The pelvic floor is an often overlooked aspect of the singing system. As the foundation of the central core of the body, the pelvic floor has the ability to respond to the inputs it receives, whether the input is breathing, movement, singing or doing something seemingly as simple as reaching for a glass in the highest shelf of your cabinet. 

A part of why I wanted to write this blog is I think the voice world has done a very poor job of addressing the pelvic floor in relation to singing. Relying on uncomfortable euphemisms and ridiculous analogies, many singers feel confused over what it is and how it is connected to their singing. In the blog we will take a look at what the pelvic floor is, the roles it plays in the body, why it matters for singers and what we need from the body for the pelvic floor to work well. We’ll end with a close look at breathing and the pelvic floor and talk about where to go next on your movement journey.

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor is found at the base of the pelvis and is the space between the following bony markers: coccyx at the base of the spine, the pubic bone, where the two halves of the pelvis come together in the front of the body, as well as to each of the sitz bones, or the base of the pelvis halves. When you connect these four bony points they form a diamond shape. While the bony structure of the pelvis and the contents of the pelvic viscera differ slightly between biologically male and female bodies, all bodies have a pelvic floor!

It is made up of multiple layers of muscles that run within this diamond shape and we can refer to the anterior (front, closer to the pubic bone) and posterior pelvic floor muscles (closer to the coccyx). These muscles create a sort of diaphragm meaning they form a partition and help manage pressure within the torso. They can contract concentrically, eccentrically and isometrically and are connected to the rest of the body via fascia.

The viscera of the pelvis includes the bladder, rectum and pelvic genital organs. They sit immediately on top of the pelvic floor within the pelvic cavity.

The pelvic floor is responsive to over 34 muscles providing input from around the body. I want to emphasize that this is a responsive area in the body. That means we are seeking to create circumstances where it just responds to what we are doing. We do not want to create circumstances where we actively engage it when we sing.

The pelvic floor plays many roles in the body

1. Foundational Support – it is at the base of the torso and provides support for the muscular and visceral contents of the pelvis and abdomen.
2. Stability – it plays a central role in stabilizing the pelvis and the hip joint. 
3. Contract/Relax  – it provides bowel and bladder control for the body.
4. Sexual – it serves as the pleasure center for the body.
5. Pump – the ascending and descending motion of the pelvic floor plays an important role in the movement of blood flow and lymph

Why does pelvic floor matter for singers?

1. The throat and pelvic floor are at opposite ends of the spine. They are anchors in the torso and highly responsive to one another.
2. Pelvic Floor problems are really prevalent yet we tend to not talk about them much. 
3. We think we have to just live with back pain, sacro-iliac pain, leaking urine, pelvic floor pain, prostate problems, diastasis recti, hernia risk etc. (Surprise, many times we don’t!)
4. The throat, the diaphragm and the pelvic floor are all connected by the vagus nerve and that means they are highly responsive to the state of our nervous system.
5. We can hear aspects of pelvic floor tone in the voice – a tight, shrill voice may reflect a tight pelvic floor. A breathy voice may signify a lax floor – we often hear breathy voices in women immediately post-partum as the floor has been taxed by childbirth.
6. In bodies with vaginas, they are lined with the same type of cells found in the throat. As we age and our hormones shift, we can detect similar changes in these cellular linings.

For the pelvic floor to work well we need 4 things from the rest of the body:

1. A ribcage that can expand well in all 3 dimensions.
2. Balanced strength in the hip and core.
3. Feet that can pronate and supinate.
4.  Hips that can lengthen and shift.

For this blog we are going to focus on the ribcage and breathing as they relate to the pelvis floor as this is often the entry point to improving pelvic floor function and I suspect that this will be most accessible to singers.

Breathing and the Pelvic Floor

Just as with many things in life, when it comes to breathing more isn’t always better!

The Diaphragm and pelvic floor have a reciprocal relationship – That means when we breathe in, the diaphragm contracts and descends and the pelvic floor yields and descends. As we exhale and/or phonate, the pelvic floor contracts and ascends as the diaphragm yields and ascends. 

How well this relationship works depends on the relative position of these elements. When the relationship is improved through positioning these parts sit more closely right on top of one another. That improved position means we manage pressure better in the body.

The Set Up – The Stack

The stack refers to the positional relationship between our larynx, our diaphragm and our pelvic floor. Our breathing, voice, and pelvic floor function all  impact and are impacted by how your body is aligned. In a body with no compensations, all three would sit exactly on top of one another.

I have yet to meet a human who doesn’t have some compensatory strategies when it comes to physical function and alignment. We are remarkably adaptable creatures! Many times our adaptations work well, and we can do all we want to do.

But, sometimes our adaptations stand in our way. For many bodies, when we seek to perform at higher levels – whether in movement or singing – we can see positive changes in the voice and body as a whole when we make positive changes in our alignment. In other instances, we can have solidified our vocal technique and yet we still encounter challenges to our singing. In those cases I find it very useful to look farther out into the rest of the singing body.

We can see how the body is stacked when we look at the neck, ribcage and pelvis. When we see things like –

• Forward head position
• A ribcage that is rung forward like a bell or compressed downward 
• A pelvis that is tilted or tucked excessively
• An inability to move well in the neck, ribcage or pelvis

These are all clues that the stack might benefit from change.

