The Kegel debate is heating up… but what are we really disagreeing about?
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Over the past few years, the conversation around Kegels has shifted big time. We’ve seen an explosion of “no-Kegel” or "more than Kegels" content online. Frustration from clinicians pushing back to defend the use of Kegels. And now even research articles challenging each other in the literature.
In this episode, we break down the three major camps in the Kegel conversation:
🔥 Pro-Kegel – Kegels are the most researched pelvic health tool and should be used for almost everyone.
🔥 Anti-Kegel – There are better, more functional ways to strengthen the pelvic floor. Kegels shouldn’t be a blanket prescription and we can strengthen in a system instead of isolation.
🔥 Anti-Anti-Kegel – Stop telling people not to do Kegels! They have major limitations but are an important treatment tool for patients
But here’s the thing… we actually agree on way more than we disagree on! We all know:
✅ Kegels can be useful—but they’re not for everyone.
✅ Pelvic floor therapy is so much more than Kegels.
✅ Kegels should never be blindly prescribed without assessment.
✅ Movement and functional training are critical for success.
So why all the controversy? A lot of it comes down to how we talk about this on social media—and whether we should be the "Instagram police" calling out others’ content.
Let’s get into the real conversation and find the common ground in the Great Kegel Debate!
Essential Pelvic Strengthening: Not Your Mama's Kegels - Cohort #3 Opens in a Few Weeks!
If you're interested in learning more about strengthening in a more functional (and fun!) way than we were taught in con-ed courses, we're opening our third cohort of the Essential Pelvic Strengthening course in March!
It goes through the history of Kegels and the isolated strengthening approach we were all taught, dives into the research, and teaches practical, effective ways to strengthen in a whole-body way. You can see all the details here, but stay tuned as we get into March! We've already had nearly 600 of you go through the course and create "Pelvic PT 2.0!"
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Let you go back to your work: you'll have lifetime access to the lectures and handouts. Check out all the clinical courses we offer (www.pelvicptrising.com/clinical).
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Nicole Cozean, PT, DPT, WCS
Founder of Pelvic PT Rising and PelvicSanity Physical Therapy in Southern California.
Dedicated to forever changing pelvic health with online clinical courses to help you be more confident in your practice and business resources to help start and grow pelvic health businesses.
Jesse Cozean, MBA
Co-founder of the Pelvic PT Rising and the Rising Podcast.
Jesse uses his business experience to help pelvic health business owners start and grow their practices so they can build a practice that truly works for them. From website design, SEO, conversions, marketing, finance and money mindset, he wants to make the process of owning your own practice easier and fun.