscles may contribute to your pelvic pain, bladder or bowel symptoms and make activities like having sex or a pap smear difficult. Learning how to release the tension and relax your pelvic floor muscles may change your symptoms and make you feel more comfortable.
To learn more about your pelvic floor, see the video at the end of this article.
Step 1: Make yourself comfortable
Choose a quiet place to lie or sit down. If you are lying down, make sure that you are comfortable and lying on your back with a pillow under your head and perhaps another behind your knees. If you are sitting, make sure that you can rest your head against something to provide support, like a head rest. Turn your phone to silent and ensure that you won’t be interrupted by anyone or anything for several minutes. Do not drive a car or operate machinery while listening to the audio file below.
Step 2: Have your device within easy reach
Place the device on which you will be playing the audio file next to you. Insert your headphones or earpieces if you are using them and make sure that the volume is right for you.
Step 3: Play 'How to relax your pelvic floor muscles'
Play the audio below first, to make sure that you know how to relax your pelvic floor muscles. It doesn’t take long, just over 7 minutes. You will be asked to gently squeeze and then relax your pelvic floor muscles, which is a common way of releasing tension. You will also be given a selection of visual cues to think of, to help you do this. You may find that listening to the audio file once is enough to help you understand what to do and move onto the Pelvic Floor Muscle Relaxation Audio Files. Or you might decide that listening to it more than once helps you to better understand what to do. If listening to this audio file doesn’t give you enough guidance, consider seeing a pelvic health physiotherapist (no referral is needed).
Copyright Sonia Scharfbillig
Step 4: Play Long Pelvic Floor Muscle Relaxation Audio File
Play this audio file to start relaxing your pelvic floor muscles. You will be guided through some breathing and body scanning first and then you will be asked to relax your pelvic floor muscles repeatedly. This combination of steps will help you more effectively release tension in your muscles. This audio file is between 8-9 minutes long.
Copyright Sonia Scharfbillig
Step 5: Reflection
Reflect on how listening to the audio file made you feel. You may decide to listen to this audio file daily for a week or two, to become very familiar with relaxing your pelvic floor muscles and see how this affects your symptoms over that time. Remember that repetition is powerful. Give your mind and body a chance to become familiar with the relaxation exercises and how they make you feel. These relaxation exercises are intended to make you feel more relaxed and comfortable. If they don’t make you feel this way, consider seeing a pelvic health physiotherapist.
Step 6: Play: "Short pelvic floor muscle relaxation"
This audio file has been designed to guide you through a shorter session of pelvic floor muscle relaxation. You might want to relax your pelvic floor muscles but not have the time to listen to the Long Pelvic Floor Muscle Relaxation Audio File. This one is less than 5 minutes long and might be more convenient to fit in to your day.
Copyright Sonia Scharfbillig
Step 7: Choose your routine
Now that you have listened to both audio files and understand how relaxing your pelvic floor muscles affects your pelvic pain or symptoms, decide on how often you will listen to them. You might decide to listen to the long audio file once per week and the short audio file on some of the days in between. You might feel that you can do your own version of pelvic floor muscle relaxation each night when you get into bed, before you fall asleep, and only listen to one of the audio files when you feel particularly sore or stressed. Decide on a routine that works for you and stick to it. The more often you allow your muscles to release tension, the more comfortable you may feel.
Step 8: Helpful tips
Now that you have started learning how to relax your pelvic floor muscles, are you more aware of when you are holding tension in them? Check in with your pelvic floor muscles throughout the day and if you feel that they might be tense, take a few seconds to relax them. You might find that you do this several times a day on some days and only a few times on others, depending on how sore or anxious you may be.
If you don’t feel that you have been able to relax your pelvic floor muscles, consider seeing a pelvic health physiotherapist. They may be able to teach you how to relax your muscles more easily. However, it may be that this form of relaxation is not suited to you or not necessary to reduce your symptoms. You also may have reasons other than increased muscle tension contributing to your symptoms. You may find that different strategies are more effective at reducing pain, improving bladder or bowel dysfunction and altering muscle tension.
A pelvic health physiotherapist can help you work out which management strategies are best for you.
