Pelvic Floor Health for Women: The Truth About Kegels, Breath, and Core Stability | Ep 385

The Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast

Erin Holt

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health, Nutrition

4.9 • 759 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everyone has a pelvic floor. We just don’t think about it until there’s a mega problem! Bloating, back pain, constipation, leaking – these symptoms are more common than you think. Erin is taking us on a deep dive of the often overlooked pelvic floor, explaining how it connects to our diaphragm, core, breath, and even our gut.

You’ll learn why chronic tension, shallow breathing, and stress can lock the pelvic floor into dysfunction, why kegels alone don’t solve the problem, and how to retrain your body through intentional movement and 360° breathing. Erin speaks from her own experiences, sharing the exact cues, poses, and breathwork practices that helped her rebuild strength, relieve pain, and reconnect with her body from the inside out.

In this episode:

The most common symptoms of pelvic floor issues, including how constipation and gut issues play a role
Why kegels alone won’t fix your pelvic floor – and what to do instead
How pregnancy and postpartum changes can affect the ribs, core, and pelvic floor
Why diaphragmatic breathing (not shallow chest breathing!) is the foundation of pelvic floor health
Erin’s favorite yoga poses for pelvic floor release, including child’s pose, happy baby, and supported hip openers

Resources mentioned:

Episode 380: The Real Reasons You’re Constipated (and What Actually Works)

FOR OUR FULL LIST OF LINKS + RESOURCES, HEAD TO:

https://www.thefunktionalnutritionist.com/podcast/385-pelvic-floor

Check out The Funk’tional Nutritionist: Website | Instagram

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Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)

Bon Charge (Use code FUNK to save 15%)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This type of breath that I'm talking about requires you to slow down. It requires you to sit still.
0:08.1	It requires you to be intentional. It requires you to solely focus on your breath, on your body.
0:19.1	To really do this, you have to pull your attention from the external world
0:23.8	and turn it inward. In this, you guys, is the real pain point. This is the real resistance.
0:30.7	This is why people aren't taking the time to do full, deep, diaphragmatic breathing,
0:36.3	even though it's the thing that can unlock your
0:38.5	entire health potential.
0:40.5	Welcome to the functional nutrition podcast, spell it with a K, because we do things a little
0:44.3	differently around here.
0:45.9	I'm your host, Erin Holt, and I've got 15 years of clinical experience as a functional
0:49.6	nutritionist and mindset coach, creating a new model that I call intuitive functional medicine, where we combine root cause medicine with the innate intelligence of your body.
0:59.5	This is where science meets self-trust.
1:02.1	Your body already knows how to heal, and this show is going to show you how.
1:06.5	If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health, be sure to follow and share with the friend because you never know whose life you might change.
1:14.6	Hey, my buddies.
1:16.1	So a few weeks ago, maybe it was more than that at this point, we released an entire episode
1:22.1	dedicated to constipation.
1:24.4	And in that show, we mentioned the pelvic floor. And I got a fair amount of DMs and request
1:31.5	asking for a full pelvic floor episode. In my Instagram stories, I shared a couple of things that I was
1:37.6	doing in my fitness routine that were very pelvic floor related. And a lot of people DM me to say,
1:45.0	like, I want to learn more about that. That's where I need help. So it's super top of mind for me right now. I am potentially
1:50.3	teaching a class for the yoga medicine conference on the interplay between pelvic floor health
	...

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