When people think about pelvic floor health after having a baby, they tend to think about one thing: strengthening. Kegels, contractions, building back what pregnancy and birth may have affected. And while pelvic floor strength absolutely matters, it is only half of the picture.

The pelvic floor is a muscle group and like any muscle group, it needs to be able to do two things equally well: contract and relax. A pelvic floor that cannot fully lengthen and release is just as much of a problem as one that cannot generate strength. This capacity to relax on demand is what we call down training  and it is one of the most overlooked aspects of postpartum recovery.

Why does the pelvic floor struggle to relax postpartum? Pregnancy places the pelvic floor under sustained load for nine months. Birth, whether vaginal or caesarean, is a significant physical event that can leave the nervous system in a state of heightened protection. Add the demands of early parenthood, disrupted sleep and a body that has been through enormous change and you have a system that has very good reasons to stay guarded.

Effective down training is not simply about telling the pelvic floor to let go. It requires understanding the systems that influence pelvic floor tone and addressing them. I think it’s important to note here, that this is best done with the guidance of a pelvic floor physical therapist who can both assess and diagnose muscle function and tone.

Here are the 4 areas we are going to expand on this post:

The diaphragm connection

The pelvic floor and diaphragm function as a coordinated pair. When the diaphragm descends on a full inhale, the pelvic floor reflexively lengthens in response. Restoring this relationship is the foundation of everything that follows.

The role of alignment

How the ribcage sits relative to the pelvis directly affects how pressure moves through the body. Poor alignment shifts load onto the pelvic floor, keeping it in a constant state of work even at rest.

The power of position

Strategic positioning can reduce the physical load on the pelvic floor before a single breath is taken. Inverted and length biased positions change the pressure environment and give the tissue permission to release.

The global picture

The pelvic floor does not guard in isolation. Trigger points in the glutes, hips, and surrounding tissues keep it in a protective state. Addressing this global tension is often the missing piece in recovery.

A note before you begin: this guide is educational and intended for general postpartum wellness to support your strength training. It is not a substitute for individualised care from a pelvic health physical therapist. If you are experiencing significant symptoms, pain, or prolapse, please seek one on one support alongside this work.

Posterior & lateral rib expansion

Inhaling down is the foundation of all pelvic floor down training. When you inhale deeply and expand the ribs and back, the diaphragm lowers and the pelvic floor naturally lengthens in response. 

Most people are chest breathers. Watch someone take a deep breath and you will typically see the shoulders rise, the chest lift, and the belly either brace or push forward. This kind of breathing pattern is extremely common and it is also one of the many reasons the pelvic floor struggles to release.

Why this matters: The diaphragm and pelvic floor function as a team. When the diaphragm descends on an inhale, the pelvic floor lengthens in response — it is a coordinated, reflexive relationship. But if the diaphragm cannot fully descend, the pelvic floor never gets that signal to let go.

For the diaphragm to fully descend, the ribcage needs to be able to expand, specifically at the back and sides. The posterior and lateral ribs need to move outward to create the space for a true diaphragmatic breath. If the ribcage is stiff, restricted, or simply untrained to move in this direction, the breath stays shallow and the pelvic floor stays guarded.

This is compounded in the postpartum period. Pregnancy alters the position of the ribcage. The ribs often flare outward and upward to accommodate the growing baby, and the diaphragm is pushed upward. After birth, many people are left with a ribcage that doesn’t move well, a diaphragm that struggles to fully descend, as well as a pelvic floor that has been under load for nine months and doesn’t know how to switch off.

Posterior and lateral rib expansion can help address this. It restores the full excursion of the diaphragm, gives the pelvic floor its natural cue to lengthen, and begins to rebuild the pressure management system from the ground up. This is why it is the very first step I teach, everything else builds on it.

When you are learning this breath pattern, look for:

• The back of your ribcage expanding and widening on the inhale
• The sides of your lower ribs moving outward, like an umbrella opening
• A sense of gentle lengthening or softening low in the pelvis
• The chest and shoulders staying relatively still

Exercise 1: Rockback breathing

From a hands and knees position, sit your hips back towards your heels and round the upper body. This posture compresses the front side of the body and lengthens the back, naturally putting you in a position that helps the posterior ribs to expand freely on the inhale.

