It's no secret that pelvic floor dysfunction can lead to back pain, but did you know that back pain can also directly affect your pelvic floor?
There are few ways that your back pain can affect pelvic floor.
Posture
Nerve related
Visceral
From the way we sit and walk, to our sleeping positions, posture plays a significant role in our day to day lives. When we experience back pain, we change our posture to compensate for the pain we are experiencing and try to get the most relief and minimize our discomfort. While altering our posture may feel good in the moment, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's good for you. For instance, leaning to one side, slouching, sleeping on your stomach, etc.- all of these postures may feel good, but are actually harmful to your body, especially your pelvic floor.
Poor posture can negatively impact the strength, flexibility and function of your pelvic floor muscles. Let's take slouching for example. When we slouch our pelvic floor muscles aren't working as hard as they should be which can cause them to weaken. When our pelvic floor muscles weaken, this can lead to bladder and bowel control issues. Another example of poor posture is sucking in your stomach. Though this may seem harmless and may make you feel better about your appearance, it actually inhibits your diaphragm from properly lengthening and expanding, overall affecting your body's ability to inhale and exhale properly. How is this connected to the pelvic floor? Your diaphragm and pelvic floor have a pressure relationship and work together to keep the organs and muscles within the abdomen in the correct places. So when your diaphragm can't expand properly, your pelvic floor becomes less mobile which can lead to tension and tightness.
Nerve that supply pelvic floor originate from the back, so if there is any nerve irritation, compression that can cause pain in the pelvic floor which can be in the form of either dull constant ache, tingling or numbness, burning, pressure feeling in the rectum or vaginal area.
Visceral meaning originating from the organs. Pain from the organs can refer to back or pelvic floor. There is also something called organ cross talk and nerve cross talk. Because of this patients might feel pain away from the area of origin or injury.
If you have symptoms that you can relate to from above, we can help you with a comprehensive evaluation to treat you as a whole and not body parts!
Pelvic floor physical therapy is a proven and effective form of treatment that can help reduce or eliminate your back pain altogether while ensuring your pelvic floor muscles remain healthy, strong and mobile. Here’s what treatment for back pain with us would entail:
Manual therapy
Postural retraining
Core strengthening exercises
Stretching and flexibility training
Mindfulness & meditation
If you’re struggling with chronic back pain and are at a loss of what you can do to fix it, click the button below to speak with a PT. We will work together to come up with a treatment plan that best suits your lifestyle and most importantly, helps you get back to doing what you love- without back pain!
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