Kegel Exercise: A Complete Guide

Women of all ages can benefit from Kegel exercises.

 

In order to understand how Kegel exercises work and why they're important, we first need to understand the pelvic floor.

Various life events and health conditions can cause the pelvic floor muscles to weaken in turn affecting perceived vaginal tightness. This is a completely normal side effect of getting pregnant, giving birth, aging, and more.

Many problems can develop from weak pelvic muscles including pelvic organ prolapse, urinary stress incontinence (peeing when you laugh/sneeze/cough), fecal incontinence, and a lack of sexual satisfaction.

What is a Kegel Exercise?

Kegel exercises are designed to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, bladder, small intestine, and rectum. Named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, who first described them in 1948, these exercises are often recommended for various health purposes, such as improving urinary incontinence, reducing the symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse, and enhancing sexual function.

How to Perform a Kegel Exercise

Steps for Doing Kegel Exercises

Kegel Exercise Video Series

In this 3 Part Series entitled "Intro To The Pelvic Floor & Kegel Exercises", our expert Pelvic Rehabilitation Physical Therapist, Amanda Olson, DPT, PRPC explains your anatomy, why pelvic floor exercises are important, and how you can increase the effectiveness of your Kegels by using Kegel weights.

Part One

Amanda explains what the pelvic floor muscles are and why they are important:

Part Two

Amanda explains how pregnancy, age, labor, and other activities can damage the pelvic floor:

Part Three

Amanda explains what Kegel exercises are and how to do them: 
  

Traditional Kegel Exercises for Beginners

As you learned in the above videos, the Intimate Rose Kegel Exercise Weights are great for adding resistance to your Kegels and they help you get stronger pelvic muscles faster than doing traditional Kegel exercises alone. However, if you have a very weak pelvic floor, beginner Kegels are part of the solution.

Shop Kegel Weights

Notes

- These exercises work great with or without the Intimate Rose Weights!

- The bottom line: Increasing your pelvic floor strength can help with a multitude of issues and there are many benefits to Kegels including resolving pelvic prolapse, accidentally leaking urine, and can lead to better sex.

Common Questions:

I think I'm squeezing the wrong muscles, how do I know I'm doing it properly?

If you're having a hard time "finding" your pelvic floor muscles and being confident you're squeezing the right muscles, you might have poor proprioception. This means that your brain is having difficulty sending the message to the pelvic floor muscles to engage. It sounds scary, but all we need to do is give your brain a reminder where those muscles are. This can be done by touching or stimulating the pelvic floor muscles with vaginal weights.

Why use Kegel Exercise Weights when I can do traditional kegel exercises?

You can make a lot of progress using nothing but traditional Kegel exercises. Women have been doing these exercises for decades. The problem is that traditional Kegels take a lot of time and a lot of repetitions in order to fully progress.

Think about an exercise routine you might do at the gym. If you do a series of squats without any weights, your legs might get sore and get stronger. Soon, you'll need to do more and more unweighted squats in order to feel any benefit. You will get stronger, but it will take longer and longer to make progress.

Now, think about if you held weights in each hand and performed the same squats. Which would give your legs a better workout? Would you need to do the same number of squats with extra weight as you were doing without weights? Which would lead to stronger legs, faster?

The same concept applies to your pelvic floor muscles. We believe that for many women, a combination of traditional Kegels and weighted Kegels will lead to lasting results.