Use your Exhale & Reduce Pelvic Floor Symptoms

If you’ve been here for any time at all, you know I’m a fan of the purposeful exhale during movement. But you may not know that there are multiple ways to use this exhale.

First, let’s back up. The most important thing to remember about breathing during movement and exercise is simply… well, to breathe. Any style of breathing you want - any way that feels comfortable and safe to your body. That’s the most important thing!

But if you’re ready to add a little bit more intentionality into your exercise breathing, here are a few patterns to try.

My go to breathing strategy is to simply inhale through your nose, exhale out your mouth. The exhale should happen during the “tough” part of the movement where you use more effort.

For example, in a squat, I’d cue you to inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up.

In a pushup, I’d cue you to inhale as you lower your body to the ground, exhale as you push your body back up.

While jumping, take a quick inhale as you bend your knees and then a quick exhale as you jump up off the floor.

This strategy works really well for a lot of folks, especially when the exhale is intentional and a bit forceful out the mouth, as if you are blowing up a balloon or blowing out through a straw.

If there are still some pelvic floor symptoms with this style of breathing, my next strategy is to exhale during the entire rep of the movement. I especially like this style of breathing for any type of jump or plyometric exercise.

So for a squat, you would take an inhale breath while you are standing and not moving, begin to exhale and then perform the entire squat movement (the down and up) while exhaling out your mouth. Take another inhale breath at the top, and repeat.

For a pushup, you’d inhale at the top while you aren’t moving, then start your exhale right before lowering yourself to the ground, keeping the exhale breath going as you push back up.

For a jump, you’ll inhale before you start moving and then exhale during the entire down and up portion of the movement. You can even keep the exhale going and perform multiple jumps in a row.

The reason why these two styles of breathing tend to reduce pelvic floor symptoms while exercising is because when we exhale, our pelvic floor naturally lifts and contracts. So for someone who deals with prolapse or leaking, for example, they might find this strategy to be an easy tool to implement that provides a real reduction in symptoms.

It also might be just one of many tools in your toolkit that you can utilize throughout workouts and in every day life – picking up a car seat, carrying bags of groceries, moving furniture around, throwing an overstuffed carry on suitcase overhead on an airplane.

Because if exercise is a tool that we use to make our lives easier, we should be able to transfer these exercise skills (breathing strategies) into all areas of our lives, right?! 👍