Can Yoga Help Your Pelvic Floor as You Age?

As estrogen levels drop during menopause, many women experience changes in their health—particularly with their pelvic floor. If you’ve noticed increased urination, leaking when sneezing or running, or discomfort during sex, pelvic floor issues may be the cause.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to strengthen your pelvic floor. Yoga can be beneficial when practiced correctly, with attention to your age and the exercises best suited for menopausal health.

What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient practice that comes from India, where it was a spiritual practice for thousands of years. However, it has long since become mainstream. It's considered a "meditative movement" practice because it combines meditation with physical movement.

Yoga has been shown to improve general wellness, help lose weight, and, yes, relieve menopause symptoms. Because it contains a variety of different movements and poses, yoga can be easily adapted for any health goal and for any level of fitness, even if you are mostly sedentary.

What is the Pelvic Floor?

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles and ligaments supporting your bladder, bowel, and uterus. These muscles extend from your pubic bone to the base of your spine. When functioning properly, they prevent issues like urinary and fecal incontinence and support your organs.

Pelvic floor issues are typically caused by childbirth, obesity, persistent constipation, lifting heavy weights, age and, yes, hormonal changes during menopause. These changes can weaken your pelvic floor. and cause issues with include:

• Stress incontinence - leaking urine when you jump, run, sneeze, or cough. This can also happen during sex.
• Frequent urination or urge incontinence - suddenly needing to urinate without warning.
• Pain during sex or itching and soreness of the vulva. This is associated with vagina dryness.
• Organ prolapse, which can be expressed as constipation or a heavy feeling in your vagina like you are sitting on an egg.

Pelvic floor dysfunction is more common as we age and it becomes more important to take good care of your pelvic floor.

The Importance of Pelvic Floor Strength as We Age

Menopause can cause an overall weakening of your pelvic floor muscles, leading to incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. If you have other risk factors, such as being overweight, having had multiple children, or occupational lifting, it's particularly important to work on pelvic floor strength.

Pelvic floor exercises can help maintain pelvic strength as you age, especially through targeted practices like yoga for incontinence. A strong pelvic floor reduces pain during vaginal intercourse and lowers the risk of stress incontinence during sex, which can be embarrassing and reduce desire. You may also want to use lube as many women produce less vaginal lubrication during and after menopause.

How Yoga Helps Strengthen the Pelvic Floor

Certain yoga poses target your pelvic floor muscles. They allow you to have more conscious control over your pelvic floor, intentionally contracting and relaxing it and coordinating it with your breath. This releases pelvic floor tension and strengthens them...like any muscle, they benefit from exercise!

Yoga can't fix pelvic floor dysfunction on its own, but it can help. The five poses that are best for pelvic floor are:

Child’s Pose

A calming, restorative pose that gently stretches the lower back and hips. It helps relax pelvic floor tension and encourages deep, diaphragmatic breathing—which is key to pelvic floor coordination.
How to do it: Kneel on the floor, bring your big toes to touch, and sit back on your heels. Fold forward, resting your forehead on the mat and extending your arms forward or alongside your body. Breathe deeply into your belly.

Reclining Bound Angle Pose

This relaxing, reclined stretch gently opens the hips and inner thighs while releasing tension in the pelvic floor area.

How to do it: Lie on your back, bring the soles of your feet together, and let your knees fall open to the sides. Use pillows or yoga blocks under your knees for extra support. Place your hands on your belly or heart and breathe slowly.

Happy Baby Pose

A gentle hip opener that stretches the pelvic region and brings awareness to your core and pelvic floor muscles.

How to do it: Lie on your back and draw your knees toward your chest. Grab the outsides of your feet (or your shins if you’re less flexible) and gently pull your knees toward your armpits. Keep your spine relaxed on the floor.

Cat-Cow Pose

A flowing movement between two positions that improves spinal mobility and engages your core and pelvic floor through breath.

How to do it: Start on hands and knees. Inhale to drop your belly, lift your chest, and tilt your pelvis back (Cow). Exhale to round your spine, tuck your pelvis, and engage your core (Cat). Move slowly and match your breath to each movement.

Reclining Twist

A gentle spinal twist that helps release tightness in the lower back and pelvic floor while promoting relaxation.

How to do it: Lie on your back, hug one knee into your chest, and gently guide it across your body into a twist. Extend the opposite arm out to the side and keep both shoulders grounded. Repeat on the other side.

If you don't have pelvic floor problems, doing these poses can help keep you from developing them. But you should practice safely, listen to your body, and consult with a teacher who knows how to help with pelvic floor dysfunction.

Implementing Yoga Into Your Routine for Pelvic Health

Before implementing yoga, talk to a pelvic floor specialist. They can give you other tips on how to strengthen your pelvic floor, which might include kegels, other pelvic floor exercises such as wall squats, and lifestyle changes. Talk to them about yoga and ask their advice on how to find the right instructor. Look for a studio that caters specifically to people with pelvic floor issues and/or has classes intended for menopausal women. Yoga has many different purposes, and you want an instructor who understands your issues and is knowledgeable about menopausal wellness in general.

These classes might also include techniques intended to help you lose weight and reduce stress. Always set realistic goals. You can't expect to regain your flexibility from your twenties overnight and, again, on its own yoga won't fix your pelvic floor problems—it needs to be part of an overall menopausal health regimen.

Incorporate appropriate poses into your daily routine, consulting with your therapist and your instructor. Your instructor will help you design a routine to help you keep things up between classes.

Remember that you can't stop when you get results. If you stop exercising your pelvic floor, it will start to get weak again. You want to make this practice sustainable, something you can keep doing for as long as possible.

Whether you're starting to experience pelvic floor dysfunction or looking for other yoga benefits for women in menopause, consider adding specific pelvic floor exercises to your routine for better pelvic wellness. Seek out an instructor who is familiar with menopausal health issues, especially if you are a beginner. It's never too late to start learning yoga, either!

However, especially if you are already experiencing significant issues, you should consult with your doctor or, even better, a pelvic floor specialist before starting a new exercise regimen. The same goes for anything active you want to add to your routine. You may be advised to do or avoid certain poses, especially if you have stress incontinence or similar symptoms.