Common Signs of Pelvic Floor Issues

You can check if you have weak pelvic floor muscles by the following symptoms:

- Leaking urine when coughing, sneezing, laughing or running

- Not getting to the toilet in time

- Deflating from the anus or vagina when bending over or lifting things

- Decreased vaginal sensation

- Tampons falling off or falling out

- Obvious bulge at the vaginal opening

- Heaviness in the vagina

- Heaviness or dragging in the pelvis or back

- Pain in the vulva, pain during intercourse, and inability to reach orgasm.

The above are symptoms that are easy to observe. If you meet more than two of the above symptoms at the same time, you can confirm that you have weak pelvic floor muscles.

Who's Most at Risk?

Clinical data proves that postpartum women, menopausal women, sedentary people, high-intensity exercisers, etc. are more likely to have a weak pelvic floor.

The main reasons are:

Supporting the weight of the uterus during pregnancy

Overstretching of muscles during vaginal delivery

Pressure caused by obesity

Chronic constipation and difficulty in defecation

Continuous coughing

Muscle-cutting surgery such as prostate cancer

Low estrogen levels after menopause

Dysmenorrhea, pelvic floor tension caused by endometriosis

How to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor: Myths vs Facts

Myths 1: More Is Always Better

Facts: In fact, training the pelvic floor muscles is the same as training muscles such as biceps. It is completed by stretching and contracting. Excessive training on the pelvic floor will cause muscle fatigue and aggravate the problem you are trying to solve. It is recommended to start with a few sets of contractions, each lasting a few seconds, and gradually increase as strength increases, but don't overdo it.

Maths 2: You only need to exercise your pelvic floor muscles if you have problems

Facts: Prevention is always better than cure. Even if there are no obvious pelvic floor problems, regular pelvic floor muscle exercises can improve muscle endurance and function, preventing possible future problems such as urinary incontinence or sexual dysfunction.

Myth 3: Pelvic floor muscle training is simply "tightening"

Facts: Proper pelvic floor muscle training should include contraction and relaxation phases, as well as correct breathing coordination. Simply tightening the muscles without relaxing and correct breathing techniques may lead to excessive muscle tension or other complications.

Myth 4: Pelvic floor muscle exercises produce immediate results

Facts: Strengthening the pelvic floor muscles is a gradual process that takes time and sustained effort. Expecting to see results immediately can lead to frustration, and it is important to persevere and perform the exercises correctly.

Traditional Methods (Kegels, PT) & Where They Fall Short

While traditional pelvic floor strengthening methods, such as Kegel exercises and physical therapy (PT), are widely recommended and practiced, they do have certain limitations. Understanding these can help individuals tailor their approach to pelvic floor health more effectively.

Traditional Methods

Kegel Exercises: Kegel exercises involve repeatedly squeezing and relaxing the pelvic floor muscles basically the muscles you use to hold in your pee. They're great for both men and women and can help with things like bladder control and even more enhanced sexual pleasure.

Physical Therapy: Pelvic floor physical therapy includes a variety of workouts but they are guided by a professional specialist. They will use different hands-on techniques such as biofeedback and other custom exercises to help strengthen or restore your pelvic floor functions.

Limitations of Traditional Approaches

1. Misdiagnosis and Mistakes

Kegel Exercises: One of the main challenges with Kegel exercises is finding and targeting the correct muscle group. Many people accidentally engage other muscles such as their abs or glutes, which makes it less effective. While it won't necessarily cause any harm, since it is difficult to strain these muscles, you will not get the full benefit of kegel training if your technique and targeting is not spot on. 

Physical Therapy: Although physical therapy is very effective, its success is in choosing the right therapist and having an accurate diagnosis of the problem, following up with the correct treatment plan. Misdiagnosis or generalized treatment methods might make the results not be as effective as they could be.

2. Lack of Personalization:

Kegel Exercises: Kegel exercises are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different bodies with different conditions need a personalized training plan with different levels of intensity that kegel cannot provide.

Physical Therapy: Although physical therapy is more personalized, it is not easily accessible by everyone. The quality of the specialist varies depending on location and the cost also varies based on your health care plan.

3. Time and Commitment:

Kegel exercises and physical therapy both require time, commitment, and consistency. This is difficult for those with busy schedules or have limited access to healthcare. New mothers are often the ones who need these exercises postpartum. They are usually also the ones who struggle to find time for their own health.

4. Limited effectiveness in severe cases:

Kegel exercises: In cases of severe pelvic floor injury or dysfunction, Kegel exercises alone may not be enough to restore full muscle function.

Physical therapy: While physical therapy is very effective, severe cases may require more invasive treatments, such as surgery, which cannot be addressed by physical therapy alone.

