The Truth About Kegels: What You're Missing - Episode 31
In this episode of the Marrón Health Podcast, Dr. Kari Roberts delves into the common misconceptions surrounding Kegel exercises. While popular belief suggests that Kegels are the one-size-fits-all solution for pelvic floor issues, Dr. Kari explains that they may not be effective for everyone. She discusses how Kegels primarily strengthen the pelvic floor but do not address tightness, coordination, or endurance issues. By highlighting the importance of understanding the root cause of pelvic floor dysfunction, she encourages listeners to seek individualized assessments from pelvic health specialists rather than relying solely on Kegels.
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Dr. Kari: Should you kegel or not?
Stay tuned so we can answer that question.
Welcome to the Marone Pelvic Health Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Carrie Roberts. On this show, we will be discussing a variety of things regarding your pelvic health. These conversations will be a mix of education,
personal experiences, and a blend of tips you can apply to have a healthier pelvis. The goal of this show is to normalize conversations around pelvic health and help women stop suffering in silence.
Recently, I've done some traveling and seen friends and family in person that I don't usually see.
And so of course, they want to ask how the business is going and what types of things I work with and what types of symptoms I help people with.
And I have been getting this question a lot lately.
It's either a question or a statement.
Should I do Kegels or. The statement is, I've been doing my Kegels and I wanted to just talk about it in a podcast because I figured we can get a little bit more in depth.
It's something I can refer people back to.
And so plain and simple, for those of you that are not familiar,
what is Kegels? What is a Kegel?
Very simply, a kegel is when you contract your pelvic floor muscles.
It's kind of a, you know, it's a. It's like doing a superset, if you will. You know, if you've ever gone to the gym and you do supersets of back to back sets of 15 or 20,
that's pretty much what Kegels are. It's when you squeeze the pelvic floor muscles and then you hold them. There are people on Instagram that are like, 1, 2, 3, counting up to 10, and then relax and then up and then down and then up and then down and up and hold,
hold, hold, hold, and relax.
And people really think that they're doing something and they are, they are definitely contracting their pelvic floor. But the ultimate question is why?
And then should you.
So a kegel is when you contract your pelvic floor muscles. And it's a way that people can strengthen their pelvic floor, ideally.
And the reason why, the first question is, why should you do pelvic? Why should you do a Kegel in the first place?
You should be strengthening muscles when weak muscles are the cause of your problem.
So the very interesting thing about pelvic floor dysfunction is if your muscles are too weak or if they're too strong, you can have the exact same symptoms.
Or it could Even be a third thing where the muscles are just not coordinated, or fourth thing, the muscle may not be.
It may not have the endurance that it needs.
So does Kegeling help with endurance?
No. Does Kegeling help with.
What was the third one I said? Endurance. I should have written this down.
Endurance. No, it does not help with endurance. Coordination.
No, it does not help. It will coordinate with other muscles in your body,
and then if the muscle is too weak. Yes, it does help if the muscles are too weak. But what if the muscles are too tight?
No, it doesn't.
So it's a 75% chance.
Three out of four reasons that you could. Things you could do with the pelvic floor.
Kegels only helps with one of them. And so, basically, when you're Kegeling, what you're doing is you're trying to do the same exercise for everything.
You're losing the personal impact of it all. You're. You're really just doing a. A blanket treatment for everything.
It's kind of like if you wanted your body to get stronger and you went to the gym and you only did super sets of bicep curls,
does that make your shoulders stronger? No. Does that improve your running? No. Does it help you with your endurance? Absolutely not. Will your bicep get stronger? Yeah, it can get stronger because it's gonna learn how to generate more force.
But it doesn't help that muscle integrate with other parts of the body.
It doesn't necessarily help you carry a bag of groceries better. It doesn't help you pull a door open better. It doesn't help you hold your baby better. All it does is help isolate that muscle.
And in real life, muscles do not work in isolation. You are a whole body,
and in your body, you have multiple muscles that are working together.
Sometimes they're working in stereo, sometimes they're on and off. When this muscle is on, this one is off, and vice versa. And so you get this really nice, dynamic coordination of muscles that create fluid movement.
