This blog is part of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.
Pelvic floor muscles … those mystical muscles we women have “down there,” which we can’t see and which do so much for us. What do our pelvic floor muscles for us? A bunch. Here’s a short list of the important roles they play in our anatomy:
- support pelvic organs against the effects of gravity
- prevent urinary leakage and allows urination when needed
- keep pelvic organs from sagging down and out
- control the tightening and relaxation of urethra, vagina, and anus as needed
- contribute to pleasurable sexual sensation
And that’s just the short list of what our pelvic floor muscles do for us every day, all day (and all night). As you might have guessed, keeping these very important muscles fit and toned is important for our quality of life.
Pelvic Floor Muscles: Do Kegels Work?
Surprisingly, many women have heard of the term “Kegel” but don’t really know what it means. Or, a woman might have a vague idea of what a Kegel is, but not really know how to do a Kegel (or how to do a CORRECT Kegel). So what is a Kegel? The word “Kegel” was a term first coined in 1948 by Dr. Arnold Kegel. He introduced the Kegel as an exercise for the pelvic floor muscles, in which these muscles are alternately contracted and relaxed. The goal of doing Kegels is to strengthen and tone the pelvic floor muscles so that they can provide passive support all day long (such as keeping the pelvic organs in place) as well as offer active support (such as keeping urine in the bladder when you sneeze). The term Kegel has become so popular that some people now refer to the pelvic floor muscles collectively as the Kegel muscle.
Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is a Kegel?” the second question is, “Do Kegels work?” The answer is “Yes”–provided that these pelvic floor muscle exercises are done correctly. What do we mean when we say that these exercises must be done correctly? We mean that when you do a pelvic floor muscle contraction, you contract only the pelvic floor muscles without contracting other muscles such as the abdominal, thigh, or buttock muscles.
If you are not sure whether you know how to do a correct Kegel, you can easily troubleshoot this exercise with our no-cost downloadable ebook, “What’s Up Down There?” Just go HERE to download the ebook.
Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercising at Your Level of Fitness
Another important note when beginning a pelvic floor muscle retraining program is to ensure that you exercise according to your level of pelvic fitness. In other words, you want to exercise your pelvic floor muscles just enough that you begin to tone and strengthen them, but not so much that you overtire them or actually begin to contract them tightly all the time. If you try to do too many pelvic floor muscle contractions, your muscles will begin to tire and you will start using other muscles (buttock, thigh, or abdominal) to compensate. This will decrease the benefits of your exercise program. The other danger of doing too many contractions for your level of fitness is that you may actually begin to hold your pelvic muscles in a contracted state all the time, which can lead to pelvic pain and other unwanted side effects.
In our practices, we have women test their level of pelvic muscle floor fitness before designing a custom program that matches their level of fitness. If you would like to test yourself and start a home pelvic floor muscle retraining program, check out the detailed step-by-step plan outlined in our book. This program is a definite no-brainer if you are a “do-it-yourself” kind of gal!
Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercising Them Really Does Work
If you have heard rumors that Kegels are ineffective for improving pelvic health, or if your own experience shows you that pelvic floor muscle exercises don’t work, we urge you to review the research. Studies show that, when done correctly, pelvic floor muscle retraining really does improve women’s pelvic health. These exercises can improve symptoms of all types of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. These exercises can also improve your sexual sensation and pleasure. Check out the research in THIS blog post.
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