One in three women in the UK suffers from bladder weakness—making it more common than hayfever. Bladder weakness can occur at any stage of life, but is most common during pregnancy, post childbirth, menopause and in active women who participate in high impact sports, such as running and gymnastics.
INNOVO® have constructed a device which uses Innovotherapy to send targeted impulses via a set of conductive pads placed on your thighs and buttocks, to safely and effectively activate the muscles of the entire pelvic floor. It is a clinically proven technology which has been designed to optimally strengthen your pelvic floor, allowing the device to do the job for you, with 180 full contractions completed per 30-minute session. You can literally feel your entire pelvic floor muscles being activated without having to do anything at all, leaving no room for error.
Jane Wake, INNOVO® spokesperson, female fitness professional and pelvic floor expert, says: ‘The pelvic floor muscles are our body’s biggest unsung heroes and they play a crucial role in our body’s day-to-day functions. By strengthening the pelvic floor and maintaining muscle balance, women can treat the cause of leakage rather than just managing the symptoms. However, pelvic floor exercises can be difficult to master and hundreds of contractions are needed to see significant results. It’s terribly sad that one in three UK women of all ages and backgrounds are silently suffering from bladder weakness when there are fantastic solutions available.’
In addition to Innovotherapy, Jane reveals her top four steps on how to do your pelvic floor exercises correctly.
- You should be able to locate these muscles
In order to use them correctly, you need to know how to locate them. The pelvic floor muscles attach to your tailbone at the back and your pubic bone at the front. We are often told to connect to them by thinking about stopping a wee. A better way is to, first of all, imagine stopping wind from your back passage, then stopping a wee from the front then pulling these two points in and up together. Learning where they are will mean you are able to connect to them better when and if you do get problems.
- You should be recruiting the entire pelvic floor
A healthy muscle is one that not only has good strength but also length and balance. So, as well as pulling the muscle up you have to think about letting it relax. A good way to do this is to imagine pulling it up through five floors—like a lift going up. Always go back down through the floors before you lift up again. Innovotherapy recruits all the muscles of the pelvic floor so you can feel this lift, with 180 full contractions per second. You can literally feel the entire pelvic floor muscles being activated without having to do anything at all, leaving no room for error.
- Your pelvic floor should be working the hardest
It may sound obvious, but your aim with pelvic floor exercises is to focus predominantly on the pelvic floor muscles so that they strengthen over and above the other muscles that tend to dominate, such as the glutes (backside) or abdominals—but it’s impossible to completely isolate the muscles. Innovotherapy can target the pelvic floor specifically so that the contraction is strongest here rather than in other areas.
- You shouldn’t be holding your breath
When you hold your breath, you can create tension in the body that can cause pressure—increasing stress to a number of muscles including the pelvic floor. Take some deep breaths and, as you breathe out, try to relax and feel your pelvic floor.
About Atlantic Therapeutics
Atlantic Therapeutics develops professional and consumer medical devices, related software, apps and connected health technologies to treat all types of incontinence, sexual health dysfunctions and other associated disorders by strengthening muscles and modulating nerves of the pelvic floor. INNOVO® from Atlantic Therapeutics is a unique, externally applied, patented CE device that delivers a safe, clinically effective and comfortable therapy to treat reversible clinical conditions associated with pelvic floor weakness in the comfort of the user’s own home. To learn more, visit restorethefloor.com
