As we get older, especially after having children, many women experience bladder leaks, prolapsed organs, and essentially everything is “loose down there.” The pelvic floor muscles hold everything up, but sight unseen, it is commonly forgotten about and gets weaker. This is where Kegels, aka pelvic floor muscle exercises, is important. Did you know that 30% of women do Kegels incorrectly?
The first step to understanding how to perform Kegel exercises is to identify your pelvic floor muscles. One way to do this is to try to stop the flow of urine mid-stream or stop the passing of gas. This is not the exercise, but a way to know what pelvic floor muscles feel like contracted.
As you learn how to do Kegels, try doing them lying down on your back so you don’t have to fight gravity. Place a hand on your belly and breathe out. Keeping your butt, stomach, and thighs relaxed contract your pelvic floor muscles and squeeze. Even better, lift your buttocks off the floor like the Yoga “bridge” pose.
As you try and squeeze, imagine pulling inward, through your spine, towards your head but be sure not to hold your breath!
This is a good routine to get down so you can continue to strengthen those muscles. If you don’t continue to use these muscles, you’ll start to lose them. Try this routine:
1. Hold the Kegel for 3 – 5 seconds
2. Rest for 5 – 10 seconds
3. Repeat 10 times, which equals one set.
4. Repeat each set 3 times a day (any time you can fit it in). In some cases you need to repeat this up to 10 times in a day to effectively treat incontinence. (Hint… check out my Elitone blog here)
There are various methods for practicing your Kegels. There are internal weighted Kegels and more advanced Kegel exercises that can be tested to improve your pelvic floor muscles.
While Kegel exercises are helpful for incontinence they need to be done correctly and sufficiently to be effective. If you can’t remember to do them all the time, consider a wearable Kegel exerciser like Elitone that does the exercises for you, but longer and stronger than you could. It takes 20 minutes a day (while you do other things) and can be done from anywhere at any time.