Why Kegel Exercises Aren’t Working + 5 Pelvic Floor Exercises You Can Do Instead

Before getting pregnant, you probably never thought about your pelvic floor muscles.

These muscles are located at the base of your pelvis — making a diamond shape from your tailbone to pubic bone. Their job is to control bladder function and hold vital organs in place. During late-trimester pregnancy and birth, these muscles are under a lot of stress.

Too much pressure or injury to the pelvic floor may cause symptoms like incontinence, prolapse, and painful sex. While these symptoms are common in postpartum moms, they aren’t normal.

Pelvic floor exercises are the best way to strengthen the pelvic muscles for labor and support them during postpartum.

And that’s how we get to Kegel exercises.

These are the holy grail of pelvic floor protection and recovery. They’re easy to understand and can be done immediately after birth.

But Kegels might not be the best way to support your pelvic floor muscles.

And if you’re reading this, you may have firsthand experience with Kegel exercises not quite doing the job.

Let’s explore why your Kegel exercises aren’t working and what you can do instead…

What Are Kegel Exercises?

Kegels are a popular pelvic floor exercise that requires you to clench and release your pelvic floor muscles. Imagine stopping and starting your urine mid-stream. It’s a weird visual, but it’s the best way to describe this movement! Of course, it’s important to never do Kegel exercises while peeing because this can cause bladder infections.

Kegel exercises are appealing for their simplicity. They’re easy to master and can be done from almost anywhere.

But here’s the problem: Kegel exercises focus on tensing the muscles more than relaxing them. This can create an imbalance and lead to something called a hypertonic pelvic floor (where your pelvic muscles are constantly contracted).

Why Kegel Exercises Don’t Work

The pelvic floor is made up of three different layers. Each of these layers plays a role in your pelvic floor health (from sexual pleasure to bladder function to holding your organs in place).

This is why choosing just one exercise for pelvic floor health isn’t enough. You need variations and different techniques to build stability and connection in your pelvic floor.

Kegel exercises don’t…

• Account for the whole pelvic floor. There are fourteen muscles and three separate layers that make up the pelvic floor. Kegel exercises only target a small portion of these.

• Create balance or intention strength in the muscles. True strength stems from balance. Since Kegel exercises only target a portion of the pelvic floor, they can lead to imbalance and make it hard for you to connect with your body.

• Consider core and breath connections. The pelvic floor interacts differently with Kegel exercises and diaphragmatic breathing. Both are essential to strengthening and recovering these muscles.

• Relax the pelvic floor. Relaxing and releasing your pelvic floor is just as important as activating it. Kegel exercises can create tightness in the pelvic floor and promote constipation, painful sex, urgency, and pelvic pain.

Kegel Exercises Can Promote Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

The reason we don’t recommend Kegel exercises (at least, on their own) is because they only train your muscles to contract. When the pelvic floor muscles are overactive (and super tight), the constant strain weakens the entire system. This is especially problematic during labor and delivery, but it can also interfere with postpartum healing.

A tight (or hypertonic) pelvic floor causes fatigue all the way from your core to the pelvic floor muscles that control your bladder. So if you’re doing Kegel exercises and still experience poor bladder control, diastasis recti, low back pain, or painful sex, you may want to check for a hypertonic pelvic floor.

Beyond Kegel exercises, these habits can also cause pelvic floor dysfunction:

• Standing for long periods of time without activating your diaphragmatic breath

• Clenching your jaw

• Holding or engaging your core for a long workout

 

The Results You Actually Want from Pelvic Floor Exercises

Supporting your core and pelvic floor doesn’t have to be confusing. It can be as simple as applying new techniques to train your inner core and pelvic floor at the same time. You just have to be willing to try something different.

This is why we teach these techniques inside Studio Bloom — to help you engage crucial building blocks for pelvic floor health and achieve tangible results.

• Strengthen

Your pelvic floor muscles are under extra stress during late-trimester pregnancy. They’re holding up your organs and your pregnant belly. Strengthening these muscles helps your body cope with the physical challenge of carrying your baby. That said, we always recommend slowing down on strength training at thirty-four weeks. This way you can focus on lengthening and stretching your pelvic floor in preparation for labor.

• Lengthen

Your pelvic floor’s ability to lengthen really shines during the pushing phase of labor. Whether you push for thirty minutes, an hour, or more, these muscles must be able to endure the task. Believe it or not, the inability to relax your pelvic floor can directly affect your degree of tearing.

During contractions, the pelvic floor muscles can lengthen up to four times their regular size. Most people assume the pelvic floor is used to push during labor, but this isn’t true. It needs to relax (or lengthen) and move out of the way, so the uterus can do the heavy lifting. And it needs to sustain this movement for a long period of time (that’s where the endurance comes in).

• Balance

A balanced pelvic floor can properly contract and lengthen. There’s a connection between you and these muscles, and you know how to activate them with intention. Although you may lose this connection briefly after labor, it’s easy to heal if your pelvic floor is well balanced.

Pelvic Floor Exercises You Can Do Instead of Kegels

• Diaphragmatic Breathing. It helps you regulate the pressure in your transabdominal wall and works to both lengthen and strengthen your pelvic floor.

• Belly Pumping. This is an extension of diaphragmatic breathing. It’s a Studio Bloom technique that pairs belly breathing with the engagement of the pelvic floor and deep core muscles.

• Lengthening Cues. Work with a pelvic floor therapist or personal trainer to lengthen, engage, and relax your pelvic floor with intentional cues.

• Fully Lengthened Kegels. Unlike regular Kegel exercises, this exercise focuses on intentional relaxation and lengthening of the pelvic floor muscles. You want to activate all sides of the musculature, too — not just “stop the flow of urine.”

• Pelvic Tilts. These are almost as simple as Kegel exercises, but really allow you to gain intention and connection with your pelvic floor. They work to lengthen, strengthen, and balance the pelvic floor all at once.

The Bottom Line: Balance Is Key to a Healthy Pelvic Floor

Pelvic floor exercises can feel intimidating — and at first glance, Kegels are an easy solution. But at The Bloom Method, we want to challenge you to connect with your pelvic floor muscles in a deeper way.

When you’re preparing for labor or dealing with incontinence, painful sex, prolapse, or diastasis recti, the payoff of finding balance in your core is huge. It’s worth investing some time to understand how your core and pelvic floor function together — and how they can make your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience that much better.

Start with the Basics — The Bloom Method Core Foundations