How much do you know about your pelvic floor?

Firstly, in order to tackle pelvic floor issues, you will need to know what the pelvic floor actually is. Pelvic floor muscles are the layer of muscles that support the pelvic organs and span the bottom of the pelvis. The pelvic organs are the bladder and bowel in men, and bladder, bowel and uterus in women.

In all honesty, I don’t recall being particularly aware of, or concerned about my pelvic floor prior to my first pregnancy. It was, however something I became concerned about during that pregnancy, largely after reading a story in a magazine about a woman in her twenties who was left incontinent after her first child was born. Scary – it happens.

Now, this was one of those extreme stories but still, it got me reading about the pelvic floor, how important it is and how to exercise it.

How strong is your pelvic floor?

Do you think you have a strong pelvic floor? A survey carried out by INTIMINA has revealed that half of women are confident about their pelvic floor strength, but only 35% perform Kegal exercises sometimes and 19% almost never.

The INTIMINA survey was conducted with more than 700 respondents, age 18-60 from all over the world, shows that women are aware of health problems caused by weakened pelvic floor but most of them do little to prevent them.

One of the things people will say about pelvic floor exercises is that they “forget” to do them. I totally see how that happens and to stop me forgetting, I worked out a little routine with mine to remind me to do them.

Every time I am driving and I stop at traffic lights I do my pelvic floor exercises. I’ve been doing this for 11 years now!

No one can tell, as pelvic floor exercises are ‘invisible’ – at least they are now – when I was first learning to do them my eyebrows went up as I squeezed! Anyone else have this problem?

Make a change

Women’s intimate health brand Intimina is encouraging every woman to make a change to improve their health through a commitment to Kegel exercises.

Almost every third woman will suffer from incontinence, low vaginal tightness or postpartum vaginal weakness at some stage of her life – all of which are caused by a weakened pelvic floor – and the medical community’s claim that Kegel exercises are the best solution for these issues has also become common knowledge. The survey also found that those who regularly practice Kegels do it for a wide range of reasons: to improve their sexual health, as a part of post birth recovery and to fight incontinence.

With women more aware of the wide range of benefits to Kegel exercises, Intimina have risen to meet these wide demands, with both products like Laselle that uses simple weighted balls to improve the efficacy of a routine for experts, and KegelSmart, which is an intelligently-designed device that helps you learn exactly how to do Kegel exercisers and tracks your progress.

Making it a priority

It isn’t for lack of knowledge about the important impact Kegel exercises have on pelvic floor health, as 94% of participants claimed they knew all about the benefits of pelvic floor strength training, mostly from magazines or friends. Yet, 35% confessed to only doing their Kegel exercises ‘sometimes’ and for 19%,‘almost never,’ showing a clear disconnect between how important women know Kegels to be, and how much of a priority they make pelvic floor health in their own lives.

Do you make a conscious effort to practice these exercises or do you think you need to make more of an effort?

The research is clear when it comes to the benefit of daily Kegel exercises; the benefits are various, and rapid, and, with training products like the KegelSmart bead, which takes the guesswork out of proper pelvic floor strengthening, it’s never been easier for women to make a change and take control of their intimate health.

With so many things on our to-do lists every day, it can be hard making ‘extra’ time for things like this. I really think though that in years to come we will be glad we made the effort. Devices like this one make things that bit easier and most of all you have the reassurance that you are doing the exercises well.