Kegel Exercises

Your doctor, your sister, your mother or your friends may have told you to do Kegel exercises in the past. You may have even tried to follow their directions. But how do you know you are doing them correctly? What exactly is a Kegel exercise? How often should you do them? And, most importantly, why?

Kegel exercise is named after Dr. Arnold Kegel. It is designed to exercise the pelvic floor muscles and result in a healthier pelvic area and more control of the muscles used in urination, childbirth and sex. Kegel exercises help to restore control, tone and strength to muscles that may have lost these over the years. Age, weight gain, childbirth, pregnancy and inactivity can all lead to a loss of strength, control and overall tone of the pelvic floor muscles.

Benefits to strengthening the pelvic floor muscles include, but are not limited to:

A lessening of stress incontinence related urine leaks.

An easier pregnancy and childbirth.

Easier and faster recovery after childbirth.

Prevention of uterine prolapse.

Easier to reach and more intense orgasms.

Generally, in magazines and even in doctor's offices, a kegel exercise is described as the stopping and starting of the flow of urine. They tell you just to pretend you are doing that and you will be doing a kegel. Unfortunately, while this is a good basic description of the exercise, it is not as helpful as it could be. Many women may have problems controlling the muscles that stop and start their urine flow. That may be why they need to do kegels! In this instance, they may be discouraged and stop trying to do kegels because of their inability to tell if they are doing them properly. Or, you just may not be able to figure out if you are doing them right. A majority of women do kegel exercises incorrectly without knowing it and then think that they do not work.

To learn to do a kegel exercise correctly, and find the right muscles to use, follow this procedure:

Lay down on your back in a comfortable position. Insert one or two fingers into your vagina and hold them there. Close your eyes and concentrate on the muscles in your pelvic area and vagina. Contract your muscles as if you were stopping the flow of urine. You may not feel that you are doing anything, but you should feel the contraction around your fingers. Once you have succeeded in contracting those muscles around your finger, concentrate on how you did it. Then, relax the muscles and try again. Continue until you can contract and relax these muscles without having to concentrate so hard. At ths point, you will be able to do kegels at any time without having to work at it. Doing a correct kegel consists of contracting the muscles slowly and holding them for a count of six seconds. Then, slowly relax the muscles and stay relaxed for six seconds.

To get a good workout of the pelvic floor muscles, you need to do kegels on a regular basis. A suggested regimen would be 20 - 30 minutes each day for at least 8 - 12 weeks to see real results. You can easily do more and can practice while sitting at your desk at work or watching television. If, after 12 weeks of regular and correct exercise you are seeing no improvement in stress incontinence or muscle tone, you should see your doctor to rule out other issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegel_exercise