Kim (00:01.838)
Welcome to another episode of Between Two Lips. I'm your host, Kim Bapni, the vagina coach. And in this week's episode, this is a short, quick episode that is answering the most common question that I get. Every single day, multiple times a day, I get the question, will these exercises work for blank? Will these exercises work for overactive bladder?
Will these exercises work for rectal prolapse? Will these exercises work for fecal incontinence? Will these exercises work if I have been dealing with the issue for over 20 years? Will these exercises work if I am post menopause? Will these exercises work if I have had a hysterectomy? Will these exercises work if I have already had two failed surgeries?
Will these exercises work if I am wearing a pessary? Will these exercises work if I'm already two years postpartum? Will these exercises work if I've never given birth? Will these exercises work if I struggle with making it to the bathroom in time? I could go on and on and on, but that covers most of the list of what people ask me about.
in comments on Instagram and Facebook, email messages, and also in my community. Short answer is yes, but pelvic floor exercise is very well established in research for benefits with regards to stress urinary incontinence and anal incontinence, as well as for prolapse,
The yes and or the yes but is even if you had none of the above. If you have a pelvic floor and being the vagina coach, I focus on women, people with vaginas, but men also have pelvic floors as well. And a lot of the principles that I teach apply whether you have male or female anatomy. We just may use slightly different cues.
Kim (02:28.075)
And some of the reasons why pelvic floor dysfunction may exist would be different between the two sexes. But focusing primarily on the female population that I work with, even if you had none of the above, but you've been hearing about pelvic floor and wondering, is it something I could do to prevent as well?
Short answer is yes, really, we all should have been told this information much earlier in life so that we have built a culture and a lifestyle around optimizing our pelvic floor. But it's never been talked about, it's never been taught, and it's not typically until some sort of symptoms show up.
that people first start paying attention. I remember in sixth grade, I think it was sixth grade around that time, a dentist came to our school and we all got this little package with a bright pink pill and we were told to chew this tablet. And this tablet would highlight areas of plaque in our mouth. And we were then taught proper brushing techniques and we were told that we should see the dentist once or twice a year. And
Up to that point, our parents had also been teaching us how to brush our teeth and it became a habit. It became something you did at least twice a day in the morning and at night. What if somewhere around that same time we had an introduction to our bodies? Maybe a little bit later when we're learning about sexual health and body health, anatomy, menstruation.
birth control, that would be a really great opportunity to come in with education around this amazing group of muscles called the pelvic floor and all of the jobs that it does. And being female, because we menstruate, because many of us will be pregnant at some point in our life and give birth vaginally or via cesarean, because all of us who reach midlife will go through menopause.
Kim (04:48.489)
These all are risk factors. There's lots of other ones, but these are the main risk factors just by being a woman that can increase the likelihood of pelvic floor dysfunction. Statistically, with stress urinary incontinence, somewhere between 30 and 40%. I argue that number is a lot higher because so many people...
think leaking is normal after childbirth or normal when they're getting older, normal postmenopause, and they don't seek help for it. We're told from the pad companies that it's just part of being a woman. And we might even have been dismissed by care providers. What do you expect after you have babies? So a lot of people do not report or do not seek help for stress urinary incontinence. Statistically, on the prolapse side, 50 % of women who have given birth,
have some degree of prolapse, not always symptomatic. And it's not until it becomes symptomatic or something shifts and there is a visible bulge that people say, what the heck is this? And they're told they have a prolapse, which statistically is actually more common than incontinence, but even less screening, less conversation around it. People are sidelined mainly by that diagnosis of
prolapse. And this is something that we arguably could, I don't think we can 100 % prevent it, but we can certainly mitigate the risks. And if we had this information earlier in life, and we understood that we have professionals, like we have dentists for our teeth, there are pelvic health physical therapists to help with our pelvic floor. And once we become sexually active, we would see these people once a year, even if we have no symptoms, but especially if we do.
and we would go for our checkup. Just like we go to the dentist, even if we don't have a toothache, even if we've been brushing and flossing regularly, we go. And if we get a clean bill of health from the dentist, we don't stop brushing and flossing, we carry on with our routine. And that doesn't mean that we will never get a cavity, it doesn't mean that we will never need a root canal, it doesn't mean that there can't be issues along the way, but the dentist is helping screen for them and will also help.
Kim (07:10.697)
with a plan to overcome anything that you do face. If we had established pelvic health practices earlier in life, people would not be so sidelined by these diagnosis. They would have a professional they know they could go and talk to and have a proper evaluation. They would have screening regularly, so things would be caught earlier. And they would have somebody on their side to help them with a plan to overcome.
these problems.
Currently, that really doesn't exist. And in the 19 years that I have been working in this field, I can tell you that the most popular customer I have is somebody who is symptomatic, who will do anything to overcome those symptoms. They are desperate. They've often been trying for years. They may have asked their doctor or several doctors. They may have been down the surgical path. They may or may not have had surgery.
Not very many of them have seen pelvic floor physical therapy. It's becoming more common. Some people have, but it still is something that not a lot of people have heard about and haven't gone.
