Categories: Healthy Living

8 Best Kegel Exercises (Pelvic Floor Exercises) For Women

Kegel exercises are designed to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. This helps to manage and prevent physical problems like incontinence (incontinence is when you can’t control leakage of urine or stool).

If you want your pelvic muscles to be strengthened, there are lots of moves that are easy to add to your routine that will be beneficial to your pelvic floor muscles.

Kegel exercises will also help to improve your sexual health and pleasure, it relaxes your female genital muscles, which in turn makes it more open, and makes intercourse less painful and it helps with pelvic examination.

It also improves the circulation of blood to the female reproductive organ and pelvic floor.

8 Best Kegel Exercises (Pelvic Floor Exercises) For Women

1. Split Tabletop

Tabletop is the foundation of most moves when doing Pilates workout. Adding a split activates your abs, hips and pelvic floor muscles.

How to Do It:

Lie down on your back and keep your knees bent in a way that your thighs are perpendicular to the floor and your shins should be parallel to the floor.

Contract your abs, and your inner thighs, with your legs touching.

Split your legs slowly so that your knee falls outward, reaching a comfortable position.

Lift your legs slowly back to the start.

Do 2 sets of 10-15 reps.

2. Kegel

How to Do It:

When starting for the first few times get in the most comfortable position you can, be it sitting or lying down so that your whole body is very relaxed.

Once your body gets used to it you can do it anytime and anywhere.

Inhale deeply through your nose and allow your abdomen to rise and fill with air. Relax your pelvic floor muscles while you take deep breaths.

Slowly exhale and smoothly through your mouth and gently contract your pelvic floor muscles.

Contract your pelvic floor muscles for at least 6 seconds until the muscles get tired. Then breathe out.

Inhale deeply again and release the contraction doing this relaxes your muscles.

For about 6-10 seconds relax your muscles completely, ensure that your muscles are completely relaxed between each contraction, and also don’t hold your breath, the amount of time spent in contracting your pelvic floor muscles or more should be spent relaxing the muscles.

Do a set of 10 reps.

Read Also: 8 Simple Exercises to Get Rid Of Thigh Fat At Home

3. Bird Dog

This workout is all about balance and stability; it involves engaging all the muscles in your body at once, even the pelvic floor.

How to Do It:

Go down on all fours; put your wrist under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Ensure that your back is straight, your spine aligned and your neck neutral.

Contract your core and lower your shoulder blades down towards your hips.

Keep your left leg and right arm straight and then lift them simultaneously, squeeze your pelvic floor muscle, and keep your shoulders in a neutral position.

Don’t lift or bend your head, maintain that position for 2 seconds.

Flex and bring down your leg and arm and return to the starting position.

Maintain stability and switch, lift your right leg and left arm, that’s 1 rep.

Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

4. The Hip Shaker

You can do this anytime even when in the grocery store.

How to Do It:

Stand straight with your legs at shoulder-width apart, place your arms on your hips and move your hips from side to side (like you are dancing or swaying), keep your pelvic floor muscles contracted at the same time.

Read Also: 10 Easy Yoga Poses for Beginners to Enhance Flexibility

5. One-Two Punch

How to Do It:

While sitting down or lying down, just pick a very comfortable position.

Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles as tightly as you can, hold and count to two, then relax completely.

Or just inhale deeply and sharply, hold the breath for a while then exhale and relax.

6. The Clamshell

Clamshell is a type of external rotator workout, it joins the muscle group. It also strengthens the lower back and core.

How to Do It:

Lie down on your back and lift your right knee, rotate the knee outwardly while contracting your butt and pelvic floor muscles.

Do this for 20 seconds, bring down your right knee rest for 2 seconds, and then lift your left knee and repeat.

Do a set of 10 reps for each side.

Read Also: 9 Easy Ball Workouts for Toned, Sexy Legs and Abs

7. Bridge

The bridge usually targets the glutes but they are a perfect workout for the pelvic floor.

How to Do It:

Lie down on the floor with face facing the ceiling, bend your knees and put for feet flatly on the floor at hip-width distance.

Put your arms at your sides with your palms facing the floor. Contract your butt and your pelvic floor and then lift your butt a few inches above the floor

Maintain that position for 10 seconds. Relax your butt and pelvic floor muscles and then lower your butt to the floor.

Do 3 sets of 10 reps

As the strength of the pelvic floor increases, you will find that you can do more repetitions.

8. Squeeze and Release

Squeeze and release is an exercise that makes the pelvic more respond quickly over time

How to Do It:

Sit down anywhere (chair or floor) but ensure you are comfortable.

Envisage your pelvic floor muscles, then squeeze the muscles as fast as possible and then release without attempting to uphold a contraction.

Rest for 3 seconds then do this 20 times and twice in a day.

Conclusion

When doing Kegel Exercises to get the best results, you need to contracts your pelvic floor muscle walls through every routine.

You can do some of these workouts at work, in a grocery store, at the bank, you also need to do at least 2-3 sessions in a day not at once you can spread them out.

You are trying to tighten the pelvic floor muscles and not make the muscles strong so it is very important to relax it as much as contracting it.

Read Also:

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