In 1948 Dr. Arnold Kegel, a gynecologist, first described the muscles of the pelvic floor that support the uterus, bladder, rectum, and small intestine, also known as the “Kegel muscle” or “PC muscle” or “and invented non-surgical genital relaxation exercises. Performing Kegel exercises in your daily life can help prevent pelvic floor problems, including incontinence, and it can also improve your sex life. The most important thing is that you learn to identify these Kegel muscles first and then practice them in your daily life. Men can also strengthen their pelvic floor muscles by doing PC muscle exercises. I. Preparing for Kegel exercises 1. Find your pelvic floor muscles by stopping the flow of urine (by suddenly holding it in when you urinate). Remember to go to the hospital for a check-up before starting Kegel exercises, because if you have any medical problems, (these problems) may prevent you from doing Kegel exercises safely. However, don’t make interrupting the action of urination (holding it in suddenly while urinating) a regular Kegel exercise in your daily life, in fact, performing Kegel exercises during urination will have the opposite effect and make your muscles weaker. 2. If you still have difficulty finding your Kegel muscles, place your fingers in your vagina and press the muscles around them, you can feel the muscles tighten and the pelvic floor move upwards and (next) relax and you will feel the pelvic floor move back again. Make sure your finger is clean before inserting it into your vagina (otherwise it can cause some infection). If you are a sexually active woman, you can also ask your partner if he can feel your Kegel muscles “hugging” and pushing out his penis during intercourse. 3. Use a hand mirror to find your Kegel muscles. If you are still having trouble separating and locating your Kegel muscles, place the hand mirror underneath your perineum in the skin-covered area between your vaginal opening and anus, and contract and relax to practice what you think is your Kegel muscle. If you do it correctly, you should see a contraction of the perineum. 4. Make sure your bladder is empty before you start (activate) your Kegel muscles. This is very important. Do not perform Kegel exercises with a full (urine) or partially filled (urine) bladder or you may experience pain and (urine) leakage while performing Kegel exercises. Do a bladder check before starting your exercise routine so you can perform these exercises as efficiently as possible. 5. Focus solely on tightening your pelvic floor muscles only. For best results, Kegel exercises should focus only on the pelvic floor muscles, so you should relax other muscles, such as those of the buttocks, thighs or abdomen. To help you focus and (improve) the effectiveness of the exercise. When performing each step of the Kegel exercise, make sure you breathe smoothly and do not hold your breath. Smooth breathing will help you relax and give your pelvic floor muscles a maximum (full) workout. One way to relax your muscles is to place one hand on your stomach and make sure your stomach is (completely) relaxed. If you have pain in your back or stomach after you have completed a set of Kegel exercises, then it means that your exercises are not correct. 6. Choose a comfortable position. Whether you are sitting in a chair or lying flat on the floor for these exercises, you must make sure your hip and abdominal muscles are relaxed. If you are lying flat on your back, you should spread your back, put your arms on both sides of your body, bend your knees slightly and put them together, and put your head flat to avoid straining your neck. Two, do Kegel exercises 1, contract your pelvic floor muscles for five seconds. This is a great exercise if you are just starting out. You definitely don’t want to damage your muscles by contracting for too long. If 5 seconds is too long for you, you can contract for only 2-3 seconds. 2. Relax those muscles of yours for 10 seconds. Ideally, you should let the pelvic floor muscles rest for ten seconds before repeating the exercise, which is enough time for them to relax and avoid strain. Count to 10 and then start the next repetition of the exercise. 3, repeat the exercise 10 times. If you start by contracting your muscles for 5 seconds, then contract for 5 seconds, relax for 10 seconds, and repeat the exercise 10 times, this can be considered a group of Kegel exercises, (one group at a time) so that the exercise is enough, and you have to do 3-4 groups of the same exercise in a day, but do not do more. 4. Establish a goal of contracting your pelvic floor muscles for 10 seconds at a time. Each week you can add a few seconds to contract these muscles, but do not need to do longer or do more than one set of such exercises each time. Once you’ve reached ten seconds, stick with it and you can continue to do a set of 10 seconds contraction 10 seconds rest exercises 3-4 times a day. 5, do Kegel muscle pulling exercises. This is another variation of Kegel, perform a set of Kegel muscle pulling exercises, imagine that the pelvic floor muscle is a vacuum, contract your hips, and (lying flat on your back and bending both knees) lift your legs up and pull them inward, hold this position for 5 seconds and then relax. Do this 10 times. It should take about 50 seconds to complete. III. Getting results 1. Do at least 3-4 Kegel exercises a day. If you really want to stick with it, you will have to make it (Kegel exercises) part of your daily life. It should be feasible to do 3-4 times a day because each set of Kegel exercises will not last long. You can find ways to make Kegel exercises fit into your daily routine, and you can work like a clockwork device and have a purpose to practice in the morning, afternoon and evening instead of worrying about scheduling time to do Kegel exercises. 