Finding your pelvic floor contraction can be challenging.
If I ask you to contract your PFM now, what do you feel?
Can you feel a movement?
Did you squeeze only your PFM or the tummy, legs and bum too?
Did you hold your breath?
Are you sure you are not pushing instead of squeezing?
Research shows that 50% of people don’t know how to contract their PFM correctly. Unlike your arms or legs muscles, that contraction is hard to see, you need to feel what’s happening down there.
If you have trouble to be aware of that area, biofeedback can help you. This is a machine with a screen that shows your PFM contraction, the relaxation, if you can hold, with what strength and train your muscles with different drawings. With it you can view what you are doing.
The second application of that device is to wake up and stimulate a weak pelvic floor.
In order to do that, we use a probe (vaginal or rectal) or sometimes external electrodes if the internal examination is not possible. It’s completely painless and useful for women and men.
It’s a handy tool to discover your PF area but to track your progress throughout your physio sessions as well.
