Bored with kegel exercises but want to strengthen the hidden muscles of your pelvic floor? A new health biosensor and smartphone app have arrived that will make you rethink your idea of inner fitness
To build stronger arms you lift weights. For a tighter core, take on pilates or yoga. And for fit legs, running is an easy go-to. But what about the muscles that cannot be seen but play a huge part in a woman’s life – like pelvic floor muscles – from stronger orgasms to fending off incontinence which affects a staggering one in four women? Now, as fitness gadgets are released to track everything from sleep to steps to calories, the latest – set for release in the Spring – tracks the fitness and strength of a woman’s vaginal muscles and provide a method for strengthening them.
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles located between the tailbone and pubic bone. Although small compared to other muscles, the pelvic floor when strengthened, can help with core stability, control and may even lead to better sex.
Kegel exercises may be the first type of exercise that comes to mind when wanting to strengthen pelvic floor muscles, but how do you know if you’re doing it correctly or making any kind of improvement?
It can help ward off incontinence which affects a staggering one in four women
Now, thanks to British women’s health company, Chiaro, you can work on restoring pelvic floor muscles everyday using the new Elvie gadget. It’s a small biosensor inserted into the vagina that helps with practising Kegel exercises correctly and updates users with their real-time progress in strengthening their vaginal muscles through a smartphone app. Now that is progress.
‘Elvie is a completely new way for women to strengthen their pelvic floor muscles – we say it’s your most personal trainer,’ Dr. Tania Boler, founder of Elvie, said at the AXA PPP Health Teach & You showcase where Elvie will be on display until 25 April.
1 in 3 women push down in kegel exercises instead of pulling up, which can strain muscles
The Elvie smartphone app generates five minute workouts tailored for each user that focus on building upon strength and control. Elvie’s workouts are designed in a game-like format to make strengthening muscles fun.
‘1 in 3 women push down in kegel exercises instead of pulling up, which can strain muscles,’ Boler said. Despite this statistic, Boler is confident that Elvie users will be well informed about their muscle movement during their pelvic exercises as Elvie has motion sensors that indicate if you are using your muscles to push or pull and send you messages about your progress to your phone.
Elvie has motion sensors that indicate if you are using your muscles to push or pull
You may be wondering why so much importance, time and effort should be put into making your pelvic floor muscles stronger, and how they may be weakened in the first place. Various activities and milestones in life can put stress on the pelvic floor, such as pregnancy, labor and even impact sports.
‘The pelvic floor is the core of what makes us women and affects how we feel about ourselves,’ Boler said. ‘Pelvic floor muscles are affected throughout life and can affect back pain, core strength and sex.’
Elvie is with you in every step of the process, and comes with a portable case so you can fit in a quick exercise virtually anywhere. You just pop it into your vagina and away you go and it comes with a handle to make removing it easy. After each five minute exercise, you remove the gadget and receive an ‘LV’ score, that breaks down your overall performance and is stored to keep track of your improvement in er, inner strength, over time. In the company’s own trials on 100 women, 91 per cent said they felt benefits after using the Elvie gadget. We have one thing to say about Elvie: why has it taken them this long to come up with it? Sign us up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV4G47vF3-8
Elvie is available to pre-order now for £99 and shipment will begin this Spring.
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