Australia's only specialist pelvic floor exercise shop. International Deliveries. We bring together the best pelvic floor exercise products at the best possible prices. We combine our product range with information, links and research reports that allow our customers to make informed choices about the best products to meet their needs.
Pelvic Floor Exercise is Australia’s only specialist pelvic floor exercise shop.
www.pelvicfloorexercise.com.au, pelvic floor, pelvic floor muscle, pelvic floor exercise, pelvic floor exercises, pelvic floor exercisers, weak pelvic floor, kegel exercises, kegel exercisers, exercise devices, stronger pelvic floor, stronger pelvic muscles, Australia, Pelvic floor exercising, Using exercisers, Choosing an exerciser, Incontinence, PFXA, PFX2, EMS, Electrical muscle stimulators, Pelvic floor & sex, Pelvic floor & birth
The best pelvic floor exercise and strengthening products at the best possible prices
Information to help you choose
Facts about why you will achieve better results with an exerciser
Links to research and services
A company you can trust, with staff who can help
Pelvic Floor Exercise is a new concept for Australian women - and men - who want to improve their own pelvic floor health through more effective Kegel exercising.
Visual feedback
Pelvic Floor Educator
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Vielle
Readable dial feedback (perineometers)
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Adjustable resistance
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Aquaflex (adjustable weights)
Vielle (progressive weights) Contractions against resistance
Energie
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Pelvic Floor Educator
Use while laying still
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Pelvic Floor Educator
InControl Micro Use while moving around
Aquaflex
Smartballs
Vielle
Usable as a pleasure product
Energie Can be fully inserted
Aquaflex
Smartballs
Energie
Vielle
Suitable for beginner users
Pelvic Floor Educator
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Aquaflex
Smartballs
Vielle
InControl Micro Suitable for advanced users
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Energie
Needs dedicated exercise time
Pelvic Floor Educator
KegelXcel
PFX2
Epi-No Libre
Strengthens the pelvic floor without the need to do the "squeeze and lift" exercises (although you can better results if you do)
Aquaflex
Vielle
InControl Micro
safe online buying with Shop Safe accreditation
rewards for returning customers or for recommending us to others
a guarantee that your order will arrive on time, every time, in perfect condition.
Regular exercise of the pelvic-floor muscles is as important to all women as doing breast self-examination. After all, a woman's chance of developing incontinence during her lifetime is much greater than breast cancer. And what an impact on her quality of life!"
safe online buying with Shop Safe accreditation
rewards for returning customers or for recommending us to others
a guarantee that your order will arrive on time, every time, in perfect condition.
Looking for a product for men? We stock the PFXA which is especially suited to men's needs.
PFXA with anal sensor. Read more....
Visual Feedback Yes
Adjustable Resistance: Yes
Resistance type: Air
Size: Sheath: 110mm long, 28mm diameter
Connecting tube: approx 750mm
Reading unit: 180mm x 75mm
Box: 260mm x 195mm
Manufacturer's recommendations for use: 10 mins, once or twice a day for building strength
weekly or monthly thereafter for maintenance
The PFX2 is an Australian-designed and manufactured quality bio-feedback exerciser (or perineometer), endorsed by number of specialist practitioners. It consists of an indicator unit, a sensor unit incorporating a silicone sheath, and a connecting tube. The three parts are packaged in a presentation pack and accompanied by a nine-page instruction booklet.
The three components are easily fitted together. Clear instructions outline how to handle and insert the sensor into the vagina, how to exercise, and how to interpret readings. Guidelines for exercise duration and frequency are also provided.
The device uses air to sense the amount of squeeze the pelvic floor muscles are able to exert and displays a reading on the indicator unit. Improvement is measured by increases in the level indicated on the unit's gauge, but to ensure consistent readings, it is important that exercises are done in the same position. As muscle strength increases, the device can be adjusted back to a "zero" base reading.
The PFX2 should be disconnected after each use, and the sensor and tube washed with soap and water and dried. A small amount of a water-based lubricant (such as Sylk) can be helpful when inserting the sensor, but it is important to wash this off immediately after use, or it will cause the silicone sheath to lose tension. Replacement sensors are available from Pelvic Floor Exercise. along with instructions on caring for the components of the PFX2.
The PFX2 is an excellent choice for women who want the reassurance of clear visual feedback to track progress; it is appropriate for women embarking on an exercise programme, and for more experienced exercisers. Its adjustable resistance means that it can be used by women with varied levels of pelvic floor strength, and no woman buying it will "out-grow" it. Compared with other air pressure devices, the PFX2's read-out gauge covers a relatively small range; this narrow range, combined with the PFX2's adjustability, means that it's easier to see the effect of each squeeze and hold contraction.
Insertion of the sensor is sometimes made easier by the use of a very small amount of lubricant. We recommend Sylk Natural Personal Lubricant for this purpose. Any lubricant used must always be washed from the PFX2'x sensor immediately after use.
Sensors may need to be replaced occasionally if the PFX2 is used regularly. We stock replacement sensors at $33 each.
Read more about using a perineometer like the PFX2.
Read what the experts say about the PFX2.
