The pelvic floor in castles: what effects it has and how to work it

The human tower building world still faces many outstanding challenges in our understanding of the human body. One of these is the development of the pelvic floor, an aspect often linked to pregnancy and motherhood, but which goes much further. The complications and effects caused by pelvic floor problems are still not sufficiently understood within human tower groups, which means that specific strategies to prevent them are not applied in rehearsals or performances.

Gina Fort, a pelvic floor physiotherapist and human tower builder for the Joven de Tarragona group, believes that we are still far from fully understanding this part of the body, both within the human tower building world and in society in general. Thus, she emphasizes that a lot of emphasis is placed on pregnant women when these conditions can affect many other people: "In the end, we all have a pelvic floor, and everyone should take care of it." She does point out that during pregnancy, it can be particularly affected by the increased weight and muscular pressure placed on this area.

The pelvic floor is the group of muscles that cover the abdomen and lumbar muscles and is responsible for keeping the digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems secure and stable. If it weakens, a person may experience incontinence, sexual dysfunction, or prolapse. Fort explains that these problems don't affect everyone equally, and that no one person necessarily suffers from all of them; they may just suffer from one. She also emphasizes that complications can also arise from being "too strong."

Although pelvic floor problems can occur during any sporting activity and also in everyday life, when performing castells, there may be situations that affect the pelvic floor more than other practices. The main reason is that the practice exercises the abdominal area. "You're harming it because you're sending pressure there, because that's where the two legs ultimately separate," says Fort.

To work the pelvic floor, Fort emphasizes that the person must know how to activate it in daily activities so that the abdominal bench, lumbar muscles, and diaphragm work together. "This will mean that there will be a day when these pelvic floor muscle fibers will be involuntarily activated," she explains. For the physiotherapist, this is the first step to later work it through sports and specific exercises.

The specialist also believes that "everyone should know their pelvic floor. "From a young age, they should teach us how to work it," she adds, since this way, complications in the future would not be serious.

Motherhood

Beyond the pelvic floor, there are other factors that are affected by motherhood and the transformation a woman's body undergoes. These changes can make resuming human tower practice somewhat slower. In this case, Fort points out that it depends greatly on each person's physical condition and how they have worked out previously during pregnancy. "It's a stage of life and, therefore, we must treat it and normalize it 100%, and we must keep in mind that the person can still exercise and do as much or as little sport as they want," she explains. Thus, she asks groups not to neglect the inclusion of mothers after childbirth.

She also explains that it also depends on whether the birth was by cesarean or natural section, as there are different complications in both cases, and the recovery process must be adapted.