Pelvic floor exercises, also known as Kegel exercises, are essential to every woman’s exercise routine and can be done anytime, anywhere and without anyone noticing. Not only do they increase your control over your bladder, but your pelvic floor supports your vagina, uterus, and intestine, so keeping your pelvic floor in good working order is beneficial for women of all ages and stages of life.
A strong pelvic floor can also help shorten the second stage of labour, and after delivery pelvic floor exercises can also help heal any damage by increasing the blood supply to the area.
Pilates is a great way to strengthen your pelvic muscles exercises since these muscles need slow and fast exercises. Visit our Poise® Pilates Studio for tips, tricks, and exercises to get your pelvic floor muscles back in shape.
Pelvic floor exercise can be implemented in your daily life and can be done anywhere, anytime. It is a gentle exercise, but very effective in treating bladder leakage.
Like any form of exercise, it is best to try different methods to get all of your pelvic floor muscles to work. These can include quick exercises, where the muscles of the pelvic floor quickly tighten and then relax; and slow exercises, where the pelvic floor muscles tighten for 10 seconds before relaxing. These exercises work best when each squeeze of the pelvic floor muscles is as tight as possible.
Lie down and insert a finger into your vagina. Try to squeeze around your finger with your vaginal muscles. You should be able to feel the sensation in your vagina, and you could also feel the pressure on your finger. If you can feel this, you are using the correct muscles. If you cannot detect any movement with 1 finger, try 2 fingers. One of the most common mistakes is exercising the wrong muscles.
When trying to find a new muscle, especially a weak one, most people also squeeze other muscles. Some people clench their fists or teeth, hold their breath, or grimace. This does not help. It is very tempting to use other muscles, especially the stronger ones, to support smaller, weaker muscles, such as the pelvic floor muscles. However, the use of other muscles interferes with learning how to use the correct ones. It is better to relax your body as much as possible and focus on the pelvic floor muscles.
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