Why Kegels Are Usually Not the Solution for Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Pelvic floor dysfunction issues happen to just about EVERY woman at some point. But RARELY are we sharing our experiences, let alone sharing what WORKS for better function. Most of us think Kegels are the answer to all our pelvic floor issues, which is certainly not our fault.
In this post, I’ll be sharing why Kegels tend not to work when addressing pelvic floor dysfunction, even though we are almost always told by healthcare professionals, friends, and society in general that “strengthening” our pelvic floor is the solution.
The problem is that most of us don’t even know if we are doing a kegel right, let alone if Kegels are even the proper exercise for our pelvic floor issue.
Pelvic Floor Dysfunction is more common than you may think
So many women that I meet through my work say they have struggled with pelvic floor dysfunction. Some of them aren’t even diagnosed with it!
As women, many don’t share what’s happening with our pelvic floor other than making offhand jokes about leaky sneezes, surprises when working out or painful sex.
Most of us have low back and hip pain by the time we are in our 30s and 40s. We’re tight, and nobody talks about how those issues might be related to pelvic floor dysfunction.
We are usually sent to physical therapy and told to strengthen our abs or stretch our hamstrings.
If lucky, we’re sent to pelvic floor physical therapy. And when the right clinician gives us the answers we need, it is excellent.
If you are experiencing pelvic floor issues, my most significant advice is to go to a physical therapist and get diagnosed.
Core & Floor Foundations
In my core and floor foundations workshop, which I teach with my teaching partner Jenny Armstrong, we introduce a global set of tools and practices to improve overall pelvic function.
>>> Check out these pelvic floor exercises to get started with!
Why am I qualified to teach you how to maintain a healthy pelvic floor?
I am an experienced 500-hour RYT and have over 1000 hours of teaching experience. I take many continued education courses annually (I love learning!!). One of the main focuses that I have been working with is the pelvic floor, which I learned a lot about during my yoga teacher training.
Pelvic floor function and yoga: Our innermost selves
During my training, I learned to think about the breath more dynamically, how the body is a semi-closed system, and how everything is connected.
In yoga, we also learn about our deep core, the innermost layers of our body, energetically, physically, and spiritually.
Our innermost layers of the body are also those spaces between our organs, between our insides and our outsides.
The in and out of the breath is related and interwoven with pelvic floor health. Therefore, when we talk about the pelvic floor, we talk about the inlet and the outlet of this entire system.
The inlet and the outlet of the pelvic floor
The inlet of the pelvic floor is the top of the pelvis, the hips, and everything going down.
The outlet is the vagina, the anus, and the vulva.
Being weak versus being tight in the pelvic floor
The urinary bladder is one of those primary trouble spots. This means that when women face incontinence issues, they are usually told to strengthen the pelvic floor (usually with Kegels!).
Most women have yet to learn what the actual muscle they’re strengthening is, let alone if it’s weak muscles in the pelvic floor that are the issue.
What is frequently happening is that muscles are too tight. Not just in the pelvic floor, but in the hip flexors and the psoas.
The role that our hips play: The psoas
The psoas is a big diagonal muscle that runs from our 12th thoracic vertebrae, through our core, then down n front of our hip. Sometimes, this muscle is overworked, overstretched, understretched, or weak. Several things can go wrong with the psoas, especially when we have an imbalance in our legs, feet, and spine.
Pelvic floor issues can be a sign of something bigger that is going on in our hips or they can be causing something wrong somewhere else in our body.
Pelvic floor issues are unique to everyone
This is why it is important to do individualized work with the pelvic floor and understand the pelvic floor, how our anatomy works in general, and how your unique anatomy works.
In our Core & Floor workshop, we teach people to experience what is happening in their pelvic floor so they can understand this multi-layered, multidimensional system.
The anatomy of the pelvic floor is impressive
The pelvic floor is the base of our body, the bowl of our hips. It is what attaches our legs to our torso, what attaches the torso to the pelvis, and what attaches our spine to everything else.
Usually, when we’re told to think about the pelvic floor, we imagine holding our pee in, but it is so much more.
