Kegel Exercises For Bladder Control - How Does It Work

Behavior therapy for urinary incontinence in women includes Kegel exercises for bladder control and practicing timed voiding. The exercises are named after Arnold Kegel who devised them to retrain bladder muscles. Kegel exercises strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor. These muscles support your urethra, uterus, rectum, and bladder. The exercises help women to diminish the loss of bladder control, especially that occurring after childbirth.

The effect of pregnancy related urinary continence can be reduced considerably with the help of Kegels. Doing them helps women during or after pregnancy. Doing these exercises may even help women reduce the time of labor during childbirth.

Another benefit of these exercises is that blood circulation in vaginal and rectal area is improved so that hemorrhoids are kept at bay. Moreover, they help speed up healing after an episiotomy (tear) during childbirth. Therefore doing these exercises helps not only in bladder muscle control but also improves muscle tone in the vagina.

Kegel exercises are done by squeezing and lifting that you obtain by closing up and drawing in of the front and back passages in your body. Remember that you have to do this without pulling in your tummy, squeezing your legs together, holding your breath, or tightening your buttocks. Practice doing this and though difficult initially, later on you will find it is easy. Putting a hand on your belly helps keep it relaxed.

Pubococcygeous (PC) muscle groups control the urethral sphincter. So, exercising them reduces the effect that urinary incontinence will have on your life. Identifying these muscle groups helps you to exercise them. You can feel these muscles instinctively when you try to stop or slow the urine stream by also simultaneously squeezing your rectal area as though you do not want to pass gas.

After locating the correct muscles, you can do Kegels twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Choose a time convenient to you so that you can develop a daily routine.

There are two sets of exercises that you need to do alternately. The first involve contracting the PC muscles for 3 to 10 seconds and relaxing them for the same duration and repeating this sequence for about 5 to 15 times.

The second involve contracting PC muscles strongly for a second, relaxing them for the same duration, and repeating the sequence 20 times. Doing this sequence repetition thrice a day helps speed the contractions until there is a fluttery sensation.

The exercises end by emptying the bladder. You need to ensure that while voiding the bladder, you contract the muscles to stop the urine flow for at least 3 seconds and doing this 10 times during each such urination. This means that during each day you will have contracted your PC muscles for a total of 60 to 80 contractions.

Kegel exercises for bladder control have no side effects and produce a tickling effect in the vagina in women. They can also be used by men to advantage.

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