Pelvic Floor Exercises and Yoga: Why Your Yoga Practice May Be the Perfect Time to Practice PFMT

Written by Jackie Paunil, Creator of the Young Heart Yoga App, E-RYT, RPYT, CHC, MFA

Empowering older adults to move, breathe, and thrive with grace and vitality.

If you've ever thought, “I know I should do my pelvic floor exercises, but when exactly am I supposed to fit one more thing into my day?”—you are certainly not alone.

For many older women, pelvic-floor muscle training (PFMT) is recommended to improve pelvic-floor function and manage symptoms such as urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. The challenge isn't always knowing what to do. Sometimes it's finding the time—and remembering to do it consistently.

Here's a practical thought: What if some of that practice could happen while you're already doing yoga?

Yoga naturally creates a quiet space for focused attention, breathing, body awareness, and intentional movement. Those qualities can make a yoga practice an appealing opportunity to incorporate pelvic-floor awareness and, when properly instructed, pelvic floor exercises.

What Are Pelvic Floor Exercises?

Pelvic-floor muscle training involves repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that support the bladder, bowel, and reproductive organs. Research has found PFMT can improve pelvic-floor muscle function and symptoms associated with pelvic organ prolapse (Cong et al., 2026).

And there's an important detail here: relaxing the pelvic floor is part of good training, too. PFMT isn't about walking around all day squeezing your muscles as though you're trying to win an invisible contest.

Learning how to correctly contract and relax these muscles is especially important if you have pelvic-floor symptoms. A pelvic-floor physical therapist can teach you the appropriate technique for your individual needs.

Why Combine Pelvic Floor Exercises With Yoga?

One of the biggest challenges with PFMT is adherence. Research examining women's experiences with PFMT has identified competing priorities, the need for knowledge and skill, and the mental effort required to remember the exercises as potential barriers to maintaining the practice (Hay-Smith et al., 2015).

Yoga already gives you something valuable: time to pay attention to your body.

Instead of adding another appointment to your mental calendar, your yoga practice can become an opportunity to practice pelvic-floor awareness.

As you move, you might notice:

• How your breath moves through your body

• Whether you're holding tension unnecessarily

• How your pelvic floor responds to different movements

• When you can gently engage the pelvic-floor muscles

• When you can consciously release them

  
  

The goal isn't to turn your entire yoga practice into a pelvic-floor workout. It's to combine mindful movement with intentional awareness when appropriate.

Your Breath Can Be Part of the Practice

Yoga's emphasis on breathing provides another opportunity to slow down and notice how the pelvic floor responds.

With guidance from a qualified pelvic-floor professional, you may learn to coordinate breathing and pelvic-floor muscle activation during selected movements.

This can be particularly useful because yoga encourages us to notice subtle changes in the body rather than simply rushing from one pose to the next.

And let's be honest: how often in our busy lives do we deliberately pay attention to what's happening below the waist?

What About Pelvic Organ Prolapse?

Pelvic organ prolapse is common, and symptoms can affect how comfortable women feel about exercising. A systematic review found that pelvic-floor symptoms can interfere with exercise participation, with some women stopping or modifying physical activity because of their symptoms (Dakic et al., 2021).

The encouraging news is that a pelvic-floor diagnosis doesn't automatically mean giving up movement.

A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials found that PFMT was associated with improvements in prolapse symptoms, pelvic-floor muscle function, and several measures of prolapse severity (Cong et al., 2026).

However, yoga should not be presented as a replacement for pelvic-floor rehabilitation or medical care. If you have prolapse symptoms, pain, urinary or bowel changes, or a sensation of pelvic pressure or heaviness, consider working with your healthcare professional or a pelvic-floor physical therapist.

Start With Awareness, Not Intensity

Your yoga practice doesn't have to become harder to become more beneficial.

A gentle seated practice, chair yoga, standing poses, or a supported movement sequence can provide opportunities to develop body awareness. Depending on your individual situation, certain movements may need to be modified.

