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Squeeze… or release?
You’ve probably heard of Kegels, an exercise that can help with everything from stopping leaky pee to better sex.
But recommendations from TikTok — and even some women’s magazines — aren’t one-size-fits all. In fact, some people should be skipping traditional Kegels and doing reverse Kegels to keep things running smoothly.
Both exercises help with the functioning of pelvic floor muscles, which hold up your bladder, reproductive organs and intestines like a sling.
Traditional Kegels help the muscles strengthen to hold all your guts up — but the exercise can also cause problems if the pelvic muscles are constantly strained.
Several experts have warned to The Post that Kegels can make some pelvic floor dysfunction worse — and they can backfire during menopause.
“If you have a tightness issue, strengthening exercises make it worse,” Monica V. LoConti, a pelvic rehabilitation practitioner, told The Washington Post. “If it’s just tight, tight, tight, it can never get to the point where it can relax enough to close and open appropriately.”
This might look like pain while peeing, peeing often, straining to poop, pain during sex, or problems reaching orgasm.
Who should do “reverse” Kegels?
Regular Kegels are for people with underactive or weak “hypotonic” pelvic muscles, but reverse Kegels may help people who have overactive or tight “hypertonic” pelvic floors.
Over and underactive pelvic muscles can have similar symptoms, including problems with urination and bowel movements and sexual discomfort.
The best way to find out whether your pelvic muscles are over or underactive is to get a physical exam from a urogynecologist or urologist.
An overactive pelvic muscle is more associated with pain from tension. It affects as many as one in 10 people.
Hypertonic pelvis floors can be caused by holding in pee or poop. Prolonged sitting, depression, stress, and pain-causing conditions like endometriosis could also increase risk of too-tight pelvic floors.
Pregnancy and childbirth can cause injury and trauma to the muscle as well, causing both over and underactive pelvic muscles.
How to do reverse Kegels
To know how to do a “reverse” Kegel, you need to know how to do a regular one.
First, relax in a reclined position and find your pelvic floor muscles — it can be tricky when there aren’t any visual queues, only internal sensations.
A regular Kegel involves 3 parts: squeezing the muscle that you’d use to stop farting, squeezing the muscle you’d use to stop peeing, and squeezing the vagina for women.
Think of a Kegel as an inhale, and a reverse Kegel as an exhale. It’s simply the release of the tension you create in a traditional Kegel.
To do a reverse Kegel you need to do a Kegel first.
Breathe deeply for a few cycles. Tighten as you would in a Kegel, but don’t hold it — let it go, as if you are peeing or pooping. Don’t go too far by pushing out or “bearing down.”
A reverse Kegel might also be called “pelvic floor drops” or “down-training” the pelvic floor.
LoConti recommends aiming for 10 reps a day.
Kegels, reverse Kegels, and sex
Regular Kegels help both sexes with intimacy. For women, it helps vaginal contractions, blood flow, and improve sensation. In men, it can help with erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.
Reverse Kegels help women reduce tightness, which can cause pain during sex. That tightness can make penetration painful. It can also help men with the same symptoms regular Kegels do.
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