The Importance of Kegel Exercises for Vaginal Health
What exactly is a Kegel exercise? Kegel exercises (also known as pelvic floor exercises) assist to strengthen the muscles in your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor muscles support pelvic organs such as your bladder, colon, and vagina. Your pelvic floor muscles stabilise your organs while also aiding with biological activities such as urinating, faeces, and sex. Kegels are exercises that entail tightening and then releasing the muscles in your pelvic floor in order to strengthen them.
Kegels can assist with a variety of conditions, including:
- Urinary incontinence (pee leakage).
- Urge incontinence (the need to pee urgently).
- Faecal incontinence (poop leakage).
- Pelvic organ prolapse is the drooping or bulging of your pelvic organs into your vagina.
- Kegels can also assist enhance your sexual health and orgasms. Men or persons assigned male at birth (AMAB) and women or people assigned female at birth (WOAB) Kegel exercises can help persons who were designated female at birth (AFAB).
What exactly are Kegel exercises?
Kegel exercises assist in keeping your pelvic floor muscles "fit." Lifting weights to build other muscles in your body is a good approach to maintain your pelvic floor muscles strong. Kegel exercises can help you gain control of your bladder and intestines while also keeping your pelvic muscles strong.
Weak pelvic floor muscles might cause you to leak urine and stool or release gas unintentionally. Your pelvic floor muscles might decrease with age or as a result of events such as pregnancy, delivery, or surgery.
Who needs to perform Kegels?
Anything that causes strain on your pelvic floor muscles might lead them to weaken and become less supportive of your pelvic organs. Certain medical conditions Other life experiences might cause pelvic floor muscle weakness. Among these situations and occurrences are:
- Pregnancy.
- Childbirth, which may include a C-section.
- Obesity (body mass index, or BMI, more than 30) or being overweight (BMI larger than 25).
- Your pelvic region will be operated on.
- Ageing. Your pelvic floor muscles, as well as those in your rectum and anus, naturally decrease with age.
- Constipation or persistent coughing caused by excessive straining during pooping.
- Exercises (particularly leaping, sprinting, and heavy weight lifting).
- Kegel exercises, on the other hand, aren't for everyone. Excessive Kegels, or performing Kegels when you don't need to, might cause your muscles to become rigid or tight.
Pregnancy and Kegel workouts
Pregnant women may find that using Kegels throughout pregnancy makes delivery simpler. This is due to the fact that it may provide you more control over your pelvic muscles. During labour and delivery. It can also assist with:
- Control of the bladder.
- Strengthening the muscles that sustain the fetus's weight.
- Urinary incontinence, often known as leaking urine.
- During vaginal birth, pushing occurs.
- After birth, the perineum heals.
How can I locate my pelvic floor muscles?
Stopping the flow of your urine while seated on the toilet might help you identify your pelvic floor muscles. Do this just until you understand how it feels (otherwise, stopping and beginning might lead to infection). You may even envision oneself attempting to keep from passing petrol.
You may also put your finger into your vagina and squeeze the muscles around it. Pressure should be felt around your finger. The muscles that you feel 'rising' inside of you when you do these activities are the same ones that Kegel exercises strengthen.
Imagine your pelvic floor as a claw vending machine game you may have played as a child.A metal claw extends downward and opens up in a claw machine game. It opens, takes up a toy, ball, or sweets, and then shuts. When it closes around your treasure, the claw remains closed and returns to its initial position. The claw's closing and pulling upward action is essentially comparable to a Kegel.
How should I go about doing Kegel exercises?
Kegel exercises include elevating and holding your pelvic floor muscles before releasing them. Begin by performing a few Kegels at a time, gradually increasing both the amount of time and the number of Kegels performed in each'session' (or set). You should do two to three sets of these exercises every day or can go with Ace Medicare.