Strengthening exercises for women

You do strengthening pelvic floor exercises when your pelvic floor muscles have weakened. The pelvic floor muscles can’t close off the anus or the urethra by increasing pressure. You can think of the following symptoms:

1. A prolapse or starting prolapse issues.

2. Different types of stress urinal incontinence.

3. Different types of fecal incontinence.

4. Reoccurring (unbearable) pain in the abdomen, pelvis or lower back.

5. Numb sex or a severely decreased libido.

6. A tired feeling in or around the pelvis.

You can apply pelvic floor exercises anywhere and everywhere. You can combine the exercises with a variety of movements. You can do the exercises while lying down or being seated, but also during an activity. Think of walking, walking the stairs, cycling, bending down or lifting something up. Doing those exercises isn’t visible to anyone else. The pelvic floor exercises can be performed at any time of the day.

It’s best to do the exercises at a solid, set point at the day. For example when you’ve just waken up, in the afternoon during lunch, or in the evening before you go to sleep. After doing this for a couple of weeks, you can also start performing the exercises during activities. Think of during cooking, doing chores, or at work.

These exercises can be performed anywhere. Think of behind the desk at work, behind the register, while walking or during a variety of actions like bending down or lifting something up. But mainly perform these exercises when you can be mentally present during these exercises. Find a quiet moment and schedule your pelvic floor exercises. The exercises will find its routine that way.

You do pelvic floor exercises by tensing up the pelvic floor muscles while you keep breathing through it. You tense up your pelvic floor muscles by tensing up your anus and/or vagina. It feels like you’re holding up your urine or feces.

This is the base of a pelvic floor exercise:

1. Tense up your pelvic floor muscles by tensing up the anus and/or the vagina for 5 seconds while you calmly keep breathing through the lower abdomen.

2. Relax the pelvic floor after 5 seconds and release the pelvic floor muscles.

3. Keep breathing through the lower abdomen and repeat this exercise 5 times.

You will also find tutorials to the exercises in the pelvic floor exercising modules.

The frequency of performing those exercises depends on the strength of your pelvic floor muscles. If your pelvic floor muscles are weakened, it’s smart to not overdo it early on and keep it at 3 times a day. The more your pelvic floor muscles become stronger, the more frequent you can do those exercises. Follow the instructions accordingly to train your pelvic floor the right way.

A variety of sports are beneficial for the pelvic floor and to combine the pelvic floor exercises. Think of walking or light jogging, roller-skating, yoga, cycling, swimming, and a variety of gym exercises like squatting and the lunge exercise. Furthermore it has been scientifically proved that training with vaginal or anal cones have strengthened the pelvic floor muscles. These cones can be used in combination with a variety of pelvic floor muscles.

A variety of sports aren’t beneficial when you’re dealing with a weakened pelvic floor. Think of sports where the pelvic floor has to catch a lot of hits, like tennis, soccer, intensive jogging, or other physical sports. Participate in sports without the risk of getting physical or having to catch a lot of blows.

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. This way you will also feel the pelvic floor muscles.

Strengthening your pelvic floor muscles take time. You can still be a lot more aware of how your pelvic floor works after a few exercises. The whole recovery and the training shall take at least 10 weeks. The pelvic floor muscles will only become stronger after a longer period of training and exercising.

To strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, you need to train those muscles at least three times a day. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening, for example. You will repeat the pelvic floor exercises at least 10 times in one session, with 3 sessions every time. So keep 3x 10 in mind with a short break in between after doing exercises 10 times. So 3 pelvic floor exercises for 3 times a day with 10 movements each. 3x 3×10 with short breaks in between the repeats, to briefly summarize it.

The treatment is focused on strengthening and exercising the pelvic floor muscles when they’ve been weakened. The pelvic floor muscles are weaker and can’t perform their tasks optimally anymore. Performing pelvic floor muscles and strengthening the muscles that way is necessary. Strengthening the pelvic floor muscles helps with a weakened pelvic floor.

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.

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

Pelvic floor exercises are recommended to anyone. They’re mainly being performed by women because they are high at risk for developing pelvic floor issues through events in their life. Think of going through the menopause which causes the pelvic floor muscles to weaken, a pregnancy makes pelvic instability unavoidable, a childbirth could damage the pelvic floor muscles, the period after giving birth causes you to recover and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles again, and when you’ve developed vaginism or vulvitis.