Quick fix for a weak pelvic floor

The pelvic trampoline they never told you about

The prevailing view of our reproductive organs is that while they get some action, they don’t actually do anything themselves. They’re treated like scenery rather than main characters.

In reality your pelvic floor is doing a huge amount of work, all the time. It supports your bladder, bowel and uterus, helps keep you dry when life gets bouncy, and is deeply involved in arousal, orgasm and sexual response. It’s not a passive slab of muscle. It’s a responsive, living structure – and it matters just as much after menopause as it did at 25.

When the floor turns into a hammock

When the pelvic floor isn’t coping, it lets you know. The most obvious sign is leaking when you cough, sneeze, run, jump or – the cruelest of all – laugh. Other signs include:

• Not reaching the toilet in time.  
• Wind escaping from either the anus or vagina when bending or lifting.  
• Reduced sensation in the vagina.  
• Tampons that dislodge or fall out.  
• A distinct bulge at the vaginal opening.  
• A sensation of heaviness or dragging in the vagina.  

If this is you, you’re not alone, and none of it means anything is broken. It means the “trampoline” is behaving more like a hammock, and it needs help.

The standard advice is Kegel exercises – repeated squeezes of the vaginal and anal sphincters to build up muscle strength. After I gave birth to my daughter and developed the dribbles, I did these religiously for weeks. They didn’t make any difference at all.

It was quite a terrifying prospect to think that I would be stuck with my not‑very‑useful pelvic floor forever.

And then something unexpected happened.

Bounce your way to toned pelvic muscles

One of my favourite fun things to do is trampolining. As soon as I was up to it post‑birth, I got out my mini trampoline and had my first joyful bounce.

Within seconds I had completely wet myself – all down my legs and all over my beloved trampoline. It was… memorable.

Undeterred, and after a tiresome clean‑up job, I bought a maxi pack of maxi pads (the maternity ones) and started again. I usually bounce for about 20 minutes every other day. The first few times I had to change pads two or three times. It was not glamorous. But after a couple of weeks I only had to change pads once and after three weeks I realised that I didn’t need them at all.

At the same time the day‑to‑day leaks stopped. After a while I realised that the old girl was back to her old self – plumped, moisturised, responsive and happy. I also lost weight and got my glow back. It genuinely felt as if I had the pelvic muscles and vaginal musculature of my teenage years again.

Bouncing up and down against gravity, constantly adjusting your balance, forces big and small muscles to contract together, toning the whole area. Done right, trampolining gives your pelvic floor the kind of dynamic, elastic load it actually evolved to handle.

Interestingly, structured mini‑trampoline programmes in postmenopausal women have been shown to improve bone mineral density, balance and stress urinary incontinence scores over 12 weeks – so my experience isn’t entirely out on a limb. In other words, when we use it thoughtfully, rebounding can be a genuinely useful tool in the menopause toolkit.

A quick caveat: heavy, high‑impact jumping absolutely can overload a vulnerable pelvic floor and provoke leaking – that’s well documented in elite female trampolinists and other athletes. What I’m describing here is something different: small, regular, progressive bounces that re‑train the system rather than assault it.

Pelvic musculature – floor, hammock or trampoline?

The pelvic floor is made of interlacing muscles that sit like a sling under the bladder, bowel and uterus, holding these organs in place. The phrase “pelvic floor” suggests something flat, hard and static. In fact, it is much closer to a trampoline.

A good pelvic trampoline, like an actual trampoline, is taut but stretchy and exactly the right length. When the pelvic musculature is weak and over‑loaded, it behaves like a hammock instead – it has lengthened and lost its spring.

Once upon a time the idea of Kegel exercises made sense: if a muscle is weak, strengthen it by exercising it regularly. But the pelvic musculature is not like a bicep or a stomach muscle, which improves as it gets ever shorter and bulkier. It has to be flexible. It has to adapt constantly as you walk, breathe, bend, lift, cough and have sex.

If it simply gets shorter and tighter, it will often get more dysfunctional, not less. That’s why “more Kegels” are not always the answer, and in some women can even make symptoms worse.

Benefits of bouncing (beyond the pelvis)

For me, trampolining did three things at once:

• It re‑trained my pelvic “trampoline” to respond to load
• It helped rebuild whole‑body balance, coordination and tone.  It improved my overall health – mood, weight, energy, that elusive glow.

Rebounding (gentle mini‑trampoline work) also appears to support lymphatic flow, cardiovascular fitness, balance and bone health. In postmenopausal women specifically, mini‑trampoline training has been associated with better balance, improved functional mobility and reduced fear of falling – all highly relevant at midlife and beyond.

So bouncing is more than just fun. It’s a legitimate, full‑body intervention – and unlike most pelvic floor advice, it’s one you might actually look forward to.

I’m not an advocate of wearing bras generally, but a good sports bra on the trampoline is really helpful. I’ve had my Shock Absorber bra for years and it has, quite literally, held up under pressure.

How to keep bouncing pelvic‑friendly

A few practical points so you don’t shock your system the way I did

• Empty your bladder beforehand.  
• Start with small, soft bounces or even just lifting your heels – you don’t need to leap sky‑high
• Keep sessions short at first (30–60 seconds, repeated a few times) and build slowly
• Avoid double‑leg, high‑impact landings from height and heavy hand‑weights; both increase pelvic floor load
• Stop and reassess if you notice more leaking, heaviness, dragging or pain afterwards

If you have a known uterine or vaginal prolapse, significant heaviness, a visible bulge, severe leaks even with walking, or other health conditions that make impact unsafe, I would not start with trampolining. Get an assessment from a pelvic health physiotherapist or appropriate clinician and rebuild your trampoline from the ground up first.

Can‘t bounce? Squat.

There is a lovely congruence in the fact that trampolining helps tone the pelvic trampoline. But what if you can’t bounce? Or don’t want to?

Then you can do something women have been doing since forever, and are still doing all over the world while working in the fields, feeding children, cooking or socialising: whole‑body squats.

Squatting several times a day tones and contracts the muscles in your buttocks and hips, which has a positive knock‑on effect on the pelvic floor. It’s easy to do: stand with your feet a little wider than hip‑width, sit your pelvis back and down as if lowering onto an invisible stool, keep your heels on the floor, then press back up. If you’re not that fit, start with a few repetitions a day and build up.

The key thing is not to think of it as “exercise”, but as part of day‑to‑day movement: a couple of squats in the morning before getting dressed, a few in the evening before going to bed, a few more at the weekend. A few post‑it notes around the house can be a surprisingly effective reminder.

Pelvic TLC, not a life sentence

Having a weak or leaky pelvic floor feels like a depressing disaster. It can make you feel old, broken, and betrayed by your own body.

I don’t see it that way.


This is your biology asking for some very specific TLC – via trampolining, squatting, breath, better support and, sometimes, professional help. You don’t have to resign yourself to pads forever, or to a lifetime of clenching muscles that are already exhausted.

If you’re thinking of bringing your pelvic muscles back to life, whether by bouncing, squatting or a different path that suits your body better, I’d love to hear how you get on.