The pelvic floor like other organs of your body may weaken, and in case this happens you may start noticing the following symptoms in your body which are all an indication that you should start doing your pelvic floor exercises;
1. Pain or dragging sensation in your vagina.
2. The feeling as if something is coming down in your vagina. This sensation may occur if an organ from your pelvis slightly drops down from their natural position.
3. Stress urinary incontinence.
4. The need to visit the toilet frequently.
For you to regain full control of your pelvic floor doing pelvic floor exercises is very important. These pelvic floor exercises are also called Kegel exercises or pelvic floor muscle training. The pelvic floor exercises help you make your pelvic floor stronger, they make you more in control of your muscles (you are able to tighten these muscles when the pressure increases in your abdomen for example at the time of a sneeze, cough or laugh.)
The pelvic floor exercises should be done by all women, regardless if they feel the above mentioned symptoms or not as the exercises have enormous benefits for all women. Pelvic floor exercises help you improve your bladder and bowel control which helps you stop any sort of leakage. Pelvic floor exercises are not that hard to do, all you have to do is to follow a specific set of steps. You can perform these exercises sitting anywhere anytime, but it is preferable if you do them either sitting on a chair or on the toilet seat or lid. While doing your pelvic floor exercises keep your feet flat on the floor and your legs slightly open and gently rest your elbows on your knees. Basically, pelvic floor exercises can be divided into two parts; slow twitch and fast twitch. When exercising it is always better to start off slow that’s why it’s important that you do the slow twitch first and then start the fast twitch once you sit down to do your exercises.
The slow twitch pelvic floor exercise follows the following pattern;
1. Tighten and draw up the muscles of your back passage, this action is similar to the action of stopping yourself from passing gas. Be careful however that you do not contract the muscles in your buttocks while doing so.
2. Next, you will tighten and draw up the muscles that surround your vagina and urethra, this action is similar to the action of stopping yourself from urinating.
3. Hold both of these positions and then slowly count to five. Remember not to hold your breath while you’re doing this, it is important for you to breathe normally.
4. After you have counted to five, slowly relax all the respective muscles.
5. Repeat the following actions for a total of 5 times.
The fast twitch pelvic floor exercise follows the following pattern;
1. Tighten and pull up your pelvic floor muscles as you did before.
2. Hold this position for approximately one second and then slowly relax your muscles.
3. Repeat these 2 steps at least 5-10 times or till your muscles start tiring.
When you’ll begin your pelvic floor exercises you may notice the extra amount of attention that they require in order for you to be able to do them. Also your pelvic floor muscles usually tire very easily, however if you stick to doing your pelvic floor exercises regularly you’ll get a hang of them and after some time will be able to do them without putting in any real effort. Just remember to relax and breathe normally while you are doing your pelvic floor exercises.
Pelvic floor exercises will help you regain control of your pelvic muscles which will leave you feeling great as you will be in control of your body.