Guide to Pelvic (Kegel) Exercises
Identify
Perhaps the hardest part of pelvic floor (Kegel) exercises is identifying which muscles you need to exercise. Imagine you are trying to stop yourself while urinating - those are your target muscles. If you are using your stomach, buttock or thigh muscles, you are probably doing them incorrectly. If you are still unsure, working with a pelvic health physical therapist can help.
Contract
Try to hold the contractions for 3-5 seconds at a time, though you may need to work up to this. After each contraction, be sure to relax the muscles for at least 3 seconds. Then contract again for a total of 10-15 contractions at a time. Again, you may need to practice for some time before you are able to repeat this many contractions at one time. Be patient!
Repeat
Once you are comfortable performing 10-15 contractions, try to increase the number of times you repeat these sets during the day. Eventually, attempt to complete 3 total sets throughout the day. It can be difficult to remember to do these pelvic exercises so try to use every day tasks as reminders. Perhaps you perform exercises daily when you wake up and again at bed time.
Be Patient with Yourself
It can take several weeks or even months to begin to see results from pelvic floor (Kegel) exercises. Stay with it and focus on doing them at the same time each day, gradually increasing the number you do. Eventually, you may begin to notice more control with activities that typically cause leakage such as exercise or laughing. If you have sudden urges to urinate, doing pelvic floor contractions while resisting that urgency can be an effective way of stopping urine leakage and even helping to drive away the urge. If you have doubts about your progress, reach out to us and we can suggest alternatives.