Why Kegels Might Be Making Your Symptoms Worse

Have you ever opened up about pelvic floor issues and someone said, ‘just do Kegels’… but they actually made things worse?  Well, that is actually very normal because kegels aren’t always the answer to solve your pelvic health issues!

Kegels are another term for a pelvic floor contraction. Your pelvic floor consists of a group of muscles that encompass the space between your tailbone and your pubic bone. These muscles help with sexual, bowel, and bladder function.

The pelvic floor, just like any other muscle in the body, can be overactive or underactive. An overactive pelvic floor can be caused by things like poor posturing over time, chronic constipation and straining, pelvic floor gripping while exercising, and even stress. This can ultimately lead to symptoms like pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, incontinence, urgency, frequency, etc. A tight pelvic floor is not the same as a strong one—in fact, it’s often the opposite. A lot of people with tight (overactive) pelvic floors also have a hard time recruiting those muscles appropriately and coordinating them with movement and breathwork.

In many cases, the pelvic floor can be overactive, which means that doing a kegel (a pelvic floor contraction) can actually make it tighter! If you have tried doing kegels and your pain, incontinence, or other pelvic floor symptoms feel worse, then you need a different approach to treat those symptoms.

Typically if the pelvic floor is overactive, a simple exercise like diaphragmatic breathing and habitual changes to your daily life can make a significant difference! The diaphragm is another muscle in the body and is responsible for contracting and flattening down to make room for air inside the lungs. The diaphragm and the pelvic floor are very closely related. When you breathe effectively with your diaphragm it can help relax the pelvic floor!

The most important thing you can do is make an appointment with a pelvic floor PT! There, they can do an extensive assessment to figure out the root cause of your symptoms. Sometimes kegels are the wrong answer and sometimes they are the right answer but you have been doing them incorrectly! Pelvic floor symptoms are complex, and a one-size-fits-all solution like kegels often misses the mark. Understanding what your body actually needs is the first step toward lasting relief!