Why Kegels Make Your Pelvic Floor Weaker & The Posture Myth Behind Back Pain | EP. 2
What this video covers
The transcript explores the vital role of the pelvic floor as a functional spring linking the upper and lower body, highlighting how modern sedentary habits impair its mechanics. It challenges traditional corrective approaches like Kegels and the concept of a neutral pelvis, explaining how improper tension contributes to wide-ranging kinetic chain dysfunctions in both men and women. Additionally, it highlights bone plasticity, underscoring that human skeletal structures continuously adapt and remodel under mechanical stress.
Key takeaways
- The pelvic floor operates as an essential powerhouse spring that bridges the upper and lower body while regulating hip mobility and joint alignment.
- Sedentary modern lifestyles promote a chronically closed pelvis compared to more open, functional movement patterns seen in natural subsistence cultures.
- Traditional Kegel exercises can exacerbate pelvic dysfunction by contracting already shortened muscles without restoring the necessary mechanical length.
- Dysfunction within the pelvic floor ripples throughout the kinetic chain, driving conditions like ACL/MCL tears, sciatica, lower back pain, and hip degeneration.
- Pelvic floor issues manifest distinctly across genders, ranging from stress incontinence and prolapse in women to urinary flow issues and sexual dysfunction in men.
- The conventional standard of a neutral pelvis is an outdated anatomical artifact from static bone studies rather than a functional model for dynamic living bodies.
- Adult bones are dynamic, living structures capable of continuous remodeling and adapting to physical loads and movement demands.
Topics covered
- Pelvic Mechanics and the Limitations of Kegels
- Explains the pelvic floor's anatomical spring mechanism, arguing that functional strength requires lengthening tissue rather than contracting already shortened muscles through Kegels.
- Kinetic Chain Dysfunctions and Gender-Specific Symptoms
- Examines how pelvic misalignments cause downstream musculoskeletal injuries such as knee tears and back pain, alongside specific reproductive and urinary issues in both men and women.
- Debunking the Neutral Pelvis Concept
- Critiques traditional postural rehab by revealing that the neutral pelvis originated from 19th-century cadaver measurements rather than functional dynamic movement.
- Bone Plasticity and Structural Adaptation
- Highlights the responsive nature of skeletal tissue, explaining how adult bones continuously remodel in reaction to mechanical loads and movement habits.
“It's not that you need to be open all the time but >> Totally if you don't feel safe but not every moment >> Right.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Repattern Co podcast. I'm
Dr. Libby.
>> And I am Dr. John.
>> And we are over here this morning on Dr.
John's birthday. Actually, pulling our
butt up as we sit down to talk to you
guys about the pelvic floor. So, I think
we should all do that first and you
should probably show what you did again
cuz that was an awesome move.
>> Yeah, sure.
So, basically
all you do is you reach down there get a
handful of booty
and pull up almost like you're driving
your elbow to the ceiling and just drag
that skin up. If you're like, "Oh my
gosh, my skin's
moving." That's the point. And then just
pull and pin it.
Okay, so commit to that booty grab all
the way until your booty hits the seat.
And you can free up that hand.
>> And then you'll feel it's so much easier
to sit up straight and for me it's like
my back doesn't hurt, my hips don't hurt
even in these jeans that are kind of
hard to do it. If you either they'll
pull you into closed posture in your
pelvis or you can use your hand to use
it to help you stay open. Like keep that
butt up because we really want to get
into a conversation today about how
important the pelvic floor is. It's
probably one of the most trendy and
simultaneously misunderstood and
underrated areas.
I mean, this is like the powerhouse
spring of the body and when it works
good and it can be open, it makes being
athletic being alive
>> feel so totally different.
