To Kegel or not to Kegel

Well, to be honest, that's not the best question to ask.

The question to ask is, "How is my overall core health?"

Because the pelvic floor is not a stand-alone place in the body. It's deeply interwoven with our breath, our spine, our legs, even our psyche.

It's unrealistic to think that only your pelvic floor is problematic. If you have a problem with your pelvic floor, you'll also have some problems with your core. And if you have an issue with your core, you'll have an issue with your spine. You get the picture right? Kind of like if you give a mouse a cookie...

But alas,  I get the kegel question very frequently so let’s look at this question from a more global perspective of the body.

Pelvic floor health is integral to overall health.

Almost daily I happen upon a post, comment, or meme online about pelvic floor issues.

Sometimes folks are asking a question - usually “Is it normal that I…”

Pee in my pants?

Have painful sex

Feel heaviness in my pelvic floor

Don’t have much feeling at all in my pelvic floor at all

Or, it’s a joke about how after you have kids any one of these things happens, but that’s just life, eh?

Well, I’m here to stand on my soapbox and say no! It’s not just part of life. It’s not normal, though unfortunately it is common. And, very importantly there is nothing wrong with you.

The pelvic floor is intricate and complex, however, when we boil it down, it’s simply a group of muscles and organs. This is great news because muscles can easily change, which means your symptoms can quite easily improve.

To answer the question of whether you should Kegel or not, you must understand why you are having the symptoms you’re having. It’s important to get an assessment to see if the muscles are too high tone, too low tone, have adhesions, scar tissue, etc. But the point I want to make is, sitting around doing 100 kegels a day isn’t really helpful because it’s generally not including the rest of the core and it’s not being practiced in a functional way. For example, it’s great if you can Kegel in a chair, but can you (and do you) Kegel when you need to pick up your child? Our exercises always need to be functional and integrating into our lives, otherwise, there isn’t much point.

Pelvic floor health is important. It’s important to feel in control of your bathroom needs. It’s important to feel that you can and want to be intimate with your partner. It’s also just plain important for overall health in your body (poor pelvic health is strongly correlated with back pain, for example).

If you’re having any pelvic health issues, now is the time to learn why and how you can resolve them.

Tokyo Prenatal Center offers Pelvic Health care sessions. Our sessions include a detailed intake, an assessment, hands on care and physical re-education through Pilates.