Kegel Exercises for Pelvic Muscles

What are Kegel Exercises for Pelvic Muscles

How do pelvic muscles get weak?

Pelvic muscles help stop the flow of urine. For women, pregnancy, childbirth and being overweight can weaken the pelvic muscles. For men, prostate surgery can weaken pelvic muscles.

Weak pelvic muscles can cause you to leak urine. Fortunately, pelvic muscles are just like other muscles–exercises can make them stronger. People who leak urine may have better control of these muscles by doing pelvic muscle exercises called Kegel exercises.

This article focuses on Kegel exercises for women because it is much more common for women to leak urine than for men. If you are a man who leaks urine, talk to your doctor about whether Kegel exercises can help you.

What Conditions Can Kegel Exercises Help?

When pelvic floor muscles are stretched or damaged, most often by childbirth, they may stop supporting the bladder, uterus, or rectum. These organs can drop downward and cause feelings of pressure, fullness, and heaviness.

They can bulge (prolapse) into the vagina. Lost bladder support can cause problems holding urine during coughing, sneezing, or laughing hard. Urine leakage can happen during and after pregnancy. When support for the rectum fails, trouble having bowel movements can occur. Kegel exercises can help these conditions.

Which muscles control my bladder?

At the bottom of the pelvis, several layers of muscle stretch between your legs. The muscles attach to the front, back and sides of the pelvic bones. Two pelvic muscles do most of the work. The biggest one stretches like a hammock. The other is shaped like a triangle (see picture below).

How Do You Do Kegel Exercises-How do I exercise my pelvic muscles?

Kegel exercises consist of contracting (squeezing) and relaxing pelvic floor muscles. Learn to do this by thinking of the muscles used to stop the stream of urine once it has started.

Contracting these muscles stops the urine. Relaxing these muscles lets the flow start again. Once the right muscles are found, they can be contracted and released without urinating.

Kegel exercises are most often done in sets. Quickly contract and release the muscles 15, 20, or more times, and then rest for 30 seconds and repeat this process. Also, muscles can be contracted and held tight for 3 seconds and then released for 3 seconds, with this process repeated 20 or more times.

Longer times are used until muscles can be contracted for 10 seconds and relaxed for 10 seconds between contractions. With either method, repeat the process two or three times each day.

It’s best to tighten only pelvic floor muscles, not muscles in the abdomen (belly), thighs, or buttocks. Don’t start and stop the urine stream. Doing Kegel exercises with a full bladder or while urinating can actually weaken the muscles. Also, over-exercising can make muscles tired and increase urine leakage.

These exercises can be done anywhere without anyone knowing about it. Some people use tricks to remember to exercise—getting ready for a break from work, when the evening news starts, checking e-mail, while waiting for a stop light.

Many doctors recommend the exercises to all people and to pregnant women to help them get ready for labor and delivery.

You can exercise almost anywhere and any time–while driving in a car, at your desk or watching TV. To exercise these muscles, just pull in or “squeeze” your pelvic muscles (as if you are trying to stop urine flow). Hold this squeeze for about 10 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Do sets of 10 to 20 contractions per day.

Be patient and continue to exercise. It takes time to strengthen the pelvic muscles, just like it takes time to improve the muscles in your arms, legs or abdomen. You may not notice any change in bladder control until after 6 to 12 weeks of daily exercises. Still, most women notice an improvement after just a few weeks.

These are the same muscles that you would use to try to stop the flow of urine. They are the muscles you will exercise and strengthen.

A few points to remember

  • Weak pelvic muscles often lead to urine leakage.
  • Daily exercises can strengthen pelvic muscles.
  • These exercises often improve bladder control.
  • Ask your doctor or nurse if you are squeezing the right muscles.
  • Tighten your pelvic muscle before sneezing, lifting a heavy object or jumping. This can prevent pelvic muscle damage and urine leakage.

DOs and DON’Ts for Kegel Exercises:

  • DO keep doing your exercises. As with other exercises, seeing results takes time.
  • DO try to spread out your exercise sets. Do them at different times of the day, so muscles can rest between exercises.
  • DO talk to your health care provider about worries about your pelvic muscles or their function.
  • DON’T feel silly doing Kegel exercises. Nobody has to know that you’re doing them.

Daily pelvic muscle exercise log

I exercised my pelvic muscles ______ times daily.

I spent _____ minutes exercising.

At each exercise session, I contracted my pelvic muscles _____ times.

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