Your pelvic floor can be weakened by various factors. These factors include pregnancy, childbirth, surgery, ageing, excessive strain from constipation, chronic coughing, or being overweight. Weakened pelvic floor muscles eventually lead to either urinary or fecal incontinence. In order to fix this, you must perform pelvic strengthening exercises known as Kegels.
What are Kegels?
Kegels are specific exercises that can strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Your pelvic organs support your organs such as the uterus, bladder, small intestine, and rectum. It is very important to make sure that you do Kegels if you have issues related to the pelvic floor.
Who will Kegels benefit?
- Patients that have stress incontinence
- Stress incontinence is if you have urine discharge when coughing, sneezing, laughing.
- Patients that have urinary urge incontinence
- Urinary urge incontinence is the intense or abrupt need to urinate shortly before losing a larger amount of urine.
- Patients that have Fecal incontinence
- Fecal incontinence is if you have a leaky stool.
How do I strengthen my pelvic muscles?
- Figure out what muscles you’re working out
Try to stop urinating midstream, all the muscles you’re squeezing, are the muscles that you will be strengthening.
*Be careful not to constantly do Kegels mid-urination. This habit has the potential to cause incomplete emptying of the bladder which can lead to UTIs!
- Find the right techniques
You can do either
– Short, Quick squeezes
– Long, Held squeezes - Maintain your focus
Make sure you are focused on working out your pelvic muscles. Be careful not to flex any muscles in your stomach, thighs, or glutes (buttocks) - Repeat 3 times a day!
Tip: Try to aim for 3 sets of 10-15 reps per day!