What is the pelvic floor?

Question

Staci Levine, DPT, OCS, PRPC · Answer

The question is, what is the pelvic floor? The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that resides at the bottom of the pelvis. I have a female pelvic model right here. Everything you see in white is bone. Everything you see in red is the pelvic floor which is muscle. It's bordered by the pubic symphysis in the front, the spine, and the sacrum and the tailbone in the back and bottom, and the hip bones on the side. The pelvic floor has three muscle layers. The first being the most superficial. That's around the anal opening, the vaginal opening, and the urethral opening. The second layer is a little bit deeper in and surrounds the urethra. And the third layer term, typically the levator ani muscle group is a little bit deeper in the pelvis. These three muscle layers help to support bowel function, bladder function, sexual function, and are an integral part of the core. You have your pelvic floor at the bottom. You have your diaphragm at the top, in the bottom of the thoracic cage. You have multifidi muscles which are segmental spinal stabilizers in the back, and your transverse abdominis which is a broad, flat core muscle that help to cohesively and effectively engage your core muscles, and make sure that you have full function to provide support for your daily activities.

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"What is the pelvic floor?"