Ex-Strictly star Kristina Rihanoff has developed a dance routine incorporating Kegels and gentle exercises – following her own recovery from childbirth.
After leaving the BBC show in 2015, the dancer welcomed baby girl Mila with partner Ben Cohen in 2016 but experienced a number of health issues afterwards.
When returning to dancing, Kristina noticed a significant change in her core and pelvic floor muscles, which forced her to take eight months away to focus on yoga, breath work and Pilates.
Kristina, who has partnered with TENA as part of the launch of new TENA Silhouette underwear, to encourage women who experience bladder weakness to seek help – and which is also available to view at home [www.tena.co.uk/women/living-with-bladder-weakness/stories/pelvic-floor-routine-kristina-rihanoff], said: “As a professional dancer, I wasn’t prepared for what happened to me post-birth – no one talks about the fact you can experience pelvic floor weakness to the point of losing a little bit of control.
“And as a very fit woman, where exercise and movement is my profession, I assumed I’d just bounce back – so it was a mental and physical challenge to overcome.”
After leaving the BBC show in 2015, the dancer welcomed baby girl Mila with partner Ben Cohen in 2016 but experienced a number of health issues afterwards.
When returning to dancing, Kristina noticed a significant change in her core and pelvic floor muscles, which forced her to take eight months away to focus on yoga, breath work and Pilates.
Kristina, who has partnered with TENA as part of the launch of new TENA Silhouette underwear, to encourage women who experience bladder weakness to seek help – and which is also available to view at home [www.tena.co.uk/women/living-with-bladder-weakness/stories/pelvic-floor-routine-kristina-rihanoff], said: “As a professional dancer, I wasn’t prepared for what happened to me post-birth – no one talks about the fact you can experience pelvic floor weakness to the point of losing a little bit of control.
“And as a very fit woman, where exercise and movement is my profession, I assumed I’d just bounce back – so it was a mental and physical challenge to overcome.”
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FunTranscript
00:00Beautiful job, you guys!
00:06As a professional dancer and yoga teacher, I move my body constantly.
00:10I'm also a mom, and like a lot of moms out there, and also women in general,
00:14experience pelvic floor and bladder weakness.
00:17This is why I'm so excited to partner up with TENOR and put together a special program
00:22which will help you to tone your pelvic floor muscles.
00:27Pelvic floor exercises are super important for all women, at all ages, at all stages of their lives.
00:33And we exercise our pelvic floor daily, just like we would need to keep any muscle in our body strong.
00:41Today has been great fun. Learning to dance with a star from Strictly is not something you get to do every day.
00:46And to be able to incorporate that pelvic floor education into movement has just been a really lovely combination.
00:52Five, six, seven hands on hips.
00:58I love dancing so much. It's everything I've always wanted to do, and I hope I will dance until I'm 100 years of age.
01:09Today, my very special routine for pelvic floor strengthening was also about just empowering women to have a little bit of movement,
01:16have a bit of fun, not to worry much about things, but just actually let go and enjoy themselves.
01:27There is some research out there which shows that 52% of women are actually embarrassed to talk about bladder weakness
01:32and will never talk to anyone about it.
01:34And I think it's all about breaking those taboos, breaking that stigma, and start making that conversation happen.
01:46www.strictly.co.uk