Why Your Pelvic Floor Matters (Even If You’ve Never Had Kids)

Karly Treacy B.S., CPT, DNS, PRI: An intro to pelvic floor health & how to support it at any stage of life.

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After experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction following three pregnancies, Karly turned her personal struggle into a mission of healing and empowerment. With decades of experience in fitness and movement, she developed a science-backed approach to pelvic floor and core strength that works—because she’s lived it.

Her method, The KT Method, combines Pilates, yoga, Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, and trauma-informed movement, all grounded in real-life experience. She knows what it takes to heal, move confidently, and thrive.

Through her work with thousands of women, Karly has found that true vitality comes from intentional movement. It’s not just about strong muscles—it’s about breath, posture, balance, and mindset.

This work isn’t just about easing symptoms. It’s about reclaiming your body, building lasting strength, and feeling empowered at every age.

From Athlete to Injury: What I Wish I’d Known About Pelvic Health

When I started running track and cross country as a young athlete, no one ever talked about core strength or pelvic floor health! Many of us long distance runners had low back and hip injuries and pee’d our pants at the ripe ages of 15.

Despite my thousands of hours spent in pilates, yoga and personal training courses and certifications and thinking I was training my WHOLE body well, after 3 kids, I had total pelvic organ prolapse. Like my bladder was hanging outside of my vagina level of prolapse. I was told surgery with mesh was the only option for recovery.

Instead of this surgery, I studied to learn what was out of balance in my body to allow something like this to happen and then created a protocol for myself to heal it. I can proudly and happily say I am fully symptom and pain free. Most importantly, nothing is hanging out of my vagina and the years of back issues are completely in the rear view mirror.

My Mission to Educate and Empower

I am now passionate about educating young female athletes and women of all ages about everything I have learned and how to exercise to maintain or achieve pelvic floor health. If I knew then what I know now, I would have trained my body and focused my breath in very different ways! www.thektmethod.com 

The Symptoms No One Talks About

Many women at all ages will speak about low back or hip pain, a puffy low belly despite countless hours spent doing pilates or ab work or leaking urine when they jump, sneeze or run, painful intercourse or an inability to orgasm. When I hear any of this, my first thought, knowing what I know now is, what is the functional quality of their pelvic floor?

What Is the Pelvic Floor, Really?

The pelvic floor is a matrix of muscles that has an intimate relationship with the inner thighs and deepest layer of abdominal muscles. It acts like a second diaphragm. It is meant to expand and descend on an inhale and contract and ascend on an exhale in time with the thoracic diaphragm (the one we all know that resides near the lungs).

Why Breath and Body Positioning Matter

This can only happen if 1. Our rib cage and pelvis are in good position and our musculature supports this and 2. Most of the day we are relaxed enough to fully inhale and exhale.

The Real Reason We’re Struggling

If this isn’t the case, then the two diaphragms stop communicating and the pelvic floor starts to live, in most cases, in a descended state and thus no longer supporting the organs above. Given the epidemic of pelvic floor dysfunction and the aisles full of pads to soak up urine, I can confidently say that the majority of women and men do not have optimally positioned rib cages and pelvises and are likely too stressed most of the time to breathe fully.

What You Can Do Starting Today- Small Shifts, Big Impact

Awareness creates change.

The simple fact that you now know that you have to fully inhale and exhale as often as possible will already start to create a change.

The way we workout matters. It is very much not what we do, but HOW we do it! Because of daily habits and movement patterns, cell phone use, sitting at a desk, on a computer, driving etc. We end up with our pelvis’ tilted forward and our rib cages flaring out front.

In order to unwind these habits and patterns in our bodies, we have to train more mindfully. As we train the muscles that support pelvic health, it is important to train in neutral pelvic and rib cage position. Think about it as the pelvis is not spilling forward or backward and that the ribs do not stick out more forward than back.

Train Smarter, Not Harder

When we have done our best to find good positioning, we focus on training abs (especially obliques), hamstrings, inner thighs and glutes while adding a respiratory component, inhaling and exhaling fully. These little tweaks will completely transform your workouts!

Many people find that trying to do familiar exercises in this “new” position makes it very challenging so the tendency is to revert back to the old pattern. It’s important to be willing to do less in order to get more in the long run! Your body will adjust in a few weeks to this new way of moving and breathing!

A Lifetime of Resilient Movement

These are tools that you will implement for your lifetime. At all times, but especially at times of big hormonal shifts in women, puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause, tailoring your workouts to include a pelvic floor component will keep your beautiful body feeling great and vibrant and functioning optimally for all of your days!

Access a FREE 1-WEEK TRIAL and explore Karly’s entire digital library of training videos.