And remember: more engagement isn't necessarily better.

Pelvic-floor muscles need both contraction and relaxation. Your goal is coordination—not spending an hour unconsciously clenching everything south of your rib cage.

Why Not Combine?

If you've already carved out 20 or 30 minutes for yoga, you've created something many of us struggle to find: dedicated time to pay attention to your body.

Why not use some of that time to develop pelvic-floor awareness and, when appropriate, practice the skills you've learned through PFMT?

It doesn't mean yoga replaces pelvic-floor training. It means your yoga practice can become a supportive environment for practicing those skills consistently.

And consistency matters. A 2025 systematic review found that adherence to pelvic-floor exercise therapy is an important factor in outcomes and quality of life, although the evidence around adherence remains varied (Villa-Del-Pino et al., 2025).

For older women, that may be one of the most practical benefits of all: fitting a healthy practice into something you're already doing.

A More Mindful Approach to Pelvic Health

Your pelvic floor is part of your body—not a separate department that requires its own appointment every Tuesday.

Yoga gives you an opportunity to slow down, breathe, listen, and become more aware of how your whole body works together.

So the next time you roll out your mat, consider giving your pelvic floor some attention, too.

Not with fear. Not with shame. And certainly not with another item on an already overflowing to-do list.

Just a little awareness, one breath and one movement at a time.

Continue Your Practice With Young Heart Yoga

If you're looking for a gentle, accessible way to keep moving and develop greater body awareness, the Young Heart Yoga App was created specifically with older adults in mind.

You can create an account and practice yoga and meditation from home, including accessible movement options that can help you build a consistent practice at your own pace.

One practice. One breath. One day at a time.

Download the Young Heart Yoga App through the Apple App Store, Google Play, or your web browser and make movement part of the life you're already living.

About the Author

Jackie Paunil is a published author, wellness advocate, and creator of the Young Heart Yoga App, designed for active and older adults seeking balance, vitality, and mindfulness. With certifications including E-RYT, RPYT, CHC, and an MFA, Jackie combines her extensive training and life experience to inspire others to live with purpose and wellness.

Residing on a ranch in Casa Grande, Arizona, Jackie leads an organic lifestyle surrounded by animals she adores. She is a devoted wife, mother, proud “GiGi” to her grandchildren, and a world traveler who has explored the depths as a master scuba diver. Her in-person yoga and meditation classes, alongside her app, reflect her passion for helping others thrive. Jackie's teaching philosophy is grounded in her own holistic practices, empowering students to embrace sustainable, joyful movement and mindfulness for a more vibrant life.

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References

• Cong, Z., Wang, Z., Sun, J., Tang, Z., & Yan, W. (2026). Pelvic floor muscle training for pelvic organ prolapse: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Urology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12894-026-02230-1 

• Dakic, J. G., Cook, J., Hay-Smith, J., Lin, K.-Y., & Frawley, H. (2021). Pelvic floor disorders stop women exercising: A survey of 4556 symptomatic women. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 24(12), 1211–1217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.06.003 

• Dakic, J. G., Hay-Smith, J., Cook, J., Lin, K.-Y., Calo, M., & Frawley, H. (2021). Effect of pelvic floor symptoms on women's participation in exercise: A mixed-methods systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 51(7), 345–361. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2021.10200 

• Hay-Smith, J., et al. (2015). Pelvic-floor-muscle-training adherence "modifiers": A review of primary qualitative studies—2011 ICS State-of-the-Science Seminar research paper III of IV. Neurourology and Urodynamics, 34(7), 622–629. https://doi.org/10.1002/nau.22771 

• Villa-Del-Pino, I., Jiménez-Rejano, J.-J., Rebollo-Salas, M., Rodríguez-Domínguez, Á.-J., & Suárez-Serrano, C.-M. (2025). Compliance and adherence to pelvic floor exercise therapy in people with pelvic floor disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Life, 15(4), 613. https://doi.org/10.3390/life15040613