Breath as a Pressure System:

The torso can be divided into two: 

1. Thoracic cavity – where the lungs and ribcage are, and the
2. Abdominal cavity, where the organs and muscles of the digestive and reproductive system are. 

The contents (volume) of the abdominal cavity are fixed – we always have these things inside us. The contents (volume) of the thoracic cavity are variable – we can have more or less air in our lungs (but there is always some air in there, or your lungs will have collapsed).

In the singing world we view the breath as the power source for the voice, but we can also consider breathing as a pressure system to further illustrate the connection to the pelvic floor and for this, we want to think about shape and volume change.

Shape and Volume Change – the Thoracic Cavity

In the upper torso, we have the ribcage surrounding the lungs where we can change both shape and volume in the lungs depending on how much air we take in and expel out. We have the potential to expand in all directions here when we have good mobility of the ribcage. 

Shape Change – The Abdominal Cavity.

In the abdominal cavity, where the volume is mostly set by the contents of the abdomen, (outside of what you’ve eaten or whether you’ve gone to the bathroom) we can only change shape, the volume does not shift. When we breathe in and the diaphragm compresses the contents of the abdomen, pushing them down onto the pelvic floor, we raise the pressure by making the space smaller. We call this increasing the Intra-Abdominal Pressure or IAP. 

Since we know the pelvic floor is connected to the throat, if we take a belly focused breath for singing that creates too much IAP and we will potentially overload the pelvic floor and deep core and create excessive sub-glottal pressure. That means the pelvic floor, deep core and vocal cords cannot be as responsive as we would like.

Over the years I have encountered lots of different ways people have been taught to breathe for singing. Some are more focused on lower rib expansion and some have been belly-focused. Some have been taught when phonating to have a sense of bearing down, or squeezing butt cheeks, especially when it comes to singing high. Sometimes the adaptations work, but often we reach a point where they no longer serve us. So where do we go? 

To create circumstances where the pelvic floor can work for us in our singing we need to create mobility in the ribcage and responsiveness in the pelvic floor.

The 3-Dimensional Breath

3 dimensional breathing means you can find expansion over 3 planes – front to back, side to side and up and down. There is also some expansion into the belly as the diaphragm descends and pushes on the contents of the abdomen. It is my opinion that there is no downside to a singer being able to breathe in a 3 dimensional way, regardless of genre. When your ribcage can expand well over three dimensions, you have options when it comes to how you want to breathe for the sound you want to make. 

Most bodies have at least one dimension where finding expansion is more challenging. 

Those who like to live with their ribs rung forward like a bell and the pelvis tipped forward (called being in an extension pattern) can find it challenging to find expansion  in the back body.

Try this: Stand up and arch your back and then try to breathe into your back body, expanding between your shoulder blades, your lower ribcage and even around your kidney region. When it is arched, it is compressed and can’t expand well. You may be able to feel that from ribcage all the way down to the posterior pelvic floor there is nothing moving. 

For singers who have a more tucked under pelvis, dropped upper ribcage, and thrust forward head, finding expansion in the upper chest can be challenging. At some point while singing in elementary school choir we all got the memo that shoulders shouldn’t rise up when we are breathing in for singing. The result: we have locked down the upper chest – your lung tissue runs all the way up to your collarbones. Whether you will always expand there when you breathe in will depend on the sound you want to make, but I still want you to be able to do it any time you need. 

Here’s a real mind bender: you can have a thrust forward ribcage AND compression of the upper chest going on at the same time…

Try this: Stand up and let your upper chest really slump.Your upper back will be rounded forward. Take a breath in and see if you can feel the area around your collarbones expand outward. Remember, we are looking for expansion in the upper chest, not elevation.  In all likelihood, in this position you can find better expansion between your shoulder blades in the back.

Responsiveness in the Pelvic Floor

The first task in creating a responsive pelvic floor is the ability to sense it. Over the years I have found this to be a place in the body where we have a disconnect, or blind spot. Our cultural messaging around this part of the body, combined with potential traumas can mean we aren’t even aware of what our patterns are here.

Try this: Sit with your legs uncrossed, or lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Let your attention settle in your pelvis. Using your mind like a finger, can you sense where your pubic bone is? Then can you sense where your tail bone is? Then find each of your sitz bones on either side? You can use your hands to palpate each of these if you can’t simply notice them with your mind. Once you’ve identified them, can you connect them into the diamond shape I mentioned earlier.

It might surprise you to know that more people experience too much tension in the pelvic floor, than not enough – pause right now. Are you gripping in a half-kegal? Are you grabbed around your anus? What does your pelvic floor do when you sing? Call out to someone? Talk for a really, really long sentence? What you find might surprise you.

I wish I could tell you the explorations I share in this blog would be enough to give you a great connection to your breathing and pelvic floor, and solve all your vocal issues! That would be irresponsible on my part! This is a mere preview of ways you can build this very important connection in your body. To learn more about the pelvic floor, and explore ways of connecting it into your singing through movement, you can use the 9-week Singer Synergy Movement Series, and to go even deeper, there are workshops and classes within the Aligned and Aware Library that focus on the pelvic floor.