The Best Kegel Exercises: Fighting Incontinence and Improving Your Sexual Health

Kegel exercises can help control or prevent problems with urinary tract leakage, incontinence, and sexual health benefits. Here is a little guide on the benefits of these exercises and a short list of activities to try.

Fighting Incontinence with Pelvic Floor Strengthening Exercises

Kegel exercises tone the pelvic floor muscles that support the bladder, uterus, small intestine and rectum. Several reasons can weaken the muscles of your pelvic floor and lead to urinary incontinence. Among the reasons are, for example, pregnancies, childbirth, some surgeries, being overweight and ageing. It may be beneficial for you to try Kegel exercises if you recognise yourself in the following situations:

• You have small leaks when you sneeze, laugh or a cough
• You feel an urgent urge just before going to urinate
• You have faecal holes

However, these exercises may be less useful for people with severe holes when sneezing, laughing or coughing. These exercises are also less effective against bladder overflow incontinence.

Improve your sexual health with Kegel exercises

For both women and men, Kegel exercises are a great way to improve your sexual health. In men, strengthening the pelvic-coccygeal pelvic floor muscles can help prevent premature ejaculation. In women, Kegel exercises can help achieve orgasm and increase sexual pleasure.

An exercise program to firm up your pelvic floor muscles

For maximum benefits, it is recommended to perform these exercises each day, preferably in the morning and evening. Perform three sets of 15-20 repetitions for each activity.

Exercise 1 – Scissors

• Lie on your back using a floor mat and put your hands along your body.
• Lift your legs off the floor by opening and closing them, imitating the movement of the scissors.
• Alternate leg above, leg underneath.
• Concentrate on your pelvic area to feel the muscles working.

Exercise 2 – The ball

• Lie on your back with your feet resting on the floor and your knees bent up and pointing up.
• Place a small ball between your knees. Contract your buttocks while holding the ball between your knees. Raise the basin towards the ceiling.
• Keep the position for about ten seconds.
• Gently return to the initial position, and then repeat ten times.

Exercise 3 – Squat

• Stand up with your legs shoulder-width apart, and then lower your buttocks so that your hips are at your knees, without going over them.
• Keep the position for a few seconds, and then slowly go back to the original place.
• Start with a series of 10 repetitions. Increase gradually.

Exercise 4 – The chair

• Sit on a chair with your back straight.
• Contract and relax the pelvic area muscles continuously and quickly.

Exercise 5 – Contraction of the buttocks

• Stand up and spread your feet 20 centimetres.
• Contract the buttocks and try to make them touch each other.
• Count 5 seconds, then relax them.
• Repeat a dozen times.

Exercise 6 – The Swiss ball

• Lie down and put a Swiss ball under your legs.
• Contract the pelvic floor muscles by raising your pelvis to the ceiling. Hold 8 seconds.
• Release and find your initial position. Do a dozen repetitions.

Exercise 7 (for women only) – Kegel Ball

• This exercise requires an object called Geisha Balls or Kegel Ball.
• These balls are introduced into the vagina. You must then contract and relax the muscles several times to keep the ball inside.

Other solutions exist to remedy the problems of premature ejaculation or urinary incontinence.

Exercises against incontinence

Do you suffer from urinary incontinence? Have you heard of pelvic floor education techniques used for urinary incontinence? Find out what they are and how they can help relieve your urinary incontinence.

Pelvic Floor Education

The pelvic floor refers to the body part at the bottom of the pelvis and between the legs. The muscles that form the pelvic floor stretch from the pubic bone on the anterior to the coccyx on the posterior (the lower end of the spine). They create a band that supports the organs located in the pelvis – the uterus, the bladder and the intestine for women and the bladder and bowel for men.

The weakening of the pelvic floor muscles can promote the descent of the organs they support (this is called genital prolapse) and lead to various symptoms, including urinary incontinence. The weakening of these muscles may be due to pregnancy and childbirth, surgery on the prostate and ageing for both men and women.
Kegel exercises and incontinence are co-related. Training that increases the strength of the pelvic floor muscles using a technique popularly referred to as Kegel exercises has been found to be helpful in managing and, in some circumstances, prevent male and female urinary incontinence. In the case of urinary incontinence, make an appointment with your doctor; he could add Kegel exercises to your therapy. You could also try to practice these exercises on your own while waiting to visit your doctor – they are as comfortable as they are! Or you may visit https://loveballs.co/ for more info.

Locate the right muscles: You can train to contract the pelvic floor muscles by trying to stop or slow down the flow of urine you evacuate. When you succeed, you have identified the pelvic muscles that you need to increase strength, and you have just performed one of the Kegel exercises! But do not continue practising your Kegel exercises when your bladder is full, as it could be dangerous.

Another technique allows women explicitly to identify pelvic floor muscles. It is enough for them to introduce a finger in the vagina than to contract the neighbouring tissues. You will feel the vagina tighten while the pelvic floor will move vertically and then down when you relax which means that you have spotted the muscles that concern you, and in doing so you have practised one of the Kegel exercises. Men can learn from this technique, but they will insert a finger (lubricated) in their anus. If you can grip your finger, you have found the right muscles.

Start training your pelvic floor: after spotting the pelvic floor muscles, empty your bladder and find a comfortable position. Contract the pelvic floor muscles for 3 seconds then release for 3 seconds. Be careful not to hold your breath. You must breathe! Repeat the process of “contraction, waiting, relaxation” 10 times each session and plan three meetings per day. Over time, 3-second muscle contraction exercises will become easier, and you can last for up to 4 seconds at a time, alternating 4-second muscle contractions with 4-second relaxation pauses. The goal is to rotate contractions of 10 or 15 seconds with breaks of 10 or 15 seconds.

Until you see your doctor about your urinary incontinence or see how much you’ve invested in your successful exercises, you may want to use absorbent products that provide a certain level of well-being and the management of accidental leaks.