For decades, the advice for anyone concerned about their pelvic health has been remarkably consistent: "do more Kegels." The idea of squeezing and strengthening has become the default prescription for everything from bladder control to postnatal recovery. But what if the key to a healthier, stronger pelvic floor isn't just about squeezing harder, but about learning to relax better?
This is where "downtraining"—the active, conscious skill of pelvic floor relaxation—comes in. It’s the often-overlooked and misunderstood foundation of true pelvic wellness. This focus on relaxation is crucial, as research from Dr. Ursula Herman highlights that social taboos and a lack of awareness create an average seven-year delay for women seeking help for pelvic floor issues.
1. More Squeezing Isn't Always the Answer: The Problem with High Tone
Contrary to popular belief, pelvic floor issues don't always stem from muscles that are too weak. They can just as easily arise from muscles that are too tense, a condition known as an "overactive" or high-tone pelvic floor.
Imagine clenching your fist all day. Eventually, that muscle would become fatigued, weak, and painful. The same principle applies to the pelvic floor. When these muscles are in a constant state of tension, they can't function correctly. This chronic tightness can lead to a range of problems, including pelvic pain, difficulty emptying the bladder or bowels, and painful intercourse (dyspareunia). In these cases, adding more strengthening exercises only makes the problem worse. The real issue isn't a lack of strength, but a lack of release.
Or maybe the answer is much simpler – is learning how to properly relax the pelvic floor muscles enough to help?
This question is critical because it shifts our focus from mindless strengthening to mindful control. A truly healthy pelvic floor isn't just strong; it's responsive, flexible, and capable of both contracting powerfully and releasing completely.
2. True Control Begins with Conscious Relaxation
Effective pelvic floor training isn't just brute force exercise; it's a structured process of motor learning. The Intimifitness pedagogical framework, for example, breaks this journey into a systematic skill-building process with three distinct phases: Consciousness, Control, and Improvement.
This framework progresses logically from Consciousness (developing the mind-muscle connection to find the muscle), to Control (learning to precisely modulate muscle tension), to Improvement (automating the muscle's response so it works without conscious thought during activities like running or laughing). The first and most critical phase is Consciousness.
This initial step is dedicated entirely to mastering relaxation before focusing on strength. This is essential because nearly 30% of women are unsure how to correctly activate their pelvic floor muscles in the first place. Without a clear connection, it's impossible to know if you're exercising effectively or just tensing other muscles. In this foundational phase, learning to fully release muscle tension and identify the "resting tone" of the pelvic floor is considered as critical as learning to contract. You have to know where "off" is before you can effectively train "on."
3. Master Your Breath to Master Your Pelvic Floor
One of the most powerful and accessible tools for practicing pelvic floor downtraining is your own breath. The respiratory diaphragm (your primary breathing muscle) and the pelvic diaphragm (your pelvic floor) are designed to work in mechanical synergy. When you breathe correctly, they move in a coordinated rhythm.
Here is the simple, actionable pattern you can practice anytime:
The pelvic floor muscles should naturally descend during inhalation and lift during exhalation.
When you inhale, your respiratory diaphragm moves down, increasing pressure in the abdomen and causing your pelvic floor to gently lower and expand. As you exhale, your diaphragm rises, and your pelvic floor should naturally lift and return to its resting position. By focusing on deep, diaphragmatic breathing, you can actively encourage your pelvic floor to relax and release with every breath, making it the most fundamental tool for practicing downtraining anywhere.
4. You Can't Fix What You Can't Feel: The Role of Biofeedback
The primary challenge of pelvic floor exercise is that the muscles are internal and invisible. It's difficult to know if you're contracting correctly, let alone relaxing fully. This is where modern biofeedback technology has become a game-changer, making the invisible visible. This technology is the result of a collaboration between Dr. Ursula Herman's medical research at Jagiellonian University and engineers from Stanford University, merging clinical expertise with Silicon Valley innovation.
Devices like kGoal use manometry (the measurement of pressure) to give you real-time, objective data on your muscle activity. An internal sensor converts the force of your muscle contractions into a digital signal that you can see on a smartphone app. This system not only shows you how strongly you're squeezing but, just as importantly, verifies that you are properly relaxing and returning to your baseline resting tone. It can even detect when you might be inadvertently using "cheat" muscles, like your glutes or abdominals, instead of your pelvic floor.
To make this training engaging, these systems often use gamification. A perfect example is the "Butterfly" game in the app. Users are instructed to squeeze their pelvic floor to make a butterfly fly up, but the equally important skill is consciously relaxing the muscles to let the butterfly gently float down. This transforms downtraining from an abstract concept into a tangible, controllable skill. After mastering the gentle control of the butterfly, users progress to higher-intensity games like "Rocket Flight" or "Basketball" that train the power and speed needed for real-world activities, powerfully reinforcing the need for both relaxation and strength.
Conclusion: Finding Your Balance
True pelvic health is not a choice between strength and relaxation; it's the achievement of a functional balance between the two. While Kegels have their place, the ability to consciously release, or "downtrain," is the foundation upon which real strength and control are built. By understanding the problem of high tone, mastering your breath, and leveraging biofeedback, you can develop a more nuanced and effective approach to your pelvic wellness.