How to Exercise Your Pelvic Floor Muscle, bowels, and uterus (in women) and help control urinary and bowel function. Strengthening these muscles can prevent or reduce issues like urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and sexual dysfunction. Pelvic floor exercises, often called Kegel exercises, are simple yet effective ways to build strength and flexibility in this important muscle group.
In this article, we’ll explore how to locate, engage, and exercise your pelvic floor muscles for optimal health and well-being.
1. What Are Pelvic Floor Muscles?
The pelvic floor muscles form a hammock-like structure that stretches from the pubic bone in the front to the tailbone in the back. These muscles support the organs in your pelvis, including the bladder, intestines, and, in women, the uterus. When functioning properly, the pelvic floor muscles allow you to control the release of urine, gas, and feces, and they also play a role in sexual function.
Just like any other muscle, the pelvic floor can become weakened or strained due to various factors, including aging, childbirth, surgery, or being overweight. Regularly exercising these muscles helps maintain their strength and flexibility.
2. Benefits of Pelvic Floor Exercises
Exercising the pelvic floor muscles offers numerous health benefits, including:
- Improved Bladder Control: Strengthening the pelvic floor can help prevent or alleviate urinary incontinence, which is the unintentional leakage of urine, particularly during activities like coughing, sneezing, or exercising.
- Better Bowel Control: Strong pelvic floor muscles can also help prevent fecal incontinence by improving control over bowel movements.
- Reduced Risk of Pelvic Organ Prolapse: For women, pelvic floor exercises can help prevent or reduce the severity of pelvic organ prolapse, a condition in which the organs supported by the pelvic floor, such as the uterus, bladder, or rectum, drop from their normal position.
- Enhanced Sexual Function: Both men and women can experience improved sexual sensation, arousal, and satisfaction by strengthening their pelvic floor muscles. In men, stronger pelvic muscles may contribute to better erectile function.
- Postpartum Recovery: After childbirth, women can benefit from pelvic floor exercises to regain muscle strength and improve recovery.
3. How to Locate Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
Before starting pelvic floor exercises, it’s important to identify the correct muscles. Here’s how you can locate them:
- For Women: Try stopping the flow of urine midstream while using the toilet. The muscles you contract are your pelvic floor muscles. Note: this is only a method to identify the muscles, and stopping urine flow regularly is not recommended as it can lead to bladder issues.
- For Men: You can identify your pelvic floor muscles by contracting the muscles you would use to stop passing gas or prevent urine from escaping.
Once you’ve located the correct muscles, you can perform exercises anywhere and anytime without the need to stop urine flow.
4. How to Perform Pelvic Floor (Kegel) Exercises
Pelvic floor exercises can be done discreetly and in almost any position—whether you’re sitting, standing, or lying down. Follow these steps for a basic pelvic floor exercise routine:
Step 1: Get Into Position
- Start by sitting or lying down in a comfortable position. Many beginners find it easier to begin in a lying-down position to avoid using other muscle groups.
Step 2: Contract the Pelvic Floor Muscles
- Slowly tighten or squeeze your pelvic floor muscles as if you’re trying to stop urine flow or prevent passing gas.
Step 3: Hold the Contraction
- Hold the contraction for 3 to 5 seconds. As you gain strength over time, you can gradually increase the hold time to 10 seconds.
Step 4: Relax
- After holding the contraction, relax the muscles for an equal amount of time (3 to 5 seconds).
Step 5: Repeat
- Perform 10 to 15 repetitions, and try to do this exercise 3 times a day. Over time, you can increase the number of repetitions as your muscles become stronger.
5. Tips for Effective Pelvic Floor Exercises
To get the most out of your pelvic floor workouts, keep the following tips in mind:
- Breathe Normally: It’s easy to hold your breath during the exercise, but it’s important to breathe steadily throughout. Breathe in while relaxing the muscles and breathe out while contracting.
- Focus on the Right Muscles: Avoid tightening other muscles, such as your thighs, buttocks, or abdomen, while doing pelvic floor exercises. Focus solely on your pelvic floor muscles.
- Be Consistent: Like any muscle-building routine, consistency is key. Aim to do your pelvic floor exercises daily for optimal results.
- Increase Intensity Gradually: As your pelvic floor muscles strengthen, gradually increase the hold time or the number of repetitions. You can also perform exercises in different positions to challenge your muscles.
- Patience is Key: Pelvic floor exercises don’t produce immediate results. It may take a few weeks to notice improvements in bladder or bowel control and up to a few months for significant changes.
6. Advanced Pelvic Floor Exercises
Once you’ve mastered the basic Kegel exercises, you can try more advanced movements to further strengthen your pelvic floor:
- Quick Flicks: Instead of holding the contraction for a few seconds, quickly tighten and release the muscles in rapid succession. This helps the pelvic floor respond quickly in situations where you might need to control sudden urges to urinate or stop leakage.
- Bridge Pose (for Women): Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Lift your hips off the floor while contracting your pelvic floor muscles. Hold for a few seconds and then lower your hips back down. This exercise combines pelvic floor activation with core strengthening.
- Squats: Squats can help strengthen not only the pelvic floor but also your legs and glutes. As you squat, focus on contracting your pelvic floor muscles while maintaining a steady breath.
7. Who Should Do Pelvic Floor Exercises?
Pelvic floor exercises are beneficial for everyone, but certain groups may particularly benefit from incorporating them into their daily routine:
- Women during and after pregnancy: Pregnancy places additional strain on the pelvic floor muscles, making it essential for women to strengthen them both during and after pregnancy to prevent incontinence and support recovery.
- Men after prostate surgery: Pelvic floor exercises can help men who have undergone prostate surgery recover their urinary control and improve erectile function.
- People with urinary or fecal incontinence: Anyone experiencing leaks, whether from coughing, sneezing, or during physical activity, should start doing pelvic floor exercises to improve bladder and bowel control.
- Aging individuals: As muscles weaken with age, regular pelvic floor exercises can help maintain strength and prevent conditions like pelvic organ prolapse or incontinence.
8. When to Seek Help
If you’re unsure whether you’re doing pelvic floor exercises correctly, or if you’re not seeing improvement after a few months, it may be helpful to consult a healthcare provider. A pelvic floor therapist can guide you through proper techniques and offer personalized advice based on your specific needs.
Conclusion
Exercising your pelvic floor muscles is a simple and effective way to improve bladder and bowel control, prevent pelvic organ prolapse, and enhance sexual function. By incorporating Kegel exercises into your daily routine, you can maintain or improve your pelvic health at any age. Remember, consistency is key, and results will become evident over time with regular practice.
