Kegel Exercises — How to Start

Kegel exercises have a lot of benefits for your body, and one of them is bettering your bladder control problem. Aside from that, these exercises can even help alleviate some medical issues you might have. You achieve all of that by making the muscles of your pelvic floor stronger. While you are not able to see them working while you exercise, with enough time and consistency, you will feel the difference when you consistently perform these exercises for your pelvic floor.

Proper Ways of Doing Kegel Exercises

The correct way to do Kegel exercises is to relax your body and make sure that your pelvic floor muscles are the only ones doing the heavy lifting. These exercises can be a life-long commitment that will help reduce urinary incontinence (constant need to “go”), which makes them worth the effort. 

The first thing you should do before starting Kegels is to empty your bladder. You can do the workout by sitting, lying down, or standing. Squeeze your pelvic muscles as if you were holding in urine or stopping yourself from passing gas. Do that for three to five seconds and then loosen the muscles for another three to five. Repeat this routine three times a day at most (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for ten reps.

As mentioned before, make sure that you’re doing the workout only with your pelvic floor and that the rest of your body (particularly your chest, stomach, buttocks, and tights) is entirely relaxed. It would be ill-advised to increase the number of reps since that could create severe health problems. 

Also, it is essential to note that you should exercise correctly and stop if you feel something is not right. Consult your doctor to check if everything is in order and if you’re doing the exercises correctly.   

Medical Purposes of Kegel Exercises

A lot of people have problems controlling their bowel movements, suffer from frequent urination, pelvic torment or experience urine leakage. The causes of these symptoms can be various, such as: 

• Aging
• Weight gain
• Giving childbirth
• Having surgery (gynecological for women and prostate for men)
• Nervous or brain disorders
• Urinary incontinence 

However, there are a few ways you can deal with these issues. That is where learning and doing Kegel exercises comes into play! These exercises can help you better control your pelvic floor muscle, which, in turn, will improve your bladder control, as well as assist in recovering from surgery and childbirth. Plus, they can also help keep your organs in their place. With age, particular organs can fall toward the vagina, which can cause urinary incontinence and a lot of discomfort. 

Another thing to mention is that Kegel exercises can also assist with those tiny urine leakages that happen when you cough, laugh, or sneeze. Coughing, laughing, and sneezing put pressure on weak pelvic muscles, hence the leakage.  

However, there are also potential side effects of doing too many pelvic floor exercises. For women, it can make their vaginal muscles too strong, which could make their sex lives uncomfortable.

What Are the Accessories That Can Help With Kegel Exercises?

Women often use Ben Wa balls, more commonly called Kegel balls, as aids when doing Kegels. They are like weights that women put in their vaginas and try to hold them in while doing their exercises. That way, these aids are able to help strengthen the floor of your pelvis even more. These balls can be made from certain types of materials, but the safest to use would be medical-grade silicone, glass, or the classic stainless steel. Plus, they come in different sizes. You can refer to Loveballs.co for different kegel ball variants.

When using these balls to exercise, follow your regular routine of three by ten reps, as we’ve mentioned earlier. Alternately, you can merely hold them in as long as you see fit. However, the former seems to work better — just make sure the balls are not too big and heavy.  

Now, there is another option — you can use vibrating Kegel balls. These would not entail doing reps but would require you to keep moving (not sit or lie down), and these exercises can last for hours. 

Finally, the last type of Kegels aid you can utilize is Yoni eggs. They are similar to Ben Wa and Kegel balls, but they are made from different crystals, such as rose quartz, jade, or aventurine. The main difference between Yoni eggs and their ball counterparts is their shape and the fact that they also have a spiritual purpose. Many women believe that the materials these eggs are made of possess different spiritual properties, which reflects on the user. 

All in all, before you decide to use anything to help add more of a challenge to your pelvic floor, it is advisable to consult a specialist to see what would work best for you. Sometimes, less is more, and not using any aids could be the best option for optimal results.   

The Muscles Involved When Performing Kegel Exercises

Kegel exercises are a fantastic way to give your pelvic floor muscles a much-needed workout. The pelvic floor can be viewed as a network of muscles found below your uterus, bladder, small and large intestines (bowel), as well as the rectum. The pelvic floor is also what keeps your reproductive organs in place, in-between your hips. Kegel exercises work these muscles, and, in doing so, can help with an overactive bladder as well as urine leakages. 

One of the best ways to see what muscles you should be using is to feel them with your finger. When you need to urinate, let it go for a bit and then hold it. While doing so, you should feel your muscles on your pelvic floor contract and move up. If you are not 100 percent sure, then use your finger to feel them. Place your finger inside your rectum (for men) or vaginas (for women) and let go. Hold again and feel what moves. These are the muscles you should be targeting. 

Last Words

Kegel exercises are an excellent and easy-to-do workout that will improve your pelvic floor control and deal with embarrassing leakages, but you should first speak to a doctor before you start, just to be on the safe side. Plus, give it about four to six weeks to see results. However, if you feel as if you are not doing the exercises adequately or that you aren’t noticing anything different, then get a checkup before you proceed any further. Otherwise, enjoy your unseen workout!