Kegel Exercises for the Pelvis

Many women experience stress urinary incontinence some time during their lives. You may have noticed urine leakage when you sneeze, cough or even laugh. It can be very embarassing and limit your activities and lifestyle. A treatment option for urinary incontinence is doing kegel exercises. They help to strengthen the floor of your pelvis.

Causes of Incontinence

There are a numbers of reasons why your urinary bladder may be leaking. Pelvic muscles can be weakened from pregnancy, childbirth, trauma, radiation, obesity, aging and also from a prior pelvic surgery, which includes hysterectomy. After a weakening of the pelvic floor, the bladder and urethra may relax from their normal positions. Abdominal pressure from sneezing, coughing or laughing or simple lifting can result in an accidental loss of urine.

Kegel Exercise Benefits

Kegel exercises do not require special equipment or clothing. They are easy to learn, and can be done anywhere at any time. You can do them as often as you like with no one being aware that you are doing them. You can be standing in line at the grocery store or sitting at a movie. The more often you do your kegel exercises, the faster you will notice the benefits.

Kegel Exercises

To perform kegel exercises, focus on specific muscles. Do not try to move your leg, buttock or stomach muscles. To perform kegel exercises properly, contract as if you are trying to stop your urine stream. Also tighten your rectum as if you are trying not to pass gas. Contract your anus. Try to hold each kegel for a slow count to 5. It may be difficult to hold at first, but the more you practice, the easier it becomes. Your pelvic floor will become stronger as you do kegel exercises correctly. Tighten your pelvic floor before you sneeze, get up from a chair, laugh, cough or lift, and you will suffer less from urinary incontinence.