The solution for an overactive pelvic floor is relaxation. An overly tense pelvic floor is also called an overactive pelvic floor. The muscles in your pelvic floor are continuously tensed up and become overburdened. They’ve become overactive. Relaxation is the solution for your overactive pelvic floor. You will achieve relaxation by becoming aware of your movements and way of breathing. Breathing has a huge influence on the pelvic floor muscles. The abdominal pressure on your pelvic floor muscles increases when you’re breathing in a wrong way. Breathe through your lower stomach to keep the abdominal pressure low. Become aware of what tension does to you. Toilet habits, breathing, walking and other movements are things you need to take a good look at. It’s important to find out how you move and how you function. The more you think about your movement, the better your body’s balance will be, and the less pelvic floor issues you will have.
If you’re looking for pelvic floor exercises or go to the exercises page. If you’re looking for products for your pelvis and go to the Pelvic Store.
It’s crucial that you find out the cause of your overactive pelvic floor. Let us first answer a few questions.
Moving with a tense pelvic floor
You have to track how you move when you have a tense and overactive pelvic floor. Are you lifting something properly? This is one of the questions that you need to answer for yourself. You can answer the next questions to find out the cause of your overactive pelvic floor:
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- How do you execute movements like lifting, bending over and walking the stairs?
- Are you breathing properly during these movements?
- When do you experience pain with a tense pelvic floor?
- Where do you experience pelvic pain?
- Do you severely adjust to your pain?
- Are you moving differently because of the pain, and therefore additionally burdening other muscles?
- During which moment of the day are you experiencing issues with your pelvic floor?
- How does urinating and pooping go? Are you pushing a lot? And are you breathing through the pushing?
Answering these questions can already give you a good insight on your pelvic pain and pelvic issues. Take those answers with you to the doctor or the pelvic physical therapist. You’re prepared properly and that way you don’t forget to tell anything.
What is an overactive pelvic floor?
Does your bladder infection keep returning? Do you struggle with obstipation? Is the toilet just a bit too far away to be able to keep everything up? Isn’t sex possible without vaginal pain or tension? If so, then it could be the case that your pelvic floor muscles aren’t functioning optimally. Better said, they could be overactive and overly tense.
We also call an overly tense pelvic floor an overactive pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles are barely able to relax and are continuously pressed shut. It’s difficult to urinate, to open the anus or to have intercourse because of this pelvic floor tension. Those issues can increase when you have an overactive pelvis. You will adjust your whole day to pelvic pain which makes your body develop different ways of moving. You can imagine that this is a huge struggle for your muscles.
Consequences of an overactive pelvic floor
A tense and overactive pelvic floor can cause you to function differently. You will adjust to the pelvic pain.
5 consequences of an overactive pelvic floor:
- You will breathe differently. Your breathing can change which causes hyperventilation to develop quicker.
- Back, neck and shoulder issues can develop because of a different posture.
- You can get headaches because of an increased muscular tension in the back or neck.
- You can have sleepless nights.
- Overactive organs. Intestines or a bladder can become overactive.
Symptoms of an overly tense/overactive pelvic floor
A tense pelvic floor. But also think of having a tense groin, a tense lower back, tense hips and sexual, urinal and fecal issues. A lot of trouble. In this article I will try to guide you through the endless amount of information on the internet. Let us first sum up the symptoms of an overly tense/overactive pelvic floor.
The 8 most common symptoms of an overactive pelvic floor:
- Vaginal pain during sex.
- Vaginismus or vulvitis.
- Not being able to go to the toilet. Issues with urinating or pooping properly.
- Returning bladder infections or obstipation.
- Overflow urinal or fecal incontinence. Urge-incontinence.
- Erection issues.
- An overactive bladder or intestine.
- Pain in the lower back, groin or hips.
How do you recognize an overactive pelvic floor?
It’s important to be able to recognize the symptoms of pelvic pain or pelvic floor issues so you can find out if you have a tense or overactive pelvic floor. Let’s go through 11 characteristics.
11 characteristics to recognize an overactive pelvic floor:
- Having difficulty with urinating. Urinating has a slow start up. You have the idea that you need to push a lot. Relaxing isn’t successful.
- Urinating isn’t achieved in one go but in parts. It’s an interrupted flow.
- You aren’t a stranger to bladder infections. It often returns. This is because you aren’t able to lose all of the urine.
- Urge-incontinence. Often having the urge to pee but then ending up not needing to. You pee more often and you feel a big pressure.
- You only pee a little while you have a big urge.
- Difficulty with emptying the bladder or the intestines. There’s always something being left behind.
- Obstipation is common. It goes hand in hand with diarrhea and hemorrhoids.
- Erection issues. The blood flow decreases or the blood doesn’t reach the penis. Having an erection disorder is possible.
- The wetness of the vagina decreases. The blood doesn’t properly flow to the vagina during arousal.
- Pain during sex. The vagina is tightly shut and inserting a finger or a penis isn’t pain-free.