Breath as a tool for the pelvic floor
We can start to feel the pelvic floor more and what is happening in the pelvic floor by utilizing the breath and noticing how it responds to the breath.
The create is what creates movement in the pelvic floor. This is why the biggest tool we teach in our Core & Floor Foundations workshop is to feel the breath and the movement of the pelvic floor together. We work to build healthy breathing patterns in a three-dimensional direction.
The breath not only expands into the belly and chest! We often hear about diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing, which needs to be more accurate and helpful because the breath needs to expand/descend and contract/ascend in all directions – front, back, sides, up and down.
When we inhale, we want the breath to expand 40% into the back body and 60% into the front body.
One of the best ways to feel the breath is with a gentle heart opener. If you lie down on your back with a bolster horizontally placed underneath you (a block can be placed under the head) so it is under your upper back and ribs, you can feel the breath.
When you’re lying in this position, you can visualize the side seam of the body from the armpits, down through the waist, and to the outside of the hips and legs. We can feel the movement in this side seam as we inhale and exhale in this position.
What does this have to do with the pelvic floor?
It is all about measuring pressure in the canister of the torso. If your back is feeling very stiff doing this, it can contribute significantly to issues in your pelvic floor.
If you breathe deeply, you might feel tension develop in the upper back, between the shoulder blades, below the neck. This is an indication that your thoracic spine needs more mobility.
With any type of heart-opening, we’re opening the front of the body and allowing the thoracic spine to be more responsive.
But more importantly, we’re feeling what is happening with the breath.
We need to train ourselves to feel our breath
Most of us pay attention to our breath during yoga or meditation. But we really want to pay attention to and feel the breath in all areas of our lives.
We want to feel every sensation that the breath is creating and how we are creating sensation with intentional breathing.
This illustrates places in our body that might be tight.
Once we establish a 3D breathing pattern, we can naturally start to feel what is happening in the pelvic floor.
The breath is more important than Kegels!
This is why we don’t even talk about Kegels when you start working with me in Core and Floor foundations! Kegels might not be helpful for you and your individual pelvic floor dysfunction – or it may worsen things. On top of that, even if kegels could help you, you might need to do them right.
On the inhale the pelvic floor opens and descends and closes and ascends on the exhale
As we breathe in a 3D direction, we can start to feel the pelvic floor rise and fall. As we inhale and fill up the side, back, and front of the body, tune into the pubic bone, tailbone, and sitting bones. We can feel these points separate a little bit on the inhale.
As we exhale, these points gently come together and the tailbone scoops under. It takes some practice feeling into this!
Inhaling drops the pelvic floor down and the diaphragm descends. Exhaling causes the pelvic floor to rebound upwards.
Pelvic Floor Breath
When we become accustomed to feeling the movement of the pelvic floor in synchrony with the breath, this is called pelvic floor breath. This is one of the most important tools when it comes to understanding and rehabilitating your pelvic floor dysfunction.
In our Core and Floor Foundations workshop, we teach women how to sense THEMSELVES where they may be tight or weak by tuning into their body’s signals. It can be weird to think about what’s happening down there but as women, we need to talk about it!
Many women just accept the fact that after giving birth they need to put up with pelvic floor dysfunction as if it’s a given!
I am childfree by choice, however, I developed pelvic floor issues after pelvic surgery in my 20s. I worked hard on my core strength during this time, always drawing my navel to my spine, and focusing on the front of my core. This made my pelvic floor worse!
I couldn’t run, sneeze and I was leaking all the time. I had no idea what was going on! After doing all of this work on my pelvic floor, I can now do all of those things (even horseriding!) without issues.
I am not embarrassed to talk about any of this stuff!
I rejoice in women reclaiming their power over their body and their sexuality and letting go of any shame about talking about this.
Go Beyond the Kegel with us!
If you feel you could benefit from reclaiming the health of your pelvic floor, join Jenny and me inside our Core and Floor Foundations workshop!
This workshop is full of tutorials, full-length home practices, PDFs, and theory about the pelvic floor. We are there to support you on your journey to pelvic floor health – we can’t diagnose, but we do know how the pelvic floor works very well in general.
Jenny and I have a huge passion for this work and would love to support you on your journey to pelvic floor function.