The PFX2 is featured in both Women's Waterworks and Dr Rosie King's Pelvic Floor Workout CD.
The PFX2 is included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and no GST is payable.
EMS devices are widely used in physical therapy. They work by passing tiny electrical impulses through the nerves and muscle, via electrodes in pads placed on the skin or, in the case of specialist pelvic floor devices, via an internal probe inserted into the vagina. The tiny impulses stimulate the nerves and muscles, causing the muscle groups of the pelvic floor contract and relax automatically. EMS devices are therefore often recommended for women who are unable to identify or contract their pelvic floor muscles voluntarily.
What is the pelvic floor?
The pelvic floor is a large hammock of muscles stretching from side to side across the floor of the pelvis. It is attached to your pubic bone in front, and to the the tail end of your spine behind. The openings from your bladder, your bowels and your womb all pass through your pelvic floor.
What does the pelvic floor do?
. It supports your pelvic organs and the contents of your abdomen, especially when you are standing or exerting yourself.
. It supports your bladder to help it stay closed. It actively squeezes when you cough or sneeze to help avoid leaking.
. It is used to control wind and when "holding on" with your bowels.
. It helps to increase sexual awareness both for yourself and your partner during sexual intercourse.
What weakens the pelvic floor?
Pelvic floor muscles weaken for similar reasons to other muscles in our bodies: natural ageing and inactivity. But the pelvic floor is also often weakened through hormonal changes in women's bodies, and through pregnancy and childbirth. Factors such as being overweight, ongoing constipation and a chronic cough can put extra pressure on the pelvic floor and pelvic surgery can also have damaging effects, particularly in men.
Why exercise the pelvic floor?
A poorly toned, weak pelvic floor will not do its job properly. Women with a weak pelvic floor frequently experience incontinence and reduced sexual response. But research has shown that the pelvic floor responds to regular exercise. With regular exercise, it is possible for most women to reduce or completely overcome the symptoms of a weakened pelvic floor, no matter what their age.
A pelvic floor exercise regime, introduced earlier in life, will also prevent many of the problems associated with a weak muscle emerging later. It is never too early or too late to begin to exercise.
Research has also shown that pelvic floor exercise can provide relief from chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
A woman with an already badly weakened pelvic floor may need the advice of a women's health physiotherapist or other health professional before embarking on an exercise program, but many women with mild symptoms prefer to try a simple exercise program for themselves initially.
Pelvic floor exercises are often also called Kegel exercises, after their originator, Dr Arnold Kegel and are widely promoted as the starting point for building pelvic floor strength. Any woman can try these exercises for herself. Be aware that if they are not done correctly, they can aggravate a problem. Follow the instructions below, but seek the advice of a health professional, such as your gp or a women's health physiotherapist, if you have doubts about your ability to do the exercises correctly.
How to do unassisted pelvic floor (kegel) exercises
Exercise 1
Tighten the muscles around your back passage, vagina and front passage and lift up inside as if trying to stop passing wind and urine at the same time. It is very easy to bring other, irrelevant muscles into play, so try to isolate your pelvic floor as much as possible by
. not pulling in your tummy,
. not squeezing your legs together,
. not tightening your buttocks and
. not holding your breath.
The effort should be coming from the pelvic floor.
How many seconds can you hold the pelvic floor tight for? Try holding it as long and as hard as you can. Build up to a maximum of 10 seconds. Rest for 4 seconds and then repeat the contraction as many times as you can up to a maximum of 10 contractions.
Try to do these exercises in a slow and controlled way with a rest of 4 seconds between each muscle contraction. Practise your maximum number of held contractions (up to 10) about six times each day.
Exercise 2
The ability to work these muscles quickly helps them react to sudden stresses from coughing, laughing or exercise. Practise some quick contractions, drawing in the pelvic floor and holding for just one second before releasing the muscles. Do these steadily, aiming for a strong muscle tightening with each contraction up to a maximum of 10 times.
Try to do one set of slow contractions (exercise 1) followed by one set of quick contractions (exercise 2) six times each day.
If you do pelvic floor exercises regularly, you will see optimum results within 3 to 6 months, but you should continue them for life to fully protect your pelvic floor.
Leaflets on pelvic floor exercises are available for free from many sources including the National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66.
How to achieve better results with your pelvic floor exercises
There is a growing amount ofl research showing many women achieve better results when they use pelvic floor exercise devices to assist them in doing pelvic floor exercises.
Dr Kegel, the originator of the kegel exercise program, never intended his famed exercises to be conducted on an empty vagina. Somewhere along the line, his message has been distorted and for many years women have been encouraged to try unassisted exercising.
For many women, this presents difficulties and they may be able to achieve better results with the assistance of an pelvic floor exercise or strengthening device. Read more about the value of using a pelvic floor exercise or strengthening device.
Many good pelvic floor exercisers have been available for sometime but are often hard to track down, particularly for women who want to exercise independently at home. Pelvic Floor Exercise brings together a range of the best devices available on the Australian market, to make choosing and buying easier. Browse through our unique product range.
Why are women sometimes unsuccessful in strengthening their pelvic floor?
