Kegels as part of an exercise routine – why you need it

Have you wondered why at times when you laugh, cough or sneeze, you feel a small amount of urine leak onto your panties? You obviously are not alone on this. Many of us experience this at some point but probably often ignore it or are too embarrassed to talk about it.

The answer to this might lie with our pelvic floor muscles being weak. These are muscles that help hold the internal organs in our pelvis in place (uterus, bladder, small intestine and rectum). Being overweight, pregnancy, childbirth, aging and surgery e.g. caesarean section, have been found to weaken these muscles leading to haemorrhoids, urinary and faecal incontinence (in both males and females), uterine prolapse and vaginal prolapse.

The good news is that we can help prevent these complications from setting in, by engaging in exercises that help tone up these muscles, while living a healthier lifestyle especially if overweight.

KEGELS

Kegels are a good way to help tone these muscles up. Not only are they very easy to do, they can be done anywhere and pregnant women can also do it.

The other benefits of kegels include:

• Helps with bladder control
• Can help prevent premature ejaculations in men
• Can help for better erections( stronger)
• Helps improve the quality of sex as they improve vaginal and pelvic muscle tone
• Can help increase sexual pleasure for both male and female

For you to know you are actually doing the exercise right, your abdomen and buttocks should not contract while doing it, only the pelvic floor muscles should. To identify these muscles, try holding your urine mid way while urinating for some seconds, and then release to complete urinating. Those muscles that helped do that are the right ones.

Once you have identified the right ones, you can now comfortably start doing the exercises. The exercise is best done with your bladder empty and should be done morning, afternoon and night for best results.

Here is a guide on how to go about the Kegels exercise:

• lie on your back
• contract/tighten your pelvic floor muscles
• hold the contraction for about 5 secs
• relax the muscles for the amount of secs you contracted it
• do three(3) sets of 10-15 repetitions daily
• Please after identifying your pelvic floor muscles; do not make it a routine to cut your urine in the middle of urination so that you do not develop urinary retention, which can lead to urinary tract infection.
• Also make sure to visit your physician if you have severe urine leakage, or you leak urine unexpectedly, as Kegels will not work for these.

Additional information for the guys, after ejaculating, do not come out immediately from your partner, as this is the best time for her to help you out with some great Kegels as well! Ladies please tighten your vagina on him and release the contractions after some seconds, repeat. This not only helps him, it can also take him to another “cloud”.

Keep well and stay active. Please share!