The essential, invisible exercise

Hillsdale class aims to bust the lid off pelvic health problems

By Shasta Kearns Moore

The Southwest Community Connection, Dec 28, 2009

Jaime Valdez / Pamplin Media Group

Women’s health physical therapist Brianne Grogan is focused on helping women engage their pelvic floor through an exercise dance class called FemFusion at Moving Moxie in Hillsdale. Grogan says a strong pelvic floor helps people with continence and even better sex.

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HILLSDALE – Nobody wants to talk about health problems “down below.” Nobody, that is, except Brianne Grogan.

“I just, I love it. It’s my thing,” the Beaverton resident said. Grogan is a women’s health physical therapist, which means she spends a lot of time talking to patients about what’s known as the “pelvic floor” and how to strengthen it.

The pelvic floor is the group of muscles that supports continence, sexual health and core strength.

“It’s all focused right here,” Grogan said, noting that even though pelvic health issues can be particularly acute for new mothers or the elderly, people of all ages and genders can benefit from strengthening those muscles.

“So many of my patients would say: ‘Everybody should know this,’” Grogan said. So, she thought: “How cool would it be to get people doing this and thinking about this before they need to come to a women’s health PT?”

So Grogan decided to bring her message to the masses as part of what to outsiders might appear to be an ordinary dance aerobics class at Moving Moxie in Hillsdale.

But, as she swings through steps, Grogan frequently reminds her students to “zip up,” stand “tight and tall,” or otherwise concentrate on engaging the pelvic floor.

“I’m completely comfortable about it. Hopefully people will feel a sense of security in talking to me about it … (and I can) help people relate to the fact that this affects everyone,” Grogan said.

Born of her amateur passion for dance, Grogan’s class, FemFusion, incorporates pole, belly, swing, African and Latin dance styles.

“I really felt like what all of them (the dance styles) had in common was working the core,” Grogan said. “I think it’s fun to bring them all together.”

The dances show that the widely publicized exercise known as Kegels isn’t the only way to work those muscles.

“You can strengthen them by doing more than just a Kegel, although those are good, too,” she said.

Kegels, named for Dr. Arnold Kegel, are an exercise in which a person tenses and releases the pelvic floor muscles, as if they are pretending to stop urine mid-stream.

Grogan said she’s learned from her pelvic floor work that many people who think they know how to do a Kegel aren’t doing them properly.

“It just bugs me that people say: ‘Do your Kegels,’ and don’t say how,” Grogan said (see below for instructions).

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