Do Pelvic Floor Exercises
The pelvic floor is the group of muscles that runs between your pubic bone at the bottom of your spine. This sling-like set of muscles controls and hold your bladder, urethra and vagina in place. Older women, overweight women and those who have had natural childbirth can find these muscles weaken substantially over time. A weak pelvic floor can lead to incontinence and loss of sensitivity during sex. Performing certain exercises, sometimes known as Kegels, can rehabilitate these muscles, stopping incontinence and other problems. Older men and those who suffer from erectile dysfunction can also benefit from Kegel exercises. Find out how to do pelvic floor exercises.
Contents
Steps
Identify the Pelvic Floor
- Lay on your back with your knees bent. Place your hands on your pubic bones in a "v" formation. This means your thumbs and forefingers should touch, with the outline of your hands laying along your hip bones and pelvic mound.
- Push your mid back into the floor slightly. As you do this, focus on contracting your lower abdominal muscles that sit below your stomach, near your pelvis. Your fingers should drop a few centimeters as you hold the position for 3 to 10 seconds.
- This is the feeling of contracting the pelvic floor. As your lower abdominal muscles work, you should also feel the muscles near your urethra lift up. Relax your muscles and repeat the exercise until you feel the muscle that runs along your perineum lift upward. If possible, try to relax your buttocks, upper abdomen and legs and simply focus on the pelvic muscles.
- Repeat this exercise, but change the positioning of your hands. Open your legs and place 2 fingers on the perineum, between your urethra and your anus. Pay attention to lifting and squeezing the muscles in this area.
- Your fingers should move upward toward your pelvic muscles as you contract your abdominal muscles.
- If you still do not feel these movements, concentrate on stopping the flow of urine when you are urinating or holding back gas. Feel the work that goes into that action, lifting muscles near your bladder, and try to mimic this movement when you do the exercises above. This is only recommended to try once as you are learning about the muscles. Do not repeat this as an exercise, or it can interrupt successful urination.
- Go to the bathroom before you try to perform pelvic floor muscles. People who suffer from fecal or urinary incontinence may have a higher risk of having these problems when they first begin. With practice, the exercises will reduce the risk of incontinence at all times.
Pelvic Floor Exercises
- Find a private place to perform these exercises. Concentration will improve the effect of the exercises. Once you get used to them, you can do several sets in the office, in the car or at home without others knowing you are performing them.
- Lay on your back or sit on a chair with good posture. Contract your pelvic muscles for 3 seconds, then release them for 3 seconds. Repeat this exercise 10 times.
- Do this exercise every day, then naturally progress the number of sets you do each day as you grow stronger. Do 1 set for the first few days, then do 2 or 3 sets for the next few days.
- After several weeks of doing the contractions, start holding your contraction for 10 seconds each time. Rest for 10 seconds in between. Work up to 3 sets per day, or 3 sets in a row each day.
- Begin quick contractions. Instead of tightening and holding, contract the muscles and release them 10 times in a row. Rest after you have done 10 fast contractions.
- In the beginning, it will be hard to contract and relax on a rhythm. Pay attention to the contracting strongly and quickly. After a week or 2, it should become easier. Work up to 3 sets of 10 contractions each day, then, begin doing 3 sets in a row.
- Do hip bridges. Lay on your back with your knees bent. Keep your feet about a fist distance apart.
- Flex your lower abdominal muscles and lift your hips off the ground. Stop before or at the point when there is a straight line in a diagonal between your knees and shoulders. Hold for 3 seconds and slowly return your hips to the ground.
- Repeat 3 times. Work toward doing 3 sets of 10. Once you can do 3 sets, start increasing repetitions to 10 per set. This is the hardest of the pelvic floor exercises. It may not be possible for some older women who have arthritis.
- Continue these exercises daily for at least 12 weeks to start seeing the benefit. Although you should continue to increase the intensity of your Kegel exercises after this point, your pelvic muscles will start to reduce incontinence automatically.
Tips
- Some soreness in the pelvic area is expected. Make sure you rest between sets or do the sets at 3 different times during the day. Like other muscle exercises, you should drink plenty of water and repeat them every day to strengthen the muscles and reduce weakness.
