When to contract your pelvic floor muscles
It depends! There are times when the answer is yes and times when the answer is no depending on specific movements or activities.
When should you contract your pelvic floor?
Pelvic floor contraction is helpful during workouts to build strength and awareness to the area, especially during postpartum. If you are struggling with contracting your pelvic floor just at rest, I highly recommend seeing a pelvic floor specialist to teach you how to do this.
A contraction of your pelvic floor means lifting up and in with your breath. If you recently gave birth, it is best to contract the pelvic floor even if you aren’t lifting or doing an “exercise” to start regaining the connection to eventually transfer that to exercise. Starting out with contractions laying on your back, then progressing to standing, then to movements like squats is a great way to progress and manage symptoms that may arise. If you already have a natural contraction, I recommend still thinking about actively lifting and contracting through exercise to allow that motion to become second nature.
During exercise, the pelvic floor will naturally lift up and in and you exhale or engage your deep core muscles as long as there is no dysfunction. This is what you want to work towards.
How to know if you're contracting:
Feel tension inside the pelvic bone at the front
Cue: Imagine you're trying to get into tight jeans
Cue: Try to get your hip bones to come together
When should you not?
Stretching and lengthening the pelvic floor are just as important as strengthening it.
For example, when you are doing diaphragmatic breathing, the focus is on lengthening and releasing any built up tension. If you are someone who experiences a lot of stress or anxiety, it may be beneficial to mainly focus on lengthening rather than engaging to help teach the pelvic floor to relax.
When you are running, you also don’t have to actively contract. Running is already a pelvic floor exercise from the load and impact, and being in a constant state of contraction or tension can actually lead to incontinence.