Quick and Effective: 10-Minute Foam Roller Workout for Your Pelvic Floor

Birth Preparation, Fitness, Pelvic Floor, Postnatal, Prenatal

The pelvic floor plays a large role in our daily function during both pregnancy and the postpartum--plus is important during birth!

The pelvic floor plays a large role in our daily function during both pregnancy and the postpartum–plus is important during birth!

The pelvic floor:

Supports our pelvic organs! They provide a sling of muscles for our pelvic organs (uterus, bladder, and rectum) to hang out on.
Provides sphincter control! The pelvic floor keeps our pee and poo in, and then relaxes to let it out!
Aids in stabilization with the deep core system of the torso and spine!
Sexual function and childbirth!
Sump pump and lymphatic drainage.

There are a lot of things that are pelvic floor needs to be able to do to support our daily function as we navigate the motherhood journey!

Many of the pelvic floor issues that you many encounter, such as leaking or pelvic pain, you may think you need more STRENGTH. You may have even been told by your provider to do tons of Kegels to strengthen your pelvic floor*.

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First, its important to recognize that TIGHT does NOT equal strong. The pelvic floor needs to move through a full range of motion to function properly–so if you are only tightening it, it will negatively impact your pelvic floor’s function.

But, spoiler, it is more likely that there is too much TENSION that is impacting your pelvic floor’s ability to function*. Learning how to RELAX your pelvic floor can help improve your pelvic floor function compared to only tightening and tightening it.

*We do recommend working with a pelvic floor physical therapist, like Hayley Kava, MPT, to better understand your body for an individualized treatment plan for any sort of pelvic floor issues.

Let’s check out this 10-minute pelvic floor release workout you can do with just a foam roller!

10-Minute Pelvic Floor Release Workout with Foam Roller

In this workout, you’ll just need a foam roller! This workout has three exercises that release tension in the muscles that support the pelvic floor AND help you better move the pelvic floor to improve its function.

This workout includes:

3 Rounds, 30 seconds per side:
- Figure-4 Glute Release
- Adductor Release
  - Choose either a supine/sphnix position or all fours
- Hip Shifts with Foam Roller, exploring a different variation each round:
  - Hip Rotations
  - Hip Shifted Breathing
  - Hip Shifts with Step Over

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A post shared by Gina, MS, & Roxanne, RN, BSN (@mamastefit)

You may be wondering why we include a glute release and adductor release mobility exercise if this is a pelvic floor focused workout. The reason is that the surrounding muscles may be overly “tight” or clenched that could prevent the pelvic floor from working properly. Remember, tight does NOT equal strong. If a muscle is “stuck” in an end range position, it is technically weak, even if that end range is TIGHT.

In an effort to stabilize, the pelvic floor may over activate to compensate for other muscles that are having a harder time doing their job. So, when we release the glute and inner thigh muscles, it can allow the pelvic floor to focus on its role!

Mamastefit: the number one thing I recommend to all my pregnant friends. I did the prenatal fitness program via team builder app and the childbirth education classes. Both were highly valuable, but the fitness program is what my husband and I attribute to my really fast and smooth postpartum recovery. The fitness program allowed me to feel limber and strong in my pregnant body. The program allows you to go at your own pace, your own chosen weights, and the ability to shorten/lengthen the workout day depending on how your body is feeling that day. The exercises were also great ones that I would not have thought of to do on my own. The childbirth education classes had a lot of great information and I was able to implement many of the labor movements and breathing exercises during labor. 10/10 would recommend and will absolutely be using their program again and again!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your incredible content! I used your childbirth edu and prenatal fitness programs during my pregnancy and felt empowered to take on an unplanned induction. As a pelvic PT, I knew I wanted education that covered physiology and hospital birth interventions in a lot more specific detail and I felt the mamastefit program was comprehensive and easy to digest with the format you have. I will definitely use the prenatal fitness plan again for a future pregnancy and will totally recommend it to patients as well!

I had my final postnatal appointment and my midwife says she has never seen such a healthy postpartum pelvic floor, in fact if she didn't know better she would have guessed that I hadn't had any children. The whole team was amazed at my overall physical recovery which I attribute to your programming and the nutritional guidelines from Lily Nichols. They are recommending your program to more of their clients because of my great results. Thank you!

Prepare for Your Birth with MamasteFit Prenatal Fitness Programs

If you want more daily workouts to support a strong pregnancy as you prepare for birth, join our online prenatal fitness programs!

MamasteFit is unique in that we are one of the ONLY prenatal/postnatal training facilities in the United States. We develop our workout programs from our experience of working with in-person pre/postnatal fitness clients and work closely with physical therapists to refine our programming. In addition, we are birth workers, so we combine our experience as perinatal fitness trainers and birth professionals to ensure that our programs actually support your birth preparation and recovery!

Our prenatal fitness programs are offered in several formats:

40-Week Prenatal Strength Program in the Teambuildr App:
- This program is a self-paced workout with shorter demo videos. This is ideal if you like to workout in a gym setting and prefer a traditional workout delivery format.
- This program syncs to your current week of pregnancy, so you can start anytime, with one-time payment or month-to-month payment options.
- This program has a full and mini version, depending on how much time you have to dedicate to workouts!
Prenatal On-Demand Fitness Program:
- If you prefer to follow a video as you workout at the same time, this workout program will be the best option!
- This program syncs to your current trimester, so you can grab the trimesters you need!
Prenatal Yoga Classes:
- If you want prenatal yoga, join our prenatal yoga program! This also syncs to your current trimester.