2. Adapt Kegel exercises to your busy daily routine. The best part of doing Kegel exercises is that no one knows when you are doing them. You can do Kegels while sitting in your office chair, eating lunch with your friends or relaxing on the couch after a long day of work. Although it is very important for beginners to lie down, differentiate (position) the Kegel muscles and concentrate, once you get the hang of (correctly position) exercising these muscles, you can do the exercises almost anywhere, anytime. You can get into the habit of doing Kegel exercises in your daily life, just like checking your mail or email. Once you find that a set of Kegel exercises is working for you, you should stick to this routine (the Kegel exercises that were working) instead of doing more exercises or getting more fired up to do them. If you overdo it, you (again) may get to the point of incontinence problems. Remember, stopping the flow of urine (holding it in suddenly while urinating) is a way to find your pelvic floor muscles, and you shouldn’t always do Kegel exercises while you urinate, or you could suffer from incontinence-related problems. 3. If you do Kegel exercises regularly, the results will (appear) after a few months. For some women, the results are amazing, for others, Kegel exercises stop deeper urinary tract problems. (Again) there is a percentage of women who are very frustrated because they don’t feel any difference after doing Kegel exercises for a few weeks. Keep doing them long enough to feel the changes in your body. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the earlier you may feel the effects is after 4-6 weeks. 4. If you think you are not doing Kegel exercises correctly, you should seek help. Your doctor can help you identify and distinguish the correct muscles to exercise. If you feel that you have been doing Kegel exercises for a considerable period of time, say several months, but are not seeing any results, then you should seek the help of your doctor. (below) Here’s what your doctor can do for you: Your doctor can provide biofeedback training if necessary. This involves placing a monitoring device inside your vagina, or electrodes externally (electrodes taped to the skin near your vagina or anus). The monitor can tell you how successfully you have contracted your pelvic floor muscles and how long you can continue to contract the muscles. Your doctor can also use electrical stimulation to help you identify the pelvic floor muscles. During this procedure, a small electrical current is attached to the pelvic floor muscles. When activated, the current automatically contracts the muscle. After using (this way), you will be able to replicate the same effect on your own. 5. If you want to stop incontinence, keep doing Kegel exercises. If you want to keep these muscles strong and prevent the problem of incontinence, you must continue to do Kegel exercises. If you stop practicing, even a few months after the exercise, your incontinence problems will return. You must work to keep these muscles in shape and be prepared for a number of other conditions to arise. Tips 1. Try not to hold your breath, squeeze your hips or thighs, tighten your abdomen, or push down instead of (perineal) contraction and up; 2. As you (become skilled) become more confident in performing these exercises, you will find that you can practice them while standing. The most important thing is to keep practicing throughout the day. You can practice while washing dishes, standing in line, sitting at your desk in the office, during commercials on TV shows or when you stop for traffic lights in your car; 3. Some women find it easy to incorporate Kegel exercises into their daily life of driving, reading, watching TV, talking on the phone or sitting in front of the computer; 4. Try eating healthier foods; 5. Pregnant women can also do Kegel exercises; 6. Imagine your lungs in your pelvis and relax your perineum when you inhale and stop when you exhale. Note 1. Do Kegel exercises when your bladder is empty. Doing Kegel exercises when your bladder is full of urine will weaken your pelvic floor muscles and increase your risk of urinary tract infections. (Some sources show that a completely empty bladder state is also not suitable for the exercises, so it is good to perform Kegel exercises after urination, and ultimately with your own sense of feedback and guiding doctor’s advice); 2. Do not do Kegel exercises while using the bathroom, unless positioning these muscles. Interrupting the urine flow may lead to urinary tract infections.