Benefits of Kegel Exercises Throughout a Woman’s Lifetime



Kegel exercises, sometimes called pelvic floor exercises, are done to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. Strengthening these muscles has many benefits throughout a woman’s lifetime.



These muscles and tissues are like a hammock or sling at the bottom of your pelvis to hold your organs in place. Keeping them strong doesn’t take long, yet consistently performing these exercises will result in many advantages.



Recovery before and after childbirth



Women can strengthen pelvic floor muscles before childbirth or after a vaginal or cesarean delivery.



As Dr. Olson mentions in the podcast episode, the use of kegel weights during pregnancy can help women identify the right muscles to assist with labor and delivery.



Pelvic Organ Prolapse



Prolapse can be caused by weight gain, childbirth, hysterectomy, chronic or long-term coughing, or constipation.



Regular kegel exercise can improve pelvic organ prolapse by making your muscles stronger.



Improving Sexual Health



Healthy pelvic floor muscles can contribute to better sexual function and improves sex for both partners.



Read more about kegel exercises with weights for better orgasms.



Strengthening Weak Pelvic Floor Muscles



Weak pelvic floor muscles may be a result of pregnancy and childbirth; however, it can also be caused by surgery, heavy lifting, and chronic straining. Urinary incontinence may also be a symptom of weak pelvic muscles.



Exercising the correct muscles as part of a daily routine can help relieve these symptoms.



If you suspect you have weak pelvic floor muscles, consult your healthcare professional for an assessment. Mention any symptoms you may have and ask for a referral to a women’s health physical therapist.



Improve Bladder Control



Many women experience urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, or laughing.



Kegel exercises help to strengthen the pubococcygeus (PC) muscle. These muscles are activated when one stops the flow of urine.



Stress urinary incontinence is bladder leakage that occurs with strenuous movements such as exercises, lifting heavy objects, or while coughing, sneezing, or laughing. Kegels are the best cure for urinary incontinence.



Using pelvic floor muscle exercises significantly improved quality of life in an assessment of 2400 women with urinary incontinence.



Dr. Olson recommends for those who experience urine leakage get help through a certified healthcare provider, pelvic health specialist, urology clinic, or women’s health physical therapist.







Maintain Pelvic Health During Menopause



Women may experience an overactive bladder, urinary incontinence, and other symptoms during menopause which may benefit from consistent kegel exercise.



Working out the vaginal muscles with kegel weights can be part of your exercise routine.



Do Kegel Weights Work?



According to research, the answer is yes!



Kegel exercises with weights are effective at addressing issues such as urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse when they are performed in sufficient amounts. The research varies as to how many per day are necessary and for how long, however they are commonly prescribed as a contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, held for 3-5 seconds, performed in sets of 10, 3-8 times per day.



How to Use Intimate Rose Kegel Weights



You may have read about kegel balls which I have previously written about in my article about Ben Wa Balls; however, these are not FDA-approved vaginal weights. Intimate Rose kegel weights are FDA-cleared silicone and are easy to clean and use.



Starting with the lightest weight, use it for about 15 minutes daily while going about your normal daily activities. Your muscle contraction will hold it in place. As you get stronger, you can move up to the next weight.



Read more on Dr. Olson’s website IntimateRose.com





Exercise for about 15 minutes a day, five days per week using the intimate rose weights. Kegel Exercises help you build stronger and tighter vaginal muscles for improved bladder control, easier labor, faster childbirth recovery, and to treat weak pelvic floor muscles.











Pelvic floor exercises, with or without Kegel balls, help tighten your pelvic floor and can help with common issues in women such as pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, bladder control and can give you stronger feeling vaginal muscles!



Meet Dr. Amanda Olson













Read Dr. Olson's book Restoring the Pelvic Floor for Women





Amanda Olson, DPT, PRPC, and president and chief clinical officer of Intimate Rose. Dr. Olson is passionate about empowering all people with pelvic health issues, including pelvic pain, incontinence, and pre-and post-partum issues. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Pacific University and a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Regis University, graduating as a Jesuit National Honor Society member. She holds a Certification of Achievement in pelvic floor physical therapy (CAPP-PF) through the American Physical Therapy Association and the Pelvic Floor Practitioner Certification (PRPC) through the Herman and Wallace Pelvic Institute. She is also a certified Stott Pilates instructor and RRCA-certified running coach. Dr. Olson teaches various pelvic health topics internationally, including pelvic floor dysfunction in runners. She has written several physical therapy continuing education courses, peer-reviewed journal articles, newspaper and magazine articles on pelvic floor dysfunction and running, and authored the book Restoring the Pelvic Floor For Women.







