Pelvic Floor Exercises or Kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic muscles. Kegal exercises can also increase sexual pleasure for females and their partners. A newly postpartum woman can retrain her pelvic floor muscles to their pre-pregnancy strength and tone. Kegel exercises are also one of the treatments for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Kegel excercises aren’t just for women, men can also do them to achieve orgasm without ejaculation and perhaps reach multiple climaxes during sexual activity.

How do I do the exercise?

• Identify the muscles

First you need to find your pelvic floor muscles. Try to tighten your muscles around your vagina and back passage and lift up, as if you’re stopping yourself from passing water and wind at the same time. A quick way of finding the right muscles is by trying to stop the flow of urine when you’re on the toilet. Don’t do this regularly because you may start retaining urine. Once you’ve found the muscles, make sure you relax and empty your bladder completely.  You can add resistance to the exercise through gripping a hard object such as a Kegel exerciser.

• Contract the muscles correctly

The movement is an upward and inward contraction, not a bearing-down effort. When you first start the exercises, check that you are doing them correctly. Put your hands on your abdomen and buttocks to make sure you can’t feel your belly, thighs, or buttocks moving. Don’t hold your breath. You should be able to hold a conversation at the same time or try counting aloud while you’re doing the exercises. Don’t tighten the tummy, thigh, or buttock muscles because you’ll be exercising the wrong muscle groups.
 
You need to train your pelvic floor muscles through repetition, in the same way as you would train a muscle.

• Slow contractions

Slow contractions help to increase the strength of your pelvic floor. They help your muscles to hold back the urine. Lift your pelvic floor muscles to a count of ten. Hold the muscles tight for 10 seconds. You may find at first that you can only hold the contraction for one or two seconds, so concentrate on lifting your muscles and holding the contraction for as long as you can. Gradually increase the time until you reach 10 seconds. Relax your muscles and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat the contractions up to 10 times.

• Fast contractions

Fast contractions help your pelvic floor to cope with pressure, for example when you sneeze, cough or laugh. This works the muscles that quickly shut off the flow of urine. Lift your pelvic floor muscles quickly. Hold the contraction for one second. Relax the muscles and rest for one second. Repeat the contractions 10 times.

How do I know they are working?

You can test your muscle strength with the stop-start test. When you urinate, partially empty your bladder and then try to stop the flow of urine. If you can’t stop it completely, slowing it is a good start. Try the test every two weeks or so to see if your muscles are getting stronger. Don’t do the test more often than this.

The pros of pelvic floor exercises

They’re simple, cheap and effective. You can do them when sitting, standing or lying down.

The downside of pelvic floor exercises

You have to keep doing them for the rest of your life. It can take up to 15 weeks before you see any difference. If you haven’t noticed a difference after three months, see your doctor.