What are Kegel exercises?
Kegel, or pelvic floor muscle, exercises help to strengthen the muscles which support the urethra, bladder, uterus and rectum.
Why Do Kegel Exercises?
Often the pelvic floor muscles are weak which contributes to problems with losing urine. Doing the exercises correctly and regularly can strengthen the muscles. Stronger muscles lead to little or no urine loss for many women. However without some form of resistance the Kegel exercises are less effective.
How Do You Do Them?
Over one-third of women start out squeezing the wrong muscles. Therefore, it is helpful to find the correct technique. You can check yourself by placing a finger in your vagina and squeezing around it. When you feel pressure around your finger, you are using the correct muscle.
Try to keep everything relaxed except the muscles right around the vagina. At the same time, do not bear down or squeeze your thigh, back or abdominal muscles. And breathe slowly and deeply. At first you can do the exercises with your knees together (lying or sitting).
Remember that using the PelvicToner can make doing your exercises much easier.
How Often Should I Do The Exercises?
Be sure you are doing them correctly before you start. We recommend doing the exercises for five minutes twice a day.
You should squeeze the muscle for a count of four and relax for a count of four. At first, you may not be able to do the exercises for a whole five minutes or hold the squeeze for a count of four.
With practice it will become easier as the muscles get stronger, but with the PelvicToner working the muscles for you this can produce results much faster.
You can gain extra benefits by increasing the resistance that you squeeze against and by holding your squeeze for a count of 10 or 20 seconds.
When Should I Expect Improvement In My Symptoms?
It takes from six to twelve weeks for most women to notice a change in urine loss. Most see improvement within one to two weeks. Remember, if you do the exercises regularly you could prevent and avoid surgery! With the PelvicToner you can experience a much faster recovery then just exercising.
When Should I Do The Exercises?
It is not true that these exercises can be done anywhere, anytime. We have studied different ways of doing the exercises to see what works best to decrease urine loss and what worked best was five minute sessions done twice a day. So doing them while watching television or wherever you think of it usually will not work as well. Many women report that five minutes before they get up in the morning and five minutes before they sleep is a helpful routine. The PelvicToner is designed to shorten your time with progressive resistance
Is There Anything I Should Change Once The Exercises Become Easy?
Once the exercises become easy, you can further strengthen the muscles by squeezing to a count of eight and relaxing to a count of eight. Repeat this for five minutes two times a day. It will also work the muscle more to do the exercises with your knees apart. When using the PelvicToner we provide additional spring to add more resistance.
How Long Do I Have To Do The Exercises?
Once you have attained your goal, you can do the exercises for five minutes three times a week. If you start having problems again with urine loss, you may need to go back to five minutes two times a day. We feel that if you stop doing or using the PelvicToner you can experience a return of your conditions much faster than if you would have continued your exercises.
Helpful Hint
Keep a calendar and give yourself a check mark or star each time you do the exercises. This will help you keep track of when you started and keep you motivated. If you stop doing the exercises or using the PelvicToner start again! Just remember it takes resistance and regular practice to see results.
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