Awareness of the pelvic floor muscles can be found throughout cultures around the world for thousands of years. The best example of humans awareness of the presence of pelvic floor musculature is from yoga. Mula Bandha is a version or concept much aligned with kegels.
Western cultures appear to have not discussed pelvic floor muscles much at all until the gynecologist, Dr Arnold Kegel in the early to mid 20th century. He invented what is still called the perineometer. Today it looks a lot more like the Elvie. Above is a photograph of Dr Arnold Kegel’s original version… yikes!!
Dr Kegel was the first to draw attention to the restorative effect of advising women to engage in pelvic floor muscle exercises as a non-surgical alternative to improve pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. It was groundbreaking for the time and evidence was on his side in many regards. Prior to this, the western approach to these problems was surgery or nothing.
We are now about 100 years out from the medical profession understanding the benefit of pelvic floor exercises in restoring pelvic health, however for the most part the standard recommendation doled out by physicians has not changed in this time, yet our understanding of the nuances of pelvic health has grown immensely. Physicians who continue to routinely recommend kegels to their patients without a more nuanced look into their pelvic floor muscle health are outdated in their practice of medicine.
CLICK Here for some additional Kegel information!
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In Pelvic Health,
Hilary
