Hi, I’m Michelle and welcome to pelvic exercises. Well, today we're looking
at the four best positions to do your Kegel exercises during pregnancy. Now,
I’m going to show you some positions upright, and I’m also going to show you positions lying
down for when your pregnancy progresses. So let's get started straight away. Great
position to do your Kegels is sitting. So you can do this during the early stages of the
pregnancy as your baby's lighter weight, it's easier to do your Kegels in upright positions,
so that you're actually in lifting Bubb so lifting the muscles inside,
your pelvic floor muscles inside against gravity. So we're going to be lifting up and in,
so what you do is rather than sitting back and slumping against the back of the chair,
you lean forward and you keep the inward curve in the back. So you don't want to be slumping and
using the back of the chair, nice tall posture, and then you're lifting and squeezing in and
around your three pelvic openings, so the back passage, the vagina, and the urethra, the urine
tube, lifting up inside, lifting up and squeezing inside, and then lowering down slowly and resting.
So sitting down is a great position, if you're waiting for an appointment, sitting on the train,
sitting on the bus might be a great time to do some of your Kegels, that's the first
good position to start with. Now, the other position that's upright in the first, say,
months one to five, really good positions to use is standing. So just simple exercises standing up,
again, making sure that your posture is lifted, your chest is nice and tall,
shoulders are back and down, and again, that you've got the inward curve in your lower back.
So you can do your Kegels both in sitting and standing for those first four to five months.
Now, as your baby grows and gets heavier, that's when you might need to change your
position. So you might find that you need to lie down to get more activation through your
pelvic floor muscles. If you can continue to do your Kegels upright in that time,
that's great, but otherwise, let's move on to some of those positions lying down.
So the first position on the mat on the ground is on all fours. So if
you can come down when you're a bit larger, baby’s growing, gives you plenty of space,
and also too now you're not lifting your pelvic floor muscles against gravity, so this makes the
exercises easier. So you've got knees underneath hips, hands roughly underneath shoulders,
and then you're doing your – and you've got your inward curve in your back as always,
and doing your exercises in that position. Now, if your wrists are sore with your pregnancy,
if you've got carpal tunnel syndrome, you might find that coming down onto your forearms like
that is more comfortable, and that's fine to do your exercises in as well, and then you might
find that that anti-grabbing position really helps you do your Kegels more effectively.
Now, finally, in the later stages of pregnancy, you possibly need to lie down to feel your Kegels.
So lying down on your side, obviously, you can't lie on your back to do your Kegel exercises from
16 weeks onwards, because that decreases the blood supply through to your heart, and
through to your baby. So we don't want to do any exercises lying down on our backs from 16 weeks,
but lying down your side is great. So coming down sideways and you might need to even use a pillow
underneath that so to support bump. That way or you might also find a pillow between your knees
makes this comfortable too, and keeping your head down so that your neck's relaxed. So in
this position, you could also then do your Kegels, you can obviously do these lying in
bed when you first wake up and during the course of the day if you get the chance to have a rest.
So you can see, we've gone through quite a number of positions there that you can actually practice.
So early stages of pregnancy you're trying to do your Kegels in upright position, standing and
sitting. And then try to continue some upright exercises during the course of the day if you
can in the later stages of your pregnancy, but if you're unable to, you can come down and do them on
hands and knees, hands and forearms or lying down. Well, I hope that's helped you with your Kegels.
If you'd like some more exercises for during pregnancy and general physiotherapy exercises,
just subscribe down below. I look forward to exercising with you again soon. Bye for now.