Have you been told to do kegel exercises to help with your incontinence?  Urinary incontinence in women is very common and kegel exercises are often the initial prescription but Kegel exercises are a bit of an elusive exercise that people know they should do but are never sure if they are doing them correctly.

Kegel exercises were designed by doctor, Dr. Kegel, who used a biofeedback device called a perineometer, to help women learn how to contract and relax their pelvic floor after childbirth. Read that again...contract AND relax.

Studies have shown that over 50% of women are doing kegels incorrectly and many are simply trying to squeeze as hard as they can and end up using their inner thighs or their glutes instead of their pelvic floor and they fail to consider the relaxation portion.  But it is not their fault.

What's happened to the kegel over time is that its regularly prescribed, but rarely taught and seldom do people have a proper pelvic floor evaluation to...

Can I Do Kegels On My Period? 

A Look at Pelvic Floor Exercise Throughout the Menstrual Cycle

While you may not feel like it, you absolutely can do kegels while on your period.  Your sense of motivation may be lower and your perception of ‘engaging’ the muscles may also be less but that doesn’t mean the muscles aren’t working.  Pelvic floor exercise may feel more or less effective depending on where you are in your cycle and if you are nearing menopause or past it.

The Menstrual Cycle

During menstruation (the follicular phase), estrogen and progesterone are relatively low but there is more estrogen relative to progesterone. Estrogen and testosterone are highest at ovulation and just after and then start to decline in the luteal phase followed by a drop in progesterone which starts the cycle once more.

During the first 14 days of the cycle the follicle is maturing and after the uterine lining has shed it starts to build back up again and...

The best core exercise you’ve never heard of is The Core Breath.  The inner core, what I like to call The Core 4, is made up of the pelvic floor, the breathing diaphragm, the transversus abdominis, as well the little muscles along our spine called the multifidus. These 4 partners work in synergy all day long and play a role in a lot of functions we take for granted.  Things like our continence, our pelvic and spinal stability, our organ support and even our sexual response.

When people think of core training they often think of planks, crunches, leg raises and maybe bird dogs… and its true…much of your core is involved in these activities.  What is often overlooked or not considered is the role of the pelvic floor in core training and how crucial it is to our long-term core function.

The pelvic floor is the base or foundation of the core and when functioning optimally, it is involved in a constant dance with the diaphragm with each breath. ...