Kegel Exercises

KEGEL BLADDER EXERCISES

There are a variety of ways to perform an exercise which is known as Kegel bladder exercise. The goal of these exercises is to strengthen the bladder supporting musculature and sphincter muscles. When conducting these exercises, you need to make sure that you are not confusing the exercise with simple tensing of the abdominal or belly muscles.

To best know the group of muscles to exercise, sit on the toilet and begin urinating with a full urinary stream. stop the urinary flow. Those muscle groups which you have used to stop the urinary flow are the muscles that need strengthening with Kegel bladder exercises. These are not the abdominal or belly muscles. You can
determine whether or not you are correctly conducting this exercise by placing
your hand on your abdomen. When you are contracting the bladder base or
sphincter muscles, your abdominal muscles should be lax and not contracted.

The best method to perform Kegel bladder exercises is to contract the lower pelvic
sphincter muscles which include those around the rectum, vagina, and urethra and
hold them in a state of contraction as hard as you possibly can for a slow count
of five. Mentally image a board of wood. Try to get those muscles as tight as a board of wood. This exercise may initially be uncomfortable.

Once you have contracted the muscle to a slow count of five, relax the muscles, imaging bread dough. Allow the muscles to relax until any discomfort of contraction has passed.

Once again, repeat this cycle of contraction with a slow count of five followed by relaxation until discomfort has resolved. Then for a third time, repeat the contraction, slow count of five, and relaxation cycle. This constitutes a "set of three" Kegel bladder exercises.

You should conduct a set of three, twelve times throughout the course of the day. To do this with regularity, develop mental cues such as performing the bladder exercises before or after meals, while watching TV during commercial breaks, reading the paper and like activities during the day which you can link your exercises, performing them regularly.

A fair trial of Kegel bladder exercises is approximately six weeks. Remember that this constitutes a set of three contractions/relaxation cycles performed twelve times a day for those six weeks. Progressively over that period of time the muscles should get stronger yielding improved urinary control. Some women note that progress with the Kegel bladder exercises can be assessed by inserting their finger into the vagina and noting the strength of pressure felt during the muscle contraction. In any respect, improvement is best assessed by the patient's evaluation of her urinary control.