When people think about the pelvic floor, they often jump to Kegels or postpartum rehab. 

Your pelvic floor actually plays a major role in movement, performance, and how we generate force.

The Pelvic Floor and Your Pelvis: A Dynamic Relationship

The pelvic floor is a muscle connecting the sit bones, pubic bone, and sacrum. It responds to movement, breath, and pressure.

• Pelvic external rotation (inlet opens, outlet narrows) = pelvic floor descends
  
• Pelvic internal rotation (inlet narrows, outlet opens) = pelvic floor ascends
  

These patterns show up every time you squat, walk, run, or lift something heavy. 

Descending the pelvic floor allows us to absorb force.

Ascension lets us produce force and propel to the other side.

What Happens When Things Get Stuck

Movement issues often show up as one of two patterns:

• Excessive descent → Always in a relaxed, externally rotated position. Hard to generate force or maintain pressure. Often feels “tight,” but actually lacks stability.
  
• Stiffness & Over-pressurized → Always pressurized and stiff. Hard to access depth or relaxation. These people struggle with squats or any deep hip flexion.
  

Neither is ideal. And both can be linked to chronic tightness, mobility issues, or poor performance.

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Using Squats to Train the Pelvic Floor

Here are three squat variations to target different pelvic floor needs- whether someone needs to descend, ascend, or learn to manage pressure through the full range of motion.

1. Heel-Elevated Squat to Box with Reach

For those who need to descend and decompress

This variation helps shift your center of mass backward and allows the pelvis to open. Elevating the heels and reaching forward both encourage descent of the diaphragm and pelvic floor. Sitting to a box adds even more support, helping the hips open and reducing outer-muscle tension.

Key benefits:

• Restores hip flexion
  
• Encourages posterior expansion
  
• Creates space for pelvic floor descent
  

Cue: Inhale and descend. Let the hips open and the floor drop. Use the reach to push yourself back- not forward.

2. Box Squat with 90-Degree Hip Flexion

For those who need to ascend and create internal pressure

Unlike the first variation, this one removes the heel lift and encourages more internal rotation. Descending to ~90 degrees of hip flexion forces the pelvic floor to ascend, and internal pressure to increase. You’ll exhale as you move to reinforce pressure management under load.

Key benefits:

• Rebuilds force production
  
• Trains controlled pelvic floor ascension
  
• Improves squat mechanics in stiffer clients
  

Cue: Exhale as you move. Maintain heel and inside arch pressure. Avoid collapsing or losing the rib-to-pelvis relationship.

3. Heels-Elevated Squat to Overhead Press

For training both descent and ascension in one sequence

This final variation combines the descent of the pelvic floor on the way down with ascension and pressure production on the way up. The press challenges coordination and reinforces upward pressure through the diaphragm and pelvic floor.

Key benefits:

• Trains both ends of the pelvic floor spectrum
  
• Builds full-range control
  
• Integrates expansion with force output
  
  

Cue: Inhale as you descend. Exhale and press up, driving through the floor with the inside arch of the foot and without locking your knees.

Final Thoughts

If you’re only training the pelvic floor with isolation drills or one-size-fits-all exercises, you’re missing the bigger picture.

The pelvic floor is dynamic. It responds to breath, movement, and load- and it needs variability. These three squat variations give you a starting point to retrain those patterns and build strength without compensation.

Want to go deeper?
The Rebuild Blueprint gives you a 3-phase system to improve pelvic mechanics, restore hip mobility, and build real-world strength—all with 15-minute training sessions you can use as a warm-up or a full program.

→ Explore the Rebuild Blueprint