Your current exercise routine most likely involves popular muscle groups like abs, biceps, and quads. While they're super important for maintaining health and fitness, there are other muscles that are craving your attention.

Most often, it's the hard-to-see muscles that are forgotten and neglected during exercise. That's why Kegel8 have done the heavy lifting and collated a list of the top five muscles that you need to start exercising today:

Serratus Anterior

Why it is important: This strip of muscle wraps around your upper ribs and is super important for shoulder blade mobility and posture.

How to exercise: Try the cat-cow yoga pose where, on all fours, you breathe in while your back is arched, and breathe out when your tailbone is tucked in.

Gluteus Medius & Minimus

Why it is important: Exercising your glutes doesn't just involve your two big bum cheek muscles. The gluteus maximus can't reach its full potential without support from the gluteus medius and minimus. They are essential in supporting the pelvis and helping you walk, climb and rotate.

How to exercise: Try squats with a mini band around your knees to activate these muscles.

Jaw

Why it is important: Your jaw muscles can be neglected as they are often overworked. Gum chewing, nail biting and teeth grinding can put stress on the muscles and even cause pain.

How to exercise: Spend a few minutes consciously trying to relax the muscles. With your lips together and teeth apart, gently rest your tongue in your mouth. A soft massage and heat therapy can ease relaxation too.

Vocal Fold

Why it is important: Your throat contains the most frequently used muscles in your body. There are tiny muscles around your vocal box that work for speaking and breathing.

How to exercise: We exercise these muscles every day. To ensure they keep in tip-top condition, drink plenty of water, ditch the acidic foods, quit smoking or alcohol abuse, and try not to strain them by screaming.

Pelvic Floor

Why is it important: Your pelvic floor works harmoniously with your abs. A strong pelvic floor is essential to prevent incontinence, pelvic pain, dysfunction and more.

How to exercise: Strengthening your pelvic floor muscles involves locating, squeezing and lifting the muscles. You can learn the correct technique here. However, it's important to remember that 1 in 2 women perform a pelvic floor contraction wrong, so a biofeedback tool may be necessary to ensure you are doing it correctly.

Kegel8 Kegel Weight Set have a unique indicator tail that allows you to see, in real-time, whether you are exercising the muscles correctly or not. As you squeeze and lift, the tail of the cone waves downwards - it's that easy! Plus, the set comes with three different weighted cones to give your pelvic floor a thorough workout, helping to build your endurance over time.

Over 30% of women cannot correctly recruit their pelvic floor muscles.

If you cannot produce an effective pelvic floor contraction, it's not the end of the line, extra help is at hand! Electrical stimulation devices, such as the Kegel8 Ultra 20 Electronic Pelvic Toner harness the body's natural electric signals to stimulate the pelvic floor muscles and produce an effective contraction all with the push of a button! That means that all of the guesswork is removed, an you can guarantee your pelvic floor gets a great workout every single time.

 

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