As a female teacher, I use several cues and visualization To help my female clients work their pelvic floor muscles. But I'm interested in any cues teachers have found helpful in teaching men how to engage the pelvic floor.

Vanessa....this is a great question and something that I've found to work is get right to the point: "Pull em up" is what I find myself saying more times than not. The men I work with 'get it' without me having to go into any more detail! :)

I wondered the same so I asked a male Pilates teacher and he said the same cues/visualisation you would use for woman work for him..

On the same theme as 'pull 'em up!', I get them to think of walking into freezing cold water and just as it reaches the groin, what would you do? Yes, pull 'em up!

I tell them to imagine they have to sit in a pool of ice water. Works for both genders ;)

That being said (and this may be another thread entirely), I rarely cue pelvic floor anymore in my sessions; TrA yes, but not pf. There is a huge percentage of women (and also men) out there with pf dysfunction, and telling someone to engage their pelvic floor without knowing HOW they are engaging it or how well, or even if it may be contraindicative of an issue you or they don't know about is something that is really out of your scope of practice unless you're going to do an internal exam and/or ultrasound. 40-50 (and quite possibly closer to 60-80) percent of women will have a pf issue in their lifetime. Hormones, trauma aside, the prevailing issue is usually one of hypertonicity (i.e. too short) NOT hypotonic (less than normal tone).

Trying to kegel or engage their way to strength when there is no longer room for the muscles to contract is not only counterproductive, it can actually make dysfunction worse. Our pf should be reflexively adapting to the loads placed on it - if your clients' pf is failing during an exercise the load is too high for their core system in general and modifications should be made. If pf dysfunction is an issue for them they should be seeking out a pf physio or specialist, with your encouragement... just as you would refer a client with any other acute dysfunction to a specialist. My two cents! (And buck n' a half ;) )

Lift the boys...always works for me!

Fee from Australia