5. Overemphasis on muscle tightening:

Traditional methods often focus on tightening the pelvic floor muscles, which can lead to overtightening and dysfunction in some cases. A tight pelvic floor can lead to problems such as pelvic pain, difficulty urinating, or pain during sexual activity.

Alternative and complementary methods

Given these limitations, it may be helpful to explore complementary methods:

Electrical stimulation: Devices that provide electrical stimulation can help activate the correct muscles, which is particularly useful for those who have difficulty performing Kegel exercises correctly.

Biofeedback devices: Biofeedback devices used to require hospital use because they are expensive and require professional operation, but now we have designed and developed portable biofeedback devices for private, personal testing and training.

Yoga and Pilates: These exercises can improve overall core and pelvic floor strength, often incorporating breathing techniques that help muscles relax and engage properly.

Lifestyle Adjustments: Simple changes in daily habits, such as proper hydration, diet, and regular physical activity, can support pelvic floor health.

By combining traditional approaches with these alternative methods, individuals can address the limitations of each and create a more balanced, effective strategy for maintaining and improving pelvic floor health.

Introducing ELEKTRA & PUFF: Smarter, More Effective, and Hassle Free Kegel Training

ELEKTRA and PUFF represent the next generation of pelvic floor training tools designed to address some of the limitations of traditional methods such as Kegel exercises and pelvic floor physical therapy. They offer a more advanced, targeted and generally more user-friendly solution to strengthening the pelvic floor. Here are their features:

1. ELEKTRA

ELEKTRA is a device designed to stimulate and activate the pelvic floor muscles in a more direct and effective way. It uses electrical stimulation (also known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation or EMS) to stimulate the muscles, which is particularly beneficial for those who suffer from weak or underactive pelvic floor muscles.

How it works: It sends small electrical pulses to the pelvic floor muscles, inducing passive contractions of the muscles. This helps strengthen and severely compromised pelvic floor users feel the pelvic floor muscles and find the feeling of pelvic floor muscle strength.

Benefits:

For those with weak pelvic floor muscles: Ideal for those who have difficulty consciously exercising their pelvic floor, such as those with postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction or the elderly.

Effective for those with incontinence: Can help treat urinary incontinence by promoting better bladder control.

No effort required: Unlike traditional exercises, you don't need to consciously contract your muscles, which is useful for those who have difficulty recruiting pelvic floor muscle contractions during standard exercises.

2. PUFF

PUFF is a new and innovative pelvic floor training method that uses biofeedback and air pressure sensors to guide individuals through intensive exercises. It is designed to help you understand how to properly contract your pelvic floor muscles.

How it works: PUFF is a small device that you insert into your vagina (for women) with an air balloon probe that gives you real-time feedback on how much pressure your pelvic floor muscles are exerting during the exercise. This feedback helps you understand how well you are working your muscles, making it easier to learn the correct technique.

Benefits:

Biofeedback: It helps individuals visually understand how well their pelvic floor muscles are contracting, which is especially helpful for those who are new to pelvic floor exercises or those who are unsure if they are doing them correctly.

Personalized training: Because it provides instant feedback, users can adjust their efforts in real time, ensuring a more efficient exercise.

Can be done at home: It is a more private and convenient option than attending an in-person PT class.

Active vs. Passive: Kegel exercises and PT require active participation and muscle development on the part of the individual, while devices like ELEKTRA and PUFF offer a more passive or guided approach to training that also incorporates active and resistance training. They can be used in conjunction with traditional exercises or as a standalone option for those who have difficulty engaging in regular muscle contractions.

Scientific basis: ELEKTRA has advanced transvaginal electrical stimulation technology, which can be used as a rehabilitation method to assist in pelvic floor muscle repair. With its weighted ball and APP tutorial, you can effectively train your pelvic floor muscles and restore health. PUFF has a stronger technical and biofeedback foundation, which can provide more precise and measurable results compared with the subjectivity of traditional methods.

Ease of Use: They are more user-friendly, involve fewer steps, and can be set with phone notifications to remind users to keep up the exercise routine, especially for those who find traditional methods challenging or tedious.

Conclusion

ELEKTRA and PUFF are changing the game by bringing technology and biofeedback to pelvic floor training. These tools are not intended to replace traditional methods like Kegel exercises and pelvic floor physical therapy, but they do offer a more advanced, targeted approach to strengthening and training the pelvic floor muscles. If you've been struggling to adapt to traditional methods, or simply want to take your training to the next level, these options are definitely worth considering.

What makes ELEKTRA and PUFF Different?

Clinically proven, EMS is effective for pelvic floor muscle repair. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) published an experiment that randomly divided 67 women into two groups. The test conclusion is that for postpartum women with extremely weak muscle strength, even for a short period of treatment, 5 transvaginal electrical stimulations may be more conducive to controlling the contraction ability of the pelvic floor muscles and improving muscle strength.

