The pelvic floor muscles work to help keep the urethra and bowel openings closed as well as lift and support the bladder and rectum. Strong Pelvic Floor Muscles prevent unwanted leakage (incontinence) and they relax normally to allow easy bladder and bowel emptying.
The pelvic floor is made up of a web of muscles and ligaments that spans across the lower portion of your pelvis like a backyard hammock. It runs from your pubic bone to your tailbone and serves as the supportive base of your pelvis. It is made up of 3 major layers of tissue and muscle and it plays a BIG role in everything from overall stability to bladder and bowel control to yes, even sexual function.
Without getting too technical, there are 3 basic muscles that come into play when talking about Kegels. The bulbocavernosus muscle (BC muscle), the pubococcygeus muscle (PC muscle), and the iliococcygeus muscle (IC muscle). Each of these muscles has a specific role to play in your body:
Note — review each of the muscle types below to find out what they do.
- Squeezing urine out of the urethra
- Plays a role in urination and bowel movements
- Forms a large part of the pelvic floor, supporting lower organs.
- Contracts the vaginal walls during orgasm. Some women can control the muscles of the vagina to perform vaginal contractions at will
- Like the PC muscle, it forms part of the strength of the pelvic floor the lower organs
- It pulls the anus back up after a bowel movement
WOMEN’S DIAGRAM