- Pain in the anus, tailbone, groin, pelvic area, back, abdomen, and during pooping and/or having sex.
What makes an overactive pelvic floor develop?
There are a few causes known for an overactive pelvic floor. A lot of causes have to do with an overwhelmed pelvic floor and a wrong abdominal pressure.
8 causes for an overactive pelvic floor:
- Walking around with too much tension in the body.
- Continuously postponing going to the toilet. The pelvic floor does overtime.
- Prolonged episodes of pain.
- Negative experiences like sexual traumas. It can have negative impacts on your pelvic floor if you’ve gone through a negative experience like sexual assault.
- A pelvic floor surgery or a surgery in the pelvic area.
- Chronically coughing. Coughing causes pressure on the pelvic floor. Coughing chronically overwhelms the pelvic floor.
- Overburdening because of heavy physical activities.
- An increased abdominal pressure during physical activities.
You can see that the causes are quite diverse. Think about a situation where you’ve experienced more tension. What causes your pelvic floor muscles to unnecessarily tighten up severely? And are you breathing properly through your stomach? During lifting, standing up or other heavy physical activities too?
What happens when you have an overactive pelvic floor?
I’m sure that you’ve experienced a situation where you urgently needed to pee but there’s no toilet in sight. After searching for a while, you’ve finally found one. When you finally take a seat so you can pee, you suddenly can’t! That’s of course very frustrating. You’ve held up your pee by tensing up your pelvic floor muscles for that long that it’s hard for them to relax again.
Why can’t you pee when you want? Normally, the pelvic floor muscles and the bladder are having great contact. They message or call each other on a regular basis. But it’s different now. The network is overloaded. The messages do come through but not when the message is being sent. Normally the bladder can immediately adjust when it has received a message, so you’re able to pee. But because of the environment being so tense, little to no pee is coming out, no matter your bladder’s efforts.
Urine can stay behind in the bladder when you can’t fully empty it. There are a lot of bacteria in urine, and these can cause for irritations or inflammations. You can also get more urges to go to the toilet. It’s a lot of trouble.
It can also be the case that your stools can’t get going because of the tension in your pelvic floor. Obstipation is around the corner. The anus can’t relax properly and feces keep piling up in the rectum. The intestines keep draining liquids from the remaining feces, which causes the feces to become dry and those dry parts are a struggle to get out.
You can go through a lot when you have an overactive pelvic floor.
An overactive bladder as a consequence of an overactive pelvic floor
So you can imagine that it’s quite logical for your bladder to become restless, irritated or overactive because of the bladder’s continuous efforts. Overactivity can cause the bladder to become very inconsistent. You’ll notice that the bladder will tense up more during different circumstances. Your bladder becomes overstimulated and in turn, stressed. There are a few products that can cause additional irritation or stress in your bladder.
7 foods and drinks that have a negative impact on your bladder:
- Tea.
- Coffee.
- Cola and other carbonic drinks.
- Chocolate.
- Alcohol.
- Citrus fruits.
- Spicy or seasoned food.
Take good care of your bladder and drink a lot of water. Relax on the toilet and read my toilet habit tips in combination with my pelvic floor relaxation exercises. Take the time and let everything relax properly on that throne!
Abdominal pressure and a disturbed overactive pelvic floor
Overactive pelvic floor muscles won’t be able to execute their tasks properly. You can imagine that your bladder becoming irritated because of overactive pelvic floor muscles can create quite a beautiful cycle of drama. Non-functioning and exhausted pelvic floor muscles due to excessive tension aren’t able to fulfill their duties. An increasing abdominal pressure can cause a lot of annoying situations. The pelvic floor muscles won’t be able to catch the abdominal pressure when the bladder is irritated. Think of situations where additional pressure is applied to the pelvic floor, e.g. lifting, sneezing, jumping, running, laughing and coughing. The pelvic floor can’t close the urethra anymore and urine is able to escape.
Obstipation and an overactive pelvic floor
The pelvic floor muscles are wrapped around the intestines, especially around the last part of the intestines; the rectum. The pelvic floor muscles make sure that the stools are able to easily escape, as if they were being dropped out through a kind of slide. You need to be able to relax enough so you can take a proper dump. But that’s the biggest issue, in this case. Obstipation or congestion develops from you not being able to mold the stools properly because of the tense conditions.
Some stools are left behind because the anus isn’t able to relax enough. Being able to lose all of your stools isn’t possible so it’s being left behind in the intestines. These remaining feces hardens up and causes a huge traffic jam which probably causes you to put more pressure. And the more you push, the higher the chance of developing hemorrhoids and an eventual prolapse.
The increasing abdominal pressure because of the pushing also overwhelms the pelvic floor muscles and the obstipation. Pushing only makes your situation worse. Relax on the toilet and read my toilet habit advices in combination with my pelvic floor relaxation exercises.
