The Magical Connection.....Or not.

Ok. So we all have heard it before. "Just do your Kegels." Well, the truth is that it's not quite that simple. Studies show that a verbal cue alone is not enough to get the right action. Let's face it, when you work out, do you think, "Ok, now let's do an exercise for my pelvic floor." Did you give your pelvic floor one half of a second of thought before injury or giving birth? We get visual feedback for most of the other muscles we use in our body; especially when exercising. (ie. Bicep curl: I watch my hand pick up the weight, and bend my elbow. I feel the weight and see my arm move. I can even see my bicep contract!) But, most of us have not watched our pelvic floor in action! There is no feedback loop to help you know that something is off because you never knew what it looked like or felt like when it was working right. So, for many of us, finding a good standing posture and actively doing a Kegel is not the magical key to incontinence prevention and pelvic floor recovery.  Thinking you know where the muscles are and knowing where they are will make all the difference. Furthermore, if you don't get personalized feedback about how your body is working, how do you really know what you need? Now, there is so much more awareness about pelvic health. That is great! Some exercise classes include pelvic awareness into their regime. I have taught those classes myself! But, I have learned despite all of my efforts to describe the goal of the exercise, the feeling of contraction and even with promoting good posture first, women and girls still have a hard time achieving a great PF contraction. I have learned that more often than not, a PF contraction performed during a class or during a one on one session prior to appropriate training, quite often targets the posterior muscles of the vagina and anus. Most of us want to target the front muscles around the urethra (where you pee from)! It takes just a few minutes to identify and activate each of the ever so important components of the pelvic floor. Once you get the training you have achieve that magical connection with your pelvic floor! And the good news is, there is no internal exam needed to get started!