No Products in the Cart
The short answer: if more Kegels have not fixed your leaks, pressure, or ache, it is usually because your pelvic floor is not weak. It is too tight. And the fix is learning to release it first with a Reverse Kegel, not squeeze it harder.
the half nobody taught you
For 21 years I have helped over 22,000 women with the leaks, the pressure, and the ache nobody warned them about.
For 12 of those years I ran a hands-on pelvic floor clinic in New York City.
And I coined the term Reverse Kegel in my 2009 book, Ending Female Pain.
Your pelvic floor is not one muscle you only tighten. It is a group of muscles and connective tissue that has to both contract and fully release.
A tight, overactive pelvic floor can leak just like a weak one. And for some women, more Kegels make it worse.
Your abs and your pelvic floor are connected through fascia. Suck in your stomach, and the floor grips right along with it.
A Reverse Kegel is the release. It is harder than a Kegel because you are un-training a habit you have held for years.
Whether you need to strengthen, release, or both depends on your V-Type. Until you know yours, you are guessing.
Because they treat every pelvic floor as weak, when a huge group of women actually have one that is too tight.
Tight does not mean strong.
A muscle can be tense, exhausted, and still leak.
Think of a fist clenched all day. By dinner it is not strong. It is shaky and spent. Telling it to clench harder will not help. It needs to open.
In my clinic I saw it for years. A woman doing 100 Kegels a day, certain she just was not doing enough.
She was doing plenty. She was doing the wrong half of the work.
For more on that, read my piece on the five Kegel mistakes most women are making.
Tight does not mean strong. One floor needs strengthening. The other needs release.
A Reverse Kegel is the opposite of a squeeze. It is a gentle, conscious release, letting the pelvic floor lengthen and soften downward instead of pulling up and in.
A Kegel is a contraction. A Reverse Kegel is a controlled letting go.
And here is what surprises women.
The release is the harder skill.
A Kegel is a quick flex most women find in a few tries. A Reverse Kegel asks you to un-grip a muscle you have braced for years without knowing it.
Your nervous system defaults to holding. So letting go on purpose, with breath and awareness, takes practice.
This is why I built a whole release series around it back in 2009. You cannot rush a muscle into relaxing.
You retrain it.
On the inhale, the diaphragm and pelvic floor lengthen and drop together.
Because your deep abdominal wall and your pelvic floor are not separate parts. They are joined by fascia, the continuous web of connective tissue that links your core from top to bottom.
Picture your core as a canister.
The diaphragm is the lid. The deep abdominals are the front wall. The pelvic floor is the base. Fascia is the shrink-wrap holding it all together.
So when you pull your belly in and hold it, that tension does not stay in your abs.
It travels down the fascial web.
The pull at the top becomes a pull at the base. Your pelvic floor grips. Your vaginal muscles grip. Not because you told them to, but because the fascia connects them straight to the thing you have been clenching for years.
Grip the stomach, and the vagina grips too.
Do it for a year and it is a habit. Do it for twenty and it is your body's default.
And the fascia itself adapts, shortening and stiffening to match. That is why "just relax" does not undo it overnight. And why the release is the harder skill.
I see it most in the women praised their whole lives for a flat stomach. The very habit that looked like control was quietly teaching the floor to never let go.
Left, the grip travels down to the floor. Right, a relaxed, neutral core.
Because every woman has a different pelvic floor pattern, what I call her V-Type, and yours decides whether you need to strengthen, release, or both.
There are four:
Doing the wrong protocol for your type is exactly why nothing has worked.
Leaks and pressure and ache all at once? There is a good chance you are a Tense Tamara, and more Kegels are the last thing you need.
But do not take my word for it from a blog. More than 60,000 women have already found their type.
Take the free 1-minute V-Type Quiz and you will know yours, and exactly what your body needs, before you waste another month guessing.
In the right order: release first, restore breath and awareness, then rebuild strength.
Strength built on a clenched, guarded floor does not hold. Sequence is everything.
