You perform these pelvic floor exercises during your pregnancy so you’re properly prepared to go into childbirth and so your recovery period is shortened. These pelvic floor exercises help you gain control over the pelvic floor muscles. This way you also become more aware of them. Pelvic floor exercises can strengthen and relax the pelvic floor muscles. Vigorously go into childbirth and prevent a long recovery period by doing these pelvic floor exercises. 

It’s recommended to reserve a few solid moments during the day for your pelvic floor exercises. Perform the pelvic floor exercises in the morning, afternoon and evening. Find a suitable moment. Right after you just woke up, during lunchtime, and just before going to bed, for example. Plan in the pelvic floor exercises and make a consistent routine out of exercising. 

You can perform pelvic floor exercises on a lot of places when you’re pregnant. You can do the pelvic floor exercises in a suitable, quiet place in the beginning stages of your pregnancy. Think of the living room or another room in the house where you can focus on exercising. You can also apply pelvic floor exercises to daily actions; think of ironing, cooking, working, going to the toilet, in the shower, etcetera. When weeks pass in your pregnancy, it’s recommended to use a chair or a bed. 

You’ll perform these pelvic floor exercises on the daily during pregnancy, for a minimal period of 10 weeks and 3 times a day. The frequency of the pelvic floor exercises will increase the further you progress in the exercising module. Perform the pelvic floor exercises at a solid point of time, for example in the morning, afternoon and evening. 

You do pelvic floor exercises by tensing up, relaxing, or squeezing the pelvic floor muscles together. Try to tense up those pelvic floor muscles by squeezing in the vagina and/or anus. Think of holding back urine or a fart. Now you’re tensing up those muscles. 

This is how you do the pelvic floor exercises: 

1. Tense up your pelvic floor muscles by tensing up the anus and/or the vagina. 
2. Try to hold this tension for 5 seconds. 
3. It’s important to keep breathing through the lower abdomen while you tense up. 
4. Release those muscles while you breathe out. 

In the “pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy” module are a lot of different strengthening and relaxing pelvic floor exercises. 

You are still able to work out when you’re pregnant. It’s still important that you don’t perform sports where your heartrate is continuously high. Think of jogging, cycling or other sports where the heartrate is consistently increased. It’s important that your pelvic floor can be strengthened during your sports of choice. You can combine pelvic floor exercises with sports like yoga or exercises on a mat. You can also apply pelvic floor exercises to walking and other daily activities. 

Sports where your heartrate is continuously high is a no-go for pregnancy. Think of prolonged jogging, cycling at a high speed or other lasting sports. Sports that last a while also aren’t recommended for your pelvic floor. For the rest, team sports, ball sports or other physical sports aren’t recommended. 

The pelvic floor muscles can be felt at the moment you’re consciously tensing them up. You tense up these pelvic floor muscles by tensing up the anus and/or vagina. It’s as if you want to disturb or hold up your urine or feces. Keep this tension for 5 seconds while you keep breathing through your lower abdomen. Now you can feel your pelvic floor muscles. You can also insert a finger, tampon or vaginal cone. Tense up while you have your finger, tampon or vaginal cone inserted. You can also sit on a rolled up towel (lay the towel vertically, from anus to vagina). This way you will also feel the pelvic floor muscles. 

Pelvic floor exercises are crucial to become aware of how you use your pelvic floor. You can also learn how to tense up or relax the pelvic floor muscles and that way you can directly apply them during childbirth. You can also count on a faster recovery after childbirth because you already know how pelvic floor muscles work and how you can strengthen them. 

The pelvic floor muscles are located at the bottom of the pelvis and function as a hammock for the important organs in the pelvic area. Think of the intestines, bladder and the reproductive organs. The pelvic floor muscles take care of opening and closing the vagina and urethra when necessary. You can find the pelvic floor muscles at the entrance and exit of the vagina, urethra and the anus. 

Learning how to strengthen and relax the pelvic floor muscles takes a couple of weeks. You need at least 10 weeks of time for strengthening those muscles. You’ll know how to properly relax the pelvic floor during pregnancy after 3 weeks. 

Pregnant women, women that have given birth, women with vaginal issues, women in menopause, men or women with obstipation, men or women with urinal loss, and men who got out of surgery make use of pelvic floor exercises to be able to fully recover. 

Cycling during pregnancy is beneficial for the pelvic floor muscles if you apply pelvic floor exercises during the cycling. Cycle on a calm and steady pace. It’s recommended not to cycle in the last weeks of pregnancy. Strengthen your pelvic floor during cycling in combination with the pelvic floor exercises. 

You can start training your pelvic floor muscles after 2 days of giving birth. It’s recommended to repeat the pelvic floor muscles for 10 weeks and 3 times a day to ensure yourself of a full recovery. I’ve prepared those 10 weeks in the exercising modules of the strengthening pelvic floor exercises.