Rockback breathing with one-sided rib smash & reach

Similar set up to the rockback breathing, however this time you are placing a pilates ball on just one side of the rib cage, to emphasize more expansion on one side. This can be particularly helpful if you note a difference on how the rib cage expands on each side.

Side lying breathing with overhead reach

Lying on one side, the top arm reaches overhead — lengthening the lateral line of the trunk. From here, you breathe into the side that is now long and open, feeling the ribs expand laterally with each inhale. Switch sides to work both.

Why it works

The side-lying position and the length of the reach to passively open the lateral intercostal spaces, making lateral rib expansion easier to achieve and feel. Adding a ball on one side of the ribcage also helps direct your inhale into the top side of the rib cage for greater expansion.

2. Rib–pelvis stack

You have learnt how to breathe. Now we need to give that breath somewhere to go and that means looking at alignment.

The torso functions like a pressure canister. The diaphragm forms the top, the pelvic floor forms the base, and the deep abdominal and spinal muscles form the walls. When this canister is well-stacked — ribs sitting directly over the pelvis, pressure generated during breathing and movement distributes evenly across the whole system. The pelvic floor receives its fair share of load, no more, no less.

But when the ribs and pelvis are not aligned, that pressure has to go somewhere. This is where it’s coming to see pressure coming forward to the abdominal wall or down to the pelvic floor, usually during high pressure movements.

The two most common misalignments postpartum: A rib flare (lower ribs tipping forward and upward, often a hangover from the third trimester) and an anterior pelvic tilt (the pelvis rocking forward, increasing the lumbar curve). Either pattern changes the angle of the diaphragm, putting it in a less optimal position.

Finding the rib–pelvis stack is not about forcing a “neutral spine” or flattening the back. It is about finding the position where the canister walls are as parallel as possible — where the diaphragm and pelvic floor are facing each other, rather than angled away from each other. From this position, the breath from Part 1 can travel all the way down and the pelvic floor can respond fully.

It is also worth noting that this is a dynamic skill, not a fixed posture. The goal is not to rigidly hold a correct or perfect position. It is to develop enough body awareness to find and return to neutral under load, during movement, and eventually in everyday life. That awareness starts on the floor, in supported positions, where the nervous system has the least interference.

When finding your stack, you are looking for:

• Lower ribs dropping down rather than thrusting forward
• A small, natural curve in the lower back — not flattened, not exaggerated
• The pelvis in a neutral position — neither tucked under nor tipped forward
• The breath from Part 1 feeling easier and more complete
• A sense of space and length through the front of the body

90/90 breathing

Lying on your back with hips and knees both at 90 degrees feet resting on a wall or chair. This position gently posteriorly tilts the pelvis and brings the ribcage into a more neutral relationship with it, making the stacked canister much easier to find and feel. This is a great entry point into finding a stack and ideal for retraining the nervous system. My go-to place to start!

Hands and knees breathing

On all fours with a neutral spine, this position naturally suspends the pelvic organs away from the pelvic floor and makes the relationship between ribcage and pelvis easier to feel. Focus on maintaining the spinal position while breathing laterally and posteriorly into the back ribs without letting the lower back sag or round. Quadruped positions offload the pelvic floor while demanding active postural control — a useful middle ground between lying down and upright work.

If you’re not sure where neutral is, or find yourself gripping too hard, drill 3 will be perfect for you to try!

Pelvic Tilt – Ribcage Blocked

On all fours with the lower ribs resting against a bench, you move the pelvis between anterior and posterior tilt finding neutral at the midpoint. Because the bench physically blocks the ribcage from participating, all movement is isolated to the pelvis. You can feel exactly where the pelvis needs to sit to be in alignment with the fixed ribs above it. It’s common to see movement through the thoracic spine instead of pelvis so this will give you both immediate and honest feedback.

Inverted positions & length bias

Parts 1 and 2 built your toolkit. You have the breath, and you have the alignment. Part 3 is where we use position strategically to make everything easier and more effective.

