Your Level 3 mentioned the pelvic floor once. Your clients noticed.

The short answer

If you train anyone with a stomach or a pelvis, which is everyone, you were handed one tool for it: the kegel. Pelvic floor muscle training genuinely helps some conditions, and does nothing for others. A 2020 systematic review found that exercise regimens other than pelvic floor muscle training cannot increase pelvic muscle strength (Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, Jacomo et al., 2020), which rules out a lot of what gets sold. Taping and fascial release are weaker than their marketing. Often the honest answer for a client is not a fix at all, it is movement and patience. Understanding that difference is the Pelvic Floor & Core Specialist. It is £1,800, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100.

Key Takeaways

• Pelvic floor muscle training improves incontinence symptoms in the short term but does not fix prolapse anatomy.
• Exercises other than pelvic floor muscle training do not raise pelvic muscle strength, per a 2020 systematic review.
• For many postnatal clients the job is keeping them moving and happy in a recovering body, with doctors leading on medical issues.

The one lesson you got

Some clients ask for a better core. Some are frightened to jump because of their pelvic floor. And your Level 3 covered it in roughly a sentence, with a kegel attached.

So trainers do the reasonable thing with what they were given. They prescribe the one exercise, for every version of the problem, and hope.

Here is the odd bit worth sitting with. People describe the pelvic floor as working too hard and as not working enough, and the prescribed fix looks nearly identical either way. When one exercise is the answer to opposite problems, that is a clue the model is too thin.

Do kegels work?

Sometimes, clearly, and for specific things. This is not a takedown of pelvic floor muscle training.

A 2026 literature review found that pelvic floor muscle training consistently improved muscle strength and reduced urinary incontinence symptoms in the short term, particularly in symptomatic women, but noted it improved prolapse-related symptoms without producing anatomical improvement (Quality in Sport, Zimnoch-Wlodarczyk et al., 2026). Symptoms eased. The prolapse itself did not resolve.

That distinction matters at the point of a promise. You can honestly help someone feel better and manage symptoms. You cannot honestly say you are correcting the anatomy with exercise.

Is an exercise even the solution?

This is the question the one-lesson version never lets you ask.

A 2020 systematic review concluded that exercise regimens other than pelvic floor muscle training cannot increase pelvic floor muscle strength (Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, Jacomo et al., 2020). So the various branded core routines sold as pelvic floor solutions are, for strength, not doing the advertised job.

And adherence keeps surfacing as the real variable. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found people with pelvic floor disorders show high adherence to the exercises and improved quality of life in the short term (Life, Villa-Del-Pino et al., 2025). The benefit tracks with keeping going, not with the cleverness of the protocol.

What about taping and fascial release?

Both get sold hard. Both are thinner than the sales page.

A scoping review of kinesiology tape found the effect on pain relief was trivial, with no clinically important results and inconsistent range-of-motion outcomes (Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, Dehghan et al., 2020). Trivial is the researchers' word, not a paraphrase.

Myofascial release fares a little better, but only as an add-on. The evidence positions it as a modest adjunct alongside proper treatment, not a standalone answer.

If your toolkit for a frightened postnatal client is a strip of coloured tape and a thumb, the toolkit is the problem.

The postnatal client, specifically

Postnatal clients get surrounded by people trying to fix them. Everyone has a protocol.

Often the fix is quieter than that. Keep them moving. Keep them healthy. Help them feel happy in a new body and willing to wait for it to recover.

Where there is a genuine medical issue, doctors lead and you support. Your job is not to out-clever the clinician. It is to keep a person moving, safely, while their body does the slow work, and to know exactly when to hand over.

That is less dramatic than a cure. It is also what actually helps.

Frequently asked questions

Do kegels fix pelvic floor problems?

They help some. Pelvic floor muscle training reduces urinary incontinence symptoms in the short term but does not correct prolapse anatomy (Quality in Sport, Zimnoch-Wlodarczyk et al., 2026). It is a symptom and quality-of-life tool, not an anatomical repair.

Can core exercises other than kegels strengthen the pelvic floor?

The evidence says no. A 2020 systematic review found exercise regimens other than pelvic floor muscle training cannot increase pelvic floor muscle strength (Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, Jacomo et al., 2020). Branded core routines sold for this are overstating what they do.

Does kinesiology taping help?

Barely. A scoping review found the effect on pain relief was trivial with no clinically important results (Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, Dehghan et al., 2020). It is not a pelvic floor treatment.

What does the Pelvic Floor & Core Specialist cost?

£1,800 paid in full, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100. It counts as active learning, so your PT Manager access runs while you study.

Start here

The Pelvic Floor & Core Specialist is £1,800, or £300 deposit and 12 monthly payments of £150, plan total £2,100. It teaches the real mechanics, what the evidence supports, and how to keep a client moving safely inside your scope, with doctors leading on medical issues.

Not sure it is your next step? Ask. John will tell you honestly, including if the answer is not yet. The founder answers the WhatsApp.

Sources

• Quality in Sport, "Effectiveness of exercise-based interventions on pelvic floor function in postpartum women: A literature review," Zimnoch-Wlodarczyk et al., 2026, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.12775/qs.2026.50.67975
• Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, "Exercise regimens other than pelvic floor muscle training cannot increase pelvic muscle strength: a systematic review," Jacomo et al., 2020, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2020.08.005
• Life, "Compliance and adherence to pelvic floor exercise therapy in people with pelvic floor disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Villa-Del-Pino et al., 2025, retrieved 2026-07-26, https://doi.org/10.3390/life15040613
• Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, "Kinesio taping in sports: A scoping review," Dehghan et al., 2020, retrieved 2026-07-26 (DOI per source list)