Flexing your perineum is so much sexier than your biceps.

INSIGHT

Your pelvic floor is a great indicator of youthfulness and strength.

The pelvic floor is a region of much focus in the yogic tradition, considered the “seat” of whole body and gateway (mula bandha being the root lock) of energetic flow. Whether or not you prescribe to that view, it is still an intricate set of highly innervated muscles and connective tissues woven in such a way to manage and keep your abdominal organs in place as well as control your bladder and bowels. A weakened pelvic floor in both men and women leads to sexual disfunction, incontinence and tissue tears when really in bad shape, something we often just take for granted with age, surgery or childbirth. In essence, it is the root to our social confidence and quality of life — giving us a feeling of vigor and virility as THE indication that gravity hasn’t gotten the best of us yet!

Training the pelvic floor happens automatically when you do posturally-corrective whole body exercises, but could use extra focus for the aforementioned issues. Cue the continence professionals who help you identify your pelvic floor muscles and offer training programs to ensure you’re having difficulty performing any exercises. It’s a subtle training, quite opposite of looking in the mirror doing a bicep curl, but rather a hidden, indeterminate movement that can, with more advanced levels (and many a yogi) isolate different aspects of the pelvic floor to even affect your breathing, posture and energy.

The marketplace is rife with band-aid solutions to pelvic floor problems: from adult diapers, pregnancy pads and even incontinence clothing — all of which we need for the inevitable leaks and spills — but if we designed from a place of prevention, what might that look like? What other professional products and services besides the continence nurses could help with this important self-care area for the increasingly aging population that wants to age gracefully and dignified?

INSPIRATION

Elvie

Elvie is an innovative connected device that you insert into your vagina to train and strengthen your pelvic floor for better bladder control, faster postnatal recovery, and stronger orgasms.

Your pelvic floor is a powerful set of muscles that play an important role in core stability, bladder control and intimate wellbeing. Pelvic floor problems, including incontinence, are surprisingly common, affecting 1 in 3 women, and up to 80% of expectant and new mums.

But it’s difficult to work out muscles you can’t see. Elvie Trainer cuts out all of the guesswork. The Elvie Trainer visualizes pelvic floor movements in real time with biofeedback, a mind-body technique often used by health care professionals for pelvic floor rehabilitation.

The unique shape of the Trainer measures force and motion to detect the correctness of the contraction to improve technique and not cause more damage!

INNOVATION

“Thunderwear”

Anatomically-fitted underwear with electric-sensory nodes that stimulate the muscles of the pelvic floor to produce a Kegel-like response from the wearer to train for incontinence or weakened pelvic floor issues.

• Worn daily for 15-minute sessions, these thick fabric and node-lined form fitting underpants work like training clothes and a gym in one: helping the adorner like an inanimate incontinence coach.

• Breathable fabric but tight-fitting, the pad-like sensors give an electric zap that activate the muscles of the pelvic floor in a complete safe manner.

• Downloadable videos instruct the wearer how to best use this incontinence equipment for optimal results; 15 minutes per day for 1 month and subsequent self-practice is enough to rebuild the capacity to hold one’s urge to urinate involuntarily.

• Perfect for the elderly, post-surgical patients, and post-natal care; as well as men and women whom sit for long periods of time and whose sex lives are affected by the underuse of their pelvic floor.