The pelvic floor spends most of the day working against gravity. It manages the weight of the pelvic organs, absorbs pressure from above, and works hard to maintain continence through every sit to stand, every step, every cough and sneeze. By the end of the day it is carrying a significant load. Simply asking it to “relax” without changing the physical environment is a big ask, especially in the earlier postpartum stage.

Inverted and length biased positions change that environment. By shifting the body’s relationship with gravity, we reduce the burden on the pelvic floor before we even take a single breath and then use the breath we have built to go further into release than would otherwise be possible.

Legs up the wall

Lying on your back with legs extended up a wall, hips close to the baseboard. The elevation immediately shifts organ load away from the pelvic floor and creates a gentle length bias through the posterior chain. The combination of organ deload and gravity-assisted posterior chain length makes this one of the most effective passive release positions available and it requires no equipment and minimal effort, making it accessible very early postpartum.

Inverted breathing — puppy pose

From all fours, walk the hands forward and lower the chest towards the floor while keeping the hips high arriving in an extended puppy pose. The hips are now elevated above the heart, sending organ load away from the pelvic floor. The long line from tailbone to crown simultaneously places the posterior pelvic floor on a deep length bias. Notice how much more freely the pelvic floor can respond when it is both unloaded and lengthened at the same time.

Trigger point & soft tissue release

You have built the breath, the alignment, and the position. But sometimes, even with all three in place, the pelvic floor still won’t fully let go. When that happens, the answer is often not more breathing or better posture, it is looking at the tissues that surround and support the pelvic floor.

The pelvic floor does not exist in isolation. It is in constant communication with the muscles of the hip, the glutes, the deep external rotators, and the adductors. When any of these neighbouring tissues develop trigger points (localised areas of tension and hypersensitivity) the pelvic floor responds by guarding. It is a protective reflex.

Think of it this way: If the pelvic floor is guarding in response to tension elsewhere in the system, asking it to relax is like asking someone to unclench their jaw while their shoulders are up around their ears. You need to address the whole environment, not just the symptom.

Trigger point and soft tissue release works by reducing that global tension so the pelvic floor no longer needs to act as a protector. Once the surrounding tissues soften, the pelvic floor often follows — especially when the release work is paired with the breath from Part 1. The inhale gives it the final cue it needs to lengthen.

A note on pressure: trigger point work should feel like a firm, tolerable ache sometimes described as a “good hurt.” It should never feel sharp, searing, or cause you to hold your breath. If you find yourself bracing through the sensation, the pressure is too much. Back off, breathe, and let the tissue come to you.

Deep squat trigger point release — external pelvic floor

In a deep squat position on a yoga block, use a lacrosse ball to locate and apply sustained pressure to the external pelvic floor muscles. Hold each point with firm, steady pressure and breathe into it. As the tissue softens under the ball, you will often feel a simultaneous release deeper inside the pelvis. The deep squat already places the posterior pelvic floor on length — combining this with manual pressure to external trigger points gives the tissue a release stimulus from both the inside and the outside simultaneously.

Glute trigger point release

Sitting on the floor, place a lacrosse or massage ball under one glute. With your hands behind you for support, slowly shift your weight to find areas of sensitivity. When you land on a tender point, pause and hold letting gravity and your own bodyweight apply the pressure rather than forcing it. The floor beneath you means there is nowhere for the tension to hide; the tissue has to meet the ball.

Sitting on the floor rather than a chair means the full weight of the body can load into the ball with no surface to push back. The glutes and deep external rotators — particularly the piriformis — share fascial and neurological connections with the pelvic floor, and releasing trigger points here is often the missing piece when breathing work alone isn’t producing results.

Putting it all together

For best results, use the soft tissue release as a primer before your breathing and positional work not as a standalone. Releasing the trigger points first creates a window of reduced tension that the breath can then deepen. Try: glute ball release → deep squat trigger point → legs up the wall or puppy pose with Part 1 breathing. This sequence layers all four parts and gives you the best possible environment for the pelvic floor to let go.

Ready to go further?

Want this applied to your strength training?

Down training is not just a recovery tool, it is a performance foundation. A pelvic floor that can fully release is one that can generate real strength. If you want to learn how to integrate these principles into your lifting and training, I work with postpartum clients to do exactly that.

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