Driving Change For Pelvic Health – Engineered Sportwear

Here at CMT Medical we’re constantly on the lookout for new, innovative ways to combat bladder, bowel and pelvic health issues, in a non-invasive way. One of the most well received products that we’ve come across is the EVB Sports range – sportswear that is especially engineered to support your pelvic floor muscles. We began to sell the EVB Sport range on our online store. Those who have used EVB Sports’ briefs, leggings or shorts notice an almost instant improvement in their ability to exercise, and are free from worries of lower back pain, abdominal discomfort, light bladder leakage and prolapse.

The founder of EVB Sport is Irish engineer Yvonne Brady, who we are delighted to welcome as a regular contributor to our blog. Today, in her first blog for CMT Medical, Yvonne tells us how EVB Sports was born from her own experience, and what motivated her to be the change she wanted to see in women’s health.

When your pelvic floor is weakened the damage can have huge effects on your fitness, and confidence. Any fitness or medical professional will advocate that your core, which includes your pelvic floor, is the powerhouse of your strength.

Your pelvic floor muscles hold vital internal organs in place, including the uterus, bladder and bowel. Damage to the pelvic floor can happen to both men and women, and can be caused by childbirth, repeated heavy lifting, excess weight or changes in hormone levels. Pelvic floor weakness is a very common side-effect of childbirth for many women. One such woman was Yvonne Brady, an engineer, marathon runner and mother-of-three from Dublin, Ireland.

“Very soon after the birth of my third child I decided to get back into sport and signed up for a marathon… but the rigorous pounding on the roads was causing untold damage to my body, and my muscles were fatigued… but I didn’t realize, because nobody told me.”

Following some online research Yvonne learned that millions of people across the globe were experiencing the same problem, and yet there was so little help available. A natural problem-solver, and engineer by trade, Yvonne decided to tackle this issue, “I didn’t want another women to go through what I went through”. Yvonne developed a sportswear range that supported the pelvic floor.

If you are suffering from pelvic floor weakness and are hoping to resume exercise, having the right support behind you is hugely important, whether you’re a weight-lifter, a swimmer, a jogger or a yogi. The higher the impact though the more care needs to be taken.

The technology behind EVB Sports mimics the function of the pelvic floor muscles to create a hugging type effect. The active wear provides support to the perineum/pelvic floor and across the core thus reinforcing the core muscles. The direction of the force created in the technology is hugely important in supporting the core muscles. This force encourages the correct position of the pelvis. The activewear stops you from actively over – bracing your muscles as you try to support the organs yourself or in response to your symptoms. This will in turn stop negative tension build up from the bracing. The correct action for you, as a reminder of what it is you should be doing yourself is facilitated by wearing EVB Sport. In conjunction with a pelvic floor rehab program, the EVB Sport range is an ideal complement to keep women moving.

EVBs help you to correct the position of the pelvis and avoid further damage to your pelvic floor as you ease yourself back into your fitness regime and regain your confidence.

Grainne Donnelly is an Irish physiotherapist specialising in Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological physiotherapy and has been asked to speak at POGP Conference in Wales in October.

Grainne says: “I am a huge advocate for EVB Sport. I have experienced the benefits of the sportswear as both a user (wearing the shorts particularly in the postpartum periods after each of my babies) and as a Physiotherapist who recommends them to clients. I have found that the support they provide to the perineum is protective and facilitates recovery alongside pelvic floor rehabilitation. After experiencing the shorts myself I realized that the high waist design offers beneficial abdominal and back support and I began recommending them to diastasis clients. The feedback has been great and clinically I find the protective support that they offer enables my clients to continue with safe forms of exercise and rehab without fear and the abdominal support helps prevent excessive pressure exerting outwards against the connective tissue. This empowers them to carry out more functional rehab and therefore encourages progression.”

You can get your own pair of EVBs from our online store now.