So that's why you would do a Kegel. You. You would do a Kegel. If your muscles need to be strengthened in that way,
there's a bunch of reasons why you wouldn't. If the muscles are too tight, then you don't need to Kegel. We need to lengthen tight muscles,
not make them tighter. If a muscle is weak, yes, you need to strengthen the muscles, but you need to strengthen it through the whole range of motion. What if the muscle is strong and it's got great flexibility, but it's not playing well, with others.
And so you're still having pelvic floor symptoms.
Kegels doesn't help with that.
What? Something else about pelvic.
About Kegels.
There is this thing out there. I used to do it in college. Cause I thought that's what you were supposed to do. You just hear it around to stop the stream of your pee.
And then that's supposed to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. And that doesn't help with the coordination piece, because when you are emptying your bladder, voiding, micturition, whatever you want to call it, peeing.
When you are emptying your bladder, your bladder muscle is contracting to empty the.
The urine,
and your pelvic floor muscles relax to open it up. And there are about a half a dozen reflexes or so that allow this peeing, this micturition to take place.
So like I said, the. The bladder squeezes, and then the pelvic floor releases so that the urine can pass out.
So when you're sitting on the toilet, and while that pelvic floor is supposed to be being relaxed and you're turning around and squeezing it because you want to stop your fluff,
because you heard somewhere that that's what you're supposed to do,
what you could potentially be doing is messing up that coordination phase that has to do with that half dozen or so reflexes in order for you to empty your bladder.
So it's absolutely not advised.
And then if you want to go ahead and add insult to injury and you're squatting now, you're hovering over the toilet. Those muscles aren't able to properly relax the way that they need to.
And then they're not relaxing when they need to. So you can empty your bladder because you're too busy trying to squeeze it. And that can really throw off your coordination of your pelvic floor muscles, which give you your bowel and your bladder control.
So that's. I just wanted to explain that because Kegels can be so wrong for so many things. Now I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, and I want you to think about.
This is not standardized. I could. I could go through the standardized test, but I'm not going to. But just off the top of the dome,
do you find that you carry a lot of tension or stress in your shoulders?
Okay, we're going to do the thing where you hold up your fingers. And if you do it, you know, you can put one down.
Do you grind your teeth at night or in the day? Do you grind your teeth?
Do you take deep breaths in through your belly. Are you a diaphragmatic breather or do you breathe more up here in your chest and in your shoulders?
If you breathe more up in your chest or shoulders, then you drop a finger.
Do you find it difficult to completely empty your bladder or to completely empty your bowels?
When you are nervous or frustrated or lost,
do you find that you often associate?
Not you associate, but when you're feeling nervous or frustrated,
do you find that those are the times where you have to go to the bathroom?
Do you have times where you might dribble a little bit on your way to go to the bathroom, or you just don't make it in time?
If you've answered yes to some of those things, then those are signs that you might. Your pelvic floor might be tight or not properly coordinated. And you, my friend, should definitely not be doing keels.
So this is a short podcast, but I just wanted to get on my soapbox a little bit and explain. Explain this, but Kegeling is a form of a contraction of your pelvic floor muscles,
and it's really good for people that need to strengthen their pelvic floor.
But your pelvic floor, you can have issues pelvic floor dysfunction if your pelvic floor is too tight,
which means it doesn't have the proper range of motion, if your pelvic floor is too weak,
if your pelvic floor is lacking coordination or if it's lacking endurance and Kegeling does not help increase endurance, it does not help with coordination, and it does not help if your pelvic floor is too tight.
So more than likely what you're trying to fix, you could potentially be harming. And so just as a general rule, I tell people, don't, don't Kegel, don't Kegel at all.
Try to figure out why you're feeling that way. And if you can't figure it out, go ahead and reach out to me or another pelvic health specialist that you, that you trust,
because we are here to help you.
We're here to help you enjoy your sexual function without any issues. We're here to help you maintain your bowel and bladder control.
We're here to help you prep for pregnancy. We're here to help you overcome changes that you might experience with perimenopause or menopause,
painful periods. We're here for all of those things. So please come back in a couple of weeks and I will be in your earbuds with another episode.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Maroon Pelvic Health Podcast,
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