Aquaflex Pelvic Floor Exercise System Review

Aquaflex is a popular system of vaginal weights designed to improve pelvic floor strength and treat stress incontinence (leakage of urine e.g. with coughing and sneezing).

This Aquaflex review is designed to familiarise you with this pelvic floor exercise system and to help you appraise how suitable it is for you.

This Aquaflex review covers the following:

Aquaflex contents
Benefits of using Aquaflex vaginal weights
How the system is supposed to work
Who may find Aquaflex beneficial
What is great about this product
Potential drawbacks of using Aquaflex cones
Who may find Aquaflex difficult to use
Potential issues with sustained contractions with vaginal weights
Purchasing details

Aquaflex Contents

The Aquaflex weights are housed in a plastic, aqua coloured storage case pictured above.

Inside you will find:

•2 hollow plastic cones each with a cord attached to the base

•1 Large cone: 27 mm diameter, 65mm long

•1 Small cone 20mm diameter, 65mm long

•4 circular weights (2x20g, 1x10g, 1x5g)

Aquaflex benefits:

This system of vaginal weights is promoted by the manufacturers for a range of pelvic floor health issues :
•Stress urinary incontinence (leakage with increased pressure on the bladder e.g. coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercising)

•Strengthening pelvic floor muscles for general health

•Preparation for pelvic floor muscles strength prior to pregnancy (not during pregnancy)

•Postnatal pelvic floor strengthening

How the Aquaflex cones are supposed to work

The manufacturers say that the cones work through an automatic reflex mechanism that they say occurs when the cone is inserted into the vagina. Mobilis state that the pelvic floor muscles contract automatically around the vaginal cone and that this helps the woman identify her pelvic floor muscles.

It is well known however that following a vaginal delivery, many women lose the ability to reflexly contract their pelvic floor muscles. Placing a weight in the vagina will not regain the reflex ability of the pelvic floor muscles to work.

Instead Aquaflex can be used for active strengthening of the pelvic floor muscles, just like lifting weights in the gym as discussed here 7 easy steps for strengthening with vaginal weights

Women who may benefit from the Aquaflex pelvic floor exercise system

The women who may find Aquaflex appropriate are those with:

• Small to moderate vaginal vault space (usually women who have had minimal pelvic floor muscle trauma during childbirth). See next section for how to measure your vaginal vault space.

• Reasonable awareness of their pelvic floor muscles.

• Moderate strength in their pelvic floor muscles.

• The ability to contract their pelvic floor muscles whilst standing.

What is great about Aquaflex ?

• Using the cones correctly may improve your awareness of being able to contract your pelvic floor muscles.

• You can progressively increase your weights by increasing the weight you can lift and thereby increase the challenge to your pelvic floor muscles.

• The weights can be used to strengthen in standing which is the position pelvic floor muscles need to be trained in to improve pelvic floor control for your ever day activities.

• The cones are smooth as they are well moulded and screw apart readily for cleaning, decreasing likelihood of contamination or infection.

• The carry container closes firmly and is discreet

Any potential drawbacks?

• They may not suit the woman with a larger vaginal vault for whom the larger vaginal balls may be a preferable weight.

• They are not recommended for use by women with pelvic prolapse owing to the difficulty in correct positioning of the cones.

• They do carry the risk of being used incorrectly; if weights are too heavy, incorrect technique and inappropriate training volume so you need to ensure that you use them correctly.

Who may find using the Aquaflex cones difficult to use?

1. Women with very weak pelvic floor muscles

Many women have pelvic floor damage as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. These ladies are often completely unable to contract their pelvic floor muscles and also have very poor sensation in their pelvic floor as a result of associated nerve damage or lack of use. Women often lose the ability of their pelvic floor muscles to contract automatically with childbirth and as a result they leak urine when they cough, sneeze or exercise. These ladies benefit most from professional guidance from a physiotherapist or continence nurse to learn how to correctly find and feel their pelvic floor muscles, and then work towards progressively strengthening them rather than trying to use vaginal weights when they are not even aware of how to correctly contract their muscles.

2. Women with a larger vagina

The other ladies that may have difficulty with the Aquaflex cones are those with a larger vaginal vault (or space inside the vagina). Some ladies who have had pelvic floor damage from very large babies, forceps deliveries and breech births, have a larger vagina. It is fairly easy for you to test your vaginal size simply by inserting one or two lubricated fingers into your vagina. If you can feel the inside walls of their vagina sitting against your finger or two fingers can usually manage to use the smaller or larger cone. Women with a larger vaginal vault (more than two finger spaces), sometimes cannot feel the larger 25mm diameter sized cone and/or they report that it falls out of their vagina.

Women that have difficulty retaining a vaginal cone in the vagina will often benefit from trying a Smart ball for strengthening their pelvic floor muscles. Smartballs are elliptical in shape and have a larger diameter than vaginal cones, making them easier for some women to sense their pelvic floor muscles working. The design of Smartballs also means that they are less likely to fall out. The manufacturers of Smartballs have designed them for women with uterine prolapse or retroverted uterus.

Manufacturers recommendations for when to avoid using Aquaflex:

During or just after intercourse
Whilst using a vaginal diaphragm or cap
During pregnancy
With a pelvic prolapse
During menstruation
In the presence of vaginal infection.

How to use and strengthen with the Aquaflex Pelvic Floor Exercise System

1. How to feel your pelvic floor muscles working using Aquaflex cones

Mobilis provide worthwhile advice that having appropriately inserted the empty cone, rest your finger on the base of the cone and to try to contract your pelvic floor muscles. You should feel the cone lifting away from the tip of your finger. If the cone pushes out of your vagina you are probably not using the correct muscles. This can be a useful way for you to find your pelvic floor muscles and can be performed when you are lying down on your side or standing up to give you some feedback about whether or not your muscles are actually lifting and squeezing as they should.

2. How to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles

The manufacturer’s recommendations for strengthening using the cones:

Insert the cone, standing and walking around for one minute and then start to add weights if you experience no problems. The goal is to work up to the weight you can retain in your vagina for one minute as your ‘exercising cone weight’ and then progress to using this weight walking around for 15-20 minutes.

There may be some potential problems with sustained (prolonged) pelvic floor muscle holds using vaginal weights:

Research into strength training tells us that our muscles strengthen best when they contract and fully relax rather continually contraction for long periods of time. This is the reason that when you go to the gym or fitness class you lift and lower a weight repetitively rather than holding it up for 15-20 minutes at a time. Pelvic floor muscles are skeletal muscles, just the same as the other muscles we perform strength exercises for in the gym and we may benefit from training our pelvic floor muscles using weights in this manner.
Your pelvic floor muscles will become very tired very quickly if you are holding the muscles on for extended periods of time without resting and allowing your pelvic floor to relax. One reason for this is that pelvic floor muscles are small and tire quickly.
Your pelvic floor tissues can be at risk of injury especially if the vaginal weights you lift are too heavy and you hold them in your vagina for extended periods of time.

Another approach to strengthening using vaginal weights has been suggested to progress pelvic floor training programs – see our physiotherapist devised instructions for how to use vaginal weights to strengthen pelvic floor muscles.

Purchasing details for Aquaflex

Purchase price ranges from $62.95 through to $75.00 in some Australian stores. Purchase details : Aquaflex Pelvic Floor Exercise System

Please read our disclaimer regarding this information

This information is provided for general information only and should in no way be considered as a substitute for medical advice and information about your particular condition.
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the author accepts no responsibility and cannot guarantee the consequences if individuals choose to rely upon these contents as their sole source of information about a condition and its rehabilitation.