Hi, I'm Michelle and welcome to Pelvic Exercises. This is the third episode in our series to
help you strengthen your pelvic floor, and today we're looking at how to strengthen your
pelvic floor muscles with Kegel exercise technique, and how many exercises you need to do to get
your pelvic floor muscles in shape before we do our little workout next week. So, I've
got a great little workout planned for you, so, subscribe now if you want to watch that
workout. So, let's just review what we've learned so
far: We've learned some techniques on how to feel your pelvic floor muscles. We've learned
some and where the pelvic floor muscles are, in and around the area where you sit.
So let's start to do Kegel exercises at home. So what I want you to do if you're in a chair,
I want you to move away from the back of the chair. I'm going to sit nice and tall, so
posture is really vital, for really good Kegel exercises. It's important that you have the
crown of your head lifted towards the ceiling where you are, and a small inward curve (or
the normal curve) in your back, so you're nice and tall. Your chest should be lifted.
So you can merely imagine two strings: one pulling up through the crown of your head
and one pulling out through your chest, so your body's nice and tall. And this is the
optimal position to help your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor muscles work together.
So, in that position now, what I want you to do at home is to start to feel your pelvic
floor muscles in and around the area where you sit (so, in and around the pelvic openings,
in between your sit bones and between the pubic bone at the front and the tail bone
at the back. So remember we're going for that action a lifting and squeezing action inside and
then going for a lowering down and relaxing action.
So let's start often it's easiest to feel in and around the anal area if you lift and
squeeze in that area. So, at home, nice and tall, relaxed breathing and I want you to
lift and squeeze inside (as if you're stopping wind from passing,) keep lifting, keep squeezing,
stay tall lift and squeeze relax, lower down and let go. And I'm hoping at home that
you felt a slight tightening sensation in and around the anal area.
Let's now move in and around the vagina. So I want you to lift and squeeze in and around
the vagina, and in and around the vagina and urethra can be quite hard to feel. So let's
try now at home again. Nice tall posture. Lifting through the crown of your head. Lifting
through your chest. All right, so, draw up, lift and squeeze, keep lifting, keep lifting,
keep lifting, relax the muscle slowly, let go and relax. Now, I'm hoping that your buttocks
weren't squeezing. Inside thighs should never be squeezing. Your tummy shouldn't have been
drawing in strongly (although you might have felt a gentle tummy activation.) And that's
quite normal if your lower abdominal muscles become just slightly tensioned as you actually
activate your pelvic floor. Now, let's try all three pelvic openings together.
So we're trying the anal area, the vagina, and we're trying to localize in and around
the urethra as well. Will all those areas to lift and squeeze inside, and relax down.
So you shouldn't be lifting higher in your chair; that's when your buttocks work. Remember
this is an exercise that takes place inside, in and around the area where you sit.
So nice and tall. Here we go. So normal breathing ready and lift. So lift and squeeze nice
and tall keep lifting and breathing, lifting and breathing all three pelvic openings
lifting and squeezing inside. Keep your fingers as high as you can relax right back down.
Take a big breath in and out, and let your pelvic floor muscles relax. Now that is how
you do a Kegel. Now how many of these exercises do you need
to do to get your pelvic floor muscles strong? Well really, you start at what you can do.
So if you can contract your pelvic floor muscles then, for two seconds, three seconds, that's
where you start at. And if you can do that three times in a row, that's what you do.
And you try and repeat that three times throughout the day. Ideally, you're trying to aim for
ten second holds, so really quite long holds, lifting and squeezing and lowering down throughout
that whole time. And you're trying to repeat that eight to twelve times in a row. So that's
ten long holds so ten second holds, eight to twelve times in a row. And then, what we
try to recommend is that ladies do those two to three times a day. So really you're getting
about twenty-four to thirty-six lifts and lowers every day.
Now, strengthening can take quite a period of time, if your pelvic floor muscles are
weak it can take five to six months to really strengthen your pelvic floor. It's
a matter of daily exercise and adhering to your exercises on a regular basis.
So let's review what we've talked about today before we go into our workout next week. So
we've talked about finding our pelvic floor muscles (in and around the area where we sit.)
We've talked about contracting, and just trying to localize in and around the anal area, in
and around the vagina, in and around the urethra. And some of you at home will feel those areas
more than others. Sometimes you can feel strong contraction, sometimes you feel very little
at all, depending on the strength of your pelvic floor muscles. So we talked about activating
those areas, nice tall posture, lifting and squeezing and relaxing fully (that's a very
important part of the exercise,) and relaxing altogether. Then we talked about doing twenty-four
to thirty-six long holds every day, up to ten seconds for each hold.
Well, look forward to exercising with you in our workout next session. I hope you've
enjoyed our session today. I'll look forward to speaking with you again soon. Bye for now.