>> It's a really crazy area. It's
definitely like under discussed,
especially from like a performance
perspective and stuff like that, but it
really does underpin
so much of the movement our movements
out there that are possible. You know,
it's almost like the pelvic floor allows
so many other things in that area to do
their job. Like especially the glutes
and like the big prime movers of the
hips and transition area from the lower
to upper body. Yeah, the pelvic floor,
it's huge, it's under discussed, it's
under even addressed. I think most
people it's not even like they don't
discuss it, they don't even know it
exists, they don't know how to think
about it, how to use it. And uh yeah, I
think it's time to change that because
I don't know. Especially when you look
at these
cultures where people just like grow up
more outside, like the more subsistence
living cultures and stuff like that,
like look like we're we're in Indo and
stuff like that, like
these people don't need this
conversation, like they all open and
close their pelvic floors well. You
know, I think just based off the way
that they live their lives and
kind of the
seating positions they're in, like you
know, like a baby has it open, an adult
in the US typically has it closed, so at
some point there's uh like a
morphological or physiological change
that's occurring, you know, something
that we're doing with our modern
lifestyles that's causing us to then
result in pelvic floor issues that
people that don't have that
sort of lifestyle have.
Um so yeah, let's dive into what that
is, I guess.
>> Do you want to talk about our sponsors
first?
>> Yeah.
Um shout out Catalyst. Uh catalyze your
recovery, Catalyst cream. Uh when others
leave you getting worse, like Icy Hot or
BenGay and just cover up your problems,
Catalyst actually helps facilitate
improved
recovery.
Uh check it out at catalystcream.org.
>> And just a little tidbit there, like
John started making this cream when he
was seeing professional surfing patients
on the North Shore, and it was selling
out so fast that it became kind of an
inside joke. It's like, "Oh, John's got
to go back to the kitchen and like make
some more of his cream because it just
works. It's wild." Like you put a lot of
heart and soul into that product, and
every time I put it on it makes me feel
better, so it's awesome.
>> Yeah, don't let me tell you what it's
going to do for you. Just go uh check it
out, try it out, and uh tell us what you
think.
>> Well, we also have our sponsors of some
of our clothes. This is my girl Olivia,
who does some of the coolest tie dye
I've ever seen, and you can find her at
shop Odd Cow. I'll link it below. Um
some really cool handmade stuff.
>> shopoddcow
What? dot com on Instagram on Instagram.
Yeah, making sure we got
put those together. And then we got
DEZO, d e s o, local Tahoe brand.
Uh Jordan, the owner over there, uh
hooking it up with this shirt and
Lilly's sweatshirt. Really cool stuff.
Really cool brand.
Really cool team of people. Also, you
should check those people out.
Really cool. And if anyone else wants to
sponsor stuff, we could use granite for
our island. We could use a light above
our stove. We could use a new light
fixture. Yeah, you got a product, we got
things to uh to be sponsored by.
>> And are these brass poles up here.
I'll link those down below, too. It's
like very old-worldy. Like we wanted to
do as minimal,
which is funny cuz it looks like there's
a lot of stuff in here, but as minimal
and high-quality stuff in our home as
possible. So, it's like just real metals
and
>> Yeah, and check out that link if you're
looking for curtain rods or anything
like that because a lot of companies out
there, right? Like you'll order it
online and you'll be like, "Oh my gosh,
it's brass." Or "Oh my gosh, it's
copper." or whatever and you're like,
"No, I think this is just aluminum with
like some paint or a finish." But no,
those things those things are the real
deal.
You could kill someone for sure with
hitting them
with those things. Those are the minute
one of those things the minute you
touch, you're like, "Oh, this is on like
a different caliber
of like craftsmanship than what they
sell at
HomeGoods
or whatever your local home interior
shopping design store is." Okay, so the
pelvic floor. Being a man, this is
definitely something that is not
discussed a ton. And I think it's
definitely one of those things that's
super easy to be like,
"Oh yeah, like women have pelvic floor
issues." It's like, "No, men have it,
too. You just haven't identified what
would connote a pelvic floor issue."
versus like the average woman is pretty
okay talking about to their other
girlfriends,
you know, about their symptoms and how
that could be pelvic floor and I think
the word's just gotten out not great in
that community but better
than the male community is.
Um, but do you want to explain what
exactly the pelvic floor
is and isn't and what could be
misinterpreted or properly interpreted
as pelvic floor issues?
>> Sure do. So, the pelvic floor is kind of
a it seems more complicated than it is,
right? It's just if this is your pelvis,
these are your femurs or your thigh
bones and that pelvic floor is just
everything on the inside here. So, it's
down here. It's like the space between
your sit bones. If you feel that right
now, like you can feel your own sit
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