Based on these tests and clinical data, Honey Play Box began to design a pelvic floor muscle training accessory that combines the functions of traditional Kegel balls with EMS stimulation functions. During the design process, Honey Play Box realized that users would be curious about the health of their pelvic floor muscles. In order to help users perceive and ensure accuracy and convenience, Honey Play Box also launched a testing device that can test pelvic floor muscle strength while exercising pelvic floor muscle strength.

ELEKTRA & PUFF came into being.

Why Elektra is the Future

With ELEKTRA, you can change the weighted ball according to your own muscle strength and perform traditional Kegel ball exercises. At the same time, you can also use ELEKTRA's EMS stimulation to sense the contraction of the pelvic floor muscles and train the force of recruiting pelvic floor muscle contraction in the early stage of Kegel exercises. Or after doing Kegel exercises, you can use the waveform set in the APP to complete the passive contraction of the pelvic floor muscles in a targeted manner. The microcurrent released by ELEKTRA helps to enhance blood circulation around the pelvic floor muscles to increase the nutrients needed for the repair of pelvic floor muscle tissue.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Induces Vasodilation in Healthy Controls But Not in Refractory Angina Patients

At the same time, microcurrent can stimulate cells, accelerating the division of pelvic floor muscle tissue cells to accelerate tissue repair.

Microcurrent Stimulation Triggers MAPK Signaling and TGF-β1 Release in Fibroblast and Osteoblast-Like Cell Lines From NIH

Why You Need PUFF

PUFF is equipped with an air pump and a gas pressure sensor, which is designed to detect how much the pressure difference inside the balloon increases after the muscle contracts, so as to detect the health of the pelvic floor muscle strength. The test of Honey Play Box is divided into three parts, namely fast muscle, slow muscle, and mixed muscle, but it only takes 64 seconds to complete the test.

After you have tested your results, you can get a report that will show your weak muscles, and then you can follow the training curve developed by Honey Play Box APP to train the pelvic floor muscle strength. The method is similar to elastic band fitness. By contracting the pelvic floor muscles to squeeze the balloon, resisting the air pressure inside the balloon, and relaxing and doing groups, you can effectively enhance the pelvic floor muscle strength until it returns to health.

How to Start Pelvic Floor Training: Simple Step-by-Step Guide

1. How to confirm whether I should buy ELEKTRA or PUFF?

First, you need to confirm your stage. If you are 6 weeks postpartum (pelvic floor muscle repair can only start 6 weeks after delivery, and lochia needs to be discharged before), and you have just entered the stage of postpartum repair, your pelvic floor muscle strength may be relatively weak, and the pelvic floor muscle is seriously damaged. You cannot feel the feeling of pelvic floor muscle force very well, or you may not be sure whether your pelvic floor muscle can exert force correctly. At this time, you are suitable for ELEKTRA. Its microcurrent can help you feel the contraction of the pelvic floor muscle and help you focus on the pelvic floor muscle. At this time, you can follow the microcurrent to try to control the contraction of the pelvic floor muscle, which will help you perform the correct Kegel exercise.

If you feel that your pelvic floor muscle is weak and you want to detect and train the pelvic floor muscle in a targeted manner, you can choose PUFF. The flexible keel and soft airbag of PUFF are more suitable for women's comfort in terms of physical sense, so as to ensure that you can persist in training.

Of course, both ELEKTRA and PUFF can help you improve your pelvic floor muscle strength, but you can choose the equipment that suits you better according to your situation.

You can even do nothing and restore your pelvic floor muscles to normal levels through self-disciplined Kegel exercises.

2. ELEKTRA usage steps

Unpack your package（Get your ELEKTRA first），Use the mobile app store to search (search HoneyPlayBox in APP Store, search HoneyPlayBox Remote in Google Play or go to HoneyPlayBox to download the APP，If you are using it for the first time, you also need to register an account (your information is confidential), then turn on ELEKTRA and make sure the APP has Bluetooth permissions for your phone. After the link is successful, you can use appropriate lubricants to ensure that the two spherical structures of ELEKTRA enter the vagina. You can choose recovery or training to perform EMS or Kegel exercises. And stick to one training session every day. You can set a plan so that your phone will notify you on time.

3. PUFF usage steps

Go directly to the link APP, long press the power button to turn it on and make sure the APP has Bluetooth permissions for your phone. After the link is successful, we recommend testing your pelvic floor muscle strength for the first time, use lubricants to put the PUFF into the vagina, start training, the Puff will be inflated in a few seconds, and then follow the APP screen to contract and relax. Then you can gradually unlock the training. Get Your PUFF.