Why it's important to have strong pelvic floor muscles

Your sexual health just found an ally, and yes, it involves Kegels, those weird, impossible-to-perform exercises women are always told they should do to enjoy better sex and orgasms.

To perform a Kegel you contract your pelvic floor muscles. If you have no idea how to locate those muscles, there’s a trick. Next time you urinate, stop the flow of urine for a second. In order to perform that feat, you have to engage the pelvic muscles. Once, you’ve figured out how to engage the pelvic floor muscles, lie on your back and engage the muscles for 5 seconds, then release. Perform the activity 10 times, three times a day, suggests the Mayo Clinic.

Sounds so simple, right? Unfortunately many women struggle to get the action right or don't know if they're doing it right and give up. That shouldn't be the case because Kegels can make positive improvements to women's overall health.

Kegels are important in terms of women’s health because of the fact that, when done correctly, they strengthen pelvic floor muscles. Strong pelvic floor muscles don’t get the same attention as abdominals but they should because they impact women’s health in a variety of ways.

Strong pelvic floor muscles are associated with a better sex life as they improve sensation, increase the chances of orgasm in women that struggle to achieve it, and they also offset incontinence issues. They’re also recommended to pregnant women and as an important post-partum rehabilitation.

The problem most women face with kegels, however, is figuring out how to do them. But there’s good news for the estimated 30 percent of women that struggle to get the exercise right. Rather than figure out the tricky muscle contraction, there’s an app and device that helps you perform the action properly.

Here’s how kGoal works. The product consists of an adjustable pillow that you squeeze using your pelvic floor muscles. The pillow is linked to an app that makes sure you’re doing the action correctly.

And if the idea of sitting and doing Kegels sounds like the formula for the most boring 15 minutes of your life, then there’s help for that too. The app offers “games you can play” to pass the time.

The product is currently seeking funding on the crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter. Meanwhile, you can practise doing them on your own, without the benefit of technology. The National Institute of Health Information shares how to do the exercise properly here.