When they come to me, they are again in that desperate state and they see my ads or they see my Instagram or my posts and they say, will these exercises work for X, whatever their current situation is. So while the buff muff exercises, there's no guarantee that this will help every single person.
Kim (08:54.345)
There's no guarantee that it will improve your incontinence. There's no guarantee that it would improve your urgency. There's no guarantee that it would help you sleep through the night and not have to wake multiple times. There's no guarantee that it would reverse any prolapse symptoms or change the position of your prolapse. And I can go on and on. There's no guarantee about that. But as I said before, even if you had none of the issues, I believe it's imperative that we all
are doing pelvic floor muscle training as part of our body health care routine. We have some evidence to look at if we're doing whole body resistance training, is that enough and will it translate into the pelvic floor to help overcome or prevent some of these symptoms? And it's not quite enough. We do need pelvic floor muscle training in addition to the other fitness practices that we do.
When we combine them, so we do have research, one piece of research looked at Kegels, which is a form of pelvic floor muscle training, done prior to a resistance training program, showed better results than people doing just Kegels alone. Another piece of research on elderly women showed that people combining their pelvic floor muscle training with resistance training, they saw results sooner.
And this, both of these studies really support my bias, which is incorporating pelvic floor exercise, pelvic floor muscle training into whole body movement. So no, I can't guarantee that it will 100 % work for X. But my answer is always yes, because we all should be doing
pelvic floor muscle training, we all should be doing whole body movement and resistance training. So if you come into the buff muff method or the membership and you're doing the exercises and it doesn't help, there's a few things we can look at that have you seen a pelvic floor physical therapist? Is maybe there's some scar tissue that's creating some issues? Do you have a lot of tension and maybe adding a bit more upregulation is a little bit too much right away?
Kim (11:22.793)
Are you low in estrogen? There's a lot of other screening questions we can go through. But even if you have tried all of the things, the diet, the lifestyle, the supplements, the fitness, everything that I preach, and you've done that for six to 12 months and you still are symptomatic, we have this option of surgical or procedures, surgical intervention or procedures that can also come in and augment and potentially help.
If we go down that path, in my opinion, and hopefully in evidence -based opinions and evidence -based results soon enough, we will show that prehab, so all of the work that you have been doing with pelvic or muscle training, will prepare you for that procedure. And after you've had that procedure, just because your symptoms are gone, it doesn't mean that
You don't need to do pelvic floor muscle training anymore. I argue you need to do it even more. So everything that you have been doing and practicing and learning will continue to be your pelvic floor lifestyle, your pelvic floor fitness regime for the rest of your life. So even if you choose surgery or need surgery at some point down the road, even if you have had surgery,
pelvic floor muscle training is essential.
End of story, it's essential. For 17 bucks, you can come and take the Buff Muff Method and give it a try. Just today, I had a woman in my community who had joined the Buff Muff Method. Everybody who joins the method, spoiler alert, you get free access, a one -time gift to the 28 -day challenge. She did the 28 -day challenge. I believe it was she was 66.
Kim (13:23.849)
She had been to pelvic PT, she had done everything and she was feeling very skeptical, but she was also feeling still a little curious and a little hopeful. So she decided to invest 17 bucks and come in and try the Buff Muff method. And it was life -changing for her. She was able to overcome symptoms and she's now says, okay, I'm bought in, I'm gonna come into the full membership because I want more. And I'm not saying this to sell my membership or to sell my method.
You can work with a pelvic floor physical therapist. There are other pelvic health fitness professionals. Find what works for you, but just please understand the importance of this amazing group of muscles called the pelvic floor. It is vital to our joie de vivre. It's important. It's this muscle group that, it's our center.
And as we are aging and as we are losing muscle mass and collagen and hyaluronic acid and estrogen and bone, like all of these things are working against us, we have to fight damn hard to maintain and we can build as we are aging. And if the pelvic floor is not working as well as it should be, we will be avoiding impact. We will be avoiding social outings. We will be avoiding exercise.
we will become very withdrawn and therefore our risks of osteoporosis and heart disease and Alzheimer's, all of those risks are going to go up, they're going to be even higher because we aren't participating in exercise. We need our pelvic floor because it opens up possibilities for all the other things that we need to do to maintain this amazing vessel that,
that we live in, our bodies. So to wrap up, will these pelvic floor exercises or will these buff muff exercises work for X? Yes, give it a try. Come and join us. And the final thing I'll say is it's not just about magic exercises. It's a whole holistic approach that covers diet, posture,
Kim (15:45.942)
breathing, behaviors, pooping, all sorts of things. It's not just about exercises. And some people come in and they just like, just show me the exercise. I just want to get started on the exercises. The exercises will absolutely help, but that's not the only thing. And you need to follow it sequentially as it's been laid out for you, because that's where the magic will happen. So trust the process.
Everybody, I recommend see a pelvic floor physical therapist once a year. Make that just like you go to the dentist. See your pelvic floor physical therapist once a year, even if you have no symptoms, but especially if you do. And establish a robust pelvic floor fitness program. It only has to be 10 to 15 minutes a day, that's it. And you can combine it with whole body resistance training. So you're tackling your bones, your brain and your heart all at the same time, as well as your pelvic floor. So I will see you inside the bufma.
