Pelvic floor strengthening
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles within your pelvis, starting from your pubic bone at the front, to your tailbone at the back.
Things to avoid when doing pelvic floor strengthening:
- Holding your breath
- Pulling your tummy in tightly
- Squeezing your legs together
- Tightening your buttocks
Exercise One
Slowly tighten and lift your pelvic floor, hold this for up to ten seconds, relax for a few seconds before repeating the exercise up to ten times.
Exercise two
Tighten and relax your pelvic floor muscles as quickly as you can up to ten times. Hold each contraction for approximately one second. Make sure that you completely relax your pelvic floor muscles in between each exercise.
Ideally, you should perform the slow exercises first, followed immediately by the quick exercises, repeating them 4 to 5 times a day. Avoid constipation, heavy lifting, and high impact activities.
The Knack technique can be used to try and reduce straining of the pelvic floor and prevent leakage of urine. When you cough, sneeze, laugh or pick something up, you should try and tighten your pelvic floor muscles before and during these activities.
If you exercise regularly, you should see improvement in 3 to 6 months. Some people may notice an improvement in 6 weeks. It is important to remember that pelvic floor exercises are for life, and you should try to make them a part of your daily routine. If you stop doing the exercises, your symptoms may return.
