The Pelvic Floor Truth Most Women Aren't Told with Jana Danielson #057
Summary
The Pelvic Floor Truth Most Women Were Never Told
If you've been quietly buying pads, hoping nothing leaks during a sneeze, dreading sex because it has started to hurt, or watching your wardrobe shrink because of bloating — I have something to say to you, and you deserve to hear it.
Your body isn't broken. It's just been ignored.
This week's guest, Jana Danielson, came on Women Aging Powerfully and gently flipped over a table I didn't realize had been there for years. Jana is a Pilates Master Instructor, certified weight loss specialist, and the inventor of the Cooch Ball — the world's first pelvic floor fitness tool. She's also one of the most generous communicators I've ever interviewed, and what she said deserves to land in every woman's inbox.
The myth she's working to dismantle: that pelvic floor problems mean you're weak.
Here's the truth that took me by surprise. The pelvic floor isn't one floppy hammock muscle that sags as we age — it's actually 14 muscles arranged in three layers, designed to work together like a symphony. Some are sprinters (think coughing, sneezing, jumping during a tennis match), some are marathon runners (think sitting upright at your desk all day). And what most of us are walking around with is not a weak pelvic floor, but a chronically tight one.
According to the pelvic floor specialists Jana works with, the majority of women are hypertonic — too tight, all the time. And here's the cruelty of it: when a too-tight pelvic floor finally fails under the pressure of a cough or a laugh, it leaks. That looks like weakness. So well-meaning women double down on kegels — which makes the muscle even tighter, which makes the leakage worse. It's a perfect feedback loop of frustration.
So if not kegels, then what?
Jana lays out three things you can start doing today, all of them free.
The first is breath. Not the shallow chest breathing most of us live in — that pattern keeps the nervous system in a low-grade stress state, which keeps the pelvic floor clenched. The second is posture. We weren't built to live with our weight thrown forward into our toes by heeled shoes and forward-folded screen postures. The third is blood flow — and this is where most women miss the point. The tissues of the pelvic floor need oxygen-rich, nutrient-rich blood, and chronic sitting plus chronic dehydration starves them.
We also got into the parts of pelvic floor health most podcasts won't touch: the orgasm piece, the painful sex piece, the trauma piece. Jana shared Dr. Aimie Apigian's redefinition of trauma — "too much too soon, or too little for too long" — and I'll tell you, that one stopped me. Most of us assume trauma is something dramatic. Aimie's framing makes it clear that quiet, prolonged absence — of touch, of connection, of being heard — counts too. And the pelvic floor, Jana says, is like a sponge for it.
And the data on what's at stake is stark. The adult incontinence products market is currently valued in the high tens of billions and projected to keep climbing. That number is a measure of how many women have quietly accepted leakage as their permanent normal.
It is not normal. It is common. And there's a difference.
Jana's invitation is simple: three minutes a day. Breath, posture, blood flow. The Cooch Ball if you want to amplify it, pelvic floor PT if it's accessible to you. And our Belly Bloat Challenge starting June 9th if you want to be guided through it.
If you take one thing from this episode, take this: the leakage, the painful sex, the bloating, the constipation — those aren't sentences. They're sentences your body is starting. The question is whether you're going to listen.
Your body isn't broken. It's just been ignored.
Where to Listen:
The information provided during this podcast is for educational purposes only. The speaker may be a licensed medical professional and may present case studies of actual patients or refer to patients' treatment during the program. Please be reminded that the Scope of Practice for Holistic Nutrition Professionals prevents us from diagnosing, preventing, treating, curing, prescribing, managing, or healing disease. Holistic Nutrition Professionals are not licensed in any state and work with clients, not patients.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Pelvic Floor Health
09:13 Jana's Journey to Pelvic Floor Health
13:19 Understanding the Pelvic Floor
23:14 Breath and Posture: Keys to Pelvic Floor Wellness
31:45 Shifting the Narrative on Pelvic Health
36:15 Empowerment Through Knowledge and Action
39:20 Understanding Pelvic Floor Health
50:57 Myths and Misconceptions about Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
01:03:07 Practical Solutions for Pelvic Floor Health
About Jana Danielson
Jana Danielson is an award-winning wellness entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Bloom Better, on a mission to elevate women through mindset, movement, and metabolism. A Pilates Master Instructor, Best-Selling Author, and Certified Weight Loss Specialist, she is the inventor of the Cooch Ball, the world's first pelvic floor fitness tool for women. Jana believes that when women invest in their health, they invest in their power to change the world.
Connect with Jana
→ Website: https://bloombetter.life/4CSHGm
→ Instagram: @jana.danielson
→ Facebook: The Cooch Ball
🔥 Resources/Links Mentioned:
→ Free download: Healthy Pelvic Floor eBook
→ Join us: 21-Day Belly Bloat Challenge (June 9–30, 2026)
→ The Cooch Ball — Jana's pelvic floor fitness tool
→ Joylux vFit — red-light intimate wellness device referenced for vaginal tissue health
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Sources & Research
PELVIC FLOOR ANATOMY
→ Cleveland Clinic — Pelvic Floor Muscles: Anatomy, Function & Conditions — confirms 14 pelvic floor muscles arranged in three layers
→ Physiopedia — Overview of Female Pelvic Floor Muscle Anatomy and Physiology — three-layer classification: pelvic diaphragm, urogenital diaphragm, superficial perineal muscles
PELVIC FLOOR & ORGASM
→ Sara Reardon, FLOORED: A Woman's Guide to Pelvic Floor Health at Every Age and Stage — referenced for the pelvic-floor-as-orgasm-engine concept
→ Pfaus et al. (2022), Women's Orgasms Determined by Autodetection of Pelvic Floor Muscle Contractions — Lioness biofeedback study identifying three rhythmic pelvic floor contraction patterns during orgasm
TRAUMA & THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
→ Aimie Apigian, MD, The Biology of Trauma — source of the "too much too soon, or too little for too long" framework
MENOPAUSE & BRAIN CHANGES
→ Dr. Mindy Pelz, Age Like a Girl: How Menopause Rewires Your Brain — the source Jana referenced on the neurochemical shift in perimenopause
→ Mosconi et al. (2021), Menopause impacts human brain structure, connectivity, energy metabolism, and amyloid-beta deposition — neuroimaging foundation for menopause-related brain changes
INCONTINENCE INDUSTRY
→ Precision Business Insights — Adult Incontinence Products Market — global market valued at US$19.3B in 2025, projected US$32.6B by 2032
FASCIA & CONNECTED TISSUE
→ Vieira (2020), Embryology of the Fascial System — review of fascial development and the systemic connections referenced in Jana's tongue-pelvic floor explanation
The information provided during this podcast is for educational purposes only. The speaker may be a licensed medical professional and may present case studies of actual patients or refer to patients' treatment during the program. Please be reminded that the Scope of Practice for Holistic Nutrition Professionals prevents us from diagnosing, preventing, treating, curing, prescribing, managing, or healing disease. Holistic Nutrition Professionals are not licensed in any state and work with clients, not patients.
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