On trial: Elvie Pelvic Floor Trainer

Designed to help you take charge of your pelvic floor, with expert-designed care from home, the Elvie Pelvic Floor Trainer – a tiny, discreet, sits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand device – helps to strengthen the hidden-away pelvic floor muscles, which can be left weak by pregnancy and childbirth, hormonal changes and even obesity.

In fact, according to Elvie, one in every three women suffer from pelvic floor problems during their lifetime.

By connecting to the Elvie app, this soft, smooth, green device actually visualises your pelvic floor muscles contracting, encouraging you to master your technique.

This does mean that yes, the Elvie trainer needs to be placed inside you. The app has six exercises in total – Strength, Speed, Lift, Pulse, Hold and Step – which help build muscle power, agility and endurance.

Essentially, the pelvic floor muscles sit around your bladder, bottom, and vagina. They act a little like a sling.

As a personal trainer, I harp on about the need to work the pelvic floor. It helps with core strength and stability as well as helping to support the spine. Incontinence, which can develop as a result of weak pelvic floor muscles, can also be triggered by high-intensity exercise, such as running, and no one wants to be out running only to find that they’ve had an accident.

You hear pelvic floor, you think of childbirth. But, this isn't the only thing that can make our pelvic floor muscles flop. Ageing generally, pregnancy, menopause and obesity can all play havoc on our pelvic floor strength. If you’re a new mum, the Elvie Pelvic Floor Trainer could be just the tool you need to regain strength in the pelvic floor. However, even if you aren’t experiencing any of the classic pelvic floor saboteurs – as is the case with me – it’s still useful to work these muscles.

A strong pelvic floor can help improve bladder control, treat uncomfortable pelvic organ prolapse and can boost your sex life too. Oh and if it’s core strength you’re after, making time for pelvic floor exercises will only be of benefit.

I’d like to think I’ll have children in the not-too-distant future, and a strong pelvic floor could make pregnancy, childbirth and post-pregnancy recovery a little bit easier.

Although you can do pelvic floor exercises at home, without any device or app, this Elvie Trainer is actually recommended by healthcare professionals as it helps to keep you on track as you work to strengthen these often forgotten muscles.

Luckily, it really isn’t too hard to use.

The Elvie app is really simple to follow and instructions on how to use the trainer are clear and concise. 

Simply connect the trainer to the app (instructions in the app make this a doddle) and place the trainer inside you. I decided to lie down for this. A number of squeeze and contract workouts then follow with the words Relax and Lift offering guidance. I found this whole thing quite humbling; when you squeeze, a red gem on the screen lifts; the harder your squeeze, the higher it goes. Worryingly, my gem wasn’t going too high, so once my five minutes of workouts were complete, I was keen to set a reminder so that I’d be alerted to use Elvie again in a day or two.

You can track your progress in the app and work your way through four levels.

I think I will need to do a few more sessions to really reap the benefits, but it certainly opened my eyes to how much I probably need to be working on my pelvic floor. 

This trainer is an investment – it’s £169.99 – BUT, in my opinion, it’s hard to put a price on certain elements of health. The Elvie Pelvic Floor Trainer works those muscles that are so often neglected, helping avoid incontinence and a weak core, among many other things. I’m already excited for my next ‘personal’ workout…