Toning Your Pelvic Floor To Prevent Overactive Bladder and Incontinence
Keeping your pelvic floor toned can prevent an Overactive Bladder and Incontinence. Its not to late even if you already have symptoms. Lets start with the basics. A woman’s pelvic floor muscles support the bladder, bowel, and uterus. The urethra, anus and vagina all pass through the pelvic floor muscles.
A male’s pelvic floor muscles support his bladder and bowel and affect sexual function. The openings from these organs (the urethra from the bladder and the rectum from the bowel) pass through the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles hug these organs and passages, keeping them in their proper place.
I had the shock of my life when a friend came over and announced, “My vagina just fell out of my body!” Say what? How? “Well apparently if you don’t use it you lose it.” she said. Then proceeded to give me all the details.
Over the years I chatted with women struggling with bladder control as they aged, and as someone who had suffered from chronic bladder infections growing up, I had been told by my doctor that this could be a potential situation in the future. I listened, and I got educated. In the process, I learned a whole lot about the pelvic floor and how some ladies need to see a physiotherapist who specializes in pelvic floor rehabilitation after childbirth or after surgery. I even learned how a strong pelvic floor impacts sex and yes your orgasms. And how I could do exercises to strengthen my pelvic floor to keep proper bladder control (which was becoming an issue) post surgery after a hysterectomy. These pelvic floor exercises are called Kegel Exercises. Kegel exercises are just as important for men to help manage or prevent leakage of urine and stool, and improve their sexual health including help with premature ejaculation.
Pelvic Floor / Kegel Exercises
Pelvic Floor (Kegel) exercises are very easy to do. You can do them anywhere without anyone knowing. A pelvic floor muscle training exercise is like pretending that you have to urinate, and then holding it. You relax and tighten the muscles that control urine flow. To find the proper muscles – next time you have to pee, start to go and then stop. Did you feel the muscles in your vagina, bladder and anus get tight and move up? These are the muscles you are going to exercise. But NOT while going pee. If you felt them tighten, you have done the exercise right. Now that you know where they are, you can add them to your exercise routine.
PERFORMING PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES:
- Tighten the pelvic floor muscles and hold for a count of 5
- Relax the muscles completely for a count of 3
- Do 10 repetitions, 3 to 5 times a day (morning, afternoon, and night).
Don’t hold your breath, just relax. If your pelvic floor muscles get tired during this exercise stop and continue later. Just like any exercise routine you will build up endurance over time. Don’t use your stomach, leg, or buttock muscles when doing this exercise. Exercising these muscles won’t help you regain urinary control or improve your sexual health.
As you continue to practice these exercises, you should increase the time you hold and rest your pelvic floor muscles. Start with 5 seconds, and slowly build up the time each week until you’re holding in and resting for 10 seconds. Like any muscle group over time you can move to advanced training and strengthen these muscles by using a vaginal cone, a jade egg, or Ben Wa Balls; weighted devices that are inserted into the vagina, where you use your pelvic floor muscles to hold the device in place.
You can do these exercises at any time and place. Lying down, sitting in a chair, or standing up. Allow 4 to 6 weeks to see improvement, don’t get discouraged, it can take up to 3 months to see a major change. For those moving on to advanced training, start with holding them in while standing, and graduate to leaving your device of choice in while walking around. Experts at Kegel exercises can even use their muscles to move the device up and down their passage using muscle control.
If you feel any discomfort in your abdomen or back while doing these exercises, you are probably doing them wrong. Breathe deeply and relax. Make sure you are not tightening your stomach, thigh, buttock, or chest muscles.When done the right way, pelvic floor muscle exercises are very effective at improving urinary continence.
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PELVIC FLOOR THERAPY
Yes there are physical therapists specially trained in pelvic floor muscle training. Many people benefit from formal physical therapy, especially after surgery, or childbirth as you may need specific help to isolate and strengthen these muscles if they are too weak or damaged in any way. Consider therapy if you already experience the following:
- Leaking urine when you laugh, cough, exercise, or sneeze
- Needing to get to the toilet quickly but not making it there in time
- Difficulty to relieving your bladder or bowels
- For pregnancy and postpartum recovery
- If you are experiencing pain during sex
- If you think you have a prolapse (For women- feeling a bulge in the vagina; For men this may be felt in the rectum)
- If you are experiencing pain in your lower back, hips, or pelvic area
Vibration Platform – For Toning Your Pelvic Floor / Whole Body
VIBRATION EXERCISE CAN RESTORE
YOUR PELVIC FLOOR AND
PRODUCE NOTICEABLE RESULTS
IN A MATTER OF WEEKS
Vibration Platforms for Core Toning on Amazon
Vibration training has been shown to very effective to re-activate the pelvic floor muscles. In fact the level of muscle activation possible is higher with the vibration platform than doing traditional pelvic floor exercises using maximum effort. What’s more, vibration exercise does not require using internal devices used in traditional pelvic floor re-training programs. Simply standing on the machine at 10G of G-force for 10 minutes, 3x a week. Studies showed this resulted in “considerable improvement in pelvic floor strength” and an 89% reduction in incontinence symptoms. The keys from the research were to use high G-force vibration and that optimum results come from continued home use.
Testimonial: I was suffering from the inability to hold my bladder and a constant need to pee following hysterectomy surgery. It was driving me crazy. We live 2 hrs from the city and I couldn’t make the drive without stopping to pee (usually by the side of the road at 30 below…brrr) and whenever I did need to go it was urgent. I read up on bladder control and found out that an exercise machine I had used many years earlier to keep toned at the gym, was also recommended fir those experiencing bladder control issues. I had always wanted one to exercise on but at the time they were well above a price point I could afford… jump 15 years later and now they are affordable. I bought one off Amazon and using the preprogrammed settings on the machine started using my vibration plate. In addition to using it to help tone my body I included doing a kegel exercise routine. The Incontinence completely resolved itself in 2 weeks. In addition with no weight-loss (I wasn’t dieting) I lost 2 inches off my hip measurements and 2 inches off my waist. Wahoo Im sold! I stand on my machine 3x a week for 10 minutes. It also greatly relieved my restless leg syndrome and improved my sleep patterns when I use it 1/2 hour to an hour before bed. I love ❤️ my vibration platform. -EU