That sequence is what I now teach as The Reverse Kegel Method, inside my V-Core Lift Essentials program. The same release-first approach I have refined over two decades, with breath work, fascial awareness, and the Reverse Kegel at its foundation, so you always know which step your body is ready for.
I am not going to hand you the full protocol in a blog post. The wrong order is how women get hurt.
But here is the truth: the women who finally get relief are not the ones doing the most. They are the ones doing it in the right order, for their type.
Come join me inside V-Core Lift Essentials
What is a Reverse Kegel?
A gentle, conscious release of the pelvic floor muscles, letting them lengthen and soften downward instead of squeezing up and in. It is the opposite of a standard Kegel, and it is used to calm a tight, overactive pelvic floor.
Who should not do regular Kegels?
Women with a tight, hypertonic pelvic floor often feel worse with more Kegels, because squeezing an already-clenched muscle adds to the problem. A quiz or an evaluation can help you tell whether you need to strengthen, release, or both before you start.
Why are Reverse Kegels harder than Kegels?
A Kegel is a quick flex most women find easily. A Reverse Kegel asks you to consciously un-grip a muscle you may have braced for years. That takes breath, awareness, and practice. Releasing on purpose is a harder skill than contracting.
Can sucking in your stomach cause pelvic floor problems?
Yes. Your deep abdominals and pelvic floor are connected through fascia. When you chronically hold your stomach in, that tension travels down the fascial web and the floor grips along with it. Over time it can stay stuck in a tight, guarded pattern, felt as leaking, pressure, and discomfort all at once.
Who created the Reverse Kegel?
I coined the term Reverse Kegel in my 2009 book Ending Female Pain: A Woman's Manual, and teach it today as The Reverse Kegel Method.
If Kegels were the answer, you would be better by now.
You are not failing at them, Queen. You were handed half the instructions.
Your pelvic floor is not broken. If you have spent years gripping and sucking in, it simply learned to hold. And it can learn to let go.
Start by finding your type. Take the free 1-minute V-Type Quiz. Everything gets simpler from there.
Related reading: Five Kegel Mistakes You Are Probably Making and What to Do Instead
This article is educational and is not medical advice. The Reverse Kegel and the V-Core Lift Essentials program are educational exercise approaches, not treatment for any medical condition. Consult your own provider before beginning any new exercise, especially if you are pregnant, postpartum, post-surgical, or have a diagnosed condition.
Source: PubMed.
Isa Herrera, MSPT, CSCS is a licensed physical therapist, international best-selling author, and a leading pelvic floor and women's health specialist. She holds a BA in Psychology and Biology from Fordham University and a Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Hunter College. Over her career she has helped more than 22,000 women heal from pelvic floor dysfunction, vaginal pain, incontinence, and intimacy challenges. She has practiced at Renew Physical Therapy, her NYC-based healing center, since 2005. Isa is the author of five books on pelvic health, including Female Pelvic Alchemy and Ending Female Pain: A Woman's Manual, where she coined the Reverse Kegel. She is the founder of PelvicPainRelief.com. Read Isa's full bio here.
Isa Herrera, MSPT, CSCS is a licensed physical therapist, international best-selling author, and a leading pelvic floor and women's health specialist.
She holds a BA in Psychology and Biology from Fordham University and a Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Hunter College.
Over the course of her career, Isa has helped more than 21,000 women heal from pelvic floor dysfunction, vaginal pain, incontinence, and intimacy challenges.
She pioneered integrative modalities including Maya Abdominal Massage, Low Level Laser Therapy, Sound Healing, and Andean Energy Techniques at Renew Physical Therapy, her NYC-based healing center, where she has practiced since 2005.
Isa is the author of five books on pelvic health, including the international best seller Female Pelvic Alchemy and Ending Female Pain: A Woman's Manual.
She is the founder of PelvicPainRelief.com, an online school dedicated to helping women and health professionals access evence-based pelvic floor education.
