Most women are all too familiar with Kegel exercises, as Kegels are a routine part of health care during pregnancy. Kegel exercises are used to strengthen the pubococcygeal muscle, also known as the pelvic floor muscles, which support the internal organs including the bladder, bowel and in women the uterus. When performed regularly, these exercises keep the pelvic floor muscles supple, helping to reduce the risk of adult incontinence.
Kegel exercises are equally beneficial to men and women, though most men never worry about that region of their bodies until they are much older. Then conditions like enlarged prostate and general muscle weakness from age begin to cause problems like urinary incontinence, and the importance of healthy muscles along the pelvic floor becomes clearly evident. For women, urinary incontinence can be a byproduct of childbirth, or as in men, ageing can wreak havoc on the pelvic floor muscles leaving them weak and functioning inadequately.
Whether you are male or female, ageing is a condition that is shared by all humans, and if you are lucky enough to be alive, ageing is guaranteed. So men and women would both be well advised to practice their Kegel exercises regularly to ensure healthy pelvic floor muscles to assist in continued continence. Of course for Kegels to be effective, they must be performed correctly, so here is what you should look for when performing your Kegel exercises.
The first thing that you need to do when you are planning to start a Kegel exercise regime is to isolate the muscles that you will be exercising. Learning to do your Kegel exercises correctly is exactly like learning how to do any other type of exercise correctly. After you can feel the muscles that you will be strengthening, it is time to learn how to contract and relax them properly.
If you are not sure what your pelvic floor muscles feel like when you contract them, the next time that you are urinating, stop the flow of urine in mid stream. If you are able to stem the flow of urine, you are doing a Kegel exercise. Once you identify the muscles, so you know what they feel like, do not continue to interrupt your urine flow mid stream; because in time this habit can lead to your bladder not properly emptying, and it can increase your chances of developing a urinary tract infection. For these same reasons, you should avoid doing your Kegel exercises with a full bladder.
If you have tried to locate your pelvic floor muscles, but you just cannot seem to find them, then you should contact your health care professional for assistance. Now that you know where the muscles are and how to contract them, it is time for your workout. To begin, contract your pelvic floor muscles and hold the contraction for three seconds. Then relax for three seconds, and continue for a set of ten repetitions. Over time you will increase the duration of your contraction gradually up to ten seconds with a ten second pause in between each contraction. As you are tightening your pelvic floor muscles, make sure that you do not tighten any other muscle like your abdomen or buttocks. Make sure that you continue breathing normally, and concentrate on isolating the internal muscles to contract them.
Now that you can do a set of Kegel exercises, plan to do a set of ten Kegels three times per day. The more frequently you do them, the easier they will become. So that you remember to do them, connect the exercises to something that you do at that point in time every day like brushing your teeth, commuting to work, etc. It is also a good idea to mix up your workout routine with a set of short burst Kegels. Instead of holding a muscle contraction for ten seconds, try doing a burst of ten or twenty, one second Kegels. Another variation of the Kegel exercise is to picture your pelvic floor as an elevator, and gradually tighten the muscles. Picture an elevator going up and stopping on each floor. That is what you are doing with your muscles, and once you reach the top floor, slowly relax your muscles like your are going back down one floor at a time until your muscles are fully relaxed.
Kegel exercises do not generally require any special training or equipment, however, there are times when a person has trouble isolating the muscles. In this case, physicians may use a biofeedback technique where a small monitor is placed in the vaginal or rectal area so that when you contract the proper muscles it registers on a monitor. This biofeedback helps to identify the proper muscles to contract.
After you begin doing your Kegel exercises, be patient. Like any workout, it takes time to see the results of improved muscle mass. However, if you continue to faithfully do your Kegels, within two to three months you will be quite pleasantly surprised with the results. Remember though, to keep your muscles in shape, you have to continue to do your Kegel workout as a regular part of your healthy lifestyle.
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