What your pelvic floor muscles do
Kegel exercises help make your pelvic floor muscles strong and healthy. These muscles support many organs in your body, including your uterus, bladder, small intestines, and rectum, and hold your pelvic organs in place. You can mostly feel your pelvic floor muscles when you stop your urine flow midstream, or whenever they tighten during an orgasm.
Because there's usually no pain or discomfort in the pelvic area, most of us never notice these muscles or what's happening to them. That puts women at risk for POP, or pelvic organ prolapse, a condition where the pelvic floor gets too weak, whether from pregnancy, childbirth, pelvic surgeries, weight gain, or simply aging, and the pelvic organs start to drop into or out of the vagina. In milder cases, neglecting the health of your pelvic floor muscles contributes to stress, urinary, and fecal incontinence.
Who benefits from Kegel exercises
These symptoms may sound horrifying, but they're avoidable. Kegel exercises aren't limited to women, men also benefit from Kegels in the same way that women do. They help you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, avoid the symptoms above, and even enhance sexual experience: increasing sensitivity and stronger orgasms for women, while helping men reduce symptoms of erectile dysfunction.
Understanding how Kegel exercises work and the benefits they offer can take time, but that shouldn't stop you from including them in your daily routine. Once you get used to the exercise, you'll be able to do it anytime and anywhere, without stress.
How to locate the right muscles
Initially, it can be difficult to locate the muscles you need to control in order to perform Kegel exercises. A good starting point is identifying where your pelvic muscles are by stopping your urine midstream, trying to control your urine flow this way will familiarize you with how your pelvic floor muscles tighten and relax, the main movement you need to know to perform Kegels. Keep in mind, though, that this is only meant to help you find the muscles you'll be controlling; it's highly discouraged to interrupt your urination regularly, as it can cause other problems like urinary tract infections.
Once you've done this, you may begin learning your technique. Every body is different, so try working on your pelvic muscles on your own before seeking help. If you're having difficulty locating the right muscles, or if you're feeling more pain and discomfort than relief, talk to your medical practitioner so they can guide you in using the right muscles and techniques.
How to perform a Kegel
If you're successful in finding your pelvic floor muscles and gaining control over them, start out slowly by squeezing your pelvic floor muscles, then releasing. You should feel your pelvic floor muscles tightening and relaxing. Breathe deeply in between contractions to make sure your pelvic floor muscles are actually relaxing. Try to get used to this, as you'll be repeating the actions multiple times to successfully complete a set, the amount recommended by your physical therapist.
If you're unable to continuously repeat the exercise, do as many as you're able to and gradually build your count, adding a few squeezes daily or weekly until you reach your desired amount. To know if you can increase your count, pay attention to your body during the exercise, if your pelvic floor muscles don't feel tired, you may begin progressing by prolonging your contractions before relaxing. When performing Kegels, make sure you don't hold your breath or tighten any other muscles at the same time; these exercises are done with sole focus on the pelvic floor.
Results, and when to get help
Kegel exercises aren't harmful, but they don't necessarily work for everyone. Most people who do them regularly find it relaxing, so if you experience any pain or discomfort while doing Kegel exercises, stop immediately and meet with your medical practitioner, it may mean you're not doing them correctly, or that they don't work well with your body. You may consult an OB-GYN or meet with a physical therapist who specializes in the pelvic floor to learn what your body needs to feel comfortable and whether you're doing the exercises correctly.
If you're experiencing incontinence, are pregnant, or have just given birth and are using Kegel exercises to work up your pelvic floor muscles, you should see significant results after a few months of regularly doing the exercise. Keep Kegels a part of your routine even after you notice them working, since it will help you avoid further problems with your pelvic floor and organs down the road.
Our Women's Health practitioner, Dr. Monica Saliu, PT, DPT, can help you with Kegel exercises. Tribeca Physical Therapy is officially reopened for in-person physical therapy sessions and continues to offer Telehealth PT, or Virtual PT. Call us at (212) 406-8080 or message us to schedule your first session.