Hi, I am Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas. I'm a pelvic floor physical therapist, and I'm here to answer questions submitted by the plusOne community.

So what is a kegel and who should be doing them?

So a kegel is a contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, which are the muscles that run from pubic bone to tailbone and help to hold up your internal organs and open and close for bowel bladder function.

They were originally described in literature by Dr. Arnold Kegel, hence the name. Having a strong and well coordinated pelvic floor was demonstrated in literature to be helpful in terms of reducing urinary incontinence and other pelvic floor issues.

Pelvic floor exercises can be done on their own without any equipment, or you can augment that training with something like a kegel weight or a kegel trainer, or other types of biofeedback devices.

Now I will say that not everyone should be doing kegel exercises, especially if you have pelvic pain, and I always encourage you to seek the advice of a pelvic floor therapist before starting any kegel exercise program.

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