The Benefits of Kegel Exercises for Women

With more than 60% of women not reaching the recommended amount of physical activity, it’s common to find at least one problem in a women’s fitness. If you want to start a routine, consider adding Kegels to your daily exercise regime. Kegel exercises offer various benefits, yet many women are in the dark about what they are, what they do, and how to do them.

So to ensure that you are fully informed, here’s our guide on the benefits of daily Kegels!

Benefits of Daily Kegel Exercises

Kegel exercises are great for your pelvic floor muscles, which support your bowels, bladder, and reproductive organs. If you add kegel exercises to your daily routine, how will they benefit you?

Better Sex For You and Your Partner

Kegel exercises can make a huge difference to your sex life. If you are part of the 4 in 10 Americans that feel like they’ve never fully experienced an orgasm, then Kegels may be the solution.

Kegel exercises can make your vagina feel tighter and even improve the intensity of your orgasms. They allow better blood flow to your groin area, so it can lead to better erections, ejaculations, and pleasure for both men and women.

Kegels can increase your sexual arousal and natural lubrication in your vagina. With daily kegel exercises, you can also have a more comfortable vaginal penetration and longer orgasms.

Improves Pelvic Health

Like any other muscle, your pelvic floor muscles become weaker over time. They can get weakened by menopause and trauma, such as surgery and childbirth.

Menopause will fluctuate your levels of estrogen, which can lead to less blood flow to your pelvic floor muscles. This may also cause a decrease in your overall muscle tone.

Kegels are essential to older women as these exercises can replace old blood for a better strengthening and restorative process. The exercises act as a maintenance regime to ensure you stay in tip-top condition.

Eases Childbirth and Recovery

Doing Kegels before childbirth can make delivery much easier for you and your body. This is because the exercises give you more control over your pelvic muscles during delivery and labor. Adding Kegels to your daily regime can also help strengthen the muscles supporting the weight of your baby.

Since both cesarean and vaginal delivery can make your pelvic floor muscles weaker, Kegel exercises can help with recovery. New mothers can bring back their muscle strength and push their pelvic floor muscles to heal faster.

However, be sure to ask your doctor when you can do your exercises before and after pregnancy. Doing your Kegel exercises too late or too early can make delivery more painful rather than easing the pain.

Get Better Hip and Back Support

Your pelvic floor muscles are a segment of your inner core, the muscles that support your hips and trunk. They work together with your abdominals to support your spine. Your inner core also connects to your deep hip rotator muscles to ensure hip stability.

If your pelvic floor muscles are not in the best condition, then it may affect your lower spine, hip joints, and tailbone. Kegel exercises help overcome these issues and ensure that your hip and back support comes back stronger.

Cures Bladder Leakage

Your pelvic floor muscles are responsible for controlling your bowel and urine movements. If these muscles are not coordinated or strong, your bladder has less support around your sphincter. This may cause constant urine leakage or an overactive bladder.

If your bladder leaks when you lift heavy objects, sneeze, cough, or laugh, then you should do Kegels. Kegel exercises are the best cure for urinary incontinence and will help strengthen your bladder muscle coordination.

Helps With Overall Fitness

If you have consistently unhealthy lifestyles or habits, you may end up with low body fitness. A lifestyle with prolonged sitting, injuries, repetitive movements, and pregnancy can damage your body in several ways. Prolonged sitting can cause overall deterioration in both your aerobic strength and fitness.

With regular exercises, you can mitigate these issues and ensure you can get back into shape faster. Adding Kegel exercises to your routine is also essential if you tend to sit for long hours a day. These exercises can strengthen your muscles and ensure you can do your daily routine without worrying about injuries.

Reduces Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Pelvic organ prolapse, or POP, is a condition where one or more pelvic organs press against the walls of your vagina. This often happens when your ligaments or pelvic floor muscles get weakened or stretched.

POP may also develop in women who often do prolonged heavy lifting and experience chronic conditions. Examples include constipation, obesity, or long periods of heavy coughing.

Pelvic organ prolapse does not threaten your life, but it does cause pain and issues to your bladder and bowel. You may feel a sensation of pressure in your vagina or pelvis. You may even feel your descended organs by pushing a finger into your vaginal opening.

Another reason why you should add Kegel exercises into your routine is their ability to reduce POP. You can easily cure low levels of prolapse. It will also reduce the effects of moderate levels of POP to the point where they don’t interfere with your daily life activities.

How to do Kegel Exercises

Start by finding where your pelvic floor muscles are by trying to stop the flow of your pee. You can also insert a finger in your vagina, then squeeze the muscles around your finger. The muscles you feel inside of you when you try these activities are the same muscles you strengthen during Kegels.

Now that you know where your pelvic floor muscles are, try squeezing them for about three seconds, then release them. Try to do this 10 times in a row for morning and night. If you can’t do 10, do as many as you can and build it up over time.

You can perform Kegels while lying down, sitting, or standing up. Pick what feels more comfortable to you as long as you can properly focus on lifting and squeezing. Ideally, you can work your way to performing 10 Kegels each set and doing three sets per day.

Kegel Exercises: Best Exercises For Women

Kegel exercises are the best answer for issues surrounding your pelvic floor muscles. If you need help with making changes to your routine or lifestyle, then consider visiting a professional.

Contact us to arrange an appointment with Dr. Peter M. Lotze and his team at Texas Medical Center and The Woodlands. You can also send us your inquiries about Kegels and what you can do to improve your lifestyle!

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