IF YOU NEED HELP WITH PELVIC FLOOR WORKOUTS
There are gadgets that can help men do these exercises at home. Physiotherapist Gerard Greene recommends the following:
Squeezy app for men
£2.99, from iTunes and Google Play
THIS is an app for a smartphone that shows you how to do the exercises. It also has visual prompts to tell you when to do each one, which can be set at a slow or fast level or can be modified to fit in with any tailored pelvic floor exercises given to you by a physiotherapist. It can also be used to set daily reminders to do the exercises.
It was developed by a specialist physiotherapist, according to Gerard Greene. ‘Not only does it tell men what to do, it also nudges their memory and is cheap, too.’
Innovo for men
£249, from restorethefloor.com and selected lloyds-Pharmacy branches
THIS device electrically stimulates the pelvic floor muscles to cause them to contract. It consists of two Velcro wraps that sit around the top of each leg and buttock — the wraps are connected by a wire to a chargeable controller that fires electrical impulses at the pelvic floor.
The idea is that you use the device for 30 minutes a day, five times a week for 12 weeks. Each 30-minute session triggers 180 contractions of the pelvic floor, according to the manufacturer.
‘I think that this is great for those men who want to complement the exercise regimen they are already doing,’ says Gerard Greene. ‘This can also encourage men to get back to exercising their pelvic floor while they are doing other day-to-day activities, though it is expensive.’
TensCare PFE for men
£79, from tenscare.co.uk and amazon.co.uk
ANOTHER device that does the pelvic floor exercises for you, this comprises a probe or pads (that can be applied to the legs) that fire electrical impulses to make the pelvic floor muscles contract. The maker says most men see a benefit within two months (using the machine for 1520 minutes a day).
‘There is a move away from using the probes,’ says Gerard Greene. This is because after surgery, the focus needs to be on strengthening the front section of the pelvic floor — ‘which is why we tell men to exercise from nuts to guts’ — and there is some evidence that strengthening the back end of the pelvic floor is ‘counter productive and that’s what using the probe would achieve’.
‘But the pads would be a perfectly good addition to those who are struggling to do the exercises themselves.’