Often because they don't exercise often enough, and for long enough. Women report that they don't remember, they find it hard to fit exercises into daily life, they feel uncertain about whether the exercises are working and whether they are doing them correctly, particularly in the early stages.
The use of devices can help address some of these problems and encourage women to continue their strengthening regimes.
Most importantly many women find that using a pelvic floor exercise devices produce better results than unassisted exercising, so they are encouraged to keep going.
Types of incontinence
There are many excellent sources of information about incontinence generally. To read more, visit our Links page, and follow some of the links in the incontinence section. One of the most important sources of help and information in Australia is the National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66.
Incontinence is more common than many realise, with about one woman in three over the age of 45 experiencing it. More surprisingly still, one in eight 18-23 year olds also report incontinence. Only one third of these women seek professional help. In later life, incontinence is a major contributing factor in the decisions of elderly Australians to seek residential care.
Urinary stress incontinence (leaking small amounts of urine when sneezing, coughing, exercising or otherwise putting the pelvic floor under stress) is the commonest form of incontinence amongst Australian women.
Many women believe that it is a natural part of ageing but this is not true; it is not normal and no woman needs to tolerate it. There are options for treatment, the first and most important of which is pelvic floor exercising.
Can pelvic floor exercises help with stress incontinence?
Research confirms the outstanding value of a sustained and regular program of pelvic floor exercise for women suffering from stress incontinence.
Any woman seeking professional help for stress incontinence will usually be recommended to try an exercise program first before resorting to other more invasive treatments or surgery. For many women, pelvic floor exercise - undertaken in a sustained and regular program - can largely, or even entirely, overcome the symptoms of stress incontinence.
The results show that pelvic floor exercises are an effective and low cost treatment for stress urinary incontinence rehabilitation. Moreno and others
Is exercising with pelvic floor devices even better?
YES! Although pelvic floor exercise works, research confirms that for many women exercising with a exerciser device is even better. Read Using Exercisers for more information on why you can achieve much better results with exercise devices.
Studies have looked at vaginal weights and balls :
Two groups - some just unassisted exercise and some with vaginal balls... Both groups showed improvement after 4 months, but the reduction of urinary leakage after four months of exercise in the group with vaginal balls was significantly better than the results in the group with pelvic floor muscle exercises alone. The study found the weighted vaginal balls to be a good alternative for training pelvic floor muscles in women with stress urinary incontinence. Arvonen and others
In a pilot study 6 women with stress urinary incontinence were treated with Geisha balls while performing pelvic floor muscle exercises at home half an hour a day for 12 weeks. Subjectively 4 patients were cured and 2 had improved. Before the treatment the 24-hour pad test was a mean 48 g and after the treatment a mean 10 g. There were no adverse effects. Glavind K.
Home-based PFMEs and training with a (vaginal ball) proved to be equally effective as once-a-week supervised therapy Parkkinen and others
The .. vaginal cone (weight)is relatively easy to use at home and aids in pelvic floor muscle exercises.. . Consequently, the cone could be used as an alternative non-surgical treatment . in female stress urinary incontinence. Seo and others
Bio-feedback devices have also allowed women to achieve greater improvements.
BF therapy resulted in a better subjective outcome and higher contraction pressures of the pelvic floor muscles. Pager and others
PFM exercises are effective for the treatment of USI; the biofeedback method revealed better PFM strength results with respect to digital palpation. Aksac B and others
This randomized controlled trial suggests that the home biofeedback method in PFT has a good success rate of 68.8%. Aukee and others
These data suggest that self-selected healthy women with symptoms of urge, stress, andmixed incontinence can improve their symptoms and lower their severity index with a minimal intervention, comprehensive, self-directed home biofeedback continence system. Smith DB and others
And electronic muscle stimulators have demonstrated positive outcomes for women suffering from stress and urge incontinence:
Transvaginal pelvic floor electrical stimulation was found to be a safe and effective therapy for genuine stress incontinence. Sand PK and others
Although nearly all studies of ES have been uncontrolled, a substantial body of "soft" data attests to the efficacy and safety of this technique. Apell RA
What about other types of incontinence?
Pelvic floor exercises are useful for all women, and everyone can benefit from strengthening the pelvic floor. A stronger pelvic floor is a factor in overcoming urge incontinence too, and products such as electronic muscle stimulators in particular, have also been shown to be very useful for women with urge incontinence. However successful treatment of urge and other types of incontinence require more than an exercise program. Women suffering from urge incontinence or combined urge and stress incontinence are advised to seek professional help from a gp or women's health physiotherapist.
If you are not sure what type of incontinence you have, or are not sure where to start, talk to your health practitioner, see a women's health physiotherapist or call the National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66 for assistance.
Which pelvic floor exercisers are most effective in overcoming stress incontinence?
All of our exercisers can help, so it is a question of choosing the type of product that suits you most.
Are you already able to locate your pelvic floor muscle, and now want to build strength? Or do you need help to locate the muscle and know if you are squeezing correctly? Do you want a product you can use while you move around? Or are you able and willing to allocate the time each day to laying still while you exercise your pelvic floor?
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I