Radzimińska, Agnieszka et al. “The impact of pelvic floor muscle training on the quality of life of women with urinary incontinence: a systematic literature review.” Clinical interventions in aging vol. 13 957-965. 17 May. 2018, doi:10.2147/CIA.S160057







Interview with Dr. Amanda Olson



[00:00:00 ] Rebecca: I am here today with Dr. Amanda Olson and we are talking about something that is very important to women throughout their lives, and she has some great information.



So I'm excited to get started. Can you tell us a little bit Dr. Olson, how you got started in the field of women's health.



[00:00:17 ] Amanda: Absolutely. I I've been doing pelvic health for almost 14 years now, 14 years. And I finished my doctorate degree in physical therapy and I had a, I had an injury where I fell from 40 feet or jumped off of a cliff here in Oregon out



camping and, and being out in nature. And it was one of those places where it's it was deemed safe to be doing cliff jumping and I'd never done it before and off the cliff I went and I landed on my bottom and injured myself very significantly. And I had to go through the pelvic health rehabilitation process because I



severely injured my pelvis and all of my pelvic floor muscles and my tailbone. And I, I, it totally changed my life. You know, it was one of those very scary things where it could have gone a lot of different ways, but I was, I was able to totally heal with the help of pelvic health rehabilitation with a colleague.



And I went on to have two boys and run marathons and do all kinds of interesting things. So it, it made me change course at the end of my rehabilitation process. My pelvic health physical therapist said you need to quit pediatrics, which is what I was specialized in at the time I had done my doctoral dissertation on children with down syndrome and I was in a totally different field.



And she said, you need to quit pediatrics. It's still a good field, but you need to come and do this cuz there's not enough in the country. And we need more. And so that was roughly 13 years ago, 14 years ago. And I went back and had to re-certify and go to a bunch more school and a bunch more courses. And this is what I do now.



So my, my background as a physical therapist is that I am highly specialized in bowel and bladder and pelvic pain conditions. And then I went on to create. Amazing devices to help empower people to manage their pelvic health conditions as part of a comprehensive, you know, treatment plan with other medical professional care.



And then I wrote a book and this is what I do now.



[00:02:18 ] Rebecca: wow. I mean, that is so much to unpack. I first of all, can't believe you even survived a jump, you said 40 feet,



[00:02:27 ] Amanda: 40 feet. Yeah. Which at 40 feet water acts like concrete. The problem is right. Apparently you're supposed to land straight. So when people go cliff jumping, you're supposed to land like a pencil.



And I landed in the shape of an L. So I landed bottom first. Yeah. Apparently not what you're supposed to do. You're right.



[00:02:46 ] Rebecca: It makes my stomach hurt just to think about yes. .



[00:02:49 ] Amanda: Yes. Yes. It was really bad. You know, I had injuries to my back to my pelvis. I'm I'm really lucky if I had rotated a little bit and hit my head, I'd have been gone.



Or even if I'd hit a little bit more back first, I think it would have been a very different outcome. So. I'm I'm really, really lucky and very thankful for the healing process bodies heal. yeah.



[00:03:11 ] Rebecca: Needless to say that was a life changing accident.



[00:03:14 ] Amanda: Yes, exactly.



[00:03:16 ] Rebecca: So from there you changed the course of your career.



Well, hopefully most of the listeners do not have experience with that type of injury and the exercises we're gonna focus on today are more of the type where people actually need to strengthen their pelvic floor muscles so can you tell us how you decided that you wanted to create this product.



[00:03:39 ] Amanda: So I had been in clinical practice for roughly nine years.



And after nine years of, you know, one on one management of women with various types of pelvic floor issues, I was seeing what was working, what was not working. At the time there were different types of Kegel products available to help or to,