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Kegel 2.0
“How to do a Kegel” articles often recycle the same advice: Use the muscles that stop and start your urine flow. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. (Okay, it was just repeat). The web, self-help books and women’s health magazines are filled with the same articles encouraging this routine. Same advice, with the same result. It doesn’t work. Women faithfully follow this advice but they still leak, others try but can’t feel anything, and most get so frustrated they just give up. For years this has been the story for women, because this has been the only information available.
Time for a change.
In the last decade, research has given us new insight into how the pelvic floor (our Kegel muscles) functions. We can finally give women new tools to enhance pelvic floor function. Want to see real change “down there”? Follow these three steps.
First step: Figure out where the heck your muscles are.
Your pelvic floor is a hammock of muscles that run from your pubic bone in the front to your tailbone in the back. All the muscles of the pelvic floor work together and you can use them in different ways. The parts of the pelvic floor towards your backside will close and lift your anus up and in, which helps to support and control your bowel. The parts of the pelvic floor towards the front will close and lift up and in your urethra and vaginal opening.Thus providing support and control for your bladder and uterus.
Second step: Try to activate your pelvic floor.
Stand up and try a Kegel as best you can, using your current strategy for a pelvic floor lift. Where do you feel the contraction? Around your anus? More toward the front of your pelvic floor? Do you hold your breath? Contract your bum? Contract your abdominals? If performed properly, you should feel a balanced contraction between the front and back parts of your pelvic floor and they should lift up and in. It is very common for women who are struggling to stop urine leaks to only feel the contraction around the anus when they try to perform a Kegel. If this is what you experience than this means that the parts of your pelvic floor towards the front that support and control the bladder aren’t responding to the call to lift. A squeeze only around the anus will not stop a urine leak.
If you hold your breath, squeeze your bum, or brace your abdomen, these are substitutions your body has made for a weakened pelvic floor (happens after pregnancy for some, but some women experience weakness and leaks even if they have not had children). These muscular compensations will not help you control a leak. In the case of breath holding or an abdominal contraction, this will actually make leaking worse because of the significant pressure that is created from above pushing against a weakened pelvic floor.
Third Step: Take it to the next level: Kegel 2.0
Let me teach you a trick to get the front of the pelvic
