**4. Discussion**

The aim of our work was to assess how the degree of functional involvement of the pelvic floor changes based on breathing of the tested person, depending on the position of the body in an upright position or lying down.

Our results showed statistically significant differences in tonic activity of pelvic floor muscles in lying and standing position. At the same time, however, we found in the initial study that the will-induced - that is, the phasic muscular contractions of the pelvic floor muscles are not different when comparing measurements taken while standing or lying down (**Table 3**). In other words, the amplitude increase (the value of the short-term pressure increase referred to as phasic action) was approximately the same for both lying and standing position, only when lying down there was a lower level of tonic contraction than when standing (the value of sustained tonic activity).

Only in reflex muscle activity (i.e. cough simulation), differences were detected not only in tonic muscle activity, but also in phasic muscle activity. Thus, it can be argued that this spontaneous response of the system to a cough maintains a tendency to higher amplitudes. This happens both when lying and standing. To evaluate the associations between lying or standing activity, Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for the same breath type (**Table 4**).

Our results show that the instruction to deepen breathing led to a different increase in the phasic muscular activity of these muscles. Phasic activity of pelvic floor muscles in deep breathing is statistically significantly higher than that measured in deepened breath after physical exercise of the tested person for a minute of running on the treadmill.


#### **Table 3.**

*Comparison of the response of the phasic and tonic activity of the pelvic floor muscles to the experimenter's instruction ("yes" means an increase in standing activity confirmed by mathematical statistics).*


#### **Table 4.**

*Test of the relationship between the increase of tonic and phasic activity of muscles by changing the position of the body.*

*Pelvic Floor Muscle Activity in Relation to Body Position and Breath DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98681*

The functional relationships of postural and respiratory function of the pelvic floor is known. But many clinical procedures rely on only one of these areas. It is more advantageous for the patient to undergo therapy linking the functional influence of the whole respiratory system and the pelvic floor system.

Not only in the direct treatment of pelvic floor dysfunctions, but also in the treatment of widespread low back pain. In routine clinical practice, the pelvic floor, in a patient with back pain, is not examined. If we remove all the pathologies found in the patient - muscle spasms, trigger points, joint blockages, muscle contractions, etc., without treatment of the pelvic floor, the patient will have temporary relief, but the pain will return.
