The Importance Of A Strong Pelvic Floor
As far as body parts go, the pelvic floor is pretty important. Like really important. To quote Dr. Cindy Neville. PT, DPT, WCS, and Board Certified Specialist in Women’s Health Physical Therapy, “The pelvis is the center of your body’s universe. It connects your upper and lower body, so it’s literally the center and the core of your body... the pelvic floor even affects the way we breathe. When those things are working fine, you don't even think about them. But if they’re not, it can cause a lot of problems.”
As women, we generally know that a strong pelvic floor is commonly associated with the ability to pee or deliver babies. But the role of the pelvic floor goes way beyond the basics. Below, we’re counting down why having a strong pelvic floor is so vital across all aspects of your life.
It Helps With The Big O
68% of women struggling with incontinence avoid sex. By building back your pelvic floor with INNOVO, not only are you treating bladder leakage, but a stronger pelvic floor leads to better sexual health, better orgasms and more confidence with your partner.
How exactly does a strong pelvic floor improve your sex life? Strong feelings of arousal and orgasms involve contracting your pelvic floor muscles. But a weak pelvic floor leads to weakened sexual sensation as those muscles contract. By strengthening your pelvic floor, you’ll be able to feel sexual pleasure more intensely. In fact, a study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine looked at `145 postmenopausal women and found that doing Kegel exercises regularly boosted arousal, chance of orgasm, and overall sexual satisfaction.
It Protects Your Urinary and Reproductive System
If your pelvic floor is weak, then the surrounding ligaments and other tissue can lead to loss of bladder control and stress urinary incontinence, which is that feeling of leaking during sudden movements or stresses to the bladder like coughing, sneezing and laughing. Many women even develop bladder or uterine prolapse, which occurs when the uterus loses support and can slip down or bulge out of the vagina. Whereas a strong pelvic floor protects against uterine prolapse as well as SUI. For women of childbearing age, a strong pelvic floor can help during labor and delivery.
It helps, ahem, Back There....
Just as with urinary incontinence and retention, your bowel movements can become too frequent or not frequent enough. If you’re constipated, chronic straining can lead to weakening of the pelvic floor muscles, excessive stress on pelvic organs and nerves, as well as bladder dysfunction and recurring accidental bowel leakage. Weakened pelvic floor muscles, caused by constant straining during bowel movements, may contribute to recurring accidental bowel leakage called fecal incontinence.
Fecal incontinence happens when some of the stool seeps around the constipated stool and leaks out. Kegel exercises that strengthen pelvic floor muscles can improve your bowel control.
It Makes You Feel Confident and Amazing
Wouldn’t you love to go out for a run and not have to stress about wetting your shorts? Wouldn’t it be great to wear your white pants to ladies' night and not have to stick a pad inside? A strong pelvic floor helps you feel more confident and lets you regain control over your life. Get back to working out, having fun and living with a strong pelvic floor.
How To Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor With Kegel Exercises
Not all kegels are created equally. Doing your kegels correctly is a vital part of pelvic health, as an incorrect kegel could make things worse. You know you’re doing your kegel wrong if you’re holding your breath, (that pushes the diaphragm muscle down and increases intra-abdominal pressure, which then pushes the pelvic floor muscles down and is basically the opposite direction you want them moving), tightening up your abs, glutes or thighs (wrong muscle group!) or doing them impatiently and rapidly. If you feel added pressure in your belly or thighs, or if you’re holding your breath or putting pressure in your jaw, shoulders or back, you’re doing your kegels wrong.
To properly do a kegel, you’ll want to pretend you’re sitting on a blueberry. Then, you’ll tighten your pelvic floor muscles as if you want to lift up the blueberry. Keep it lifted and count to three. Then slowly relax back down over a count of three. Repeat. Again, you don’t need to hold your breath or tighten your entire body. You only need to focus on tightening your pelvic floor muscles as opposed to your abs or anything else. Remember to breathe freely.
The Best Way To Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor
INNOVO’s proprietary at-home solution is the safest, most convenient way to ensure that you are doing your kegel exercises properly so that you can go leak-free and get back to doing what you love. We deliver the perfect kegel right to you for maximum benefit and treatment of stress incontinence. Using INNOVO for just 30 minutes a day/five days a week over 12 weeks has been proven to treat bladder weakness - delivering results in as little as 4 weeks. Find out how INNOVO works here.
