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 insufficiently understood, nor is there any clear understanding of what to do to prevent them.

Gina Fort, a pelvic floor physiotherapist and Castellera de la Joven de Tarragona, believes that we are still far from fully understanding this entire 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 suffer from 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 only suffer from one. She also emphasizes that complications can also arise from being "too strong." "This prevents the pelvic floor from activating because, as it's already so tense, it can't make the necessary effort, and this can lead to dysfunction," she explains.

This condition occurs both in the human tower world and in any other sport in which a strength exercise is performed and is not performed correctly. "You're harming it because you're putting pressure on it, because that's where the two legs end up separating," 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. In this case, Fort points out that it depends greatly on each person's physical condition and how they have worked out prior to pregnancy. "It's a stage of life and, therefore, we must treat it and normalize it 100%. We must keep in mind that the person can still exercise and do as much or as little as they want," she explains.

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