Pelvic pain and an overactive pelvic floor
Pelvic pain. An overactive pelvic floor causes quite the pain, after all. There is a high level of muscular tension present in your pelvis and an excessive muscular tension can be painful, whether you have a painful neck, shoulder, or pelvic floor. The situations aren’t all too different from each other. Muscles can become very overwhelmed which makes them very painful and sore. You will also show a different behavior because of the pain. Think of moving in a cramped manner to prevent pelvic pain.
Your breathing will change because of this as well. The breathing will go through the chest instead of through the abdomen because of the pelvic pain. Pelvic pain and being scared to move puts you in a complicated, vicious cycle. The more you derange from your movements, the more issues you will develop.
The vagina will also be overly tense when you have an overactive pelvic floor. Having intercourse can become very painful. The anxiety will cause you to have more tension in your body during the next time too, so you have a big chance that that time won’t be enjoyable either. Having an overactive and an overly tense pelvic floor can cause you to have vaginismus or vulvitis. Have a read through my article about vaginismus and vulvitis to see if you’re also dealing with these conditions. I have written solutions and sex positions that could help you out if you are dealing with vaginismus or vulvitis.
The solution for an overactive pelvic floor
Try to destress and relax. Stay in your own movement pattern and keep up a good breathing pattern. Breathe through your lower abdomen to keep the abdominal pressure low. Also have a look through my pelvic floor relaxation exercises. Become aware about what tension does to you. Toilet habits, breathing, walking and other movements are things you need to keep an eye on. How are you all doing this? Are you severely adjusting to the pain? Are you moving differently because of the pain, and therefore additionally burdening other muscles? It’s important to find out how you move and how you function. The more you think about your movement, the better your body’s balance will be, and the less issues you will have.
You can also use a dildo set in combination with the relaxation exercises. Think of the highly rated kegel set from Teazers. This set consists out of 6 different sizes of dildos/kegels. You can start with the smallest and change to a bigger one when you feel comfortable with switching.
My personal recommendations
You can find my personal recommendations for a weakened pelvic floor here
I hope you’ll be able to immediately do something with the information you’ve found. If you’re still looking for some more help, then keep on reading. Below I will sum up some products that are suitable to help you strengthen your pelvic floor:
- Strength building pelvic floor exercises: These strength building exercises are specially put together for you so you can train and strengthen your pelvic floor. This is a training module with a lot of different pelvic floor exercises that become more challenging as the periods pass by. Like this you will make sure that you will have a very strong pelvic floor and you solve/prevent your pelvic issues, pelvic pain and other pelvic problems. Click here to directly go to the pelvic floor exercises.
- Vaginal/anal exercising cones: The vaginal or anal exercising cones (also called vaginal balls or Ben Wa balls) are suitable to combine with the strength building pelvic floor exercises from recommendation 1. The vaginal cones differ in weight. Depending on your recovery rate and progress, you can change up the weights. The pelvic floor exercises remain challenging that way so you can keep on working on having a strong pelvic floor. Click here for the overview of vaginal and anal exercising cones that I can recommend to you.
You can find my personal recommendations for an overactive and tense pelvic floor here
I hope that you’ve found useful information. If you are still looking for some more help, then keep reading! I will sum up some products that are suitable to help you relax your pelvic floor:
- Relaxing pelvic floor exercises: These relaxing pelvic floor exercises have been composed specially for you so you can learn how to relax and control your pelvic floor. This is an exercising module with a lot of different pelvic floor exercises that will become harder with every phase. This way you make sure that you can get your pelvic floor under control so you can end up relaxing it. Practice relaxing your pelvic floor when you’re experiencing issues with vaginismus, vulvitis, obstipation, difficulty urinating or with different types of overflow incontinence. Click here to go directly to the pelvic floor exercises.
- Dildo set with different sizes of dildos: Your vagina can be too tight when you experience having an overactive and tense pelvic floor. This causes sex to be painful, even inserting a finger or tampon can already bring pain. Learn how to relax the pelvic floor with the relaxing pelvic floor exercises, section 1. Use a dildo set where you can adjust the width and length yourself. Start with the smallest and use bigger ones overtime when you’re ready. Click here to directly go to the 6-piece kegel set. You can also click here for a 4-piece dildo set. It’s smart to start with the smallest dildo. Slowly build up to what you can handle.
- Orthopedic cushions: Do you have pain when you’re sitting because of an overactive pelvic floor, pelvic instability, lower back pain or pelvic pain? Then a orthopedic cushion can give you some extra seat comfort. You can also perform the relaxing pelvic floor exercises on this cushion. Click here to directly go to the different orthopedic cushions which I’ve tested out for you.
And lastly, are you looking for more information?
Hopefully this information was useful to you! If you’re still looking for some more information, feel free to take another look around on the website. It’s filled with in-depth information, tips a webshop and also exercises. I still have a lot of articles with lots of information about other symptoms and issues. Feel free to click on the blue words to take you straight to the right page.
