Have you heard about Kegel’s exercises? These pelvic floor strengthening exercises help support your lower back, bladder, uterus, and rectum during pregnancy. Read on to know more about the kegel exercises and how you can benefit from them.
What is Kegel Exercise?
Pregnant women who do kegel exercises often have an easier labor. These exercises involve squeezing and relaxing the pelvic and vaginal area muscles and supporting pelvic organs, such as the bladder, uterus, small intestine, and rectum. Although, these muscles will assist during labor and postpartum incontinence. Women, even after pregnancy, can do these kegel exercises regularly as it helps strengthen the pelvic muscles.
Benefits of Kegel Exercises for Pregnant Women
The benefits of adding kegel exercises to your routine workout include –
Improves Bladder Control
Pregnant women may sometimes experience leaking while coughing, laughing, or sneezing. This also increases with a vaginal delivery. Kegel exercises will come to the rescue to prevent or treat such conditions.
Strengthens Pelvic Muscles
Kegel exercises will support your pelvic organs and help you prepare for labor and birth.
Lowers The Risk of Fecal Incontinence
Pregnant women may also experience stool leaks before they go to the bathroom. Kegels can reduce the risk of fecal incontinence too.
How to do Kegel Exercises?
These are simple exercises; every pregnant woman can squeeze and relax the pelvic muscles. Scroll down to learn more about how to do it –
Find the right muscles.
To find them, keep your clean finger in your vagina and tighten the muscles like you would use to hold in gas. And, if you feel the tightness around your finger, it means you are doing it right.
Be comfortable
Initially, it may feel easy to practice lying down. You can do it comfortably by lying down, standing, or even sitting as you continue practicing.
Long hold
Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles for a few seconds and release them. Repeat this 8 – 10 times. At first, you can just hold for one to two seconds. As you practice more, you can have it for 10 seconds. But, by doing so, you may feel the contraction letting go. Well, that’s fine! Continue this exercise, and you will undoubtedly notice the contraction becomes stronger.
Squeeze and release
Squeeze and relax the pelvic floor muscles, often based on your comfort level.
Increase the intensity
To make the muscles strong, it’s better to start small and moderately increase the intensity, like increasing the repetitions and duration of each squeeze to see the best results.
When to do Kegels Exercises?
Pregnant women can start doing it from the second trimester. And you can also do these Kegels after your pregnancy if you don’t have an uncomplicated vaginal birth. Moreover, you can also consult your doctor when to start these Kegels exercises.
Mistakes to Avoid
Keep these tips in mind while doing Kegels –
- Avoid Kegels while peeing, as you cannot fully empty your bladder.
- Watch out when doing these exercises, and consult your doctor if you feel any pain.
- Make sure to do these exercises regularly.
- Try not to squeeze your abdomen, butt, and thigh muscles.
Bottom Line
Kegels exercises will enhance your overall physical and mental health. Apart from that, you can also follow other exercises like prenatal yoga to prevent pregnancy complications. Whatever you do to stay healthy during pregnancy will help you prepare for great motherhood.
