The kegel could be your saving grace for the mountain..how?

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Wilderness Fitness Institute’s Pelvic Newsletter where we talk about pelvic health and wellness.

This newsletter is going to change structure a bit, and go out weekly with different themes each week.

Week 1: Pelvic Health

Week 2: Performance Enhancement

Week 3: Recovery Optimization

Week 4: Older Adult Performance

Week 5: Rehab

Recharge Your Pelvic Floor

Maybe you’ve been told by your best friend you’ve got to do more kegels to get your bladder control back when you throw on a heavy pack..

Worse yet, maybe your OB/GYN told you because you’re a mom, life is going to include peeing yourself with your workout, hiking, and other fun activites.

Maybe you’ve seen a urologist/oncologist said, and they told you it’s normal to get up 2-5x/night to pee as you’re now an older gentleman, and the pee breaks in the middle of the night are making tough to want to go hunt with the fellas each year.

Kegels get a bad rep, but I use the kegel with a lot of clients/patients who are dealing with low back/hip pain, who have been silently struggling with pelvic floor symptoms.

Different aspects of the kegel include:

1. Timing: Folks with low back pain tend to contract their low back stabilizers after they start to move/move an object vs before..the same can go for the pelvic floor..it’s a brain coordination thing

2. Force production: A lot of force for a very heavy load, or multiple tiny loads that add up. Both situations can be trained for.

3. Coordination: Can you control your pelvic floor muscles like your control the depth of your squat? Can you isolate your pelvic floor muscles without contracting your inner thighs, glutes, and/or abdomen.

4. Progression: Most folks don’t have issues with their pelvic floor when they are lying on their back. Issues tend to rise in standing, walking, jogging, sprinting, lifting weights, picking up kids, jumping on the trampoline. The kegel needs to progress along when you start to progress.

Bet you didn’t know there was so much to such a small muscle group?

I’ll leave you with this..

Do a kegel…notice how much force you’re able to develop on the first rep.

Now, do a set of 30 quick kegels in a row. Rest 60 seconds. Then repeat.

Was the last kegel of set 1 and 2, at the same force production rate/speed as the first rep?

Talk soon.

Giver hell,

Dr. Rob