Pelvic Floor Muscles: Demystify the Black Box
What exactly are the pelvic floor muscles and who’s got them???
It’s the group of muscles that sit in the bottom of your pelvis like a hammock and everyone has them!
Whatever external bits you were born with, all pelvic floor muscles are remarkably similar. Think of the pelvic floor as a layer cake. There are 2 main layers of muscle with facial “icing” above, below and between the layers.
The deep layer is mostly made up of the levator ani muscles as well as the coccygeus muscle and two muscles that also double as hip muscles (!) - the piriformis and the obturator internus. They support your organs and work as part of your core muscle group to stabilize and move your trunk. The piriformis and obturator internus muscles also move and stabilize the hip joint. The only difference in this layer between people born with a penis and people born with a vagina is the number of holes. The pics below are a view from above. The spine is at the top and the pubic bone is at the bottom. See?
The superficial layer is made up of four muscles - they have long wordy names which you can see on the pics below, suffice it to know that they are important for urinary, bowel and sexual function and make a triangle shape + the anal sphincter. The only difference in these muscles between people born with a penis and people born with a vagina is that the bulbocavernosus muscle is split down the middle in those with vaginas. The pics below are views from below, as though you were laying on the floor looking up at the bottom of a pelvis. The pubic bone is at the top and the tailbone is at the bottom. See?
So these muscles, like the other muscles in your body can be contracted and lengthened. Think about your biceps, when you bend your elbow and flex you are contracting the muscle, when you straighten your arm back out, you are lengthening it. To contract your pelvic floor muscles, think about holding in pee or gas. You might feel the muscles between your pubic bone and tailbone lift. When you let go, you might feel them drop back down as they lengthen. Congrats, you’ve found your pelvic floor muscles!
Images used with permission from Pelvic Guru®, LLC as a member of the Global Pelvic Health Alliance Membership (GPHAM)