Your Pelvic Floor is More Than Just One Muscle

Hello friends! When we hear “pelvic floor,” we often think of it as a single muscle. In reality, the pelvic floor is a complex group of muscles that work together—each with specific (yet similar) jobs that help support your body and keep you functioning every day.

Understanding these muscles can help you better connect with your body and make sense of symptoms like leakage, pelvic pain, or changes in bowel and bladder habits.

The Pelvic Floor Muscle Groups

Your pelvic floor is like a supportive hammock or sling at the bottom of your pelvis. These muscles work around two to three main openings (depending on gender):

• Urethra – where urine leaves the body

• Vagina (for people with female anatomy) – part of the reproductive system

• Anus – where stool leaves the body

  
  

Each opening has specialized muscles to help it work properly and allow things to stay in the body when we need them to and relax when we are ready to let things in or out of those openings.

The Urethral Sphincter

The urethral sphincter is a circular muscle that wraps around the urethra.

• Function: Acts like a valve to keep urine in until you’re ready to go, and relaxes to allow urination

• Why it matters: Weakness can contribute to urinary leakage (stress incontinence) and poor ability to relax can make it difficult fully emptying the bladder

The Anal Sphincter

The anal sphincter is a set of muscles around the anus—an internal ring and an external ring.

• Function: Keeps poop and gas in until you choose to release them

• Why it matters: Weakness here can cause fecal leakage or difficulty controlling gas, while too much tension or difficulty relaxing the muscle can contribute to constipation or pain.

Other Pelvic Floor Muscle

Beyond the sphincters, other muscles help lift, support, and stabilize:

• Levator Ani–group of several mucsles that help support pelvic organs, assist with bladder and bowel control, and play a role in sexual function.

• Coccygeus – supports the back of the pelvic floor and helps with stability.

  
  

Why Knowing the Difference Matters

Understanding that there are different pelvic floor muscles—each with its own role—means that pelvic floor issues aren’t always about “strengthening.” Sometimes a muscle needs to be relaxed, lengthened, or better coordinated with the others.

A pelvic floor physical therapist can help assess which muscles are contributing to your symptoms and guide you with personalized exercises and strategies.

How Pelvic Floor Therapy Can Help

Pelvic floor therapy is more than just Kegels—it’s a personalized approach to restoring function, reducing symptoms, and improving quality of life. Depending on your needs, a pelvic floor physical therapist can:

• Assess muscle coordination, strength, and flexibility to identify what’s overactive, underactive, or uncoordinated—this includes not only the pelvic floor muscles but also surrounding muscles like the hips and core

• Guide targeted exercises to help strengthen weak muscles or relax tight ones

• Teach bladder and bowel habits to reduce leakage, urgency, or constipation

• Provide hands-on techniques to improve mobility, reduce pain, and release tension

• Offer education and lifestyle strategies to support pelvic health in your daily life

Your pelvic floor isn’t just one muscle—it’s a team. And just like any team, the best results happen when every member knows its job and works in harmony. A pelvic floor therapist can be your coach, helping each muscle do its part so you can live, move, and function at your best.

Whether you’re recovering after childbirth, experiencing leakage, living with pelvic pain, or noticing changes with aging, pelvic floor therapy can help you reconnect with your body and feel more confident in how it works.  You don’t have to live with symptoms!  You can find a pelvic floor therapist near you at www.mypfm.com/find-a-pt.

To learn more about your pelvic floor muscles, check out these great resources:

• Check out our YouTube channel

• Learn more about your pelvic floor on our Instagram

• Visit our Amazon store for our favorite pelvic health products

• Sign up for our email newsletter

For providers, check out myPFM Academy to learn more so you can better help your clients. With two membership options, you have access to courses, a growing library of patient handouts, hundreds of custom sharable images and infographics, and multilingual resources.

Written by Emily Reul, PT, DPT