Physiotherapists' advice for pelvic floor training

The pelvic floor is important to exercise for both men and women, as a trained pelvic floor is essential for a well-functioning sex life and can protect against incontinence. But how should you train it? Our physiotherapists have put together three great exercises for you here.

1. Learn to activate the pelvic floor
This is fundamental to training the pelvic floor. Many people think you need to tighten up your lower abdomen, but you actually need to tighten around the rectum, like holding in a fart, and from there, let this tension propagate towards the urethra. Once you have this tension under control, you can begin your workout.

Tip: A test of whether you can activate your pelvic floor muscles and whether muscle strength is increasing is if you can stop the jet when you urinate. It's harder than you think.

2. Start the workout lying down
Start by lying on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet on the ground - this is the easiest position to do the exercise in. Tighten your pelvic floor as described in step 1, hold the tension for 5 seconds and relax again. Do the exercise 3 times a day with 10-20 repetitions each time.

If you're struggling to feel if you've released the tension, it could be because your pelvic floor is fatigued - take a break.

3. Further training
Once you have a good grasp of the supine exercise, you can start doing the same exercise sitting down, then sitting on a chair and finally standing.

Like any other muscle in the body, the pelvic floor can be trained for both strength and endurance. You can work with quick, powerful squeezes and more prolonged endurance squeezes of several seconds in length.

Help yourself to remember to exercise
It can be easy to forget to exercise at first, so help yourself by setting reminders in your calendar throughout the day. Do the first round of exercises in bed in the morning before you get up and the last round in bed before you go to sleep at night.

Read more about our gynecology and physiotherapy offerings.

 

Published on December 6, 2022