Your Spine: The Highway of Movement, Breath & Pelvic Floor Health

Why your spine isn’t just a stack of bones it is way more and really cool, it’s your body’s communication superhighway

Most women come to me for pelvic floor issues from leaking, heaviness, fear of movement worried to cough, jump or sneeze but when we start working together, we quickly realise:

➡️ It’s never just the pelvic floor.
➡️The spine is always part of the story.

Your spine is not a straight rod holding you up.
It’s alive. Responsive. Designed to move.

Cartoon of a woman’s head with a lamppost for a spine - to show what tension feels like in your spine

What the Spine Is Actually For

Your spine has four core jobs:

1️⃣ Protection
It houses the spinal cord this is your main neural pathway from brain to body and back. This delicate bundle of nerves is surrounded by fluid, connective tissue and bone for a reason: everything you feel, sense, move and respond to travels through it.

2️⃣ Shock Absorption
Ground forces rise through your feet and legs every time you walk, jump or simply stand. The curves in your spine the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral all act like springs, dispersing load before it hits your organs and pelvic floor.

3️⃣ Locomotion
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t walk with your legs — you walk with your spine.
Rotation of your ribcage and pelvis creates your natural gait. When that rotation stiffens, something else compensates: hips, shoulders… or the pelvic floor.

4️⃣ Breathing & Pressure Management
Every breath asks your spine and ribcage to move.
If ribs or vertebrae are stuck, pressure travels downward and that’s where many people start to feel leaking, dragging or prolapse symptoms.

Your Spine Is Fascia

The spinal cord isn’t just electrical wiring no it is suspended in an extracellular matrix (ECM) made of fascia.

This means:

• Your nervous system is literally wrapped in connective tissue

• Fascia has to remain hydrated and elastic for nerves to glide

• When fascia stiffens, signal flow can become irritated or sluggish
  (hello nerve pain, pelvic tension, urgency, constipation)

A stiff spine isn’t just uncomfortable it can also distort the way your nervous system communicates.

The Spine–Pelvic Floor–Breath Connection

Here’s why your spine matters for pelvic floor function:

🌀 Thoracic spine (ribs & breath):
If this area is rigid, your diaphragm can’t descend fully → pressure is displaced down → pelvic floor grips defensively.

🌀 Lumbar spine (lower back):
This is where load transfers between upper and lower body.
If it can’t adapt to movement → pelvic floor takes the strain.

🌀 Sacrum (base of the spine):
This triangular bone is part of your pelvis — not separate from it.
With every inhale and exhale, the sacrum gently nods.
When that motion is restricted → pelvic floor loses its rhythm.

The pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation.
It responds to what the spine is doing above it.

Let’s Talk About the Psoas

Ah, the psoas, I talk about this muscle a lot it’s that deep core muscle connecting your lumbar spine to your legs. It plays a powerful role in:

• Hip mobility

• Lower back support

• Spinal stability

• Nervous system protection (it tightens when you’re stressed)

When the psoas is short or overactive:

✔ The lumbar spine loses its natural curve
✔ The diaphragm is pulled down
✔ The pelvic floor must grip up for support

This is why breathwork, release, and gentle spinal movement change everything.

What Happens When the Spine Becomes Stiff?

You may notice:

• Reduced breath expansion

• More pelvic symptoms by evening

• Constipation or straining

• Painful hips or SIJ discomfort

• Reduced walking endurance

• Feeling “compressed” or tired standing up

If the spine can’t share movement, the pelvic floor ends up doing everyone else’s job.

Try These: 4 Gentle Spine–Pelvic Floor Movements

(3–5 mins each, ideal for daily practice)

1️⃣ Franklin Method: Sense Your Spine Curves

• Stand

• Place one hand at the back of your neck, one at your lower back

• Inhale: feel the curves of your spine lengthening and spreading

• Exhale: allow the curves to return and soften

• Feel the spine move with the breath — not the shoulders

Why: Restores natural shock absorption and diaphragmatic glide.

• Now gently bend your knees and notice the curves deepen as you lower

• Notice how the become softer as you come back to stand

2️⃣ Franklin “Sticky Hands” Rotation

• Stand with arms forward at shoulder height

• Imagine your palms are lightly glued to something in front

• Rotate your legs/pelvis half a turn to one side

• Then peel your arms off the “glue” as your ribcage rotates to catch up

• Repeat alternating sides

Why: Reintroduces spinal rotation for fluid walking mechanics.

3️⃣ Pelvis-Driven Cat & Cow

• On hands and knees

• Start movement at the tailbone

• Inhale: sacrum nods up → spine lengthens into cow

• Exhale: tail curls under → spine rounds into cat

Why: Reconnects sacral motion and pelvic floor rhythm.

4️⃣ Child’s Pose with Breath Down the Back

• Knees wide, belly relaxed

• Inhale and feel the back of the ribs expand like wings

• Exhale, allow the body to melt down

Why: Lengthens psoas, widens pelvic floor, calms the nervous system.

Big Takeaway

Your pelvic floor won’t heal through squeezing alone.

You need:

Breath
Spinal mobility
Sacral movement
Nervous system safety

The spine is not separate from your pelvic floor —it is one of the pathways to its recovery.

If you’d like support reconnecting your spine, breath, and pelvic floor then this is exactly what I coach inside:

✨ The Abby Method — Strength & Softness, From the Inside Out ✨

Send me a message if your spine feels tired of holding everything together.
Let’s bring it — and you — back into flow.