Yeah, it's 220 Australian Dollars.

It's a weird balloon thing that's attached to a plastic base.
You Bluetooth it to your phone, install an app, sit on the device & when you move your muscles the correct way, it operates games included in the app.

There's a cool pinball game & others. I remember one where different shapes would fall from the top of the phone screen & you move your muscles to open a gate to allow the different-sized shapes through.
Kinda fun. I'm used to playing games on my arcade machine, so controlling games with my ass was certainly a novelty.

The other device that I considered was a wand-shaped metal thing that you shove up you & it zaps you. An anally-inserted taser for masochists.
It's a no from me.

I can't send anyone my device, per forum rules (I asked) - so it sits in the drawer, unused & unloved.
But it might be worth your while trying it.
I was just too uncoordinated/tight to benefit from it.

I have to say that the support was good, though.
Just to re-traumatize myself for everyone's benefit, here's my correspondence when I was having problems with it:

Hi

I bought the Boost because 5 physio sessions hasn't achieved much. I was hoping to show the Boost to my physio, to correct my technique - but she's moving overseas & I won't get another physio booking for a month.

The problem I'm having is that my understanding is that Kegels involve *lifting* the pelvic floor.
But when I try it with Boost, I get the opposite effect.

With the pinball game, for instance, the paddles don't move at all when I try to lift the pelvic floor, but I push down hard & bear down, the paddles move no problem.
Same with all the other workouts.

Obviously I'm doing the complete opposite way, but how I correct this?
I won't have professional help for another month & I was hoping the biofeedback from Boost would make a difference.

Hi Pete,

Thanks for reaching out. You are correct that a "squeezing and lifting" sensation is typically what you should feel with a correct pelvic floor muscle activation. One thing you can try is to increase the Sensitivity of Boost in the app (on the Settings screen) -- this may help detect a response more easily even when you are using the "lifting" technique and not the bearing down approach.

Another way to think about it is imagining what you would do if you were peeing and wanted to stop the flow of urine midstream without using your hands. That muscle activation is what you want to be shooting for while doing Kegel / pelvic floor muscle strengthening exercise. You may also want to imagine simultaneously preventing yourself from passing gas if that helps.

When you were working with your former physio, did she check your technique with you and did she have any comments about technique?

Looking forward to getting things working smoothly and hope you're having a good weekend,

Brian
kGoal Help Team

Just out of interest...

When I read about the Boost, I printed out information from the website for my physio & left it with her to assess - along with some other devices.

She emailed back the next day & said:

"I have had a look at some reviews of the kgoal unit and it appears to be convenient and user-friendly. I can't find any health professional reviews but I think it would be useful to keep you motivated and practicing the pelvic floor exercises.

I would suggest that sitting up tall on the machine will be paramount as previous research has shown that slumped sitting will reduce pelvic floor activation. The real-time feedback will hopefully reinforce that pattern of contract AND relax for you so we don't end up over-tensing the muscles.

If you can order and receive it in the next few weeks, flick me an email once you have it and I'll see if I can make an appointment time to try it with you in clinic."

So it might be good to get some professional reviews for the reviews page. It might help convince physios to recommend the device.
Just a thought.

Hi Pete,

Thanks for sharing this info!

We can also confirm / endorse your physio's recommendation about sitting up tall / having good posture in general -- that is definitely important for pelvic floor exercise in general and for Boost in particular.

Her comment about over-tensing and the importance of practicing muscle relaxation in addition to strengthening is (as you would expect) also spot-on. We have two "Down Training" workouts included in the app that are totally focused on muscle relaxation and one Combined Training workout, as well as the Strengthening workouts -- we'd definitely encourage you to check those out as well.

And lastly, adding some professional reviews to the reviews page is a great idea -- we will work on that.

Best regards,

Brian
kGoal Help Tea